Britain and Ireland · Volume 34, Salt, Smoke and the Land the Clearances Remade
Clootie Dumpling
Mainland Highlands and the Hebrides
Illustration
- Time
- 3 hours 30
- Researched
- 5 sources cited
Cloth-boiling puddings traces to around 1650, and Hannah Glasse's 1747 recipe for a boiled plum pudding shows nearly identical ingredients to a modern clootie dumpling. Its specific association with the Hebrides and wider Highlands is well attested through a named tradition-bearer, Coinneach MacLeod's own family recipe, published as Aunt Bellag's clootie dumpling, whose one stated rule is that the three-hour simmer is not negotiable.
As tradition built it
Serves 8. 3 hours, plus 30 minutes' resting.
Ingredients
- 225g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- a pinch a pinch of salt
- 175g caster sugar
- 100g suet
- 100g sultanas
- 75g currants
- 75g raisins
- 1 apple, grated
- 150ml buttermilk
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 heaped tbsp black treacle
- 1 heaped tbsp marmalade
Method
- Combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, cinnamon and salt.
- Stir in the sugar, suet, sultanas, currants, raisins and grated apple.
- Mix in the buttermilk, beaten egg, treacle and marmalade, to a soft, dropping batter.
- Dip a large square of muslin in boiling water, wring it out, and sprinkle it well with flour. Place the mixture in the centre, gather the edges loosely to leave room for expansion, and tie tightly with string.
- Place an upturned saucer in the base of a large pan of boiling water, sit the dumpling on top, cover, and simmer 3 hours, topping up the water as needed to keep it fully submerged. Do not rush this by raising the heat.
- Lift out, unwrap carefully, and rest 30 minutes before slicing.
What a modern chef changes
The same dumpling, given a second life once it has cooled.
Rung 4
Method
- Cook exactly as above. This dish's whole technique already is the rung; nothing about the simmering itself needs changing.
- Once cooled, slice the dumpling and pan-fry the slices in butter until caramelised on both sides, a genuinely traditional way of eating leftover clootie dumpling, not an invented flourish, and arguably better than the dish served hot straight from the cloth.
- Serve the fried slices with a spoonful of crème fraîche rather than plain cream, its acidity cutting through the treacle and dried fruit's own sweetness.