clootie dumpling a Scottish speciality which is a sweet pudding steamed in a ‘cloot’ (cloth). A whole clootie dumpling—the best known of these sweet dumplings but not the only one—is of a round, flattened, ball-like shape, weighing anything from 115 to 900 g (4 oz to 2 lb), but the product is often sold in cut slices. Standard ingredients are flour, breadcrumbs, suet, dried fruit, eggs, treacle, spices, sugar, and milk, with a raising agent and often with some apple or carrot.
The clootie dumpling can be regarded as the sweet version of haggis, the savoury pudding boiled in a sheep or pig’s stomach bag. Using a cloth or linen cloth instead, the sweet pudding mixture was made originally as the Scottish alternative to a celebration fruit cake for holidays, birthdays, and during winter solstice celebrations, known in Scotland as the Daft Days.
