Brace yourselves for maudlin renditions of Kumbaya all day Saturday.
International rugby on the telly this weekend
Saturday 17th August
- New Zealand v Australia 08:35 Sky Sports Action
- Wales v England 14:15 Sky Sports Action & Channel 4
- South Africa v Argentina 16:05 Sky Sports Action & Sky Sports Arena
- France v Scotland 20:00 Premier Sports 1
Ovally Balls 
Thaum – just beware. Some bannocks are more like buns with dried fruit in them, like the Selkirk Bannock
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1129665/selkirk-bannock
and others seem to be more like soda scones/farls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bannock_(food)
LikeLike
Well, I don’t mind buns with dried fruit, but they ain’t comparable to soda farls. Will have to look closely.
As for cream/butter, well: I’ve never heard of anyone thinking of putting cream on a soda farl – although obviously it’s a nice touch on scones – but lashings of butter (preferably Irish) and a little marmalade are fantastic. Jam in a pinch, if no marmalade is available. Or they are also very good just hot-buttered.
Some perverts like ’em fried as part of an Ulster Fry, but my preference is for potato farls in a fry-up.
LikeLike
I think it’s just a regional name for the same thing, I was born about twenty miles to the west of Edinburgh and a baker there made these “white scones”, which elsewhere are called soda bread or farls or bannocks.
Scones ie the thing you might put jam and cream on in various quantities and orders are a whole different kettle of ball games
LikeLike
Etymologically speaking, ‘farl’ seems to be akin to ‘farthing’, which was of course a quarter of a penny, so it refers to the quartering process. So potato farls are also round things that are quartered.
LikeLike
You mean Tattie Scones, of course….
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1219633/potato-scones
LikeLike
White scones/farls toasted, with smoked back bacon and butter – ya bass
Breakfast of Champions
I’m not even going to go into the HP sauce debate, I’m for but I’d be happy enough without
LikeLike
If I felt like impersonating my mother-in-law then my go words with my put on Norn Irish accent would be “wheaten farl”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Probably, Ticht. There aren’t a lot of things in Norn Iron that people wouldn’t consider putting cream on, but soda (or potato) farls are some of them.
In Norn Iron, soda bread is something distinct; it’s a baked loaf. Also delicious, but much more cakey. And usually brown. More of a scone-like texture.
A quick google tells me that soda farls were a quick way to provide soda bread for unexpected visitors – so you fried it instead of baking it.
LikeLike
Pancakes (preferably newly made) with bacon – fried in the same pan.
LikeLike
I’m feeling really hungry now…..
LikeLike
BB – aye, those look quite like potato farls, although a slightly different colour.
CMW – a wheaten farl would be like a soda farl, only made with wheaten (brown) flour. Wheaten bread is an even more delicious version of soda bread. Also very cakey, best eaten with about half an inch of butter & some jam on it.
LikeLike
BB – mmm, everything tastes good fried in bacon grease.
LikeLike
And if I wanted to impersonate my late father-in-law I would then hold forth for the umpteenth time to the same people about how ‘wheaten farl’ and ‘soda bread’ are different things.
LikeLike
I was only back home about three weeks ago, and am already missing the food. The problem is that I have to put up with my mother when I’m there – although she does make an excellent Ulster fry and makes sure that there is a fully adequate supply of soda farls.
LikeLike
CMW – and he’d be absolutely right. As I’ve already explained. Completely different.
LikeLike
An alternative would be to announce that Machrihanish had the most hours of sunshine of any place in the UK today. Ideally to someone highly unlikely to ever have heard of Machrihanish. This was actually the first thing he ever said to me, hadn’t even introduced himself.
LikeLike
I’ve never heard of Machrihanish either, until now. Apparently it has a golf course. Trump probably wants to buy it.
LikeLike
Some American golf writer got very excited about one of the holes there so it is quite popular with them.
LikeLike
Was he a Scot? He sounds like a right character!
LikeLike
The father-in-law was Cumbrian but had spent a lot of time in places like Enniskillen and Omagh and was not the sort to allow people to think he hadn’t been paying attention while he was there.
LikeLike
Not many English people chose to move to Norn Iron in 1971, but as a way of getting the message across to your mother that you had no intention of taking over the family farm it was pretty effective.
LikeLike
Aha. From what you’ve said, he reminds me of my grandfather, who – despite being an engineer – had memorised pretty much every word Shakespeare ever wrote, along with a lot of other lit, and rarely spoke in normal sentences; nearly all his utterances were either quotations or spoonerisms.
For example, when I were a wee lass, I was spending the night in their slightly creaky and spooky house one night, and my granny sent him to wake me up in the morning for breakfast. A normal grandfather would have knocked on the door and said something like, ‘Time to wake up! Breakfast’s nearly ready!’
Instead, he sneaked into the room and up to my bed, and then bellowed in an Olivieresque voice (but with a Norn Irish accent), Sleep no more! Macbeth hath murdered sleep!
I still get the jitters when I think about it.
He was great. :-)
LikeLiked by 6 people
I look forward to a time down the line when my daughters will bring home boyfriends and I will be able to revel in making no effort whatsoever to put them at ease at least until I’ve had my entertainment.
LikeLike
Reading back, is Farl the new Karl?
LikeLike
CMW – ha. My grandparents had three sons and then a late (as in occurring later in life than expected, not dead) daughter, who is and was well canny, and mostly avoided that situation.
Iks – no, how dare you? The farl is holy. Both literally and metaphorically.
LikeLike
A google search turned up this for bran scones (via a Hibs fans website) – I’m going to give this a go
https://www.food.com/recipe/scottish-bran-scones-117596
LikeLike
BB, no need for cream/jam debate, ( jam first, obviously), drop scones hot off the griddle, butter, lemon curd.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s time for bed, but I will give you another grandfather anecdote.
In later life, he had some heart trouble that resulted in a quadruple bypass operation. He was sitting in his hospital bed, unshaven and having boaked a bit on himself, when a nurse came in to take his vital details.
– Mr McTurge, are you married?
– Why, are you interested?
After the operation, my mother went to visit him, asked him if there was anything he wanted (thinking of flowers, fruit, books, that kind of thing). Yes, he said. Half a brick and a strong length of twine
Apparently the Victorian swinging window in the room was driving him bonkers because it wouldn’t open to his desired amount, so he wanted to construct a counterweight.
LikeLiked by 3 people
@Iks – I had a feeling the answer to that would be “Never!” and there it is.
I do think the “Victorian swinging window” might be the new Karl though.
LikeLike
My granny (who gave me my dirty mind) would probably have appreciated the humorous potential of a ‘Victorian swinging window’. However, it seems less efficacious than a sash window.
Now NN.
LikeLike
I think Chek’s made the Victorian swinging window his own.
LikeLike
“There aren’t a lot of things in Norn Iron that people wouldn’t consider putting cream on…”
Farl?
LikeLiked by 3 people
@Iks – that’s what you should have gone for in the first place. This way you’ve explained the joke before telling it!
LikeLike
And it was such a good one, fried in bacon grease and everything, which is why I wanted you to have a deserved bask. Have a like anyway.
LikeLike
@ Ticht – Deebee, if you are ever in Scotland, as well as the “White Scones/Bannocks” which are basically exactly the same thing as farls, try a bran scone, it comes in a round but is scored before baking into four triangles
Will definitely give this a go.
@BorderBoy – my mum used to make drop scones, as well as English muffins, which toasted are wonderful.
LikeLike
So, to Headingley we go today! Scene of Botham and Bob Willis’s heroics to turn a 500-1-odds looming disaster into an unbelievable win. A ground that was a fortress for Australia for years – unbeaten there by England until 1956 in Tests. However, since then England have won 7 to Australia’s 5 with two draws at the ground, so we should be in for a humdinger. Against other opposition in recent years, England record is patchy at best:
Lost to the Windies in 2017 (5 wickets),
Beat Sri Lanka in 2016 (Innings & 88 runs),
Lost to New Zealand in 2015 (199 runs),
Lost to Sri Lanka in 2014 (100 runs),
Beat New Zealand in 2013 (247 runs)
Drew with South Africa in 2012
Curiously, this is the first Test between England and Australia in Leeds since the Aussies drubbed England by an Innings and 80 in 2009 – a full decade ago, for those of you still getting your brains into gear. What the stats also tell us is that Headingley is a results ground, with very few draws, but also that the margins of victory tend to be large – get in charge and you’ve got the game (unless something remarkable happens).
But more importantly, if you want to immerse yourself in the match, there is no better way to start than a proper Yorkshire breakfast
https://www.yorkshirelife.co.uk/food-drink/what-makes-a-great-yorkshire-breakfast-1-1780383
or scones for faint hearted:
https://deliciouslyorkshire.co.uk/recipes/traditional-yorkshire-scones/
followed by a couple of oatcakes for elevenses:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/aug/27/how-to-cook-perfect-oatcakes-recipe
as an appetiser for a full Yorkshire roast lunch (dinner? never know what to call it!)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roastbeefwithyorkshi_87605
or perhaps if you’re on the run and don’t have time for such luxuries, a Sunday roast wrapped in a Yorkshire pudding:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/you-can-now-sunday-roast-11235215
Whatever the meal, be sure to wash it down with loads of good Theakston’s Pale Ale, or perhaps a Timmy Taylor’s voted the best ale in the world in 2016. There, now that I’ve demonstrated my complete lack of knowledge of real Yorkshire cuisine, you can dig and kick me whilst I’m down.
LikeLike
So we’re finally sending Deebs for a bran scone? My bet is they don’t find anything there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bugger a comment in moderation – I think too many links. Here it is without hte links:
So, to Headingley we go today! Scene of Botham and Bob Willis’s heroics to turn a 500-1-odds looming disaster into an unbelievable win. A ground that was a fortress for Australia for years – unbeaten there by England until 1956 in Tests. However, since then England have won 7 to Australia’s 5 with two draws at the ground, so we should be in for a humdinger. Against other opposition in recent years, England record is patchy at best:
Lost to the Windies in 2017 (5 wickets),
Beat Sri Lanka in 2016 (Innings & 88 runs),
Lost to New Zealand in 2015 (199 runs),
Lost to Sri Lanka in 2014 (100 runs),
Beat New Zealand in 2013 (247 runs)
Drew with South Africa in 2012
Curiously, this is the first Test between England and Australia in Leeds since the Aussies drubbed England by an Innings and 80 in 2009 – a full decade ago, for those of you still getting your brains into gear. What the stats also tell us is that Headingley is a results ground, with very few draws, but also that the margins of victory tend to be large – get in charge and you’ve got the game (unless something remarkable happens).
But more importantly, if you want to immerse yourself in the match, there is no better way to start than a proper Yorkshire breakfast (look at the Yorkshire Life website) or scones for faint-hearted from delicious yorkshire dot co dot uk, followed by a couple of oatcakes for elevenses from Felicity Cloake on the Graun as an appetiser for a full Yorkshire roast lunch (dinner? never know what to call it!) courtesy of the BBC’s recipe site or perhaps if you’re on the run and don’t have time for such luxuries, a Sunday roast wrapped in a Yorkshire pudding:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/you-can-now-sunday-roast-11235215
Whatever the meal, be sure to wash it down with loads of good Theakston’s Pale Ale, or perhaps a Timmy Taylor’s voted the best ale in the world in 2016. There, now that I’ve demonstrated my complete lack of knowledge of real Yorkshire cuisine, you can dig and kick me whilst I’m down.
LikeLike
I was at the first day of the 2009 game to see England bowled out for about 100. Ravi Bopara played what was possibly the least convincing test innings ever.
Got to see Ponting get about 80, can still see one particular pull shot in my mind’s eye.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Got very pised and fell asleep in the toilet on the train back. Woke up in Scarborough and as it was the last train I had to get a taxi back to York.
LikeLike
Still pissed now judging by my spelling.
LikeLike
CMW – I’ve only been to Scotland once and spent most of the three days I was there ‘sampling’ whisky and various beers in a tiny village on the other side of the Moray Firth from Inverness. I did spend a couple of days in Edinburgh on the way back and I simply loved Scotland.
I have to confess though, at Edinburgh Airport they were having a celebration of haggis, which is not my thing (the texture, with the oats I find weird), but I bought about 3kg of the stuff because the lass selling it had jet black hair, deep blue eyes and that perfect skin you only find in gentler climes, along with a gorgeous Edinburgh accent. I was lost, reeled in with ease and sent packing happily on my way with a suitcase of the stuff I gave to my French neighbour in Epsom who loved haggis. I would gladly do it again!
LikeLike
@Deebee – I’d be concerned that if you do it again then your French neighbour in Epsom will start to expect it.
LikeLike
@CMW – nah, sold the place when my mum passed away. Helped put my son through Uni.
LikeLike
All those words about Yorkshire, and rain not mentioned once.
LikeLike
Morning!
T’eo to Toulon………………
LikeLike
@Iksy
“All those words about Yorkshire, and rain not mentioned once.”
Yorkshire is notoriously dry. Fivepenny Piece once did a song about pigeons in Dukinfield that mentioned it.
LikeLike
Iks, I’m trying to encourage lots of lovely cricket!
LikeLike
I didn’t know that, bah gum.
LikeLike
@iksy
the lyrics of Fivepenny Piece is an unimpeachable source of evidence.
LikeLike