Boiled Sowens. — This dish of sowens is made some-
what like porridge or cornflour or other white pudding. It
is simply boiled till it begins to get stiff. Served with sugar
and cream it makes a kind of pudding which is very
palatable, and at the same time it has the virtue of being
very easily digested.
Beef-Brose and Sauty Bannocks. — Fastern’s Een
was the time for the l)eef-brose and the sauty bannocks, and
Fastern’s Een is the same as the English Shrove Tuesday.
Its date is determined in the following rhyme ; —
“ First comes Caiidlemas and then tlie new Mime,
Next Tuesday after that, that is Fastern’s Een.”
On this particular day the custom was to have for dinner
beef-brose, at least, that was the first course of the dinner.
It was made by pouring the boiling liquid from beef that
had been boiled over oatmeal in the usual way that brose is
made✪ Beef-Brose, which makes a very strong meal, suited to strong men
who live in the open air.
Bannock Night, its the same evening was called, was
given up to the making of the bannocks. They were a kind
of pancake, but with the years they have passed through an
eviflution- — from the original sauty bannock to the fine
pancake which has now taken its place where the custom
has not died out.
The sauty bannock was a pancake composed of oatmeal,
milk, a few eggs, and salt✪ Sauty Bannock. Later on flour was substituted
for oatmeal and the salt was reduced and syrup added.
179
They were baked on a well-greased girdle hung over the
peat fire ; and at the farms on Pastern’s Een the night was
given up to bannock baking. All the hands as they sat
around the kitchen fire and told their stories and cracked
their jokes, had each their turn at the baking. But the great
entertainment of the evening was the baking of the big
bannock. When the material was about finished up more
meal was added to the remainder, just enough being left to
fill the girdle with one big thick bannock. But before being
poured out the ring and other emblems were stirred into it.
Then one was chosen to do the baking, and that one had to
do it in absolute silence. Of course, it was the policy of
everyone else to try and break the spell of silence. This
was done by all sorts of questions and talk, but more often
by trj'ing to steal the prize over which the silent baker was
constituted guardian angel. We have heard of girdle and
all disappearing up one of those wide old-fashioned chimneys
by the clever device of one youth who went upon the roof
at the right time and fished it up with a hooked wire. If it
were successfully baked, however, it was cut into portions
equal to the number of the company and handed round to
see who would get the ring.
Page 82 · 2 recipe records on this page
Presented as published in 1904. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Boiled Sowens. — This dish of sowens is made somewhat like porridge or cornflour or other white pudding. It is simply boiled till it begins to get stiff. Served with sugar and cream it makes a kind of pudding which is very palatable, and at the same time it has the virtue of being very easily digested.
Beef-Brose and Sauty Bannocks. — Fastern’s Een was the time for the l)eef-brose and the sauty bannocks, and Fastern’s Een is the same as the English Shrove Tuesday. Its date is determined in the following rhyme ; —
“ First comes Caiidlemas and then tlie new Mime,
Next Tuesday after that, that is Fastern’s Een.”
On this particular day the custom was to have for dinner beef-brose, at least, that was the first course of the dinner. It was made by pouring the boiling liquid from beef that had been boiled over oatmeal in the usual way that brose is made, which makes a very strong meal, suited to strong men who live in the open air.
Bannock Night, its the same evening was called, was given up to the making of the bannocks. They were a kind of pancake, but with the years they have passed through an evolution — from the original sauty bannock to the fine pancake which has now taken its place where the custom has not died out.
The sauty bannock was a pancake composed of oatmeal, milk, a few eggs, and salt. Later on flour was substituted for oatmeal and the salt was reduced and syrup added.
They were baked on a well-greased girdle hung over the peat fire ; and at the farms on Pastern’s Een the night was given up to bannock baking. All the hands as they sat around the kitchen fire and told their stories and cracked their jokes, had each their turn at the baking. But the great entertainment of the evening was the baking of the big bannock. When the material was about finished up more meal was added to the remainder, just enough being left to fill the girdle with one big thick bannock. But before being poured out the ring and other emblems were stirred into it. Then one was chosen to do the baking, and that one had to do it in absolute silence. Of course, it was the policy of everyone else to try and break the spell of silence. This was done by all sorts of questions and talk, but more often by trying to steal the prize over which the silent baker was constituted guardian angel. We have heard of girdle and all disappearing up one of those wide old-fashioned chimneys by the clever device of one youth who went upon the roof at the right time and fished it up with a hooked wire. If it were successfully baked, however, it was cut into portions equal to the number of the company and handed round to see who would get the ring.
Records on this page
Beef-BroseSauty Bannock