THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD

St Andrew’s Day is on 30 November, and he is most famously patron saint of Scotland. The first disciple of Jesus, Andrew was a Galilean fisherman. Thanks to his piscatorial persuasion, he is the guardian angel of fishermen and fishmongers. This has led to the tradition that a St Andrew’s Day feast should include a dish of Cullen skink.

Authentic Cullen skink, named after the Morayshire fishing village of Cullen, is a thick soup made with ‘finnan haddie’ (undyed smoked haddock), potatoes, onions and milk. While this warming broth is a culinary focal point for celebrations, man cannot live on skink alone. Additional dishes of haggis, neeps and tatties, and Scotch beef are considered essential. Plentiful supplies of beer and whisky are also de rigueur, making for a somewhat bacchanalian saintly blowout. It is of little surprise that St Andrew is also the patron saint of singers and gout-sufferers.