5 Scottish Foods To Try When You Visit

Scottish Foods To Try

Scotland has a whole host of traditional foods.  Often varying by area, you may not have heard of some of these specialities.  Of course I had to include the obvious haggis on my list.  When you are road tripping around Scotland make sure you stop to test some traditional Scottish foods.  Whether that be in a restaurant or in your Scottish self catering property.

There are plenty more Scottish foods to try aside those in this list. So make sure you check out any options on menus that you haven’t tried before.  Clootie dumpling and tasty seafood are popular too!

Haggis

Starting off with the obvious choice!  You can’t come to Scotland and not at least try haggis!  You can generally buy it in most supermarkets throughout the year.  Although for the properly cooked haggis you are better choosing the meal in a restaurant. There are both meat and vegetarian options, with the veggie option generally a little more spicy.

The traditional haggis was originally the offal from a sheep cooked in a sheep’s stomach. However nowadays it’s usually in a plastic covering and not sheep’s stomach!  Although it’s still offal that’s used inside, you will also find oats, suet and parts of other minced animal such as beef.  Despite how haggis sounds, a lot of people (including our family!) enjoy it throughout the year.  The veggie haggis is the same shape and in a plastic casing containing oats, beans, carrots, swede, lentils, oats and other vegetables along with spices and salt etc.

You definitely have to try it at least once!  Preferably with the traditional neeps and tatties (turnip and potatoes)!

Arbroath Smokie

Arbroath smokies, surprisingly enough come from the small fishing town of Arbroath.  They are wood smoked haddock and produced in small family own smoke houses in Arbroath.  As they have a PGI status they can only be called Arbroath smokies if they are made within 5 miles of Arbroath.

Due to the wood-smoking process the fish are generally of a sweet flavour, just watch out for the bones!  It’s possible to order the Arbroath smokies vacuum packed online, but they are best tasted fresh.  The easiest way to find the smoke house in Arbroath is to follow your nose to the foot of the town!

Cranachan

A sweet dessert dish, Cranachan is basically a glass of cream, oats, fruit and whisky.  When it’s done right it’s very delicious, although sometimes people put too much cream into the Cranachan!  You can’t buy this ready made, but most Scottish restaurants in tourist areas around the highlands may offer it.  You can also try making it yourself at home, there are plenty of recipes online!

We made it recently with the kids and omitted the whisky!  They absolutely loved it and we’ll try making more Scottish foods again soon.

Buttery (or Rowie)

These savoury breakfast rolls may not look very pretty, but they are actually pretty tasty. Especially with some delicious Scottish raspberry jam! A buttery is pretty much a layered pastry, called a buttery by those from Aberdeenshire and Rowie by Aberdeen city dwellers.  It’s said that the buttery was created for fisherman going out to sea, who needed something to last a little longer when away from home.

Although you may find a packet of butteries in a big supermarket, you will find tastier ones in local bakeries.  As they are an Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen city speciality you should definitely go into some local bakeries there to buy them fresh!

Scottish Tablet

A lot of people who haven’t tried tablet assume it’s like fudge.  It’s definitely not like fudge, it needs to be boiled a lot longer and is much drier and crumbly in texture.  You can get tablet in most supermarkets in Scotland, but the best tablet is always homemade! I’ve never managed to successfully make it, but I think it does help if you have a jam thermometer and are much more patient than me.

Scottish tablet is basically just sugar and you’re not going to want to eat too much at once!  So definitely don’t go for the biggest piece of tablet in the bag.  Start small and don’t eat it all at once, otherwise your teeth will not forgive you!

Look out for small newsagents or coffee shops who sometimes have a batch of tablet sitting beside the till.  I’ve also noticed people selling it on tables outside houses on the islands (usually beside an honesty box).

Soor Plooms

Ok, this is number 6 and so a little bonus food to tempt you.  Soor Plooms are a hard boiled sweet that is both sour and sweet, usually bright green in colour!  Originating from the borders town of Galashiels they can now be found in shops all over the country.

Some of my favourite sweet shops where you can buy Soor Plooms are the Moffat Toffee Shop (unsurprisingly they have delicious toffee too!) and Mrs Mitchell’s Sweetie Shop on the Trongate, Glasgow.

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