Top Scran

I had a friend once, boarding school educated (I thinks that’s relevant) who used to describe a good meal as ‘top scran’.

Definition from Dictionary.com

This is top scran.  It tastes good, and it’s mainly free. I foraged this wild garlic found alongside yesterday’s Top Dog.

Here’s a recipe: Simi’s Wild Garlic and Potato Curry.

An entry for April Squares #Top

 

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

55 thoughts on “Top Scran”

      3. They do a bit, but my muscles aren’t up to the task, so I have resigned myself to some losses, and just “ring the bells that still can ring”

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  3. Did you know it? I hadn’t heard it before my friend used it, but according to various dictionaries, it has several derivations.

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  4. Top scran! Yes, know it well 🙂 🙂 I have friends who regularly forage but I’m hopeless at it. They made a cheese and spinach pie the other day using wild spinach garnered from grass verges around here. They sent me a photo of said spinach growing but I still wouldn’t be sure I was pulling the right weeds 😦

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    1. You couldn’t live in France for six years without being a Top Forager. Mushrooms, walnuts, cherries, wild asparagus, chestnuts. You had to go equipped every time you left the house.

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    1. Yes, milder, and with plenty of body to make it a good addition to the dinner table. I stewed some down lightly to make a filling for a cheesy flan and that was good. Blue cheese would have been even better.

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  9. A bit of wild foraging, wonderful!

    Never heard of scran, another new word for the day. I’m learning lots of new words today in The Adventures of China Iron, as there are words scattered throughout the narrative of birds, trees, animals, types of men etc, a very engaging and humorous read!

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  10. Wish I had some wild garlic for the scran I’ll be preparing for dinner this evening…. glad to see you are out walking, plotting, and planning. Have a wonderful day.

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  11. Well both ‘scran’ and the wild garlic are new to me. I liked the curry recipe and am wondering what I could substitute for the wild garlic. Perhaps spinach and actual garliic?

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    1. No, once it emerges, it’s pickable within days and grows prolifically. Take a leaf or two from every plant, no harm done, and you have the makings of a dish in a couple of minutes.

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  13. My 1998 OED has: Scran – noun [mass noun], dialect food. ORIGIN early 18th cent. (denoting a bill at an inn): of unknown origin.
    I see wild garlic features along with nettles on a list of foods eaten by the Vikings. You look like you have a top supply in your locality and, unlike idiot me, didn’t think it was lily-of-the-valley growing in the wild. D’oh!

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