MINCE ROUND

MINCE round, a lovely Scottish comfort food, makes a relatively late appearance in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), where it is described as a “round pie of flaky pastry, encasing mince”.

The first written example in DSL comes from the Herald of December 1996, which reported that three Scotmid shops in Edinburgh were “supplied on November 6 with pies, bridies, sausage rolls, mince rounds and steak pies”.

However, as early as June 1927 mince rounds were cited in the activities of the New Pitsligo WRI reported in the Aberdeen Press and Journal: “... A demonstration on a ‘Minced Round’ was given Mr Andrew Strachan, baker, the lecturer gifting the finished article to the Institute.”

By April 1935 the Falkirk Herald was advertising mince rounds to busy housewives as a time-saving meal: “Spring cleaning? Why worry about cooking when you can order from Fisher’s steak mince rounds at 9d and 1/42”.

Later, Scotland on Sunday (2001) reported: “Funny to think, but there was a time when there wasn’t veggie nachos. It was the early Seventies before Grangemouth came to realise there was a world beyond the staple fare of … stovies, sausage rolls, bridies, mince pies, mince rounds and mince and tatties…”

Changing tastes notwithstanding, the mince round remains popular. On January 23, 2022 (National Pie Day) The Sunday Mail stated: “We have a proud tradition of baking pies in Scotland, from the mutton version enjoyed at a football match to the classic mince round.” An enduring classic indeed.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.