Clootie Dumpling

Clootie dumpling is a cloth-wrapped pudding made with dried fruit and spices, and it is a well-loved favourite in Scotland. Its name comes from “clout,” a Scots word meaning cloth. When the round, boiled pudding is cut, raisins and other fruit can be seen scattered through the dark crumb.

The round shape and skin created by the cloth

In a household recipe collected by the University of Aberdeen, flour, breadcrumbs, suet, sugar and spices are mixed with grated apple and dried fruit. Milk and treacle are added to form a dough, which is wrapped in a cloth that has been scalded in boiling water and dusted with flour. The cloth is tied with room left for the pudding to expand as it cooks, and when the pudding is cooked in a pot, it comes out round.

Once the pudding is taken out of the cloth, a thin skin has formed on it. This outer layer is characteristic of a pudding boiled in a floured cloth. It can be enjoyed cooled and sliced, or warmed and served with custard. There are also examples of a leftover slice being fried in butter and eaten the next morning.

A treat for celebrations and Saturdays

A dictionary of the Scots language includes one person’s recollection of clootie dumpling being made instead of a cake for birthdays, with silver coins placed inside. The writer Mary Eason also recalls that, when she was young, her mother made it for birthdays and New Year, and that whoever found a silver coin inside was said to be blessed with good luck.

In another recollection quoted in the dictionary, by contrast, a mother made it with raisins, carrots, treacle, flour, spices and other ingredients as a Saturday-night treat. Whether as a special dish for a birthday or as a weekly family treat, this pudding has stayed in each person’s memory.

Recipes handed down in each family

Recipes vary from household to household, and the choice of fruit and fat differs as well. There are also old examples of Sussex pond pudding being wrapped in cloth, but in clootie dumpling the dried fruit is mixed throughout the dough.

In Abernethy, a clootie dumpling shop based on a family recipe opened in 2018. This household celebration pudding is also made at local shops.

Glossary