The great Scottish poet Robert “Rabbie” Burns passed away 225 years now, but he remains the National Bard of Caledonia, and his birthday – 25 January – continues to provide a fine pretext for feasting. As it happens, this year’s Burns Night falls during a festive promotion of Scottish produce at Spinneys, where you can readily stock up on everything you need for a Burns Supper.
Expats from Glasgow, Aberdeen, or Burns’s own native Ayrshire countryside may want to have a kilted herald the arrival of the haggis, followed by Burns’ famous poetical address to that signature, “warm-reekin’” pudding. Traditionally made from a “pluck” of sheep’s innards mixed with onions, oatmeal, and spices, it’s just as often replicated in halal and vegan variations these days (try the kind made by Macsweens).
It’s also fair to say that Scottish cuisine has plenty more to offer, not least some of the world’s finest salmon. You can also fill out your supper table with soups, snacks and drinks from longstanding, family-owned brand names that are almost as synonymous with Burns’ homeland as the man himself.
Seared Scottish salmon with roasted potatoes and a rocket, orange and fennel salad
SAVOURY
There’s always a soup course on Burns Night. It’s usually a classic cullen skink loaded with haddock and potatoes, and canned food specialists Baxter’s have a superb house recipe in their Chef Selection range. You’ll be needing your oats for a properly Scottish menu, too. Consider Nairn’s famous oatcakes as a prime addition to the cheeseboard, while wholesome eco-brand Stoat’s supply well-balanced oat-based snack bars and porridge pots.
And what’s a Burns Night without ‘tatties’? Take a look at Albert Bartlett chips and fries to add to your celebrations. Don’t forget to stock up on bread, and, if you’re avoiding gluten, Genius’ range of gut-loving bread is the option for you. Get extra veggies in while you’re at it, but in a fun format, with Mackies at Taypack’s Wholesums crisps made with carrots, peas and potatoes. To round it off, use Supernature’s rapeseed oil for any cooking and baking.
SWEET
Residents of Western Scotland tend to be acutely sweet-toothed and generations have been raised on the products of Lanarkshire-based confectioners Tunnocks. Even the vintage-style colours and lettering on the foil wrappers of their caramel wafers and mallow-filled teacakes have become part of Scottish national identity and the taste itself brings a nostalgic sugar rush that may even work on the uninitiated. Crunchy, dusty shortbread is a somewhat more classical baked treat, though no less iconic, especially as rendered in the lovingly familiar tartan boxes of the Walkers brand, established in 1898. Or, Chocolate & Love’s range of Fairtrade, organic chocolate, has a range of flavours for everyone – from milk to dark to mint and orange.
BEVERAGES
“Made in Scotland from girders,” claimed a defining advertising slogan of Irn-Bru, the canonical national soft drink from landmark manufacturers AG Barr. Despite the livid industrial-metal sunset colour, it’s actually made from fizzy water with a range of flavourings that give it a kind of bubble-gum tang. Even Scots who don’t like Irn-Bru are inclined to defend it as a plucky local challenger to much bigger international “soda” brands, while preferring healthier alternatives like the alkaline-rich ionised water now bottled by Actiph. There’s a tasty substitute for another of the country’s legacy products now too, in the form of zero-alcohol whisky Glen Dochus, made with Deeside spring water by Spirits of Virtue.
FROM THE SEA
Good salmon can be fished and farmed everywhere from Alaska to Australia, but the Atlantic variety found in Scotland has a particular fairy-tale glamour to it, borne out by its global popularity as an export. Our SpinneysFOOD fish range includes premium whole fish and fillets, both fresh and smoked, while the pioneering Meatsnacks company ship their own brand of chewy salmon jerky from a dedicated factory in the Highland town of Grantown-On-Spey. Highland Bay Seafood’s salmon fillets are topped with seaweed butter, which makes them particularly decadent. Mussels have also been a key element of the Scottish diet for an estimated 20,000 years and Waitrose selects the plumpest, rope-grown specimens for sale through Spinneys, too.
