FOOD SPECIALITIES
ICONS OF THE
ISLE OF MULL CHEESE
STORNOWAY BLACK PUDDING
Through history, Scotland’s islands attracted a steady stream of religious pilgrims, but these days you’re just as likely to find a cheeselover on a journey of reverence to Sgriob-ruadh Farm near Tobermory. The dairy farm is home to Isle of Mull cheese – quite probably the nation’s most famous and distinctive farmhouse cheese. Set up in 1980 when the Reade family moved up from England and took over the derelict farm, the cheddar-style cheese has been made on site for 40 years (a second, Hebridean Blue, joined it ten years ago). The unpasteurised milk used is as fresh as it gets – the time it takes to move from milking parlour to cheese vat. Provenance is guaranteed, food is grass and spent grains from the distillery, and no colouring is used. Isle of Mull cheese is a fixture for cheesemongers across the UK, who will eulogise it with words like fruity, sharp, savoury, full-bodied, upfront and boozy. The operation has expanded to an on-site shop and café (housed in the impressive Glass Barn) with everything powered by their own wind turbine and hydro-electric system – and selfguided tours are on offer to round off the pilgrimage. n isleofmullcheese.co.uk
Ask anyone to name Scotland’s most famous sausage and they will, of course, nearly always nod to the haggis, or ‘Great chieftain o’ the pudding race’ as the bard Robert Burns dubbed it. In these parts, however, it has a rival known in Gaelic as the marag dubh, the black pudding – and in particular the variety produced on the Isle of Lewis, officially, and very specifically, called Stornoway Black Pudding. The pudding is still made using the same few ingredients – beef suet, oatmeal, onions, blood, salt and pepper, nothing else – that crofters have used on the island for hundreds of years. The blood can come from sheep or cows as well as pigs, while the suet and rough oatmeal give it a unique and lighter consistency, while deepening the savoury flavours. The Stornoway pud has protected geographical status – formerly granted by the EU, and now bestowed by the UK similarly to protect its integrity – only allowing the label ‘Stornoway’ when the puddings are produced in the town or parish of Stornoway. The marag dubh has helped lift the reputation of black pudding – showing that this premium sausage isn’t just for a breakfast fry-up but can now grace dishes in the fanciest of restaurants. n charlesmacleod.co.uk
20 The Guide to Scotland’s Islands
