Hogmanay Shortbread from 1779

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LINKS TO SOURCES**
Cookery, and Pastry, as Taught and Practised by Mrs Maciver by Susanna Maciver: amzn.to/3EmSPcm
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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @ worldagainstjose
PHOTO CREDITS
Shortbread fingers: Dave Souza - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Black Bun: IMBJR, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
MUSIC CREDIT
Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
#tastinghistory #hogmanay #shortbread

[@celestesharratt3611]

Hi Max! I live in Scotland and I think Mrs. MacIver is describing making petticoat tails before the fancy moulds cake about. The cuts are made in a giant oval like you’d cut a pizza but not all the way through. Then the edges are ‘plaited’ like you’d make crimped edges on a pie. That’s how all the grannies taught me to make shortbread. 😘💕

[@TastingHistory]

That would explain it!

[@Getpojke]

You beat me to it, I always assumed that the "plaited" was just the crimped edges too.

[@michellehanson984]

As soon as he showed the picture of petticoat tails I wondered if that was what she meant. Very neat!

[@scotiadrake4245]

Pretty much what I was going to post and the way I still make my shortbread.

[@Bergkatse2]

I just wrote the same thing! Beat me too it.

[@everett6072]

I never get tired of the hardtack cut-away. Laugh every time.

[@SekritJay]

CLACK CLACK

[@Blufuzzyhat]

This and then anticipation of pokemon choice.

[@Keeperoffyre]

best running gag!

[@valvadis2360]

Every single time

[@NB-qo4ds]

I loved that almost scared look as Max contemplated using the hard tack in a recipe next year.

[@dragonflyfirefly9465]

I love every time he said hardtack he always shows that clip when he just hits two hardtacks together. Please never stop doing this because it always makes me laugh 😆

[@carolynholody9281]

Me too!😆😆🤣🤣

[@bonnie_gail]

At 15, I learned to make Scottish Shortbread (only three ingredients) from my Canadian/Scottish grandmother, who got it from her mother from Scotland who got it from two previous generations. I am 70 now, have been making it since I was 15 and it is now a family tradition, passed on to my daughters.

[@richane22]

What lucky girls your daughter’s are! I’d love to have your recipe. 😊

[@ltkell2028]

I love these family traditions & have myself passed down several things that date back generations. I'm half Scottish & half French & it was my Scottish grandma who started teaching me to cook at 8. I'm now 57 & 1 of my grandma's recipes from her family dates back over 200 yrs (apple rolls). She made it only at Thanksgiving & Christmas & none of us could stay out of it b4 dessert!! You could always see a spoonful missing 1 from everyone taking a taste as soon as she set it down! She didn't have the recipe written down but bc I had a passion for cooking even though I was the youngest, (& was my grandma's favorite) she took me in the kitchen & taught me how to make it, no measuring all by eye, feel & taste. I adored my grandma, she is my guardian angel. I make it as she did, only at the holidays & as I make it I think of her! Bringing tears now as I type & have missed her so so much since I lost her at 17. Can't wait to see again!! It's so important that we impart these things on our families, sharing the memories, values while we're making new ones as we share together our "family traditions"!!

[@midora588]

Mrs MacIver sounds like someone who can cook anything with just an army knife.

[@TastingHistory]

🤣

[@Great_Olaf5]

One might almost say she could... MacGyver food?

[@milliehaagen7526]

I have a friend who says the only way to eat fruit is with a jack knife and I believe her.

[@Roguefem76]

Good to know I wasn't the only one who made that connection, lol! Gen-X represent. xD

[@lairdcummings9092]

@@milliehaagen7526 she's got a jack knife; you'd best not be arguing with her! 😲

[@fedra76it]

Your second book might be: "101 ways to use hardtack in cooking, building and self defense". I do suppose it might be handy as an improper weapon, too :)

[@gpweaver]

It's Dwarf Bread.

[@tarmaque]

@@gpweaver Came here to say the same. A man can march hundreds of miles with Dwarf Bread in his pack. GNU Terry Pratchett!

[@MsLeenite]

@@tarmaque If necessary, he can make sandals out of the Dwarf Bread and march another hundred.

[@MsLeenite]

Food-as-weapon: My great-grandmother's matzoh balls were so hard, dense and hefty, we joked that she used to throw them at the rioters during pogroms.

[@tarmaque]

@@MsLeenite Or flung like a discus to take out the enemy. Rumor has it that particularly special loaves could be placed on a prisoner's chest to detain him, much like Thor's Hammer Mjöllnir.

[@davidengkent7756]

"It's like eating glue, but in a good way" is one of the best reviews of a recipe yet

[@darrianweathington1923]

Happy Ralph noises

[@hazelhatswell4268]

Traditionally eaten with a glass of whisky on the side! To make it ‘shorter’ try adding fine semolina (550g flour + 50g semolina). My grandmother from the Highlands taught me that! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@Warhammered]

Remember this when making the year-old hardtack recipe: Always choose the lesser of two weevils.

[@RebeGrrrl]

Master and commander! 😆

[@PorterWood09]

If bread had a lower tax, it may have been stipulated that the item MUST have yeast to qualify for the lower tax. So, they added it although it had little effect on the shortbread. But, it qualified it as a "bread" and therefore taxed lower. Makes sense, but it may not have been that at all...

[@joannakennedy6005]

Yes you're correct, bread was the staple in those times, so they used brewers yeast. However, they used other ingredients to enhance the flavours, but it still was classed as bread, so they wouldn't be taxed.

[@halu959986]

I love how loopholes created tasty treats; JaffaCakes here in the UK will likely be my favourite though

[@davidsain2129]

@@halu959986 what are Jaffa cakes?

[@halu959986]

@@davidsain2129 a confectionery in the UK; sponge disc with a layer of orange jelly, all covered in chocolate. But the reason it's sponge is because cakes weren't taxed whereas biscuits were. So much so that they used to be more biscuit like and had to change their recipe if they wanted to be considered cakes. (They are effectively biscuits though, they're sold in the biscuits aisle, are the right size for a biscuit and are often bought to accompany tea)

[@SeraphimCramer]

@@halu959986 I had Jaffa cakes for the first time recently, & I'd definitely say the texture is much more reminiscent of a cake than a cookie (biscuit). More dry than a typical cake, but far too fluffy to be called a cookie (biscuit) in my opinion.

[@ohariana3150]

The hard tack bit is pure comedy and will never get old 👏👏

[@SPLuvr]

Much like the hardtack itself lmao

[@Barbie4U2]

How many videos has it appeared in?

[@jackori6685]

And neither will the hardtack.

[@iselldreams]

Hi Max, As a Scottish Highlander, this video is interesting thank you for posting. We still do Black buns for the bells (midnight on new year) although not really for eating we use it to keep the front door open for first footers. We eat clootie dumpling now it's like a fruit cake that's boiled in a pillowcase. I hope 2022 is good craíc for you, we will have a dram for you. Cheers.

[@NeilCWCampbell]

I miss first footing down south:(

[@jrmckim]

I recently found out that my paternal grandfather is from the highlands. He went on to marry a Choctaw/Cherokee woman in 1935 when interracial marriage was illegal. They went on to have 6 kids together. She died 25 years later from brain cancer and he took care of her the entire time. He never remarried and died in 1987, a year before I was born. He was an amazing man and dedicated to his family.

[@mackeffect6943]

Don't know if you've found this out yet or not, but the folds at the side of a kilt are also known as "plaits" and in the recipe, it means to basically make little folds or make it look almost like a kilt. I remember my gran mentioning it while making shortbread at Christmas when I was a child.

[@jessehachey2732]

They’re pleats, actually. Professional pipe band player here, been wearing kilts since I was 12…and military…

[@mackeffect6943]

@@jessehachey2732 and I'm Scottish. I've always seen it spelled plaits but it's pronounced like pleats 🤷‍♂️

[@pogowilson3758]

I think she means means Pleating which I would take as crimping in modern lingo, as Plait in Scots refers to how a kilt is Pleated at the back. Other than that HAPPY HOGMANAY!

[@hh8384]

I agree, pleats are folds in eg a skirt

[@katherinewilson1853]

plaiting=braiding :)

[@danihesslinger7968]

In the little northern German village I used to live in, we had a very drunken kind of "first footing" for New Year: around lunch time (give people some sleep after New Year's Eve), a neighbor would come to your door with a bottle of grain brandy, you had a drink together, then all moved on to another neighbor (with more bottles), until in late afternoon whole crowds stormed your living room (depending on which end of the street you lived), and half the village was fairly drunk... 😃

[@ErinBujalski]

This, is freakin awesome.

[@sinisterthoughts2896]

That sounds fun.

[@KelseyDrummer]

Sign me up!

[@taraturnerwilliams7617]

I've totally fallen in love with this channel and am driving my husband crazy with random historical cooking information. I am binge watching all of these Amazing videos, that have combined some of my favorite things, cooking from scratch, and history!! I had no idea you existed, or that I needed this channel but Thank you Max!! 💓

[@dmckim3174]

I call it the Max effect.

[@jrmckim]

​@@dmckim3174mckim?? Our name isn't that common... especially with this spelling... can you tell me where you are from?

[@elizabethfortunato3371]

My grandfather who was from Ayr. He gave my mom a recipe that from his mother. The recipe called called for the dough to shaped into a rectangle before being cut into plaits and docked. When I make the recipe, I use a high quality European style butter, preferably from grass fed cows. It makes a huge difference in the final shortbread.

[@rubenpriority725]

Return of the hard tack clip! Still makes me smile every time.

[@KougajiCalling]

I get the click-clack in my head any time someone mentions hardtack... Which happens more often than one would think in my life...

[@gozerthegozarian9500]

*And* Max has now promised us a sequel to the hard tack episode! What will the title be? Hard Tack Returns? The Hard Tack Strikes Back? 2 Hard 2 Tack?

[@tomf3150]

@@gozerthegozarian9500 Hardertack.

[@janach1305]

Hardtack Circles the Globe…Again!

[@Society2]

I don't always see what's going on because I often listen in the background but when I hear the clack clack i have to rewind and watch it. Max's concerned smile/silent scream face is so great.

[@caraamor]

Lovely episode! My mother was born in the year 1920 and raised in Edinburgh. She would reminisce that as a child, her father (my grandfather), who was tall and dark-haired, was much in demand during Hogmanay. He would set out to visit all their friends and acquaintances that evening to be their 'first-footer' and was most certainly considered the best of luck!

[@OrlaQuirk]

I had always heard a tall, dark-haired man was the lucky first-footer for a home. Thanks for sharing that. I don't know any Gaelic, so Happy New Year.

[@TheQuestingBeastSpotted]

My dad is similar- dark hair! I, meanwhile, have too red hair and am asked specifically to NOT enter a house until someone else does lol

[@doubtful_seer]

Yeah, I live in the US, but we have a lot of old world superstitions in my family on my grandmother’s side. She was extremely particular about them too. The first person through the door HAD to be a man with, like said, dark hair and a dark complexion. She went so far as to push my mom or I out of the door if we dared try to step in first. lol We also have things like no linens washed in the first seven days, eat 12 grapes as the clock strikes midnight, all sorts of things. Now that the family is just my mom and I we can’t really keep up a lot of the traditions, but we do the ones we can. No men in our lives though, so we just don’t have anyone come in on the first day of the year. lol

[@doubtful_seer]

@@nodruj8681 and my family had Romani, Native American, and several other races added in, so whatever the "original" was, ours had dark complexion as part of the tradition. Not to mention that traditions can vary from region to region, town to town, family to family. There’s a January Christmas tradition celebrated in the Outer Banks of NC that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else in America, but comes from the old world.

[@doubtful_seer]

@@nodruj8681 plus, her first footer tradition came from her Irish side, not Scottish. And black Irish at that.

[@misslauren881]

I SCREAMED!!! I'm a McVicar, and MacIver is one of several alternative spellings (because almost every name from those days has many multiple spellings, like Hogmany). If I'm not related to her I'm at least from the same clan. It's not a super common name so I was pleasantly surprised.

[@misslauren881]

And we have an old Scottish Shortbread cookie recipe that was passed to my grandmother (born 1910) from her best friend's father, Willie Matheson, who had a Scottish bakery in my city 100ish years ago. His recipe was pretty much 1/3 sugar, 1/3 butter, and 1/3 flour (and a little of the flour is rice flour, which adds a nice texture).

[@ethanreynolds4942]

I seriously cant get over how much effort, talent, research and personality you put into each one of your videos. Max, thank you for all of your wonderful content.

[@gothmamasylvia462]

I think I have solved the issue of 'plait.' It can mean braiding, or pleating. I think the author of the book was talking about putting a decorative edge around the shortbread, much like pinching the edge on a pie crust, or using a fork to put a decorative trim on the edge. A lot of commercially made shortbread has a decorative trim such as a fork might make, and it looks pleated. I think that is what dear Mrs. MacIver was talking about.

[@mmurray821]

I made hardtack and about a year later added it to a beef stew as per the Townsend video for thickener just to see what would happen. I smashed it with a hammer in a bag and the small crumbs did disintegrate and thickened the stew. The larger pieces, did not but did take on a dumpling texture. While it wasn't bad and pretty tasty, I would go with the normal thickeners we have today. In a camping or survival situation, it is an excellent thing to have on hand and use to thicken things. To this day I still have hardtack with my backup/emergency food supply. I just put it in a food save vacuum bag and it lasts forever and is waterproof.

[@a.katherinesuetterlin3028]

**Survivalist Kat takes notes**

[@Cara-39]

Does hardtack even need to be kept in vacuum bag to last forever and be waterproof?? 🤣

[@aryahavinfun5682]

@@Cara-39 Yes, you don't want it to get bugs in it.

[@mwater_moon2865]

@@Cara-39 NEED to? not if you want the weevils for extra protein ;) but hard tack can get too moist from the air in some areas, being from the South(ern US) myself I can attest that in soup weather (throw up a packet of Lipton, hold out bowl for soup as it comes down) can make ANYthing mold. Including but not limited to: rolls of paper, both towel and toilet. Walls- the dry wall AND the paint. Wood. Oil. Plastic. And any other surface that doesn't have direct sunlight on it for at least 4 hours daily.

[@ochervelvet9687]

A possibility for the “plaiting:” It could be Mrs. MacIver’s version of petticoat tails. If you roll out the dough in a big circle, then cut slits all the way around, you could braid those slits, sideways, to follow the edge of the circle. I think. (Maybe that only makes sense in my head.)

[@a.katherinesuetterlin3028]

That actually does make sense! I could see it in my mind as you were describing it. 😁

[@januarysson5633]

That would make it look somewhat like the sun disc shaped cakes of pagan times so it might have been a holdover from ancient times.

[@shannonrobinson262]

There is a cookie from India that is flour, melted ghee and powdered sugar. Seasoned with ground cardamom then baked. They are so yummy. It’s amazing how similar or even the same ingredients put together differently can end up so different.

[@tees5983]

Considering how long the UK colonized India, I’m not surprised there is some crossover.

[@1825Poetica]

The moment Max started talking about petticoats I started dreaming about his collar with Bernadette Banner or any other historical costuber. Is it just me or are they the same fandom? At least a little?

[@hinachansansensei]

Same energy as the crossover between Bernadette and our lady Hildegard von Blingin'! That's the vibes I get at least.

[@AngelavengerL]

i'm definitely a fan of both!

[@KelseyDrummer]

Oh indeed. Bernadette has educated me quite extensively on petticoats.

[@shmataboro8634]

Oh yes, Bernadette, absolute fan crossover 💓

[@helenbryant6540]

Defo!

[@patriciaanderson8556]

My family is Scottish by heritage, and have kept a couple of the traditions alive for the past 200 years. One of those is the shape or the way that you present the shortbread. My grandmother taught us how to roll or "plait" the edges of the shortbread prior to baking so that it looked "ready for company". For lack of a better description, you just thin the edges out and roll them from the initial cut through the brick of short bread to the next cut, then take up from there until all the outside edges are rolled up in an edging. I do the same when making pasties to keep the filling from leaking out. I think the ovals they are talking about are much bigger than what you've made. My Grandmother and great grandmother made their's rather large, about a quarter of the dough, and then when scoring it, for easier breaking later, they would start the plaiting at the edge of one of the cuts and go around the edge, all the way back to the original start. I am teaching my granddaughters how to do it, but it's getting a lot harder to find anyone willing to take the time. The amount of butter seems to take it out of favor with the majority of the posterity these days.

[@a.katherinesuetterlin3028]

Not me -- give me butter over vegetable shortening or margarine any day! Especially when you consider that such things are so processed, to where it's a mere molecule away from being plastic. Ugh! That's so *not* soul food. And to me, anything from my ancestors is soul food!

[@sallybruska1499]

My ex-husband's family have a cookie recipe that has butter, cream cheese among other good ingredients. He always complained I didn't make it often enough. I told him once a year was enough because his family had a lot of heart problems among other things. He still grumbled but he really loved them once a year.

[@stlvn6363]

I’m Scottish and no one has showed me that, I’m very impressed. We just get the shortbread out the shops!

[@taracampbell2433]

I would love to see photos or a video of how that's done! I make a lot of shortbread by popular request and I'd love to learn how to add such a traditional flair to it!

[@embroideredragdoll]

Can you teach us how to make it?

[@lymdrenntelvanni8054]

I just had an Epiphany, why Sir Terry Pratchett called discworld's Santa Claus the Hogfather, and Christmas Hogswatch.

[@susanfarley1332]

I bet hardtack was in the dwarfs' arsenal of pastry and bread weaponry

[@devilshouseofkitsch]

Dwarf bread is the Platonic ideal of hardtack.

[@chaliceflower]

If I remember correctly, there's a song from the Temperance Movement with the words, "We never eat cookies because they have yeast, and one little bite turns a man into beast! O can you imagine a greater disgrace, than a man in the gutter with crumbs on his face!" Your episode is the first time I've ever heard of yeast being used in cookies. Thanks for clearing up a wee mystery!

[@MARY-pd1xt]

My family makes polish chrusciki and with those we make a diamond shape and cut a slice in the middle and then take the ends and gently pull them through the middle. This makes a lovely twisted appearance at both ends. Maybe this is what the author meant?

[@thespankmyfrank]

Sounds like our Swedish (and I'm assuming German etc) klenät! The shape is made in the exact same way.

[@ragnkja]

Something along those lines, yes. To get a proper plait, look up tutorials for braided leather bracelets.

[@GiselleMFeuillet]

I concur, it sounds like you cut a slit in the center and twist through it.

[@daringcow]

I was thinking the same!

[@jamesc1283]

I agree, from the directions I was picturing the way Challah is braided, and looking at pictures of the process it seems like this is what the author was describing?

[@gljm]

"Put on the skillet, put on the lid, Max is gonna cook some shortnin bread"

[@teyjahxaveriss6270]

Ha,ha,ha good one!

[@teyjahxaveriss6270]

Now I am Hearing that song in my head.

[@stephaniescarlett7887]

@@teyjahxaveriss6270 me too! oh Lawd! mammas lil baby loves shawtnin, shawtnin......

[@sapphoculloden5215]

I had to interrupt this video to go and find a rendition of the song. It turns out, my wife had never heard it, so that was a win.

[@JellicleKitten]

Your Scottish accent invokes Alan Young's Scrooge McDuck! When you were reading the part about "cookies and baiks" it made me think of him in Mickey's Christmas Carol talking about all the foods in the story. This really has nothing to do with shortbread; I just wanted to share that on this almost a year old video. Happy holidays!

[@TastingHistory]

Ha! I love that. Also, great user name : )

[@elisabethm9655]

Hmmm… petticoat tails. Might have nothing to do with ladies underwear. Men wore petite coats (vests) that had triangular tabs around the waist during the 16th to 18th centuries. 🧐

[@KKnits]

I had learned (Grandmother was Scot), the the plait was the decorative edge you make as for pastry. Either ruffles like a petticoat tail, or done with a fork. The “ovals are rounds cut into sections, like triangles, then the bottom is pinched into a ruffle or pressed with a fork. I’m thinking the boiled butter gave the shortbread a more toasted flavour. Very interesting tho!

[@mountainmolly2726]

I just made shortbread cookies last week. They're the most requested Christmas cookies in our house. I like to make "thumbprint" shortbread and add a bit of jam to them. They're so addictive and it's easy to get carried away simply because they aren't overly sweet. I really want to try braiding the dough now. I think it could work and would be so pretty.

[@Burning_Dwarf]

Reminds me of Fryske Dumpkes

[@LadyLightningstorm]

That's the kind I make, too.

[@l.m.2404]

My granny used to do as you described but also made the same one , rolled in crushed walnuts that she called, bird's nests. :)

[@SRPDunn]

adopt me?

[@ryan_conover]

@@l.m.2404 my family makes those every year for Christmas! My favorite

[@insulaarachnid]

Never would have imagined that an episode on shortbread would include calling Mary Queen of Scots the Beyoncé of Stuarts and also referencing Shaun of the Dead. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[@ivankumrokovski3003]

In Transylvania, we have a dessert called ciurighele. In the recipe, it is said that you must cut the flattened dough in rectangles and then you make a cut (an incision) in the middle of each piece. You finish them by taking one or two corners and you pass them through the incision resulting in a somehow braided appearance. Maybe this is similar to what Mrs Machiver was referring

[@drrd4127]

I am Scottish! I loved your old fashioned version of a scottish accent, it made me laugh 😂😂😂😀😁❤️🥰. I moved away from Scotlamd 20 years ago so I am not sure if people still follow that tradition, i am from the countryside though.

[@Konpekikaminari]

I love how a considerable portion of baked goods history can be summed up with "because english taxation"

[@stlvn6363]

Still an issue.

[@milliehaagen7526]

I love shortbread ❤ I snuck shortbread and lemon oolong tea into the theater when I saw Emma.

[@lorassorkin]

It's like eating glue...but in a good way. I snorted and laughed out loud. Fantastic episode Max!

[@KittensWithHelmets]

You made me nervous 😬 thinking they aren’t making shortbread any “longer” …. Nice one! 😂

[@yuu-kun3461]

Cut through the middle and plait it at the ends I think could be one of two things in my opinion, but not sure how well it would work with shortbread: - cut lengthwise most of the way so you get 2 strands connected at one end, then braid those - or, something my grandma used to do with donuts is to: make a cut/hole in the middle but not to the edge, then take one end and put it through the whole to create a lazy looking bow

[@ragnkja]

You can even keep it connected as both ends, and still braid it.

[@nicholeritchey1383]

Maybe a cut down the middle of the oval, but not through the ends? Then give the dough a twist so it looks like a plait.

[@jasonmorello1374]

One thing to help you on 1600 and before english documents would be to be in mind of the great vowel shift. For example, plait would have been pronounced pleat. This is the ripple, like you do with fingers or a fork.

[@purplealice]

If you "pleat" or crimp the edges of a circle of shortbread, the way you would finger-crimp the edge of a homemade pie crust, I think that's the effect they're looking for.

[@sanmateoca]

The first-foot story is interesting to me because growing up, this is similar to a New Year’s Day tradition among the southern black community. It was considered good luck for a male to be the first person to cross the threshold on New Years Day. Although not as well known as black-eyed peas and collard greens, this was an important part of our New Year’s eve and New Year’s day traditions. Unfortunately, this meant as a young male, at a time when most people would be going to sleep, I would have to go and visit nearby friends and family to be the first male across the threshold. Add to this the fact that this is the south, This tradition also involved eating at multiple homes.

[@AliG777]

We live in the south of England. One new years eve about 10 years ago my dark haired husband was asked to call on a Scottish family who lived near my cousin. They wanted good luck that year so they pre-arranged it with my cousin. The first-footer had to be a stranger to them, friends and family don't count. He also had to give them a piece of coal, and drink some of their whiskey. He was gone for ages! I love the old traditions.

[@mahenonz]

I live in a rather Scottish area of New Zealand, and apparently first-footing was quite popular in rural areas until recently. My aunt told a story about how it was basically a pub-crawl, you would drive from house to house and each one would provide you with drink. The household you ended up in at dawn was expected to provide their drunken guests with a full cooked breakfast! In 1960 they had a new baby, so retired to bed early. They were woken at dawn by a rap on their bedroom window, and there was a neighbour they barely knew, well in his cups and holding up their giggling baby! Stricter drink/driving rules seem to have ended the tradition, growing up in the ‘80s I only encountered it on camping trips (easier to walk drunk between campsites) or sometimes a neighbour would pop over for a quick visit on New Year’s Eve.

[@sylvienoel8100]

Thank you, Max! I'm reading a romance novel set in Scotland and the author mentions in passing one character learning how to make black buns and now I know what she meant, thanks to you.

[@Getpojke]

Do love a good bit of shortbread. When I used to help my Gran make it we'd sometimes put in a snippet of lavender from the garden to perfume it. Though I preferred it in the Autumn when we'd been picking cobb [wild hazelnuts] nuts. They's be roasted off & we'd either have chopped cobbs or a solitary whole one on each piece. Still think my favourite with a pot of tea is a "Highlander" which is a wee round of shortbread that has the rim rolled in demerara sugar before baking. Huzzah! My chattering away in the comments has paid off. Think you're the first non Scottish person to mention Black Bun in a video! I love the stuff. Can be a bit heavy & dry for some palates. Just make sure that you get good quality currants as as it's so dense with them if they have seeds in them the whole bun has a gritty texture. I still make & take Black Bun as part of my first Footing. That whisky & salt... though I put the salt down to the Norwegian part of the family, it's always the gift for Hogmanay & whenever someone moves into a new house as it's bad luck to move salt from your old house to the new one.

[@DodiTov]

Interesting! In Appalachia, some of the housewarming gifts to a new couple include salt (to sprinkle at the doorway so the Devil can't come in), a new broom (a new broom sweeps clean), bread, and a sweet. I usually put them all in a new mop bucket or a new waste basket.

[@Getpojke]

@@DodiTov Interesting from my viewpoint too. Some of the other traditions are that the grate [fireplace] should be swept out & a new fire laid & lit for the new year [why we bring the lump of coal, for the new fire & to symbolise that the fire will burn through the coming year. The house should also be cleaned before new year. At midnight the front & back doors are opened, to let the new year in & the old one out; where the new broom comes in? Salt was also used as a cleanser for the house... I still clean my kitchen & chopping boards with salt to this day, & its well known as a barrier or cleanser. As salt absorbed dirt/evil, that's why you didn't take it to a new house... you'd be carrying old, bad things there. Everyone should also have at least some coins in their pockets as how one starts the year is how you'll go through it. Also all bills & debts should be paid before the new year. Really interesting to hear how many of the old traditions made it to the "new world", thank you.

[@jtc120880]

Call me juvenile, but I LOVE the clip of you smacking the hardtack rounds together - the look on your face really sells it :D Please please never get rid of that clip, and keep working it in every couple of months! Happy holidays to you and your husband and y'alls families!

[@Baughbe]

I was at a wedding in the US where they were trying to do it old Scottish style. Kilts and tartans abounded. In what was probably a bit of a misunderstanding of the shortbread tradition... one of the maids of honor had baked a piece of short bread the side of a large dinner platter. At the end of the vows all the maids gathered around the bride, and each holding on to the outer edge of the short bread, brought it firmly down on the brides head to break it... The short bread was a simple baked circle with no extras or creases and had been baked until it was .. HARD. Nearly knocked the poor bride out right then and there.

[@roxannereddington-wilde3953]

Thanks for your great series! I am a (US) historian of Scottish material & social culture, teach the Social History of Food and have made a modern, family shortbread recipe for decades. I’m highly intrigued by the use of boiled butter (rather than cold, solid butter creamed with the sugar>add the flour, etc.) and the use of yeast. That’s not at all modern, as you point out, but lots of classic "bread/cake" recipes used to use yeast. The boiled butter will indeed produce a totally different texture (also way easier to incorporate than creaming the butter and then incorporating the large amounts of flour: I always wrestle with the dough at that step of the process) as liquid fat means cold shortening coating is no longer coating each flour particle and isolating it from the other particles during the first stages of the baking. Your final product looked to have a laminar texture rather than a mass of individual particles/crumbs adhering together. As for the "plaiting," Celeste Sharratt’s comment makes sense. Another clue is in one of the historical descriptions you mentioned (~11:40 in), saying that the ends of the large, "sun" disk were twisted around the outside. I’ll definitely try this boiled butter/yeasted version. My family’s recipe, by the way is essentially "1 pound butter; 1 pound sugar & 1/2 pound sugar." …Yes, First Footing is still done and you preferably want a dark-haired (male) to come through your door first.

[@erinparavel1460]

I just made shortbread yesterday! My go-to "recipe" is to use 1 part softened cultured butter, 2 parts sugar, and 3 parts flour. I'll also add a little vanilla. Cut it together with a pastry cutter until it is crumbly, shape it into a round and prick with a fork, then bake at 325 until it's just golden. If I'm feeling cheeky, I'll press pecans or chocolate chips on top before I bake or mix in some fresh rosemary with the dough. Such a simple, delicious treat.

[@m.leesmith6157]

Sounds simple! Are those parts weighed or scooped?

[@erinparavel1460]

@@m.leesmith6157 I scoop-not sure if weighing would give you the right proportions, now that I think about it. To be honest, I couldn't be bothered to get out a measuring cup yesterday and just eyeballed it...

[@lindafreeman7030]

Like a 1-2-3-4 caje, minus the eggs and leavening!

[@ammiller3911]

My exact recipe too!!

[@LadyLirenel]

@@erinparavel1460 How do you scoop butter? Like, if you use a cup of butter in stick form do you then use two cups of sugar and three cups of flour?

[@FarahRoseSmith]

Greatly appreciating this episode, partly from Scots pride and the other part because so many people in the world are being so nasty right now, that shutting myself up in my apartment and making some shortbread is a lil' blessing. Thank you, Max.

[@aliciarobertson4979]

Loved this. Thank you! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿I am an aged Scottish great-gran and remember well that my gran and great-gran made Shortbread to die for! Along with oatcakes, girdle scones and delicious tablet! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿The girdle scones were made on a round cast-iron girdle (griddle in English) on the stove top. As the girdle was cast iron it was used in the stove’s oven for shortbread if you didn’t have a separate cast iron pan for oven use. The edge of your shortbread was ‘pleated’ with your fingers or by turning a fork along it. Crimping in English has the same meaning. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿I had a chuckle about the first-footing on Hogmanay. My father was most often chosen as his family were dark haired highlanders. My mother’s family were also Scottish from the Shetlands so with a strong Viking background back to great-grandfather so plenty of blonde and red hair in that side! My youngest brother is a blond, and I am also blonde. We find that even as older folk we haven’t got more than a few grey hairs. I have a red haired granddaughter but other grandsons with dark brown hair and red beards who aren’t wanted as first-footers in the 2020s either! I can say with my tongue firmly in my cheek 😅 that, although some of my 20 great-grandkids are dark haired adults, not all will be called upon to be a first-footer bringing good luck to the house! 😊 However, they all like this old gran’s shortbread Et al. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@TheJustineCredible]

It's weird how I'm pretty sure I've had this yeasted version as a child. As soon as you broke the biscuit and took a bite, I knew immediately how it tasted. When you said it was like "glue" I knew for sure I'd had it before. It's a very pleasant glue-y texture. I remember sucking on it to get the butter flavor from it. I haven't had it since I was a child and I have no idea when or where it came from or the circumstance but I know I have had it before. I'm almost certain my great grandmother used to make it that way and I do remember my mother always being so frustrated that she could never get her "traditional" shortbread recipes to come out like her grandmother's. Now I know why!

[@alliewhitlock621]

I'm moving to Edinburgh next September for Grad school so I'm used to the random Scottish accent (thanks to my husband). I'm definitely going to have to make this recipe this weekend. Thanks for sharing!!

[@TastingHistory]

I think we will be visiting in September actually

[@alliewhitlock621]

@@TastingHistory That's awesome! If you decide to do a meet up, I'll definitely be there! 😁

[@fedra76it]

@@TastingHistory Good on you! I immensely love Scotland and Ireland, and I am always happy for the people who get to visit them. I hope to visit again, too, as soon as possible.

[@jonnylumberjack6223]

@@TastingHistory Yay! I'm in South Queensferry, just outside Edinburgh, at the south end of all three bridges that cross the Forth. It's a ridiculously pretty village, a world heritage UNESCO site and has some gorgeous wee coffee shops, you should come visit us!

[@stlvn6363]

Things I recommend as an Edinburger: get a fish supper with salt n sauce from a proper chippy, a can of Irn Bru too! Always queue when you’re waiting for a bus, or you’ll get some angry looks. You’re now Scottish. Also is it Edinburgh University you’re going to?

[@lyra2112]

I also remembered to turn on the subtitles late on to see José's handiwork and see if there are any 'extras' 😀 Going to watch again them with on.

[@lyra2112]

Loved them! Worth watching!

[@jackieroberts6316]

I am 67 years old and was raised in NJ by an English mother and grandmother. Every New Years eve I was pushed out the door and made to knock to come back in. Because my dad was Italian and I was dark. Cold then but a wonderful memory now.

[@pamelavannest1657]

Regarding First Footing: My husband has dark hair. When we lived in Aberdeen in the 80s and early 90s, he would do first footing for all the Scots we knew. I went along to drive, as it was traditional to welcome the first footer with a ‘wee dram’ of whiskey. 😂😂. (He gave a small piece of coal.)

[@janetmackinnon3411]

"Whisky" has no "e" in Scotland. Just saying

[@pamelavannest1657]

@@janetmackinnon3411 With the way my autocorrect is ‘fixing’ everything today, I’m lucky it didn’t change it to ‘fruit salad’. 😂😂🤦‍♀️

[@uppityglivestockian]

"It's like eating glue... o_o" 😂 We're now calling coffee glue wash in our house. We've got Irish blood in some of our veins, so there's that. Never stop using the hard tack cut. Here's hoping 2022 will be much better than 2021.

[@aleisterlavey9716]

Better shortbread than short of potatoes, huh? XD

[@uppityglivestockian]

@@aleisterlavey9716 Spuds 'n suds, here's mud in yer eye! lol

[@aleisterlavey9716]

@@uppityglivestockian mud in ma eye? Yay free nutrition... 😆

[@uppityglivestockian]

@@aleisterlavey9716 😂

[@zennvirus7980]

Man, I can't wait for the Hardtack commemoration episode. Truly, the undying bread. Also, I do hope than next Hogmanay you make that dense, black substance, inimical to life, wrapped in its pastry hell (best propaganda ever). Shortbread, or as a South Yorkshire friend with thick Yoarkshair accent would call it, "coughbread", is wild; for oh, how bad you could choke on it if you had no drink to wash it down! Bad call on my part, not drinking something when trying it for the first time.Tasty, though. Goes great with Earl Gray. And now I need a cup of tea. Happy new year to you, Max, and may more arcane recipes come your way. Your takes on them are all delightful. Bedight with your wit as they are.

[@katharper655]

NO ONE segues into their sponsors as seamlessly as Max-while slipping them into the recipe/finished product he's making Delightful!

[@ixchelkali]

"It's like eating glue...in a good way" is probably the funniest thing I've ever heard you say. 😂😂 I love the way you always strive for the positive.

[@AnnabelSmyth]

My mother adds semolina to her shortbread, along with the flour. And our (English) tradition is to put a piece of wedding-cake (always an iced rich fruit cake - you cut it up and send pieces in little silver boxes to all your friends, or you get someone else to do it for you, more like!) under your pillow (in its box, I imagine) so you will dream of your future husband. I didn't know it was shortbread in Scotland!

[@flannerypedley840]

We've alwas\ys had a percentage of rice flour, and now that I must be Gluten Free, riceflour is great. Long strands of gluten arenn't required in short bread.

[@bwayne40004]

Just the name alone had me clicking and commenting. Now I get to see exactly what the hell this stuff is! Happy NY Max and Jose and I truly enjoy the videos. Actually have made a couple.

[@taisiakat]

I've studied actually the derivations of Scottish shortbread, spritz, Danish and Norwegian butter cookies since the recipes are so so similar. Thank you for filling in one of my suspected branches - the Scottish Shortbread Victorian era (with an egg) which is what a spritz cookie recipe is. I LOVE Butter cookies - no matter where their origin is. It would be such a neat history lesson to do a 'family tree' of these recipes...... Especially when did Almond was introduce as a flavor, and how did the temperature become the factor of how these became different cookies. AND my Scottish Husband loved the Hogmanay part -- tomorrow we start our feasts of fun.

[@ThePuglover98]

The way it melts in your mouth is my favorite thing about my grandmas traditional shortbread recipe, which she says Must be made with cold butter....which makes it very difficult to make 😵‍💫 BUT ITS DELIGHTFUL

[@texaschrissy1985]

I love the way you look when your trying to explain how the food taste and texture. My grandmother always used the shortbread for for pie crust and what we called dip sticks. You dip them in pudding, icecream and stuff like that. Good job on tackling this recipe.

[@katherinewolfe]

I've had shortbreads dipped in warm vanilla custard, which is fabulous even with the instant custard mix.

[@texaschrissy1985]

@@judeirwin2222 I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to insult anybody.

[@texaschrissy1985]

@@katherinewolfe that sounds lovely.

[@shellshocked7620]

@@texaschrissy1985 don’t worry, no one is offended 😊 it’s true though - dipstick is an insult in the UK (unsure why). Funny how the same words mean different things around the world!

[@texaschrissy1985]

@@shellshocked7620 Thank you.it is funny, as I grew up I learned it the stick to check your oil with in your vehicle. Lol

[@vp382]

Ιn greece, we still have a tradition very similar to first-footers! It is actually really interesting knowing that pretty different cultures have so similar traditions

[@ragnkja]

Are any first guests considered more luck-bringing than others? And if so, are those more likely to go on a “visiting round”?

[@fedra76it]

Some people have such beliefs here in Italy, too. One of my aunts insists in NOT wanting a woman to be the first person to visit - or even phone - in the new year, because a woman would bring bad luck. I find it SO irritating... But then, every sort of superstition irritates me :)

[@vp382]

@@ragnkja little kids are considered the most luck bringing ones because of their innocence, but if a person who is considered "lucky" is the first one to enter the house on new year's, it is believed that they bless the family in a way. Although in big cities the tradition has kind of been forgotten, in villages and the countryside kids sometimes will go to different houses and enter with their right foot first, in order to bring luck and prosperity to the house owners

[@janetmackinnon3411]

For both countries St. Andrew is the patron saint.....

[@janetmackinnon3411]

@@ragnkja A first-foor should traditionally b ea dark-haired man. No idea why!

[@tuomaskamppi4620]

In Finland we have a word "pikkuleipä" and it literally means small bread. Pikku = small, leipä = bread. I'd call that pikkuleipä!

[@LoriCiani]

My mum used to tell me there were three shapes of shortbread. The finger, the farl and the petticoat tail. She also included a little semolina for that buttery crumbley crumb.

[@carole6779]

Thanks for winding up the year with the hardtack reference! 😂 Wondering if her reference to "plaiting" isn't just the twists on the outside edges... ? And it's a good thing you're already married. No shortbread crumbs in your hair. I can see why that tradition faded away (or at least, I hope it did, lol). Much appreciation for all you do. Holiday blessings to you & José! Looking forward to more TH adventures in 2022... 💖🎉

[@ChayatsujiKimono]

I hear the word "hardtack" and here the clip is. You never disappoint, love seeing that little clip!

[@fionaclaphamhoward5876]

I hear "bread dried out in the oven" and I start anticipating the hard tack cutaway 😂

[@sharonchandler4185]

Here's a lesson in the dough. Cut a slit in the oval you make. Along the length, about half the length of the oval of dough. lift one end, feed it through the slit, do so again. A bit of flour on your knife and hands will make it easier. That's what that one is. Two twists, and don't flatten it afterward. I love everything you do.

[@macmaiden6340]

My hairdresser came from Scotland. He described the New Year’s Day ritual as the “first fruiting”. The residents of a Village would walk next-door to their friends home carrying a bottle of whiskey. When admitted to the house the host would provide cakes and more whiskey. After 15 or 20 minutes, the guests would move onto the next house etc. The first fruiting was always conducted on foot for obvious reasons. Driving would be a terrible idea.

[@Danny-fy9it]

Welp, time to subject my family to more odd New Year treats.

[@TastingHistory]

Lucky them

[@lairdcummings9092]

There's nothing 'odd' about shortbread. 😛

[@Dawn_Hannah]

Yay! 🥳

[@kiwwat4139]

YES! I CAN WATCH THIS WHILE COOKING! And shortbread too, one of my favourites!

[@irishsakura1]

You just solved a family mystery that has plagued us for well over a century. My great great great uncle was disowned by his parents because he and his wife adopted a girl with red hair. 12:40 Now it all makes sense. Thank you for a great show!

[@samwalker4761]

As a note about the 'First Footers' you mention, as a sort of good luck thing my sister and I always leave the house at 11:55 on new year's night, and bring in a box of shortbread just after midnight. Best to get the good luck in quickly.

[@mbm8404]

“Plaiting” shortbread is adding the little swirrels/patterns around the outside of the circle kind of like the pattern in the circular mold. Like the bannocks that resembled the Sun.

[@CalebCalixFernandez]

Since, you said that the biscuits turned into glue when eaten, it's a good idea to remind everyone that the word gluten comes from the Latin "glutinum", which means glue. Also, as a fun fact, wheat flour has been traditionally used in many Latin American countries to make a glue-like substance called engrudo, which is mostly used to glue paper together. It's most famous use is to make piñatas.

[@tarmaque]

Or in French: _Papier-mâché._

[@jessehachey2732]

@@tarmaqueyep, French for mashed up (crumpled up) paper 😉

[@Taurwen]

A winter celebration beginning with "Hog-" and the tradition like First Footing is REALLY making me miss Terry Prachett. And now I am also really craving shortbread but too sick to make it any time soon. :(

[@kerriabate1042]

I love when you throw the hardtack (clack clack) clip into the videos. It makes me laugh every time. ❤️😁

[@kellyaguirre8643]

Re: braiding I immediately thought of the technique my family use to make a German-Russian doughnut called krebel or roll kuchen - roll dough and cut into rectangular pieces, score a cut in the middle of each then take ends and pull through the score, effect looks a bit like a braid

[@queenfrankiesoup]

This! I think it's the same as Danish 'Kleiner' (so, definitely German-sounding).

[@kellyaguirre8643]

@@queenfrankiesoup Yes! Looked up kleiner and think very similar to what we call krebel, including dusting with icing sugar - and we make at Christmas too. One difference is krebel has sour cream in dough so consistency different

[@jeannettegory8185]

I thought the same technique when I heard the description.

[@MechaTrekAD]

I am a reluctant to share here as I usually get a lot of jerks telling me my own experiences are wrong. Sigh. Anyway, there was a woman who sold shortbread, among other pastries, at a stand in New York City's Union Square Green Market. It looked kind of like a loaf of bread and she would cut off 'slices' when you bought some. I love shortbread and hers was the best I've ever head but it was very different from Walkers Biscuits or other store bought cookies. It was incredibly buttery, pretty sweet, with a texture similar to how you described it. Happy New Year Max! Thank you again for Tasting History.

[@sizer99]

'Eating glue, but in a good way'. Ahhh, flashbacks to Elmer's Glue in elementary school.

[@AzazelMango]

That pun hit me so hard I had to pause the video to hold my head from the mental pain it had caused me. GG my guy. GG.

[@SiddharthS96]

Wonderful video! And I really liked that you played Auld Lang Syne at the end, the perfect Scottish song for the occasion!

[@goldilox369]

Love you Max. Mama's little baby loves shortening bread. ❤️👍

[@TastingHistory]

That I do 😆

[@wilfbentley6738]

Max: "Carvi" is French for caraway. In the days of the "Auld Alliance", lots of Scots nobles sent their cooks and chefs to train in France, so they brought back French names for various items. Another French-based name is "Jamaica pepper" for allspice, since the French name for allspice is "poivre de Jamaique". There are other terms used in Scots cookery that have French origins. In my mother's family (Scottish heritage), they do not use yeast in their shortbread. They use butter, flour and powdered sugar, and that's all.

[@dlondon1144]

Absolutely fantastic video. Thank you from an American living in Scotland. BTW: Edinburgh, when said by a Scot, sounds like En-brr-uh. Glasgow, on the other hand, sounds like Glesca. Another BTW... shortbread is beast eaten with a dram of single malt whisky. First-footing is still popular in rural Angus. Tall, dark visitors are best but they must come with a cake (shortbread usually), a dram (always whisky), and a piece of coal for the fire. Their arrival usually signals the start of a session of drunken revelry that takes most of New Year's day to recover from. This recovery is aided by the lavish application of "Christmas Cake" (fruitcake) that has been well soaked with brandy and allowed to cure for anywhere from three months to a year.

[@RaspK]

Yeah, I realized carvy must be caraway, because "karvi" is caraway to some Scandinavians, at least, and is used in akvavit, which, while it would seem to be a simple type of grain spirit, is in fact grain spirit flavoured with caraway seeds.

[@TheMovieCreator]

"Karve" in Norway, yes. Pronounced just like Max tried to pronounce the scottish wording: "Kahrr-véh".

[@marylee7467]

LOVED this episode. I've got a 3lb tin of Walkers that we're working on at the moment. So I will try this after them. Lol I'm very interested in this though, using yeast sou d intriguing. When you were eating it I thought of madelines for some reason. Kind of reminded me of them. And that hard tac clip is legendary!!! So when I bake your shortbread and someone asks for the recipe I can say oh its something I just MacGiver'ed together. 😅

[@anominon]

I imagine "plaiting the ends" probably means crimping the edge to resemble a plait, like a lot of the shapes you describe throughout the video.

[@Cara-39]

The hard tack clip will never get old!!

[@elennapointer701]

I love this channel. I think I started watching at about 200K followers and everything about it makes me smile, from the Pokemons to the recipes to Max's brilliance. All I can say is "Here's to 2022!"

[@amywolfe5673]

Interesting. I just read an article by Mohawk Nation chef Tawnya Brant about the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) tradition of "Indian Donuts" at the New Year. Apparently this dates back 400 years to the Dutch tradition of Oliebol, a yeast leavened fried dough ball made at the new year and given to the first person to visit a home on New Year's day. The person was thought to bring good luck... You can find Chef Brant on KZbin and other social media. I really enjoy your channel, having found it only recently. It definitely ticks all my nerd boxes! Thanks.🧑‍🍳

[@KatzenwagenTV]

7:00 when you said "hardtack", I got excited. and when the meme clip followed, I actually yelled "YES!!!" 😹😹😹😹😹😹

[@SapioiT]

The boiled butter is for salding the flour, but with butter instead of water. Flour scalding is also known as yudane in Asia, having made it from Europe to Japan a few hundred years ago. There is also the method of boiling the flour, known as water roux, which is also known as tangzhong in Asia. Although scalding the flour started in Europe, in was modified in Japan into boiling the flour (water roux), before making it back to europe.

[@ItstheK]

OK, so to plait dough as described, you cut the dough so it looks like a wig weft or a 0. Then, if it's a 0, you tuck the ends through the center hole, and pull out. You can do this a couple times for more twists. If it's a "wig weft shape" (or a 人), you twist it like braiding hair.

[@lhfirex]

I had the same "munchkin" reading Max did when he was reading the recipe to us!

[@grahamrankin4725]

Back in the late 50s, my Scottish paternal grandfather would spend the winter months with us in Texas and the summer months with my aunts in New England. Each Christmas the aunts would send him a 5 lb tin of imported shortbread. I always managed to finagle a few pieces.

[@SweetJungThang]

According to research during my dissertation on Elizabeth I, the name "Petticoat Tails" is a corruption of the French name for a similar biscuit baked in a mold called "petites gateaux tailles" or "little cakes cut off" , a name which Mary brought back to Scotland from France and which her cloddish 2nd husband, Lord Darney, attempted to pronounce in English much to the amusement of his courtiers who perpetuated the name when bringing the recipe back to England, as it was also a sly slur on Darnley and his higher-ranking bride. I found the anecdote charming and have always remembered it. Am delighting in your series.