Enjoying
Enjoying: Burns Night
We’re celebrating Burns Night a little differently this year, here’s how.
Whisky and Burns Night go hand in hand as the famous poet was known for his love of a ‘wee dram’. For the past two years, we’ve hosted a sell-out Burns Night here at the distillery but obviously, that’s had to be paused this year.
However, to ensure we or our customers don’t miss out on the celebration, we thought we’d share all the necessities with you to host your very own Spirit of Yorkshire Burns Night at home. From tips on how to nose and taste, to cooking up the perfect Burns Night Supper (with a Yorkshire twist).
But… What is Burns Night?
Burns fame has surged in recent years giving rise to more Burns Nights than ever taking place all over the world. But it wasn’t just his linguistic skills that have written Burns into the pages of human history. His story is one of a true underdog, rising from an impoverished, bleak childhood in rural Scotland to the highest circles of society in his time. In true ‘rock star’ fashion burning out and dying young. Living life hard and fast like many of the greats, like a 15th century Elvis Presley.
Aside from poetry; Burns is perhaps best known for his love of whisky and a good old knees-up! As any good Burns historian will tell you he was far from shy when it came to having a drink and a good time. When you strip out the formality, this is what all good Burns nights are about, simply having fun with family, friends and a nice bottle (or two) of whisky.
First up, we need whisky…
Our Filey Bay Tasting Sets are the perfect tool for this virtual Burns night. Each set holds 3 different bottles of Filey each paired with their own tasting notes and an overall tasting guide.
Get yours here: https://bit.ly/FileyBay-TastingSet
Here’s a short video of Joe with ‘How to Nose and Taste
Now for the Burns Supper…
In Scotland, the haggis is the star of the show on Burns night. There’s a poem to ‘Address the Haggis’ as it enters the room on a silver platter with bagpipes in the background. As you can imagine, we do things a little differently with a Yorkshire twist which of course, includes huge Yorkshire Puddings and lots of gravy!
Here are some recipe suggestions that we use for our Burns Night Supper:
Haggis: For the recipe CLICK HERE, the spring onions are a yummy extra, just as great without too.
Yorkshire puddings: For the recipe CLICK HERE, we use 8-inch cake tins for our large Yorkshire puddings so that everything fits inside perfectly!
And on an extremely ‘important’ note, don’t forget the gravy (we use beef gravy).
Next up, a touch of Poetry before dessert
When it comes to reading Scottish poems with a Yorkshire accent, we’d like to think we’re at least not terrible…
Here are a few of our favourite Burns pieces:
The Belles of Mauchline:
In Mauchline there dwells six proper young belles,
The pride of the place and its neighbourhood a’;
Their carriage and dress, a stranger would guess,
In Lon’on or Paris, they’d gotten it a’.
Miss Miller is fine, Miss Markland’s divine,
Miss Smith she has wit, and Miss Betty is braw:
There’s beauty and fortune to get wi’ Miss Morton,
But Armour’s the jewel for me o’ them a’.
A few verses from Scotch Drink…
Scotch Drink:
Let other poets raise a fracas
“Bout vines, an’ wines, an’ drucken Bacchus,
An’ crabbit names an’stories wrack us,
An’ grate our lug:
I sing the juice Scotch bear can mak us,
In glass or jug.
Thou clears the head o’doited Lear;
Thou cheers ahe heart o’ drooping Care;
Thou strings the nerves o’ Labour sair,
At’s weary toil;
Though even brightens dark Despair
Wi’ gloomy smile.
When neibors anger at a plea,
An’ just as wud as wud can be,
How easy can the barley brie
Cement the quarrel!
It’s aye the cheapest lawyer’s fee,
To taste the barrel.
Last but not least, dessert.
The cranachan made by the girls at the cafe is arguable the best part of the event at the distillery. We may or may not go slightly differ from the recipe when it comes to the amount of whisky we add, but we definitely recommend using Filey Bay Flagship. The flavour of our delicious signature whisky really compliments the delicate cream and raspberries.
Here’s the recipe we use: CLICK HERE
And there we have it. You’re very own Spirit of Yorkshire Burns Night in the comfort of your own home. We’d love to see how you celebrate so be sure to send any pictures and videos to us at [email protected].
Enjoying