Sowans²

In the days of local mills, when the oats that had been winnowed and threshed were returned as meal, the miller always sent with it a bag of ‘sids’—the inner husks of the oat grain—to which adheres some of the finest and most nutritive substance of the meal. This was made into a kind of smooth pudding or gruel called sowans (Gael. sughan, pronounced soo-an), an ancient dish of Celtic origin. It has a slightly sour taste which some find unpalatable at first, but which usually ‘grows on’ one. It is a very wholesome and sustaining food, and is said to be an ideal diet for invalids, especially dyspeptics.