Culture and tradition: Clootie dumpling. When I was growing up in Glasgow, no child of my acquaintance ever had a birthday cake. The pièce de résistance at small birthday parties, Christmas or New Year was the ubiquitous clootie dumpling. (An English friend had never heard of such until recently.) http://foodanddrink.scotsman.com/food/a-history-of-the-clootie-dumpling-including-a-recipe-for-making-your-own/ My niece (Lenzie, Lanarkshire) made a ‘smashing’ clootie dumpling for my brother’s birthday last year using my mother’s recipe which I had passed on to her. Encouraged by her success, I attempted to make the same recipe last Christmas. What a disaster! It looked as if someone had taken a hammer to it! First, I had to use packaged Atora brand beef suet from the U.K. as regulations in this country preclude buying ‘suet on the hoof.’ Next, my mother used to maintain that any baking she did with flour milled in this country (USA) did not turn out right. I don’t know the reason, but my clootie dumpling was a sorry mess, though I watched it ‘bilin’ its heid aff” for over three hours, not to mention ruining a sterilised pillowcase. What an utter waste of ingredients, effort and time! Now ex-pats assure me that a microwave version turns out very well, but photos of such do not show the ‘skin’ which would give the clootie dumpling ‘ballast,’ so to speak. It certainly would cut down on the three to four hours to boil the concoction in a deep pot, ever alert that the water did not boil in. Time and change, and how! My daughter’s children and theirs are very involved in 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America), so even working with and showing their animals, not one of them had heard of suet. I was going to very proudly show them how suet added to the taste and texture of a clootie dumpling last Christmas, but alas! There is no way that I can back this up, but I am sure that there was hardly a person growing up in Scotland who never tasted clootie dumpling...built into their Scottish DNA. Of course not. I am just trying to make the point that this wonderful concoction was very much a part of the culture. I hope it hasn’t gone by the wayside now that so many “mammies’ are out to work and may not have time to watch the clootie dumpling ‘bilin’ its heid aff’ for three hours to make sure the water doesn’t boil in. Maisie

For whatever it's worth, you can make suet yourself. Suet is rendered fat. In our dreams selling beef with too much fat is illegal in this country! What - no more hamburger that is 20% fat? I don't think so! Get about five pounds of the stuff and you should end up with around a pound of fat. Well, by some definititions it's RAW fat, but you can't mix it in baking recipes in that form! Just get some fatty beef and boil out the fat! Put the cooled water and grease mixture in the refrigerator, and the fat will congeal on top. You can strain it first if you want to to remove solid pieces. Or you could cook the beef and drain the fat, but it's bound to taste roasted. Dora -----Original Message----- From: Maisie Egger via Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2015 1:29 PM To: LANARK@rootsweb.com Subject: [Lanark] Clootie dumpling Scottish tradition Culture and tradition: Clootie dumpling. When I was growing up in Glasgow, no child of my acquaintance ever had a birthday cake. The pièce de résistance at small birthday parties, Christmas or New Year was the ubiquitous clootie dumpling. (An English friend had never heard of such until recently.) http://foodanddrink.scotsman.com/food/a-history-of-the-clootie-dumpling-including-a-recipe-for-making-your-own/ My niece (Lenzie, Lanarkshire) made a ‘smashing’ clootie dumpling for my brother’s birthday last year using my mother’s recipe which I had passed on to her. Encouraged by her success, I attempted to make the same recipe last Christmas. What a disaster! It looked as if someone had taken a hammer to it! First, I had to use packaged Atora brand beef suet from the U.K. as regulations in this country preclude buying ‘suet on the hoof.’ Next, my mother used to maintain that any baking she did with flour milled in this country (USA) did not turn out right. I don’t know the reason, but my clootie dumpling was a sorry mess, though I watched it ‘bilin’ its heid aff” for over three hours, not to mention ruining a sterilised pillowcase. What an utter waste of ingredients, effort and time! Now ex-pats assure me that a microwave version turns out very well, but photos of such do not show the ‘skin’ which would give the clootie dumpling ‘ballast,’ so to speak. It certainly would cut down on the three to four hours to boil the concoction in a deep pot, ever alert that the water did not boil in. Time and change, and how! My daughter’s children and theirs are very involved in 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America), so even working with and showing their animals, not one of them had heard of suet. I was going to very proudly show them how suet added to the taste and texture of a clootie dumpling last Christmas, but alas! There is no way that I can back this up, but I am sure that there was hardly a person growing up in Scotland who never tasted clootie dumpling...built into their Scottish DNA. Of course not. I am just trying to make the point that this wonderful concoction was very much a part of the culture. I hope it hasn’t gone by the wayside now that so many “mammies’ are out to work and may not have time to watch the clootie dumpling ‘bilin’ its heid aff’ for three hours to make sure the water doesn’t boil in. Maisie ------------------------------- WHEN REPLYING to a post please remember to snip most of the earlier message. Be sure the reply to address shows as LANARK@Rootsweb.com. You may contact the List Admin at lanark-admin@rootsweb.com or click on the following link to the list information page online: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/SCT/LANARK.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LANARK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Morning all, I have happy childhood memories of my grandmother drying the clootie dumpling in front of an open coal fire wrapped in a muslin sheet. She used her mother's recipe and I still have my great grandmother's recipe, still on the piece of paper she wrote it on in the late 1800s. I have often made it myself (using the recipe and the last muslin sheet my grandmother washed and rewashed over the decades) but also now have a microwave recipe which works quite well. Meanwhile large parts of the northwest of England and the Scottish Borders have been devastated this weekend by flooding. Shap in Cumbria has seen around 12 inches of rain in little over 24 hours, more than one month's worth in what is already the wettest part of the UK (hence the reason it is the Lake District). Mark -----Original Message----- From: lanark-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:lanark-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Maisie Egger via Sent: 06 December 2015 19:29 To: LANARK@rootsweb.com Subject: [Lanark] Clootie dumpling Scottish tradition Culture and tradition: Clootie dumpling. When I was growing up in Glasgow, no child of my acquaintance ever had a birthday cake. The pièce de résistance at small birthday parties, Christmas or New Year was the ubiquitous clootie dumpling. (An English friend had never heard of such until recently.) http://foodanddrink.scotsman.com/food/a-history-of-the-clootie-dumpling-including-a-recipe-for-making-your-own/ My niece (Lenzie, Lanarkshire) made a ‘smashing’ clootie dumpling for my brother’s birthday last year using my mother’s recipe which I had passed on to her. Encouraged by her success, I attempted to make the same recipe last Christmas. What a disaster! It looked as if someone had taken a hammer to it! First, I had to use packaged Atora brand beef suet from the U.K. as regulations in this country preclude buying ‘suet on the hoof.’ Next, my mother used to maintain that any baking she did with flour milled in this country (USA) did not turn out right. I don’t know the reason, but my clootie dumpling was a sorry mess, though I watched it ‘bilin’ its heid aff” for over three hours, not to mention ruining a sterilised pillowcase. What an utter waste of ingredients, effort and time! Now ex-pats assure me that a microwave version turns out very well, but photos of such do not show the ‘skin’ which would give the clootie dumpling ‘ballast,’ so to speak. It certainly would cut down on the three to four hours to boil the concoction in a deep pot, ever alert that the water did not boil in. Time and change, and how! My daughter’s children and theirs are very involved in 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America), so even working with and showing their animals, not one of them had heard of suet. I was going to very proudly show them how suet added to the taste and texture of a clootie dumpling last Christmas, but alas! There is no way that I can back this up, but I am sure that there was hardly a person growing up in Scotland who never tasted clootie dumpling...built into their Scottish DNA. Of course not. I am just trying to make the point that this wonderful concoction was very much a part of the culture. I hope it hasn’t gone by the wayside now that so many “mammies’ are out to work and may not have time to watch the clootie dumpling ‘bilin’ its heid aff’ for three hours to make sure the water doesn’t boil in. Maisie ------------------------------- WHEN REPLYING to a post please remember to snip most of the earlier message. Be sure the reply to address shows as LANARK@Rootsweb.com. You may contact the List Admin at lanark-admin@rootsweb.com or click on the following link to the list information page online: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/SCT/LANARK.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LANARK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message