Bannock or Scone? It’s all Scots to Me. (2024)

FAQs

Bannock or Scone? It’s all Scots to Me.? ›

According to Cameron, a bannock was the whole circular quick bread or cake, while a scone was the individual piece cut, like a pie slice, from a bannock. It dawned on me that this old distinction is reflected in the way my Scottish mother-in-law made her cheese scones. From my mother-in-law's recipe collection.

The name Bannock seems to originate from the Old Celtic English “bannuc”, derived from the Latin “panicium” for “bread” or meaning “anything baked”. Made simply from oatmeal and flour, the first citing of a bannock or bannuc recipe in Scotland was in the 8th Century.

Although the Scottish word “skonn” can be traced as an original term, another earlier etamology can be traced from the Middle English “schoonbrot” meaning “round cake”. Oddly, in Scotland, a scone is called a bannock. This can be confusing because in Ireland, the word “bannock” refers to a flat round loaf of bread.

In Scotland and Ulster, savoury varieties of scone include soda scones, also known as soda farls, sour dough scones known as soor dook scones made with sour milk, and potato scones, normally known as tattie scones, which resemble small, thin savoury pancakes made with potato flour.

Scones are thought to have originated in Scotland in the early 1500s and the first known print reference was made by a Scottish poet in 1513.

It is conventionally believed that Scottish fur traders called Selkirk settlers introduced bannock to the Indigenous peoples of North America during the 18th and 19th centuries. (See also Fur Trade in Canada.) The Scots cooked it in a griddle called a bannock stone, which they placed on the floor before a fire.

In 1965, the historian A.J.P. Taylor wrote in his Preface to English History 1914–1945: "Some inhabitants of Scotland now call themselves Scots and their affairs Scottish. They are entitled to do so. The English word for both is Scotch, just as we call les français the French and Deutschland Germany.

Biscuits and scones have the same British ancestor, but the early Southern colonists' version included butter, lard, buttermilk, and soft wheat, plentiful in the South. Over time, this fluffy and layered bread evolved into a regional commodity: the Southern biscuit.

In the west of Scotland we normally just say 'poor wee soul' – which is universal really so nothing very interesting about that and 'poor wee scone' is just a more striking way of expressing the same sentiment. Sometimes scone is used as a term of endearment in the way that 'hen' is used.

A Biscuit (U.S.) Is a Scone (U.K.)

Both baked goodies use flour, fat, liquid and a leavening agent. The main differences are that scones tend to have less butter (because you'll add butter to it when you eating it — or else, clotted cream or jam) while American biscuits tend to have more butter and light layers.

What does scone mean in slang? ›

noun. skɒnskəʊn a light plain doughy cake made from flour with very little fat, cooked in an oven or (esp originally) on a griddle, usually split open and buttered. skɒn a slang word for head.

with jam & clotted cream & they've become one of the. most popular British bakes in history.

bannock, flat, sometimes unleavened bread eaten primarily in Scotland. It is most commonly made of oats, though bannocks of barley, ground dried peas, and a combination of grains are sometimes encountered. Selkirk bannock is made from wheat flour and contains fruit.

Aberdeenshire Bannocks

To us, in this part of Aberdeenshire, a Bannock is essentially a pancake, scotch pancake or what some might call a drop scone. Across Scotland, Bannocks are other types of flat cakes. This is not a typical desert and is more often eaten at fly time (morning or afternoon coffee break!)

a Scot or dialect word for potato.

m' ulaidh ort! my darling/dear!