ABSTRACT
As in most countries, the beginnings of cookery in Scotland were based on the availability of various foods. Salmon was so plentiful in Scotland that it was not well regarded as a food by the upper classes. The monks’ interest in food is commemorated in various rhymes: ‘The monks of Melrose made fat brose On Fridays when they fasted.’ Shortages of food were constant in sixteenth-century Scotland, often due to bad summers. The Government tried to counteract the shortage of food by rationing. It was axiomatic that with the rise of the Reformers in Scotland restrictions on sport should have been attempted, but thanks to the sturdy character of the Scots this does not seem to have affected the general delight in games. Hawking and hunting may have seemed to be the prerogative of the nobility, but no doubt many humbler people managed to join in the sports in a clandestine way. .
