Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 11 on 17/11/2003.

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Having a Hearty Hogmanay

Hogmanay should be as much about good food as lots of drink. Sue Lawrence provides a few pointers

As a child, I used to love Hogmanay – and every year there were things that never changed. The home-made blackcurrant cordial might have been replaced by advocaat and lemonade as we became older, but there was always the tall dark man (my father) at the door at midnight with a piece of coal as the “first-foot” of the year; and there was always black bun.

Alongside the plate of shortbread with wedges of cheddar cheese and sultana or cherry cake, there was black bun – rich, heavy and dense – perfect to soak up the copious amounts of whisky proffered at every household. (“One more dram before you go”).

And our house was not unique. Black bun and “shortie” were de rigueur everywhere, as we did the rounds of neighbours’ houses first-footing until the wee small hours.

New Year celebrations were always far more important than Christmas in Scotland: my father still worked on December 25th until the mid 1960s but had three days off for New Year, just like his compatriots.

But a festive dish that might have been served – along with the cloutie dumpling for pudding – was ‘bubbly-jock’, the Scots name for turkey.

And although it became a Christmas treat in Scotland only relatively recently, it has most certainly caught on and now appears at almost every Christmas table.

I love to stuff turkey with oysters – a common dish in the big Scottish houses in those halcyon days before the 20th century when oysters started to become the luxury they are now.

Smoked salmon has long been assoc.....

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By Sue Lawrence

Section : Scottish Food

Page number : 58