I have trawled a good number of old books and found a few interesting Recipes and descriptions of old traditional Scottish Sweets.
The Scot’s, it has been worked out eat more sweets than any other people in the world, the Swiss coming a not to close second. The simple explanation of this not altogether enviable reputation is that since 1680, when sugar began to be shipped in bulk from the West Indies , sugar refining has been an important West of Scotland Industry. Greenock on the Clyde being known as “Sugarapolis”. It was generally accepted that sweetie making was an essential for all house wife’s. At country fairs, the candy man was always in evidence with his airs hanging from his neck on a tray or on a weal barrow, his voice calling “Here’s your fine cinnamon rock, for auld rags, banes, copper, iron, brass or auld broken c-c-c-rystal! Gether, gether up”. All over Scotland every town, village and street would have it’s own sweetie shop, the sweetie wife were collected names such as Candy Kate, Sweetie Annie, or Taffie Knott. Often as not they would make there own toffee and tablet.
Then there developed lots of local sweets such:
Edinburgh Rock: This was originally made by Ferguson’s of Edinburgh, the founder being Alexander Ferguson, popularly known as “Sweetie Sandy” who was born in 1798 in Doune, Perthshire. As a boy Sandy loved making sweeties in old tins and pots in the out house. His father was so angry with him, that he forced him into taking up as a joiner, but Sandy refused to stop and he left home to seek a job in a confectioners in Glasgow . He then moved to Edinburgh where he set up on his own specialising in Edinburgh Rock. The recipe was almost discovered by accident when a batch of confectionery was left in a corner for months forgotten about, and a new confection was born. Sandy went on to Retire to Doune with a considerable fortune, were he enlarged his old home, collected a sizable library, created Gardens and entertained society. He was remembered as a kindly old fellow with a white beard, who went about in a velvet Jacket and white trousers, with pockets stuffed with sweets for the children.
Edinburgh Rock:
“Friable, fluted sticks of pastel shades and pastel flavours”
Lady Violet Bonham Carter.
Quelle est cette odeur agreeable
That’s wafted on the air?
The perfume of Arabia
Cannot with it compare.
What makes the crowds to Melbourne Place
With wide stretched nostrils flock
It’s Ferguson ’s who’s boiling up
His Edinburgh Rock
Melbourn Place was the factory for Ferguson ’s in Edinburgh until 1959.
Recipe
Put into a pan a pound of granulated sugar and half a pint of cold water. Stir gently over a burner until the sugar is dissolved. When nearly boiling , add a good pinch of cream of tarter and boil without stirring until it reaches 250 fahrenheit. until it forms a hard ball when dropped in cold water. Remove from heat add colour and flavour, pour onto a greased marble slab . As it begins to cool turn the edges in with a greased pallet knife. When it is cool enough to handle dust it with icing sugar lift it up and pull gently, do not twist until it is dull. Cut into pieces with a pair of scissors. Place rock in a warm room and let it stand for at least 24 hours, until the process of granulation is complete and the rock is powdery and soft.
Berwick Cockles: Made in Berwick-on-Tweed for nearly two hundred years, these are pail fawn with red stripes, they are mildly flavoured with peppermint.
Black-strippit Ba’s: Black and White striped Balls of hard toffee, strongly flavoured with peppermint. A favourite in church were the sermon was measured in balls, three for forty minuets.
Cheugh Jeans: “Luscious lumps of sweetness that yield themselves into a liquid satisfaction in the warmth of the mouth.” A speciality of “Ball Allan” the candy king of Glasgow around the end of the 1800’s. Cheugh means tough. Unfortunately we don’t know what jean meant.
Coltart’s Candy: Coltart made his celebrated Candy in Melrose and sold it mainly there and in Galashiels. It was flavoured with aniseed, and he composed the famouse song in it’s honour.
Mither, gie’s ma thrifty doon,
Coltart’s comin to the toun,
Wi a feather in his croon,
To sell Coltarta’s Candy.
Allabally, Allabally Bee,
Sitting on your mammies knee,
Greetin for anither bawbee
To buy Coltart’s Candy
Coltart died in 1890.
Curly-andra: A white, coral-like sweet with a coriander seed in the centre. The name is a corruption of “Curryander”, a Scot’s form of Coriander.
Jeddart Snails: Dark brown toffee with a taste of the sweetness of brown sugar blended with the richness of real butter and flavoured with mild peppermint. They are rounded into a curve , with one end formed into a blob for the head and the other flatend for the tail. The recipe is said to have been given to a Jedburgh Baker by a French prisoner of war during the Napoleonic wars, whom he had taken into employment.
Oddfellows: A lozenge specially made by a Wishaw Firm for over 100 years. The flavours remain the same- Cinnamon, Clove and Rose.
Soor Plooms: A speciality of Galashields, Ball shaped and of a pale clear green colour they have a refreshing, slightly acid flavour. The Plooms commemorate an incident in local history, in 1377, when a band of marauders, whilst eating the unripe plums in which the district abounded, was surprised and routed by the braw lads of Gala Water.
Starrie Rock: A traditional Angus sweet, mainly made in Brechin, of various colours and flavours. Peppermint, Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon and Ginger, in short thin sticks. It does not become brittle in your mouth but turns it’s self into a hard ball of toffee. The rock is rolled so it becomes star like
Other old favourites include Pan Drops, Sugar Ally Liquorice, Sugar Bools, Lettered Rock, Mint Imperials, Carluke Balls, Moffat Toffee, and many more.
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