Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Sowens. — Sowens is one of the national dishes of Scotland, made from the husk of the oat (called in Scotland seeds) . These seeds contain a good deal of farinaceous matter after they are separated from the oatmeal, and this matter is converted into a very nourishing and palatable article of food. In some of the northern towns of Scotland if thin sowens are drunk on New Year's Day morning, while "buttered sowens wi' fragrant lunt " is in rural districts the supper for Hallow-Eve. This dish is known in England, Wales, and Ireland as "flummery." It is very good eaten cold, and will turn out in a shape, making a kind of oatmeal jelly. To prepare it. soak any quantity of oatmeal seeda in a tub or large jar, and pour sow ( 908 ) SOY upon it twice its bulk in lukewarm water. Leave it for three or four days in a warm place till it turns sour. Pass the whole through a sieve, and squeeze the seeds, moistening them with a little of the liquor, to get all the goodness out of them. Let the liquor thus obtained stand till the starchy matter it contains sinks to the bottom ; then pour it off, and add fresh cold water. When the sowens are wanted, pour off the water, and mix as much of the starchy sediment with water as will thin it ; put a little salt into it, and boil it, stirring briskly all the time till it thickens. Pour it into a deep bowl, and serve with wine, beer, or milk. Sowens thus made will keep good for a week or more in winter. If a little that has turned sour be mixed with that which is to be freshly made, it will facilitate its preparation. Time, fifteen to twenty minutes to thicken the sowens. Sowens, English. — Markham, in his "English Housewife" (1653), describes a food called wash-brew, eaten in England, made of the very small oatmeal, by frequent steeping of it, and then boiling it into a jelly, to be eaten with honey, milk, wine, or ale, according to taste. " I have," says he, " seen them of sickly and dainty stomachs which have eaten great quantities thereof, beyond the proportion of ordinary meats." " The Scotsman," remarks Dr. Chambers, commenting on this passage, " can be at no loss to recognise in this description the sowens of his native land, a dish formerly prevalent among the peasantry, but now comparatively little known. To illustrate Markham's remark as to the quantity of this mess that could be eaten, the writer may adduce a fact related to him by his grandmother, who was the wife of an extensive store-farmer in Peebleshire, from 1768 to 1780. A new ploughman had been hired for the farm. On the first evening, coming home just after the sowens had been prepared, but when no person was present in the kitchen, he began with one of the cogs or bowls, went on to another, and in a little time had despatched the very last of the series ; after which he coolly remarked to the maid, at that moment entering the house, ' Lass, I wish you would to-morrow night make my sowens all in one dish, and not in drippocks and drappocks that way!'"