An interview with Sue Lawrence, author of New Scottish Baking

I’m a long-time admirer of Sue Lawrence’s cookbooks and food writing. She is a meticulous and eclectic researcher and a generous and engaging storyteller who writes recipes that work- and taste delicious. She has won two Guild of Food Writers Awards, a Glenfiddich Food and Drink Award, is a brilliant champion of Scottish food and cooking and a successful novelist- her sixth novel ‘Lady’s Rock’ – came out last March. Sue’s latest cookbook, New Scottish Baking, was published yesterday (Aug 1st) and to celebrate this, I asked her a few questions.

I have ten of your cookbooks and I know there are a lot more I have yet to acquire. (I think there are twenty in total!). When you started writing your first, where did you imagine this career change might lead?

There are indeed twenty. I had no idea when I began writing cookbooks where it might lead, but since I trained as a journalist (at DC Thomson, Dundee, after university, where I studied French) it was a natural progression – BUT one I was only able to fulfil after winning Masterchef. That was 1991 and my three kids were only little (8/5/3) and my husband, though very hands-on-helpful, was a pilot, so was away a lot. So when I was asked by The Scotsman to do a series of articles on chefs– and simultaneously invited by Edinburgh publisher Mainstream (sadly now defunct) to write my first cookbook- it was ideal as I knew more or less how to string words together and also, it suited me being at home for the kids. It went on from there, with a book every year or two for those giddy first few years and I ended up as a Sunday Times food writer (and their cookery editor!) and wrote for lots of magazines, and then, some TV and radio.

Who are your readers? What kind of relationship do you have with them?

It depends on which book it is, but on the whole, they are loyal readers who have been using my recipes for many years. If it’s a baking book, then I know there will be some (usually older) who bemoan the fact I now give ingredients only in metric… My last big cookbook before this one was on the Scottish islands and it’s been lovely re-establishing links with the islands which I’m so passionate about. But now I’m delighted to have new/younger readers: as well as through family/friends, this has happened also through a surge in interest in baking through programmes like GBBO – and of course social media…

How do you negotiate the ever-present clamour of social media, the pressure on food writers to add ever more strings to their bow as food media becomes more competitive and poorly paid, and media hunger for the next shiny thing?

Challenging… but I’ve just decided to concentrate on the writing and try not to do too many ancillary things these days. I retired from BBC4 Kitchen Cabinet last year for example even though I loved it. Apart from using Twitter as a means of promoting both my cookbooks and my fiction, I try to steer clear as it can be a dark and toxic place.

Leading on from this, as a Scottish writer who has long championed Scottish food, can you talk about the relationship between innovation and tradition in your national foodways and how you walk that tightrope?

Many traditional recipes are not as ‘healthy’ as we’ve come to expect these days, so I often reduce sugar, try to use unrefined sugar – and also, avoid dodgy fats such as margarine if at all possible. My Granny’s wartime shortbread recipe used margarine since she lived in a city with strict rations (Dundee), but the minute she could get their hands on butter, it was substituted. I would not always avoid what some people think are unhealthy fats such as lard or dripping though, since they are more natural than the spreads and margarines made using hydrogenated fats.

There has been a wealth of excellent and knowledgeable Scottish food writers, from F Marian McNeill to Catherine Brown. I feel privileged to follow in their esteemed footsteps. In the 80/90’s when we Scots were just coming to realise that, according to some of the UK’s top chefs we have some of the best produce in the world, there came a tendency to cook it in ways that often used only the best parts (eg loin of venison, rib of beef, lobster instead of crab etc) and accompanying sauces etc were way too cheffy. Nouvelle Cuisine gone mad. Then everyone calmed down and accepted that we should not be ashamed of our simple dishes (cf Frenchy pot au feu, which is lauded in France) – so Stornoway black pudding is now rightly deemed one of the UK’s finest products. And Arbroath Smokies are not just eaten straight off the barrel in the fishing town itself (tho that is one of the finest taste sensations in the world), they are also converted into tarts/mousses, soups…And so traditional began to meld with modern cooking . Our wonderful produce was/is at last being put to good use in more simple ways. However, I have yet to see a simple plate of mince and tatties (arguably Scotland’s true national dish) in many restaurants...

Your latest book, New Scottish Baking, melds advice on technique with well-known Scottish recipes that are comfortingly traditional, and more contemporary recipes and innovative takes that use Scottish ingredients, or have intriguing or poetic links with Scotland (i.e. the headnotes for pecan pie that link Scotland with the tassie and Robert Burns) and some that are less well-known outside of their regional Scottish homes (Guggy Cake, Orkney Fudge Cheesecake). Others (Meatloaf Pie) are a wonderful melding of your personal history and travels). Can you tell me a little about the research and travel process? Which experiences stand out?

I’ve been so lucky to have travelled a lot and lived in France, Finland, Germany and Australia as well as being fortunate enough to travel to many countries either with my husband who was by then with British Airways (trips to Venezuela, India, Mauritius) and also through my work with magazines (Solomon Islands, Iran, Argentina). And I always returned buzzing with ideas. Dishes that meant a lot to me as I was growing up – meatloaf at my friend Isabelle’s house – then merged something I had during my year in north Finland where I had such interesting food – to become my Meatloaf Pie. Guggy Cake was part of my childhood too – my mum made it almost weekly, so when I discovered an almost identical cake called by another two names in Shetland, I knew it had to be included. The Crowdie, Feta and Black Olive Muffins are based on a New Zealand savoury muffin recipe I got while over there and I incorporated a traditional Scottish soft cheese crowdie to add a welcome tang. ( Cottage cheese is also fine.) Everyone loves Fly Cemetery (dried fruit-stuffed sugar-encrusted pastry), but there are so many variations and one I’ve always loved is based on a recipe from Grace Mulligan that uses custard in the mix; she was a fellow Dundonian and fully aware of our love of custard -and anything baked in pastry.

How do you decide what to include and what to leave out?

Therein lies the problem…having done so many recipes in many books, I don’t like to repeat much, and yet I know that if I left out, for example, classics such as shortbread, treacle scone or cloutie dumpling, I’d have complaints. But, since this is a book that is hopefully a paean to Scottish baking NOW, I very much wanted to include things we see in the wonderful cafes and bakeries across the country. And so we have Pains aux Raisins (my version – not authentic!), Choc Chip Cookies and Raspberry Brownies, but also 18th-century Florentine Curd Tartlets, Oatcakes and Cinnamon Nablab. And I insisted on including the chapter on Cooking with Kids (and had to persuade publishers of its merit!) since I have 5 little grandchildren.

New Scottish Baking can be bought from Bookshop.Org. I may earn a small commission should you buy using this link.

Sue is appearing at the Tobermory Book Festival in October.

Proof that I love Sue’s cookbooks: