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The diet of Buchan farmservants in the 1920s; dishes and the...

Date 18 November 1980
Track ID 49082
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1980.102

Original Tape ID

SA1980.102

Summary

The diet of Buchan farmservants in the 1920s; dishes and their names.

Charles Reid recalls the dinners [i.e. midday meals] provided for Buchan farmservants. 'Yaval broth' was second-day broth (yaval oats are a second successive crop of oats). Mr Reid describes stovies and soup-tatties (potato soup). There might also be a rice or semolina pudding. There was always milk and as many oatcakes as the men could eat. In Buchan tatties are 'chappit' (mashed). The fisherfolk used to dry cod and ling on the rocks. This salty 'hard fish' was flaked into mashed potatoes, and the result, called 'hairy Willies', made the workers thirsty all afternoon. Tatties and mince was a great luxury on Saturdays. Supper might be 'gutta percha divots [turfs]', that is saps (stale bread with hot milk). Alternatively it might be porridge, possibly with the luxury of a boiled egg. Knotty tams was brose made with milk. It was a very heavy meal, especially for a Wednesday night when the men visited their girlfriends and danced. Mr Reid quotes from the song ['The Barnyards o Delgaty'] describing this lumpy brose.

In Mr Reid's childhood, the usual evening meal was still based on neeps [turnips] or curly kail, chappit with cream. As a luxury they might be boiled with a marrowbone. The bree [cooking water] was the basis for broth. [Break in tape.] Mr Reid recalls being surprised to find that in Fife and Perth 'kail' meant brose of any kind. He tells a story about a farmer serving a diseased hen to his workers. However, farmservants did get enough calories. Mr Reid describes how fresh herring were prepared, as Boothby recommended.

Item Notes

For 'yaval', see The Scottish National Dictionary (available online [[www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/]], accessed 3 June 2009) s.v. 'aval' noun. Robert Boothby was a North-East MP from the 1920s-1950s and an advocate of the virtues of herring as a food.

Recording Location

County - Midlothian

Parish - Edinburgh

Village/Place - Edinburgh

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good