Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
soups include leek and potato soup, and lentil soup (traditionally made using ham stock -
vegetarians beware!).
Seafood soups include the delicious Cullen skink , made with smoked haddock, potato,
onion and milk, and partan bree (crab soup).
Surf & Turf
Steak eaters will enjoy a thick fillet of world-famous Aberdeen Angus beef, and beef from
Highland cattle is much sought after. Venison, from the red deer, is leaner and appears on
many menus. Both may be served with a wine-based or creamy whisky sauce. Then
there's haggis, Scotland's much-maligned national dish…
Scottish salmon is famous worldwide, but
there's a big difference between the now-ubi-
quitous farmed salmon and the leaner, more
expensive, wild fish. Also, there are concerns
over the environmental impact of salmon farms
on the marine environment.
Smoked salmon is dressed with a squeeze of lemon juice and eaten with fresh brown
bread and butter. Trout - whether wild, rod-caught brown trout or farmed rainbow trout -
is delicious fried in oatmeal.
As an alternative to kippers you may be offered Arbroath smokies (lightly smoked fresh
haddock), traditionally eaten cold. Herring fillets fried in oatmeal are good, if you don't
mind picking out a few bones. Mackerel pâté and smoked or peppered mackerel (both
served cold) are also popular.
Juicy langoustines (also known as Dublin Bay prawns), crabs, lobsters, oysters, mussels
and scallops are also widely available.
Popular Scottish TV chef Nick Nairn's book Wild
Harvest contains over 100 recipes based on the use
of fresh, seasonal Scottish produce.
SSSSSSMOKIN'!
Scotland is famous for its smoked salmon, but there are many other varieties of smoked fish - plus smoked meats
and cheeses - to enjoy. Smoking food to preserve it is an ancient art that has recently undergone a revival, but this
time it's more about flavour than preservation.
There are two parts to the process - first the cure, which involves covering the fish in a mixture of salt and
molasses sugar, or soaking it in brine; and then the smoke, which can be either cold smoking (at less than 34°C),
which results in a raw product, or hot smoking (at more than 60°C), which cooks it. Cold-smoked products in-
clude traditional smoked salmon, kippers and Finnan haddies. Hot-smoked products include bradan rost ('flaky'
smoked salmon) and Arbroath smokies.
 
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