Page 57 - Spring2009

The foods, menus, history and folklore of times and the oat and barley crops have always
Scottish domestic culture are celebrated with a provided the staple bread.”
robust affection and pride that are delightfully By the end of the seventeenth century, how-
infectious in Florence Marian McNeill’s The ever, the Scottish peasantry suffered a period
Scots Kitchen: Its Lore and Recipes. McNeill first of great scarcity of food and even famine that
published The Scots Kitchen in 1929, with the lasted intermittently into the first fifty years
aim of commemorating and extolling the Scots of the next century. Partially a result of civil
national tradition as expressed in its regional and religious wars, as well as the continuous
gastronomical heritages that she, even by the struggles with England, and partially a result of
start of the last century, feared might be lost failing farming techniques, the life of the rural
forever “in this age of standardization.” poor was one of grinding poverty and want.
McNeill was born in 1885 in Orkney, the Gradual improvements in the raising of crops as
archipelago of islands just north of Scotland, at a the eighteenth century drew near brought dietary
time when the previous century of Agrarian and improvements to most rural dwellers, and to the
Industrial Revolutions had wrought their stark gentry, a gradual development from a plain to a
and sometimes brutal dislocations and disruption more sophisticated daily menu.
of the ancient Scots traditions in social and do-
mestic life. Her early years on the islands helped MAIRZY DOATS AND SCOTS EAT OATS
to shape her life-long fascination and pride in “Look at the Scotch, with their oatmeal
Scottish history and cultural traditions. Later in porridge, as robust a set of men as ever lived. A
her life she produced a four-volume history of Highlander will scale mountains all day upon a
Scottish customs, folklore and ancient festivals diet of oatmeal stirred in water fresh from a gur-
called The Silver Bough, today considered an gling spring with his finger, in a leather cup.” 1
essential source by historians in the field. Oats “were hardly known on the continent
The Scots Kitchen evokes the era before the . . . but were raised in Scotland to the highest
forced pace of social change brought about by perfection. One gathers, indeed, that in early
industrialization, and conjures the image of the times abroad oats were regarded as a weed.” 2
self-sufficient farmstead, and within, the capable Oats thrive in the cool, damp Scottish cli-
mistress at the helm of her bubbling cauldrons mate, even though the soil is sometimes thin and
and sizzling “girdles” over the peat fire. McNeill poor. The ancient custom of composting the oat
generously interlards the many old recipes with straw thatch of their cottages—replaced each
historical, literary and contemporary commen- year when saturated with the residues of constant The
taries that animate the period, as well as provide peat smoke oozing through—has likely been one
a constant social context for the heritage of the secret to their oats’ vigor. Scots Kitchen
recipes and menus. Weston Price conducted his own experiments evokes the
Speaking of the period pre-dating the Agrar- in the 1930s to prove the efficacy of smoked roof era before
ian Revolution (which spanned roughly 1750 to thatch to fertilize oats, which permitted them to
1850) McNeill paints the scene of the early Scot produce heavily in the short and cool northern the forced
amid the gifts of his homeland: “In olden times, season. McNeill simply asserts that something pace of social
when the population was small and sparse—by in the good earth made them “the flower of our change brought
the beginning of the sixteenth century it did not Scottish soil, and through that magic cauldron,
exceed half a million—the means of sustenance the porridge pot, Scottish oatmeal has been trans- about by
were on the whole plentiful. The moors and muted through the centuries into Scottish brains industrialization,
forests abounded with game; elsewhere ‘herds and brawn. (Alas for the deterioration wrought in and conjures
of kye nocht tame’ with flesh ‘of a marvelous our cities by the abandonment of the ‘halesome
sweetness, of a wonderful tenderness, and ex- farin’ of rural Scotland for cheap imported food the image
cellent delicateness of taste’ ranged the hills. stuffs!)” of the
Rivers, lochs, and seas teemed with fish. Sheep “There is one kind of food,” the distin- self-sufficient
were valued mainly for their wool, cows for their guished doctor, Sir James Crichton-Browne,
milk. Butter and cheese were in use in the earliest writes in 1901 in Stray Leaves from a Physician’s farmstead.

SPRING 2009 Wise Traditions 55