Scottish Plain

My cousin has introduced me to a new food: Scottish Plain bread. Yup, I am now obsessed with a loaf of sliced, bagged, processed, manufactured, white bread. Last week Viv and her Aunt Ursula got talking about having ‘plain doorstep with butter’ for breakfast and, as so often happens when I’m with Scots, I was bewildered.

So, first of all, what’s a doorstep? Other than the stoop of the house. It’s what Scots call the end piece of a loaf of bread. I do not remember ever hearing Norma call it that; will have to check with my sisters.

Okay, so why specify ‘plain’? Well, it seems there is a type of white sandwich-style bread made in Glasgow called Mother’s Pride, aka Scottish Plain. It’s not just another name for Wonderbread or Dempsters; it is actually different. If you look closely at the picture you will see it is very tall (long and narrow). It’s denser than regular sandwich bread and I was advised that its crust or ‘doorstep’ is amazing when toasted and buttered. As someone who never liked the crust end piece of the loaf (when I was little Mum would tell me to eat my crusts as they would give me curlier hair – not a selling point for a little girl with a headful of tangles – to this day, I use those pieces to make homemade breadcrumbs), I was doubtful but tried it. They were right, it was delish. I’m not a sliced bread fan, but I do really like Scottish Plain. Today’s lunch is homemade Scottish lentil soup and Plain bread with Orkney butter. Yum.

*While looking this up on the internet, I discovered that there is an actual thing called ‘Canadian bread’, different from normal sandwich bread. Who knew? Something to look forward to when I get home.