What makes the perfect scone?

And mine Abby. Cream and jam in Devon or Cornwall, butter and jam elsewhere. They are easy to make just before needed and the cheese variety go well with cream cheese or savoury dips.

I remember granny producing wonderful food from a kitchen that was tiny for the size of the house. I’m sure there must have been scones.

I wonder if your grannies made scones when they had sour milk to use up?

In the absence (as far as I am aware) of any published scientific studies it’s important to distinguish between highly plausible hypotheses and half-baked ideas.

“The difference between cream tea in Devonshire and Cornwall comes down to how its served. Both versions serve the same items: tea, scones, jam, and clotted cream. In Devon, the scones are split in two and topped with cream followed by jam. In Cornwall, the split scones are topped with jam and then cream.”i

Devonshire? Devon, surely, or should it be Cornwallshire? I don’t think the trans-atlantics have any right to pontificate on an important English matter such as this. In my experience cream teas generally arrive in components for us to use our diy skills and construct the cream tea of our choice in whatever order we choose – and they forget the butter. The Welsh seem to have it right – “Welsh cream tea
Featured snippet from the web
For the ultimate Welsh afternoon tea experience, head to the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre in Conwy. … Highlights include their Welsh Cakes made using the dairy’s homemade buttermilk, and warm-baked scones served with Bodnant’s handmade salted butter, clotted cream and Pant Glas jam. Divine!” What is in no doubt is that it should be clotted cream, not a white whipped-up confection.

You ought to contribute the morning jokes, Adam. 🙂

Hmph.

Devonshire, like Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, are original, but now little used, names for the two counties. Using them these days seems a bit pedantic and anachronistic. Although Cornwall is a shire county, I don’t think it was ever called Cornwallshire.

There has been no discussion of the best ‘jam’ to use in a perfect scone. I prefer raspberry conserve but I have not yet tried Marmite so I might have to revise my opinion. I agree that clotted cream is correct.

All ingredients – so far as practical – should be local to the point of service if consumed at a tea shop.

What is the best tea outdoors on a hot and sunny afternoon like today? To some extent it depends on the harness of the water. Locally, it was hailstones.

Hailstone water for tea sounds like another trend in the offing, like iceberg water – @ £84.99 (inc vat!) for a 750ml bottle (not a vat).
Here are the notes to discuss over dinner – or would you dare boil it for a cream tea cuppa?
https://www.aqua-amore.com/shop/svalbardi-polar-iceberg-water-still-water-glass-bottle-1x750ml-single-bottle/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqOmw0MrH5wIV14XVCh3XxQlCEAQYASABEgKQFPD_BwE

Technically, Devonshire is the correct name as it’s derived from the medieval Latin Devonia ‘Devonshire’. Devon is simply an abbreviation in common use. Cornwallshire has never existed.

Indeed, i was not making a technical submission about Devonshire nor suggesting Cornwall was….oh, never mind 🙂 We have a Duke of Devonshire – lives in Derbyshire and “ The Devonshire Association is dedicated to the study and exchange of information and ideas on all matters concerning the county of Devon“. According to Wiki, “Devon gets its name from the Dumnonii, a name that the invading Romans gave to the Celtic tribe in that area. … The name Dumnonii means “a person who lives in a deep valley”, and it comes from the hills and valleys of the area. The Roman army stayed in Devon for about 25 years. Their base was in the city of Exeter.”

A link to check out:
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flookaside.fbsbx.com%2Flookaside%2Fcrawler%2Fmedia%2F%3Fmedia_id%3D2192737524304376&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDevonsTopAttractions%2Fphotos%2Fhas-anyone-spotted-the-new-devon-welcome-to-devon-road-signs-yet-just-love-them-%2F2192737524304376%2F&tbnid=Q5P-ndRTU9I7jM&vet=12ahUKEwit5qaRkMjnAhUGgM4BHXfFCzgQMygKegUIARDnAQ..i&docid=5D7U6pwoepfXaM&w=759&h=431&q=welcome%20to%20Devon%20picture&ved=2ahUKEwit5qaRkMjnAhUGgM4BHXfFCzgQMygKegUIARDnAQ

wavechange wrote: “You ought to contribute the morning jokes, Adam. 🙂”
Ian wrote: “Hmph.”

I had intended to write: “You ought to contribute TO the morning jokes…”

One short word can make such a difference. Humble apologies, Ian.

🙂

Actually, I was in full agreement with you; often some of the add-on comments are funnier than the jokes. It’s astonishing how difficult it is to find three new jokes per day.

Since your jokes are often themed, maybe it would be interesting to find some examples of humour resulting from an unintentional in a sentence.

Getting back to our subject, I wonder if anyone has had a scone in Scone.

A fishcake comes close.

Hi Abby – It’s great to see you back.

Trade Descriptions Act, John? I thought it was the Sale of Scones Act that was relevant here.

Don’t denigrate rock cakes :-(. Visit the Torre Abbey cafe in Torquay and sample one of theirs with a pot of tea.

Of course! Silly me.

Game of Scones anyone?

Thanks for that recommendation, Malcolm.

There is something about the name of rock cakes that puts me off buying them. It’s all cupcakes in the teashops around here.

Steer clear of the granite ones.

National Trust also sell jam, as can be seen from the video. When you are a young lad it’s quite in order to feel food as well as taste it.

My shopping treat used to be warm buttered teacakes with honey and cinnamon. Much nicer than scones.

I think you might be on to something there! I put cream first 🙂

I would agree that Guernsey and Jersey cows milk makes the best clotted cream. Some Devonians might favour the county breeds but the numbers are probably so small that the milk is very expensive; it won’t have the high fat and protein content of the Channel Island breeds either.

Malcolm – do you prefer salted or unsalted butter? English, Irish, New Zealand, Danish or French?

I don’t really have a preference but normally buy M&S British salted butter. Oh, and their own clotted cream when I fancy something with (their) scone, and (their) strawberry conserve.

Have you thought about buying the company? 🙂

I remember when John pulled my leg for mentioning a favourite brand of electric shaver, and that was years ago.

This Conversation asks the question “What makes the perfect scone?” and I am afraid I have to disagree with Malcolm because I don’t think M&S do . . . . at least, not the ones I have tried and tasted from the bakery in the Norwich store. They are incredibly dense, quite salty and make me feel bloated only half way through. Generous dollops of cream and jam, or vice versa, don’t quite compensate.

I am not a great fan of M&S jam either; as with many of their food products, in order to be a little bit more distinctive I feel they tend to over-egg the pudding.

Thanks Vynor, I remember teas like that, not least at my gran’s house.

When we have family get together a form of high tea, rather than a “dinner”, is a very nice way of both avoiding the chef spending most of their time in the kitchen and also catering for all tastes, particularly if children are present.They usually take place at weekends and a little earlier than dinner time. Salad, quiche, meats, roll mops, hard boiled eggs, scones clotted cream jam and strawberries, cake……… almost any combination of goodies to select from.

Is high tea still a tradition in parts of the UK?

Vynor, you forgot the afters of fresh/tinned/bottled fruit and jelly, trifle or instant whip.🙄 And we always had to have something savoury like cheese, Marmite or meat/fish paste on our first piece of bread and butter/marge before we could tuck into the honey or home-made jam. If I go back home, tea has shifted to 6 o’clock and tea leaves are now tea bags, but the table still has to be laid with a tablecloth and the best china. Instant whip has changed to Angel Delight but their eating habits haven’t changed very much eating dinner and tea whereas we eat lunch and dinner. Judging by the shortages of tinned fruit, jelly and Angel Delight over the past few months, there must be many other folk with similar eating habits.

Scones – pronounced scownes were usually a summer mid-afternoon treat in the garden that I can no longer digest with cream. Scones were always home-made and sometimes the clotted cream would be too and we then had cooled boiled milk on our cereal for days.

I can’t remember the last time I ate a scone, but if I did, it would be topped with butter and blackcurrant jam.

We usually had tinned fruit on a Sunday and this was accompanied by evaporated milk. Occasionally the Nestle variety came in a tin and it was known to dip a secretive thumb in when no one was looking. No one seemed to get poisoned as a result. Blancmange was also available – scarce today, and there was milk jelly and junket which I disliked.

We sometimes find tiny presumably wild strawberries in the garden.

I have tried cooking a few dishes from Aussie Masterchef masterclasses cooked by the professionals who explain each step of the dish. The contestants drool over the results, but unfortunately, my efforts have not produced anything to drool over and have needed considerable tweaking to make them enjoyable. I followed the recipes exactly, replayed the recordings if necessary but came to the conclusion the contestants had to drool whether the dish was good or not.

Bought cakes were a treat when we were kids as they were nearly all home-made, a job I learned at a very early age.