The little book entitled ‘Traditional Recipes From Scotland’ contains exactly that – and the recipes were from a BBC Scottish Home Service programme called ‘Morning Call’. I don’t know if they are edited transcriptions from actual programmes, but the recipes are explained in a rather lovely conversational way.
Rhubarb
Somehow we never tire of rhubarb, although it now comes in earlier and has to share the day with many other fruits. At one time in Scotland the first dish of rhubarb for the season was more than a sweet, it was a symbol – spring was come, winter was behind us, and the little red stalks were the first break in the routine of winter menus.
There is perhaps no nicer way of cooking rhubarb than stewing it, and the simplest way to do that is to cut the talks into small pieces, put them in a jam jar and cover them with a syrup made with 6 oz. of sugar and a little water. Put the jar in a pan of boiling water and steam gently.
There are of course many ways of cooking rhubarb – flummeries, sagos, tarts, and the comparative newcomer the crumbly – but here is a good old Scottish sweet that is always liked:
Stew the amount required amount of rhubarb. Do not make it very watery.
Line a pudding bowl or pie-dish with new white bread without the crusts. Fit it neatly, making the ends meet. Pour the hot cooked rhubarb into the lined bowl, make a lid of bread, then put a plate on top of it, and a weight to keep the plate in position. Turn it out when quite cold.
This is very good with whipped cream.
And may I say a word or two to those who may be buying a stool of rhubarb for planting? Have a red rhubarb by all means, but Stotts Monarch (a green rhubarb) is quite unsurpassed for flavour, so have some of it as well.
It’s interesting to note that what we call a crumble – in this case, rhubarb, was then known as ‘crumbly’. Was that only in Scotland? Did we have fruit crumble as children? I can’t remember, but I will explore the history of fruit crumble/crumbly!
My featured image is of an old and rather poor picture of rhubarb which we grew in our garden.
Lois Elsden 