Cate Devine

I would argue it was the introduction of being served at table that delivered a first taste of the modern food culture.

AMONG the many priceless nuggets of information about how we used to eat, on show at the National Library of Scotland’s exhibition spanning 400 years of food and drink in Scotland, is a set of exquisite late 17th century table plans for the patriotic household of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, East Lothian.

These take the form of hand-drawn overlapping circles to indicate the shape of dishes or ashets; inside each circle is a written description of which foods were to be in each, spelled as they were at the time. Some circles are larger, to show they contained meat or chicken; the smaller ones contained vegetables (though the absence of potatoes is striking).

One table plan is headed Supper. A central dish of lobsters is surrounded by sage supe; scots collops ragou’d; boyled chickens and lemon sauce; ragou’d sweetbreads; rost fouls; green pease; almond custard and rhubarb. Another large supper of 11 dishes contain the additions of 2 piggs or chickens rost; green goose or duckling rost; artichokes; a hot flan of chickens and spinach; plum pudding boyld or bakd & a fricasee of lamb; ragout of chanterells, morels and truffles; sirloyn of beef, sadle of mutton & rost beef.

Presumably they were written by the lady of the house for the kitchen staff to follow.

Class divisions notwithstanding, they show that daily consumption of an astonishing variety of home-grown produce was the norm, at least for the wealthy who had the room to grow their own and the wherewithal to purchase meat and sugar, even pay a French cook; hence the constant references to the ragouts and fricassees so unfavoured by Robert Burns when compared to good old haggis.

The kitchen staff would have eaten well from leftovers; the rural poor also had access to nutritious local food. Apart from what they ate, though, I was particularly taken by the evidenced habit of communal eating. All the dishes were put out at the same time, and the well-to-do family members and guests would help themselves from the large central dining table.

Being served individually by servants hadn’t yet become the norm as it was in Edwardian England as seen in the TV series Downton Abbey.

A couple of centuries or so before that, conviviality was the order of the day. Eating this way encouraged discussion and a heightened appreciation of food.

This emphasises the fact the Scots once had a healthy connection with, and interest in, the food in front of them. I’d argue it was the introduction of being served at table that delivered a first taste of the modern food culture, where too many people today don’t know or don’t care where their food comes from.

All is not lost, though. Old-fashioned conviviality – the sharing and discussion of food – resonates with the ethos of the modern Slow Food movement, which has recently seen its membership increase in Scotland. “Big Table” dinners are a feature of Scottish food festivals. And sharing plates are now de rigueur on the most progressive restaurant menus.

Another reminder that to get to the future we must look to the past.

‘‘ I’d argue it was the introduction of being served at table that delivered a first taste of the modern food culture