1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (12 page)

Where:
In Linlithgow, Scotland
, The Champany Restaurant, tel 44/15-0683-4532,
champany.com/the-restaurant
.
Mail order:
Creekstone Farms, tel 866-273-3578,
creekstonefarms.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Lobel’s Prime Time Grilling
by Stanley, Leon, Evan, Mark, and David Lobel (2007);
certifiedangusbeef.com
.

A candy so common you might be inclined to take it for granted, truly well-made butterscotch is a golden delight of brassily caramelized brown sugar, lemon juice, salt, butter, and sometimes powdered ginger. Whipped to creamy richness, then cooled into a taffy that provides long-lasting pleasure, it is an excellent treat to make at home. When going with store-bought, the trick is finding artisanal producers whose talents match those of legendary confectioners like Yorkshire sweetmaker Samuel Parkinson, who began selling his Doncaster Butterscotch (reputedly the first) in 1817.

The name of the candy clearly suggests Scottish origins. (A Dylan Thomas riff on the association in
A Child’s Christmas in Wales
refers to the same candy as “Butterwelsh for the Welsh.”) But as the word was first recorded in Doncaster, England,
scotch
is likely either a reference to the process of cutting, or “scotching,” the candy or a derivation of the word
scorch
—the butterscotch-making process being a hot one indeed.

Cooked to a soft, velvety consistency, hot butterscotch becomes a sauce that can be ladled over vanilla ice cream; sprinkle on a few toasted almonds, and you have a top-notch sundae.

Further information and recipes:
Butterscotch Lover’s Cookbook
by Diana Dalsass (2001);
food.com
(search traditional scottish butter-scotch candy);
myrecipes.com
(search butter-scotch caramels).
Tip:
Look for Callard & Bowser’s, Gardiners of Scotland, and Parkinson’s brands of butterscotch.

It is the treat that has just about everything wrong with it—except the meltingly cool-hot chocolate and the texture of that crisp coating contrasting with a seductively chewy edge of caramel. It may make you fat and ruin your teeth as well as your gourmet standing, but place such trifling concerns aside, as you shouldn’t miss the chance to try a deep-fried Mars bar at least once.

Invented in Scotland in the 1990s, this strange confection is featured mainly at fish-and-chips outposts, and for good reason: The chilled bar, which is similar to a Milky Way, consisting of nougat and caramel coated in milk chocolate, is dipped into much the same milk-or beer-soaked batter that the fish is dipped into and, also like the fish, deep-fried in vegetable oil.

Although the deep-fried Mars bar is believed to have been born in a Glasgow pub, the Champany Restaurant in Linlithgow claims credit for inventing the oozingly sweet dessert. Due to its instant, perverse appeal, the treat spread throughout the U.K., then into both Canada and Australia.

Where:
In Stonehaven, Scotland
, The Carron Fish Bar, tel 44/15-6976-5377,
carronfishbar.webecomservices.co.uk
.;
in New York
, A Salt & Battery, tel 212-691-2713,
asaltandbattery.com
;
in Jamaica Plain, MA
, The Haven, tel 617-524-2836,
thehavenjp.com
.
in Santa Barbara, CA
, Mac’s Fish & Chip Shop, tel 805-897-1160,
macssb.com
.
Mail order:
Mars bars can be ordered at amazon.com.
Further information and recipes:
Nigella Bites
by Nigella Lawson (2002);
theguardian.com
(search deep fried mars bars are a fine scottish tradition).

Many cooks make Dundee cake days, weeks, or even months in advance, so that the flavors will mellow.

According to legend, Dundee cake was invented on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots, a ruler who did
not
like cherries in her fruitcake. A moist and aromatic accompaniment to tea, coffee, or a glass of Madeira or Irish whiskey, the tawny cake is jeweled with candied citrus peel, currants, raisins, and sultanas—hold the cherries—its top typically decorated with concentric rings of blanched or glazed almonds.

The butter-rich cake, a classic from the city of Dundee, was first commercially produced in the nineteenth century by the Keiller’s marmalade company. Today, it is especially popular
at Christmas. Although not traditionally made with alcohol, Dundee cake improves with a bit of spiking: Lightly moisten the uncut cake with whiskey, rum, or brandy, then wrap in cloth or wax paper for a day or two before cutting. For weddings, it is often baked in layers, each of which is covered with rolled marzipan, and the cake as a whole is enveloped in royal icing.

Where:
In London
, Fortnum & Mason, tel 44/20-7734-8040,
fortnumandmason.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Scots Kitchen
by F. Marian McNeill and Catherine Brown (2010);
A World of Cake
by Krystina Castella (2010);
ifood.tv
(search christmas dundee cake).

Golden, glassy chips of bitter Seville orange rind distinguish the amber marmalade said to have been first simmered up in Dundee, Scotland, in the eighteenth century, when a Spanish ship carrying oranges sought refuge from a storm in the town’s harbor. The fruit preserve is generally believed to have been the creation of one Janet Keiller, whose family name eventually became the best-known brand of orange marmalade. Similar fruit-and-caramelized-sugar gels (minus the rind) were produced in Europe as far back as the sixteenth century; the word
marmalade
comes from the Portuguese
marmelo
, for quince, the fruit used to make a thick and chewy sweet conserve in Portugal.

At its best, the marmalade contains large chips of rind thickly netted through sticky sweet jelly, to be lavishly spread on hot buttered toast or the latter-day crumpets we call English muffins. The bittersweetness of the marmalade is also a fine accent to pungent British cheeses and a delectable spread on waffles or pancakes. A spoonful or two gently stirred into vanilla ice cream or rich yogurt cannot go amiss, and it makes for a sprightly condiment with roasted goose, duck, or pork.

Mail order:
amazon.com (search dundee orange marmalade).
Further information and recipes:
marthastewart.com
(search classic seville orange marmalade).
Tip:
Look for James Keiller and Mackays brands.
Special events:
Dalemain Marmalade Festival, Penrith, England, February–March,
dalemainmarmaladeawards.co.uk
; Herefordshire Marmalade Festival, Bromyard, England, February–March,
herefordshiremarmaladefestival.org.uk
.
See also:
Dulce de Cáscara de Naranja Amarga
.

The zesty salt-smoke flavor of this flaky smoked haddock (a member of the cod family), gentled in hot milk and melted butter and topped with a poached egg, is the stuff of elegant weekend breakfasts and sustaining lunches and high teas throughout Scotland and England. Alas, the dish is difficult to find abroad; popular on the American East Coast at the turn of the twentieth century, it later held down a spot on the breakfast menu at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston for many decades.

Though the name of the dish may itself sound like a song lyric, it refers to a specific fish, and a specific place: Haddie is a fond nickname for haddock, and Finnan is the locals’ name for Findon, Scotland, a fishing hamlet just south of Aberdeen where the fishermen’s wives developed the method of smoking haddock over peat or seaweed (and later sawdust) fires after salting and drying the fillets. Some try to argue that Finnan actually refers to the village of Findhorn rather than Findon, but either way, the name—and the dish—are Scottish to the core.

A word to the wise: Finnan haddie is also delicious grilled and swathed in unsalted butter, or baked with onions—but its rustic flavor is best complemented by an egg in some form, whether fried, scrambled, or poached.

Mail order:
Scottish Gourmet USA, tel 877-814-3663,
scottishgourmetusa.com
; Mackenzie, Ltd., tel 800-858-7100,
mackenzieltd.com
; Stonington Seafood, tel 207-348-2730,
stoningtonseafood.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Country Cooking of Ireland
by Colman Andrews (2009);
Roast Chicken and Other Stories
by Simon Hopkinson with Lindsey Bareham (2007);
bbc.co.uk
(search smoked haddock with poached egg).

Many a food lover would jump at the chance to taste a slice of subtle pâté or a country sausage fragrant with onions, cayenne, parsley, and perhaps a touch of anchovy and red wine. Might they balk if told the meat filling was made of sheep’s innards and, even worse, had been steamed inside an animal’s stomach? Perhaps, but the more dedicated among them would persevere. Mind over matter!

Haggis is indeed a kind of steamed sausage, and the practical, economical sack used for its steaming should be no more off-putting than the use of intestines as sausage casings.

The name
haggis
is believed to have been derived from the French
haché
, or the Scottish
hag
, both meaning chopped, although meat and/or innards have been chopped and steamed in animal stomachs or wrappers of caul, the lacy fat peeled off the kidneys, at least as far back as Roman times.

Once over that gustatory hurdle, the appeal of the haggis depends on the herbs and seasonings the cook adds to the ground offal, meat, and oatmeal filling. All is readied and enjoyed on Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) and Burns Night, the January 25 birthday celebration for that most Scottish of poets, Robert Burns—forever linked to the dish by his poem “Address to a Haggis” (only a bit less famous than another well-known song and poem of his, “Auld Lang Syne”).

Cock-a-leekie soup, made of leeks and chicken stock, begins the feast (see
listing
), and the main dish is traditionally served with tatties an’ neeps, potatoes and yellow turnips mashed separately or together, which cushion the haggis. So does plenty of good Scotch whisky and the windy whines of bagpipes.

Where:
In Edinburgh
, The White Hart Inn, tel 44/131-226-2806,
whitehart-edinburgh.co.uk
;
in Glasgow
, Ubiquitous Chip, tel 44/141-334-5007,
ubiquitouschip.co.uk
;
in Indianapolis
, MacNiven’s Restaurant and Bar, tel 317-632-7268,
macnivens.com
.
Mail order:
Scottish Gourmet USA, tel 877-814-3663,
scottishgourmetusa.com
; McKean’s,
scottishhaggis.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Macsween Haggis Bible
by Jo Macsween (2013);
macsween.co.uk
;
foodnetwork.com
(search alton brown’s haggis);
bbc.co.uk
(search robert burns address to a haggis).
Special event:
Haggis Bowl, Newport, OR, June,
ncfhg.com/Haggis.html
.