Aberdeen Traditional Buttery - Arca del Gusto - Slow Food Foundation (2024)
Rowie
The buttery (or butterie), locally better- known as rowie is a speciality from the Aberdeenshire area, especially from the city of Aberdeen. According the Scottish National Dictionary, the first written mention of buttery was in 1899 when an Arbroath street-seller’s breadbasket said to have butteries.
It is a unique breakfast product which has a distinctive crispy, flaky, flattened structure similar to a French croissant but with a different flavour which is more pronounced buttery and salty. Its crisp shortness is balanced with a chewy elasticity. As part of breakfast or lunch it can be served with either sweet or savory items and can replace a bread roll served with soup.
The legend says that this product was developed to provide fishermen sailing from that port with a roll that would not go stale during a fortnight or more at sea. The secret was the abundance of fat which also provided the distinctive flavour and made the rowie doubly useful for the sea-goers in that they were a source of energy. In 1917, the Press & Journal and Evening Express detailed the threat to the rowie as a result of the introduction of war bread and pricing controls. It was banned for a period of time despite local bakers protestations that the Rowie wasn’t “bread” as defined by the regulations. Articles noted its manufacture is an important branch of the baking trade locally particularly in working class districts, where breakfasts consist of porridge and milk, followed by tea and a buttery rowie. Both employers and employees where likely to be badly hit by the prohibition and were encouraged to make representations to the Food Controller. This is a clear indication of the traditional butteries link to local food culture and heritage.
Unfortunately there are now industrial versions of this product (made of oil of palm) which are different from the traditional rowie. Also, the production and consumption is localised in this area of Scotland.
A staple part of any Aberdonian diet, Rowies, also known as Aberdeen Rolls or Butteries, can best be described as a salty flat croissant which is less flaky. Rowies make the perfect breakfast treat or accompaniment to your afternoon cup of tea.
Aberdeen butteries can be eaten cold and many shops, garages etc sell them pre buttered for anyone snatching an on the go breakfast. I love them toasted, buttered and with strawberry jam, washed down with a mug of tea. Chalmers bakeries make the best.
In the Middle Ages, a buttery was a storeroom for liquor, the name being derived from the Latin and French words for bottle or, to put the word into its simpler form, a butt, that is, a cask. A butler, before he became able to take charge of the ewery, pantry, cellar, and the staff, would be in charge of the buttery.
A plain loaf, slices of which are known in Scots as plain breid (pronounced [plen brid]), is a traditional style of loaf made chiefly in Scotland. It has a dark, well-fired crust on the top and bottom of the bread.
Since the discovery of North Sea oil in 1969, Aberdeen has been known as the offshore oil capital of Europe. Based upon the discovery of prehistoric villages around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don, the area around Aberdeen has been thought to have been settled for at least 6,000 years.
Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed two common nicknames for Aberdeen above – “The Silver City” and “The Granite City”. These nicknames both come from the stunning stone that the city is largely made up of – locally-quarried granite was used to build many of Aberdeen's most famous buildings.
If you describe someone's words or manner as buttery, you mean that they act insincerely complimentary or fawning. An old-fashioned meaning of buttery is "storeroom," like a pantry for keeping food or wine.
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