SCONES WE HAVE KNOWN

 

According to Alan Davidson’s Oxford Companion to Food, the word scone was originally a Scottish word, possibly derived from ‘schoonbrot’ or ‘sconbrot’ which means fine white bread.  I think this information comes from the QED.  The Oxford Companion also says ‘The pronunciation of the word shows a distinct regional divide, being “skon” in Scotland and northern England, and “skoan” in the south.’

Well … as a lad from Sheffield I can tell you there’s at least one place in the north where we always said ‘skoan’ and it was only when I moved away from Sheffield that I had any idea anybody pronounced it any other way.

 

Pic by Caroline Gannon, of course.

My mother who was a plain cook, and proud of it, made scones from a packet mix, and they were very plain indeed, and we ate them plainly with butter but never with jam or cream.  I can’t tell you what brand of mix she used, but we can be absolutely certain it wasn’t ‘Snowflake.’

 

The first job I had after university was working behind the counter in a local caff, and they sold CHEESE SCONES!!  – it was a revelation.  And a welcome one.

 

Today, I can’t say I’m the biggest scone fan in the world but looking through my picture archive I see I’ve scoffed quite a few in recent times, most often when out and about of an afternoon and not fancying a sandwich.

    Here’s one for example eaten in the Millenium Galleries in Sheffield in recent times, long, long after I stopped thinking of myself as a Sheffielder: 

 

And the fact is, most scones that you buy and eat are pretty much OK.  It’s rare to get a really bad one, just as rare to get a transcendentally good one.  I suppose that means it’s a ‘safe choice.’

 

Here’s one from Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire:

Here’s one from Nature in Art in Gloucestershire, where I had a conversation with the gal behind the counter about pronunciation:

 

 Here’s one from the basement café in Waterstone’s bookshop in Piccadilly:

 

Here’s a somewhat fancy one from the caff at Two Temple Place in London, containing olives and onion and served with slices of cheese and a garnish of salad.  I don’t believe I’ve ever eaten another scone with salad.

 

And then my eye was caught in the caff at the local garden centre by a cheese and hazelnut scone.  Yeah, it came with onion relish! It sounded great.

And it and tasted ok – very big, slightly dry, and in need of more cheese and more nuts, if you asked me; but this is evidently not a universal opinion.  The caff was displaying this notice:

You can’t argue with that can you? Well I mean, you can, but why would you want to?