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things that the lips should not allow to enter wasteland? Stevens relates an interesting story: “A few years ago a Dane,
them, and the tongue should refuse to mention, Paul Stemann, wrote a most interesting account of his trek across the High-
are, begging their pardons, fools.” lands with a pack pony. While he greatly appreciated the people and the
superb scenery, his comments on the food were less than complimentary.
THE SCOTS TRADITION TODAY He missed nothing—the tired vegetables in the shops, the general lack of
In 1985, Maisie Steven published The Good well-cultivated gardens on the West coast—but especially he wondered
Scots Diet: What Happened to It? The cry of why it was that fresh food seemed to play such a small part in the daily
distress in her title reflects recent alarming trends menus. ‘All through the Highlands,’ he writes, ‘there were venison, salmon,
in the modern Scots diet that one sees, to greater lobster, crab, wild raspberries, rowanberries, chanterelles—all the most
or lesser degree, in all parts of the industrialized delectable foods. It was all around, but never put in front of you.’”
world. Steven noted that health workers recorded Steven was still able to find living persons who could indeed remember
a decline in the quality of the diet in certain alternatives: “An elderly lady from the Outer Hebrides who kindly cast her
areas in Scotland in the 1920s, but the health of mind back for the benefit of this study to the food of her childhood early
children in some agricultural districts was still this century, recalled that main meals in those days frequently centred
quite sound as revealed in the findings of the around fish of one kind or another—salted herring or mackerel, dried salt
Medical Research Council’s Report No. 101: fish, shellfish—although mutton, fowls and rabbits were also regular fare.
“The town children appeared to be poorly Potatoes still formed a basic part of the food—not infrequently twice in the
developed, often pale, and in Glasgow frequently day—other vegetables apart from turnips being comparatively rare except
rachitic, thus forming a striking contrast to the in broth. Oats, Indian (maize) meal and flour, along with dairy produce,
country children, who were sturdy, well-devel- formed the basis of the other meals; puddings were almost exclusively rice
oped and rosy-cheeked, and in whom rickets was and carrageen (purple seaweed); fruit remained as scarce as it had ever
almost non-existent.” been.
Their food, Steven notes, “consisted of “She recollected: ‘The “piece” we carried to school consisted of
soups, stews, porridge, milk, oatcakes and oatcakes or sometimes scones, with crowdie [curd with butter], treacle
scones, the cottage gardens contributed a limited or jam. And well I remember how ravenous we always were by the time
variety of vegetables and some soft fruit. [The we had walked the long miles home! A bottle of seal oil always stood on
researchers] noted the fact that although the par- the mantelpiece and we seemed to be given a dose for every kind of ail-
ents were in general very poorly paid, they did ment.’”
at least have rent-free houses and received some The industrial standardization of food that F. Marian McNeill feared
extras such as meal, potatoes and milk; fresh would overtake Scottish cooking spells the death not only of culinary cul-
air and exercise were also duly acknowledged ture, but eventually of the people who once were sustained by their native
as having contributed to the altogether superior dietary culture. McNeill refuses to consider defeat, however: “We may
physique of the country children.” rest confident that out of the domestic travail through which our women
In the 1960s, rickets made a disturbing folk are now passing there will emerge a new delight in the home, and,
reappearance among children in Glasgow, and not least, in the kitchen.
many of the elderly were found to be suffering “Lean gu dlùth ri cliù do shinnsre,” says the Gaelic proverb: “Let us
from anemia and osteomalacia, while middle- follow in the brave path of our ancestors.”
aged citizens were commonly plagued with
overweight, hypertension, and heart disease. REFERENCES
Typical modern Scots foods were flour and sugar 1. Robinson, Solon, How to Live, Saving or Wasting, or Domestic Economy Illustrated, 1860
products of numerous kinds, tinned meats and 2. McClure, Victor, Scotland’s Inner Man, 1935.
3.
Gastrologue, The Scotsman Magazine, c. 1920.
soups, pasta, syrups, buns, cakes and biscuits.
Stevens relates the habitual daily menu for chil-
dren as consisting of a packet or two of crisps
(potato chips) for breakfast—or no breakfast at
all—followed by pastry or rolls for lunch (a West
Scotland “specialty” was a white roll stuffed with
crisps) and for supper a meat pasty or sausage
roll, followed by pie or trifle or ice cream.
Could there be an alternative to this dietary
64 Wise Traditions SPRING 2009