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To read four verses of "Address to a Haggis" use the Burns Supper link. (Remember the "icht" word description as you will need it later in this page.)
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2
To read the original item as printed in blue here, and more pictures ,go to
http://www.wineantique.com/DEFINITIONS/about_quaichs.htm
Note 3
The reader is forgiven for not understanding the significance of "fingers". The upright whisky bottle was gripped and the new level of whisky after the portion was poured indicated the number of fingers to be charged.
Whoever wrote the article speaks about bringing the whisky to the table in a jug. Probably not as it could not have been 'fingered'.
As a passing remark, "whiskey" as in the web article, is not quite right when applied to Scotch 'whisky'. 'Whiskey' is generally taken as being Irish or not Scotch. The writer refers to Ireland in the original article.
It is a measure of the individuality of Scottish gastronomy that the writer is probably Canadian.
As good as the article is, there's a lot missing from it.
More on the "stirrup cup" without interupting the description above with a foot-note.
The quaich was the warming vessel for the drink given to visitors as they set out for home on horseback.
The Scottish name for it was "deoch-an-doris". Sir Harry (Henry) Lauder (1870 - 1950) was said by Winston Churchill to be Scotland's greatest entertainer. Harry Lauder composed and sang a song with the following chorus:
Just a wee deoch `n doris, just a wee drop, that's a' (all).
Just a wee deoch `n doris afore ye gang awa (go away).
There's a wee wife waitin' in a wee but-an-ben.
If you can say, "It's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht", ...
.... Then yer a'richt, ye ken.
The but-an(d)-ben was a small (wee) two-roomed house - but - the living room and ben - the bedroom. That was a development from the days when the family's cattle occupied the back room to generate heat to the front room in winter.
a' richt - all right
braw - fine
bricht - bright
Here's another illustration of the significance of the deoch-an- doris or deoch'n doris in Scottish gastronomic history. It's so well known that even in England, people sing the chorus.
The song begins:
Ah've bin wi' a coupla ma cronies
A yin or twa pals a ma ain
We went intae a hotel
An' we did very well
An' then we came oot once again
An' then we went intae anither
An't tha' is the reason ah'm fu'
We had six doch an' dorises
Sang a few choruses
Listen, ah'll sing wan tae you...
(Chorus)
I belong to Glasgow, dear old Glasgow toon;
But what's the matter wi' Glasgow,
For it's goin' roun' and roun'!
I'm only a common old working chap,
As anyone here can see,
But when I get a couple o' drinks on a Saturday nicht,
Glasgow belongs to me!
The quaich served as the drinking vessel in many partings and the deoch-'n-doris used whenever an excuse for it was invented - hence six of them in the song.
To wish deuch 'n doris in pre-modern public-house days was to wish love and kindness.
The choice of the quaich has led to plenty to digest. Scottish gastronomy is like that.
There's nane like us.
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Another perspective of the quaich is given by Andre Simon [1}.
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In a chapter on wooden drinking vessels, Simon introduces the reader to "mazers".
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. . . of all the drinking vessels in use in mediaeval England, mazers were ... the both the commonest and the most highly prized ...
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Mazers were mostly made of maple wood ... were in common use [in England] from the beginning of the thirteen century until the last quarter of the sixteenth , ...
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In Scotland, a form of mazer known as a Quaich was still in use as late as the eighteenth century [2]. It was a small circular cup .... provided with two, and sometimes three handles, called "lugs" which made it safer to pass the Quaich from hand to hand: for there were many homes in the Highlands, in the seventeenth and even in the eighteenth century, where there was but one Quaich for the whole family to use in common [2]. There were, however, , some quaichs used by the well-to-do in castle or city ... ornamented with a silver band and [in the bottom] a ... flat round disc of silver repouse work. [3]
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1
See Andre Simon elsewhere in this overall website. Use the "Gastronomy for All" link via Return to website link at the top left of this page .
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2
This is further support for the notion that Scotland was at least a century behind England in gastronomic development. More detail is available as my book on Scotland's food and hospitality history has been posted on this overall website.
Go to the main website via the link above and use the Haggis link
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3
Andre Simon, Drink, 1948, Burke Publishing - London; pages 203,204