A bridie or Forfar bridie is a
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
meat
Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...
pasty that originates from
Forfar,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
.
History and preparation
Bridies are said "to have been 'invented' by a Forfar baker in the 1850s".
[Gow, Rosalie. ''Modern Ways with Traditional Scottish Recipes''. Pelican Publishing, 1981. p. 30. .] The name may refer to the pie's frequent presence on wedding menus, or to Margaret Bridie of Glamis, "who sold them at the Buttermarket in Forfar".
Bakers in Forfar traditionally use
shortcrust pastry for their bridies, but in other parts of Scotland,
flaky pastry is sometimes substituted. The filling of a bridie consists of
minced steak, butter, and beef
suet seasoned with salt and pepper. It is sometimes made with minced
onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...
s. Before being baked, the bridie's filling is placed on pastry dough, which is then folded into a semi-circular shape; finally, the edges are crimped. If the baker pokes one hole in the top of a bridie, this indicates that it is plain, or without onions; two holes means that it does contain onions, a convention which is applied also to a
Scotch pie.
Cultural references
The bridie is the subject of the
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
Scots shibboleth
A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwor ...
, "''Gie iz twa bridies, a plen ane an ingin ane an aa''" (Give me two bridies, a plain one and an onion one as well).
Forfar Athletic Football Club, who play in the
Scottish Professional Football League
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As ...
, have a bridie as their mascot.
See also
*
Scotch pie - the most common pastry snack in Scotland
*
Pasty - Cornish equivalent
*
Turnover (food) - a sweet or savory filled pastry
References
{{British pies
British pies
Savoury pies
Scottish cuisine
Forfar