Serving up a tasty dish.

Brose is one of those peasant dishes that we have pretty much lost. That is likely because it is not easily turned into mass market food, like both curry and pizza have been. It was one of the foods of the general population in Scotland at the end of the 18th century, at a time when most people still worked the land throughout these islands. Hence ‘peasant food’.

This Burns Night book falls into three parts: there is a general introduction dealing with the concept of peasant foods, with reference to such dishes in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales; the second part gives the context for Kathy and I fixing brose for a motley crew when staying at the old Inn at Rosslyn, and includes the story of the time Burns breakfasted there with the painter of that famous portrait, Alexander Nasmyth. The booklet concludes with the story of one of the five mentions of brose in Burns’ songs and poems, the bawdy song Brose and Butter, one rude enough to be left out of general collections until it was examined in 1965.

In passing the book includes three recipes for brose, his extempore verse to the landlady at the Rosslyn Inn, and as a tipped-in broadsheet the full text of Brose and Butter, a culinary amusement as well as a still uncommon piece Burns writing.