Scottish Country Dance of the Day

Fond of cheesecake? Do you prefer New York Style, Pennsylvania Dutch Style, Country Style (Buttermilk), or the mid-century modern flavours of the Unbaked Cheesecake? Some people, though they may like both cheese and cake, are repulsed by the dessert solely because its name inspires a revulsion from strong mental associations with the two separate foods in combination. These individuals are clearly the exception as cheesecake has been loved for centuries - so much so that the term "cheesecake," in connection with a beautiful woman has origins back to 1660! Verse published in 1662, after the death of Oliver Cromwell (whom it is supposed, did not care for such desserts), in Poems and Songs Relating to the Late Times, was used to regret the occasion of Cromwell driving certain ladies (of questionable repute) out of the town: "But ah! It goes against our hearts, To lose our cheesecake and our tarts." 🍰

Time for a little dancing with your teatime? A tea dance, also called a thé dansant ( "dancing tea"), was historically a dance held on a summer or autumn afternoon or early evening, from 4 to 7 pm, sometimes preceded by a garden party. The usual refreshments in 1880 were tea and coffee, ices, champagne-cup and claret-cup, fruit, sandwiches, cake and biscuits! Even after the introduction of the phonograph, the expected feature was a live orchestra or a small band playing light classical music. The types of dances performed during tea dances included waltzes, tangos and, by the late 1920s, the Charleston, the shocking new dance that threatened to bump Scottish Country Dancing out of popularity until the genre was revived by Ysobel Stewart and Jean Milligan.

Unlike apple pie (the first recipe of which hails from Chaucer-era England) , Key Lime Pie is a uniquely American dessert. This pie is considered the official pie of the Florida Key (although ironically, the majority of Key Lime trees introduced by the Spanish in the 1500s were wiped out during the hurricane of 1926 and replaced by Persian Limes)! At any rate, recipes for Key Lime Pie were not recorded until the 1930s. At this time, fresh milk, refrigeration, and ice where not available in the Keys until the arrival of tank trucks with the opening of the Overseas Highway in 1930. Because of this lack of milk, local cooks relied on canned sweetened condensed milk, a key ingredient which makes this pie so smooth and delicious. Recipe included: Key Lime Bars!

Don't fret, Julia, the days of obligatory fat-free desserts are blessedly over. Indulge in this luscious jig containing enough circles, wheels, and grand chains to froth up a virtual chocolate mousse for four couples. This most elegant of desserts was first described by Alexandre Viard, chef to Louis XVI and Napoleon, and later referred to as "mousse au chocolat" in the 1820 edition of his culinary encyclopedia, Le Cuisinier Royal. But the popularity of this tasty chocolate dessert really began to surge when the French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), who was also known for his culinary skills, came up with a recipe he first named “mayonnaise au chocolat.” Hmmm ... At any rate, Peter Hastings' actual deliclious recipe included with the dance cribs for your delectation and post-dance swooning! 🍫 🍫 🍫

Fooled you! The classic puree of fruit and custard, the fruit fool (whether it be strawberry, gooseberry, raspberry, rhubarb, or blackberry) has nothing in particular to do with April Fool's Day! And although food historians do not agree on the origin of its name, fool/foole is first mentioned as a dessert in 1598 with recipes beginning to appear in cookery books by the mid 17th century. There are even two classic fruitless fools dating from the 17th and 18th centuries - the Norfolk Fool and the Westminster Fool (which have the addition of cake, similar to trifles, with and without the addition of sack sherry). Regardless of ingredients, these are fools to suffer gladly. Be a dancing fool today! Recipes included!

What better accompaniment with a Cream Tea than a little gossip? The ‘invention’ of this quintessentially British refreshment is attributed to Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, who decided she needed to eat something light to combat ‘that sinking feeling’ she experienced mid-afternoon. Whilst this routine began as a private affair for the Duchess, she soon started inviting her friends to join her for tea and gossip about the latest scandal. The ritual caught on and was adopted by the fashionable upper classes of London society. The word gossip tends to have a negative connotations, but evolved from the Old English term, godsibb, recorded sometime around 1014, meaning "a child’s godparent or sponsor at a baptism." Over time, and after a number of spelling changes, gossip came to mean "a good friend, usually a woman." By the 1500s, the word was mostly used for "idle chatter and rumor," as well as to describe the women who gathered to help in the birth of a baby. But by the mid-1800s, gossip was used as both noun and verb, again meaning "idle chatter and rumor." Although the Scots "blether" is more in line with simiply "having a chat", the words "clatter" or the noun "clattern" (meaning to gossip or chatter on) or even "clishmaclaver" (for an idle chat) can both refer to a bit of gossip, which always help liven up a teatime. At any rate, all of these terms are better than "quidnunc" - a gossip-themed term meaning "a person of idle chatter - but usually referring to one with outdated news." Pass the jam and tell me the latest! 🍵 🍰 🍓

Yum! It's not only the English who love marmalade! This week marks the competitions for marmalade makers is the Dalemain Marmalade Awards! This annual event is held at Dalemain Mansion & Historic Gardens near Penrith in Cumbria, England, but it attracts entries from all over Scotland and worldwide! The Scots make a special claim to this bittersweet concoction. Orange marmalade, with its vibrant, bittersweet zing, has graced breakfast tables for centuries. Originating in the 15th century, legend suggest it was the Scots, who refined the marmalade process in the 18th century. According to lore, the cargo of a Spanish ship, carrying Seville oranges, was salvaged by a storm-struck Dundee harbormaster. His resourceful wife, aiming to not waste the bitter fruit, added sugar and transformed them into the marmalade we cherish today. This concoction was not only a way to preserve the tangy goodness of Seville oranges—renowned for their uniquely tart, aromatic zest—but also became a symbol of resourcefulness and warmth. English and Scottish migrants took marmalade with them to Canada with them, where it remains popular to this day. Americans, on the other hand, have been generally less enthused perhaps because sweet oranges, rather than the more bitter Sevilles, have been more readily available. This square set strathspey contains enough complex figures and meanwhiles to take the marmalade prize for dancing! Spread it on thick! 🍊 🍊 🍊

Afternoon tea, a light meal composed of three course offerings of tea sandwiches and savories, followed by scones with clotted cream and jam, and ending with sweet pastries, is the heartier version of a Cream Tea, with just the tea and scones course. Afternoon tea was introduced in England by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in the year 1840. The Duchess would become hungry around four o'clock in the afternoon. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at eight o'clock, thus leaving a long period of time between lunch and dinner. The Duchess asked that a tray of tea, bread and butter and cake be brought to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit of hers and she began inviting friends to join her. The afternoon pause for tea became a fashionable social event and by the 1880’s upper-class and society women would change into long gowns, gloves and hats for their afternoon tea and delicious gossip which was usually served in the drawing room between four and five o’clock, often on elegant low-backed chairs (leading to its other name, low tea). It's always time for tea!

There are few cakes that carry a warning with them, but Eccles Cakes are one of them! Eccles Cakes recently received notoriety for several incidents involving fires resulting from heating them in the microwave. The prevailing theory is that the Demerara sugar used for decoration heats and ignites! Be careful out there!

A staple of a British breakfast, English and Scottish migrants took marmalade with them to Canada with them, where it remains popular to this day. Americans, on the other hand, are less enthused by it perhaps because sweet oranges, rather than the more bitter Sevilles, are readily available.

Shortbread was an expensive luxury in times past and for ordinary people, usually reserved for special occasions such as weddings, Christmas and New Year celebrations. In Shetland it was traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake over the head of a new bride on the threshold of her new home! Although shortbread fingers and petticoat tails are the most common baking shapes, Walker's Shortbread, one of the most easily recognizable brands, sometimes creates special edition shapes, such as camels!

Switzerland is particularly renowned for its chocolate, especially its milk chocolate. In 1875, a Swiss confectioner, Daniel Peter, developed the first solid milk chocolate using condensed milk, which had been invented by Henri Nestlé, who was Peter's neighbour in Vevey. A few years after in 1879, Rodolphe Lindt perfected the conching machine (a special chocolate polisher, mixer and agitator which improves the quality, texture, and flavor) after a happy accident which left one of his mixing machine on overnight, yielding a flavorful smooth mixture which ultimately allowed chocolate to be utilized in confectionery, rather than just as a gritty hot beverage flavouring. Prior to that, the gritty solid chocolate was not popular!

The island of Foula, part of the Shetland archipelago of islands, is one of the United Kingdom’s most remote permanently inhabited islands and named from the Old Norse Fugla-ey, meaning "Bird island." Seabirds and moorland birds, including 'Bonxies' – the Shetland dialect name for the Great Skua – as well as Puffins, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Arctic terns, red-throated divers, Fulmars, amongst others, inhabit the sandstone cliffs and open moorland. Foula remained on the Julian calendar when the rest of the Kingdom of Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, keeping 1800 as a leap year, but not observing leap year in 1900. As a result, Foula is now one day ahead of the Julian calendar and 12 days behind the Gregorian, observing Christmas Day on the 6th of January and New Year's Day on the 13th! The traditional fishing grounds for fishermen from the isle of Papa Stour (lying roughly a mile off the west coast of Shetland) lay way off into the Atlantic. The fishermen would row west to the point where the cliffs of Foula would disappear into the horizon . This was "Rowing Foula down." 🦅 🦆 🐦

Do you know the muffin man? Surely you know a lady famous for her delicious muffins! Interestingly, the first documented version of the well-known nursery rhyme from 1820 has the titular baker living on ‘Blueberry Lane’, rather than 'Drury Lane'. There is also an actual Blueberry Lane just outside of London. While in the United States muffins are similar to cupcakes and are available in sweet and savoury varieties, in the UK, a muffin (referred to as an English muffin elsewhere) is a type of yeast-leavened bread and is cooked on a griddle and flipped, resulting in its distinctive flattened shape. Other muffin-like variations are crumpets (griddle cooked on one side from a simple batter but with no yeast) are equally delicious and join the group of tea-time treats whose names also figure prominently as terms of endearment or even cheeky admiration! Pass the butter! 🧈

Do you dunk your doughnuts? Doughnuts have a disputed origin with several countries as claimants for being the first to develop this delicious treat. One of the earliest known recorded usage of the term in literature dates to American author Washington Irving's "History of New York" in which he described "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks." By the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair - which was billed as "A Century of Progress" - doughnuts, now with the characteristic hole, were given the lofty title of "Hit Food of the Century of Progress," because they were fresh and the automated machines made them quickly. The cheaply produced doughnuts became a staple of the working class during the Depression. 🍩

Shortbread originated in Scotland, with the first printed recipe appearing in 1736, from a Scotswoman named Mrs. McLintock. Shortbread was so popular, early Scottish bakers fought to prevent shortbread from being classified as a biscuit to avoid paying a government biscuit tax! Do you have a family or favourite shortbread recipe with just the right proportions of butter, sugar, and flour (and maybe some salt to enhance the flavour)? Or maybe you fancy the occasional addition of chai, rosemary, lemon, or chocolate - flavours compatible with a sweet biscuit. Some recent shortbread trends may not be for everyone. One trendy addition is adding the flavour of Katsuobushi, a smoked, aged and dried skipjack tuna, which gives an unusual umami character! Hmmm ... you have to draw a line in the flour somewhere. Although we have not found the namesake recipe referenced by the dance, included are traditional regional variations such as: Pitcaithly Bannock (almonds, caraway seeds, crystallized orange) and Yetholm Bannock (chopped ginger)! 🧈

Double, double, truffle, truffle! If one chocolate truffle is fine, two are doubly delicious! And why not make one of those a mint chocolate! Chocolate truffles were invented in France in the late 19th century, and named for their resemblance to the dark and rumpled prized mushrooms which often grow at the roots of oaks and hazel trees! Created from balls of chocolate ganache and often flavored with liqueurs, fruits, nuts, or spices, a classic truffles is then dusted with cocoa to make a perfect bite. Today's truffles vary with region and country for signature tastes. Besides the classic and elegant French truffle, Swiss truffles often use milk chocolate, while Italian truffles often emphasize hazelnut paste or crushed hazelnuts. Belgian Truffles are known for their smooth and velvety ganaches, while American Truffles are styled with peanut butter, caramel, fruit flavors, and are coated in a thicker layer of chocolate with special toppings. But the pairing of bittersweet of chocolate with cooling mint is a chocolatier's favourite! Though it is not known whether this smooth strathspey was inspired by the making or eating of mint truffles (perhaps both), the reels and promenades should lead you right to the refreshment table, where a delicious truffle may await! 🍫 🌱

Regardless of shape, Scottish shortbread starts with just four ingredients: butter, salt, sugar, and flour. Intrepid bakers and top chefs have added modern touches such as browning the butter; toasting the sugar; adding cornstarch; and coating the baking pan with a generous layer of Demerara sugar to give the shortbread a nice granular topping. But for traditional and regional shortbread variations, try a recipe for Pitcaithly Bannock (made with almonds, caraway seeds, and crystallized orange) or Yetholm Bannock (which includes chopped ginger)! Yum!

Fancy a cuppa? How times have changed! While a tea break is now considered an essential pick-me-up for morning or afternoon refreshment or a genteel ceremony with delicate sandwiches and pastries as accompaniments, in early 19th century Britain and Ireland, poor women who drank tea were considered as irresponsible and morally debased as whisky or gin drinkers! Women who drank tea, it was said, wasted their time and money, drawing them away from their duty to care for their husbands and home. Good heavens!
Pamphlets were even distributed to working and middle-class households lambasting tea drinking as a luxury poor women could not afford with dire warnings about possible addiction, illicit longings and even revolutionary sympathies! Throw caution to the wind, ladies! It's tea time! 🍵

Fireflies or "Lightning Bugs" (which are actually beetles) produce their fascinating flashes of light through a cold chemical reaction known as bioluminescence in order to communicate with each other and to attract mates. In some species, even the larvae and eggs of these beetles emit light! Though each species has its own unique flashing pattern, there are two places in the world have synchronous flashing where the fireflies flash in unison - southeast Asia and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Most fireflies flash a light which ranges from a red color to yellow or a green, but for two to four weeks a year, "Blue Ghost" fireflies make an appearance around Asheville, North Carolina! Their bluish light is actually a shade of green but is perceived as blue as part of the dark adaptation of eyes to shift toward the blue end of the color spectrum at low illumination!
Flash! Flash! 🐞💙👀