Figgy & Plum Pudding Day
Dec 7
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"Clootie, yir no snooty
Yir no fussy how ye
Turn oot fur the party.
Birthday spree, Christmas tea"
~ To A Clootie, Mary Spence, 2015
A "Clootie/Cloutie Dumpling" is the Scottish version of a Christmas pudding. Firstly and most importantly, it is a pudding boiled in a "clout," a cloth. The tradition comes from the days before people had ovens and so cooked much of their food by boiling ingredients in huge pots. Although flour, suet, dried fruit and spices always feature, regional variations, like the addition of treacle, feature in Fife and other areas. And like all traditional puddings, clootie dumplings come with their own set of traditions. When it's being made everyone in the household should give it a good skelp – or smack – to make sure it has a nice round shape! Serve with custard. 🎄 🥮
Archie's Clootie Dumpling
A "Clootie/Cloutie Dumpling" is the Scottish version of a Christmas pudding. Firstly and most importantly, it is a pudding boiled in a "clout," a cloth. Secondly, in a similar manner to a plum pudding, the pudding is covered with a skin formed by the flour placed on the cloth to water-proof the mixture. When dried off in an oven or in front of a fire the appearance of the pudding is that of a shiny great chestnut.
The traditional recipe, for "Cloutie Dumpling" captured by F. Marian MacNeill in "The Scots Kitchen" (1929), is:
Oatmeal or flour or a mixture (six ounces total), suet (three ounces), sugar (three ounces), sultanas or currants or a mixture (four ounces total), cinnamon or mixed spices (one teaspoon), bicarbonate of soda (1/2 teaspoon). Enough buttermilk or sour milk to make a soft batter.
The addition of bicarbonate of soda is a recent addition which makes the pudding lighter. Most authorities suggest the cloutie dumpling is a derived from a form of sweet haggis.
Cumberland even had a version of sweet haggis (called a "hackin"), boiled in a calf stomach, traditionally eaten on during Scotland's "Daft Days" (winter solstice celebrations).
Although flour, suet, dried fruit and spices always feature, regional variations, like the addition of treacle, feature in Fife and other areas. Like all traditional puddings, clootie dumplings come with their own set of traditions. When it's being made everyone should give it a good skelp – or smack – to make sure it has a nice round shape!
The recipe for "Archie's" version is not known at this time.
But for a modern version of this pudding using black treacle, click the Clootie Pudding below.
And for Clootie Dumpling poetry, we have this winning entry "To A Clootie" from Mary Spence from 2015:
Clootie, yir no snooty
Yir no fussy how ye
Turn oot fur the party.
Birthday spree, Christmas tea
Clad in the latest auld pillow case
A bosom pal
Wi strings attached.
Shoogle yir pot lid in a
Lobster-like escape bid
Steam up the hoose wi a
Reek like lovers’ sheets.
Suet yersel!
But yir no dumpling wi
Yir aroma diploma.
Couried in yir blanket
A self-sufficient banquet
Yiv always got cloot, yir a weighty dark matter
A gift for Salome, wee heid-on-a-platter.
Working class cousin of posh Christmas pudding –
A tutti frutti, baw-shaped, fur-coated, carrot cake
A daud ah nostalgia on a plate.
Tease aff yir clartie sark
Yir a Faberge work of art
A Burlesque celebration
A Ruebenesque sensation
A fleshy temptation. . .
Get oot thi way Rabbie!
Hot clootie is cool
Great chieftain o’ the racey puddins rules.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
