40 Fun Facts About Scottish Food

Which London store claims to have invented the Scotch egg, a snack with no proven Scottish origin, in 1738?

Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented the Scotch egg at Piccadilly in 1738. A Yorkshire account instead says it began in Whitby, covered in fish paste rather than sausage meat.

Haggis hurling, a Highland games event whose record throw was 66 metres in 2011, began in 1977 as what?

Haggis hurling was a practical joke: publicist Robin Dunseath admitted in 2004 that he invented it for the 1977 Gathering of the Clans in Edinburgh. Lorne Coltart set the 217-foot record at Milngavie in 2011.

Which dish did a 2009 Scottish Daily Express survey find a third of Scots eat every week?

Mince and tatties topped the poll while haggis, the national dish, came only eighth, with just four per cent saying they ate it at least once a week.

Buckfast, the caffeinated tonic wine notorious in Scotland, was first made by monks in which English county?

Devon's Buckfast Abbey monks first sold the tonic wine in small quantities as a medicine, under the slogan 'Three small glasses a day, for good health and lively blood'.

Why did A.G. Barr respell its Iron Brew drink as Irn-Bru after the Second World War?

A feared ban on untrue names drove it: draft rules wanted brand names 'literally true', and Iron Brew was not brewed. The rules were later watered down, but the trademarked spelling stayed.

Which north-east harbour town has a chip shop that claims it served the first deep-fried Mars bar in 1992?

Stonehaven's John Davie claims he invented the deep-fried Mars bar in 1992 at the Haven, now the Carron Fish Bar, which hangs a banner calling itself its birthplace. Mars said only that it was the most unusual way of enjoying the bar.

A decorated shortbread called 'dreaming bread' was traditionally broken over whose head at a doorway?

A new bride had the infar-cake, or dreaming bread, broken over her head on entering her new home. Shortbread was a luxury kept for weddings, Christmas and Hogmanay.

How does Scottish tablet, boiled like fudge from butter and milk, differ once it sets?

It is harder and grainier: tablet is boiled to the soft-ball stage and allowed to crystallise, where fudge stays soft. F. Marian McNeill traced tablet to Lady Grisell Baillie's household book of the early 1700s.

Lees' macaroon bar was born in 1931 when John Lees covered a botched fondant bar in what?

Coconut rescued a botched batch: Lees had been trying to make a smooth chocolate fondant bar above his family's Coatbridge shop. The traditional Scottish macaroon is odder still, a paste of mashed potato and icing sugar.

Which Scottish snack, a favourite of RAF V-bomber crews, was reportedly banned in 1965 after one exploded in a cockpit?

Tunnock's Teacake mallow swells as cabin pressure falls, and unwrapped ones are said to have burst over the instrument panel. RAF doctors retested them in an altitude chamber in 2025 and found they only cracked.

Which politician sent a rumbledethumps recipe, calling it his favourite food, to a school cookbook?

Gordon Brown, then prime minister, made a thrifty choice for the Donaldson's School for the Deaf recipe book in January 2009: a Borders hash of potato and cabbage that can be made from a roast's leftovers.

Lorne sausage, the square slice of a full Scottish breakfast, differs from ordinary sausages in lacking what?

A casing is absent: the meat, rusk and spices are packed into a rectangular tin and sliced, so the 'sausage' holds its shape only by being tightly packed. It was advertised in 1892, before the comedian Tommy Lorne was famous.

Why is the soft top crust of a Scotch pie set about a centimetre below the pastry rim?

To hold beans, mash or gravy: the sunken lid makes a well for toppings, traditionally eaten with a cup of Bovril at football grounds. Scottish Bakers have crowned a World Champion Scotch pie every year since 1999.

Which dried fruit did the original cock-a-leekie recipe add, and traditionalists still julienne as a garnish?

Prunes are in the earliest account of the dish, a 1598 traveller's 'pullet with some prunes in the broth' that mentions no leeks; the name 'cockie leekie' first turns up in a 1737 house account book.

Scotch broth, built on mutton or beef, root vegetables and split peas, takes its body from which grain?

Barley is the backbone, earning the soup its other name of barley broth. Maria Rundell's early-19th-century 'Scotch Mutton Broth' simmered mutton neck for hours before adding pre-soaked Scotch barley.

Which Moray fishing village names Scotland's smoked-haddock soup and hosts its World Championships?

Cullen supplies only half the name: 'skink' is Scots for a shin of beef, and then for the soup made from it, so the fish soup carries a beef word.

Which Angus town names the 'smokie', a hot-smoked haddock that legend traces to a store fire in nearby Auchmithie?

Arbroath gained the smokie when Auchmithie's fisherfolk moved there late in the 19th century, drawn by the town council's offer of land and a modern harbour, and brought the recipe with them.

Stornoway black pudding, PGI-protected since 2013 against 'impostor puddings', comes from which island group?

The Western Isles won the status after four island butchers campaigned against 'Stornoway-style' puddings made elsewhere; now only those produced in the town or parish of Stornoway, on Lewis, may use the name.

Legend says Dundee cake was first made for Mary, Queen of Scots because she disliked which cake ingredient?

Glacé cherries were what Mary supposedly refused, so the cake was topped with blanched almonds instead. Keiller's marmalade firm mass-produced it in Dundee and is credited with coining the name.

Janet Keiller's 1797 refinement of Dundee marmalade, thought to aid digestion, is credited with adding what?

Thin strips of peel made Keiller's the 'chip' marmalade, and the peel was believed to help digestion. Legend starts it with a storm-bound Spanish ship's cargo of bitter Seville oranges that the family bought cheaply.

Partan bree, a north-east fishing-port soup, takes its name from the Scots and Gaelic word for which shellfish?

Crab is 'partan' in Scots, a word kept for the edible kind while 'crab' itself was often left for inedible ones; 'bree' is a brew or soup, and this one is made with rice.

Legend says the 1st Earl of Atholl ended a 1475 Highland rebellion by spiking what with Atholl brose?

The rebel leader's well was laced with the whisky, honey and oatmeal drink, and the inebriated enemy was captured. Atholl brose is also an alternative name for the dessert cranachan.

Which soft Highland cheese is recommended before a ceilidh because it supposedly softens the effects of whisky?

Crowdie, a crofters' cheese of soured skimmed milk with roots in Viking or even Pictish times, is eaten with oatcakes before the dancing. Mixed with cream and toasted oats it became the dessert cranachan.

An apocryphal tale says 'Sweetie Sandy' Ferguson discovered Edinburgh rock, the soft crumbly sweet, how?

Tasting a long-forgotten tray of desiccated sweets, by the story, revealed the crumbly texture that made his fortune. Alexander Ferguson learned the trade in Glasgow and retired rich to his native Doune.

Reestit mutton, salted meat served with bannocks, is regarded as the national dish of which island group?

Shetland cures the mutton in brine, then hangs it to dry above a peat fire so the smoke flavours it; a Lerwick butcher sold his as 'an acquired taste that you acquire at the first taste'.

Black bun, the pastry-wrapped fruit cake now eaten at Hogmanay, was originally tied to which festival?

Twelfth Night was its original occasion, a custom brought back by Mary, Queen of Scots from France and ended by the Reformation. It has been called a much bigger Garibaldi biscuit.

What is the 'cloot' in which a Scottish clootie dumpling is simmered for hours?

A floured cloth holds the suet, dried-fruit and spice dough while it simmers in a big pan of water. 'Clootie dumpling' is also a nickname for the Scottish National Party's logo.

Scotland's black Angus cattle were once nicknamed 'doddies' and 'humlies', Scots words meaning what?

Hornless is what both words mean: the breed is naturally polled, and Angus bulls are still crossed with other cattle to pass the trait on, since hornless animals are easier to handle.

The rowie, a salty, lard-rich roll that legend says was made to last fishermen a fortnight at sea, comes from which city?

Aberdeen's rowie is prized enough locally that Slow Food campaigners founded a World Buttery Championship in 2018, after big bakers swapped the traditional butter and lard for palm oil.

The Golden Spurtle, top prize at the World Porridge Making Championship in Carrbridge, is modelled on what?

A wooden stirring rod, the spurtle stirs porridge without the dragging effect of a spoon, so it stays lump-free. Championship entries may contain only oatmeal, water and salt.

Samuel Johnson's dictionary defined oats as a grain that 'supports the people' in Scotland but is generally given to what in England?

Horses ate England's oats, the 1755 entry jibed, but the Scots had little choice: oats were one of the few grains that grew well in the north, where wheat struggled in the damp climate.

Scottish ales called 60-, 70- and 80-shilling take their names from a 19th-century method of doing what?

Invoicing beer by strength gave Light, Heavy and Export their 60/-, 70/- and 80/- labels, read as 'sixty shilling'. 'Scotch ale' was first a label for strong ales exported from Edinburgh in the 18th century.

Belhaven, billed as Scotland's oldest working brewery with a claimed start in 1719, brews in which East Lothian town?

Dunbar levied a tax on its brewers in 1719, and Belhaven's site just outside the burgh limits may explain that founding date. Greene King bought the brewery for £187 million in 2005.

BrewDog, founded in 2007 by James Watt and Martin Dickie, first brewed in which north-east fishing town?

Fraserburgh hosted the first BrewDog brewery until production moved to nearby Ellon in 2012. Co-founder Dickie had earlier helped create Thornbridge's flagship beer, Jaipur.

Glayva, a whisky liqueur first sold in Leith in 1947, is named from 'glè mhath', a Gaelic phrase meaning what?

Very good is said to have been the verdict, in Gaelic, of the first people to try merchant Ronald Morrison's new liqueur, and the sound of their praise became its name.

Galashiels' boiled sweets and its town motto recall English raiders killed in 1337 while doing what?

Eating unripe plums is, by tradition, what the raiding party was caught doing, so 'Soor Plooms' became the town's motto and gave its name to a sharp green boiled sweet.

A 'munchy box', the Scottish takeaway heap of kebab meat, pakora, chips and more, is served in what?

A pizza box holds the lot, and Glasgow City Council has analysed its nutrition to push shops toward smaller, healthier versions. Chips or fried rice are invariable; a token salad sometimes appears.

Lanark Blue, first made near Carnwath by Humphrey Errington in 1985, is a blue cheese from which animal's milk?

Sheep from Humphrey Errington's own flock supply the milk: he began making cheese in the mid-1980s to add value to his ewes, and Penicillium roqueforti gives it the blue veining.

Jethart Snails, Jedburgh's snail-shaped boiled sweets, reputedly come from a recipe given to a local baker by whom?

A French prisoner of war held during the Napoleonic Wars supposedly passed the recipe to a Jedburgh baker. The Borders town's other delicacy is the Jethart pear.

The earliest known written haggis recipes, from around 1430, come from a verse cookbook of which English county?

Lancashire's Liber Cure Cocorum, a cookbook in rhyme, gives a recipe 'for hagese' of heart, kidneys and herbs; the dish became Scotland's national one only after Burns's 1786 'Address to a Haggis'.