Scots Tablet - Definition and Overview

Scots Tablet is hard, sugary confection from Scotland. It is made from sugar, condensed milk, and butter, boiled to a soft-ball stage and allowed to crystallize. It is often flavoured with vanilla, and sometimes has nut pieces in it.

Tablet (or taiblet in Scots) has a long history. According to The Scots Kitchen by F. Marian McNeill, tablet is first noted in The Household Book of Lady Grisell Baillie in the early 18th century CE. The traditional recipe uses just sugar and cream. More modern recipes substitute condensed milk and butter for the cream, as it has a tendency to burn when boiled.

Commercially available tablet often use fondant instead of the milk products. This produces a slightly less granular texture to the traditional home-made tablet, and is supposedly much easier to prepare on a commercial scale.

Tablet differs from fudge in that it has a brittle, grainy texture, where fudge is much softer. Tablet is almost identical to Québécois sucre à la crème, except the latter is often made with maple syrup. It's also reportedly similar to South American tableta de leche. Another close relative can be found in the Netherlands that goes by the name of borstplaat and is eaten during the time that Sinterklaas is celebrated.

One commercial manufacturer, Glickman's of Glasgow, is famous for its menthol flavoured 'cough tablet'. This is an extremely acquired taste.

External Links

• Scots Tablet Recipe (http://purl.oclc.org/NET/scruss/scots_tablet)
• Glickman's Confectionery (http://www.glickmans.co.uk/)