Skirlie is oatmeal fried in fat with onion and seasoning until it crisps, then served as a side dish or used as a stuffing for poultry. It comes from Scotland, it is particularly a north east thing, and on a Sunday in Aberdeen it arrives on the plate next to the beef whether you asked for it or not.
What goes into it
Four things: oatmeal, onion, fat, salt and pepper. That is the whole list, and the shortness of it is the point.
The oatmeal is pinhead or medium, the kind with some grit left in it, not the rolled oats that go into porridge. The fat was traditionally suet, beef dripping or lard, which is what a farm kitchen had to hand. Plenty of cooks now use butter, and there is no shortage of people making it with oil.
The method is as short as the ingredient list. Melt the fat, soften the chopped onion in it, tip in the oatmeal with the seasoning, then keep it moving over a low heat until the oats have taken the fat and turned a shade darker. They should still have a bite to them. Overcook it and you have oat dust, undercook it and it is raw.
Why it is called skirlie
The name comes from skirl, the Scots word for a shrill noise, in this case the noise the pan makes while the oatmeal and onion are frying. It is one of the few dish names that describes the sound of cooking rather than the result of it.
How skirlie differs from stuffing
People meeting skirlie for the first time usually reach for stuffing as the comparison, and it is close enough to be useful but wrong in two ways.
The first is the base. Stuffing in the English tradition is bread led, with herbs and often sausage meat through it. Skirlie is oatmeal led, and that changes the texture completely: loose and crumbly rather than soft and bound.
The second is where it is cooked. Stuffing goes inside the bird, takes on its juices and comes out in a lump. Skirlie is fried in a pan on its own and spooned onto the plate. It can be used as a stuffing for chicken, and it often is, but the pan version is what most people in Aberdeen mean by the word.
If you are looking for a closer relative, it is white pudding. Similar ingredients, a different treatment: white pudding is boiled in a skin, skirlie is fried loose.
Where it turns up on a plate in the north east
Almost anywhere there is gravy. A roast is the obvious one, beef or chicken. Mince and tatties comes with it. Haggis, neeps and tatties comes with it. Chicken Balmoral sits on it. It is a customary part of Christmas dinner up here, sitting on the table alongside the bread stuffing rather than instead of it.
The other common form is skirlie stirred through mashed potato, which gives the mash a bit of crunch and turns a plain side into something worth eating on its own. Oatmeal, an onion and a spoon of fat is not an expensive way to feed people, and that is a good part of why the dish is still here.
Travel south and it thins out fast. Ask for skirlie in a pub in the Borders and you may get a blank look. Ask in Aberdeen and the only question will be how much of it you want.
Skirlie at Cove Bay
We serve skirlie with our Sunday roast, alongside the Aberdeen Angus beef, the roast and mash potatoes, the seasonal vegetables, the Yorkshire pudding and the gravy. Being in Aberdeen, it has to be.
Our menu also carries a line telling you to ask your server what skirlie is if you're nae fae Aberdeen, which is there because the question gets asked most weeks, usually by somebody down for work who has just found something on their plate they cannot identify.
It is on the menu as a side dish in its own right at £2.95, next to the chips and the seasonal vegetables. People order it as an extra more often than you would expect, and not only the locals. You can see it with everything else on the menus page.
One practical note, because it matters to some people and nobody likes asking twice: the fat used in skirlie is what decides whether it is vegetarian. Ask us on the day and we will tell you straight. Allergen information is available on request, and our kitchen cannot guarantee any dish is nut free.
Trying it
If you want to eat skirlie somewhere it is normal rather than a novelty, a Sunday roast in the north east is the way to do it. We serve ours every Sunday from twelve through to eight, without the split service we run the rest of the week, in a restaurant that faces the North Sea at Cove, just off the Aberdeen ring road.
Booking ahead is worth it, particularly if you want a table by the window. You can do that online through the restaurant page or by telephoning us on 01224 897211.
The rest of what goes on a Sunday plate here, and the times, are on our Sunday lunch page. Skirlie included, obviously.
- Skirlie is oatmeal fried in fat with onion and seasoning, served as a side dish or used as a stuffing for poultry.
- The name comes from the Scots word skirl, the noise the oatmeal and onion make in a hot pan.
- It differs from an ordinary stuffing because it is oat based rather than bread based and it is fried in a pan rather than cooked inside the bird.
- Skirlie is strongly associated with the north east of Scotland, where it turns up alongside roasts, mince and tatties, and Christmas dinner.
- We serve skirlie with our Sunday roast and sell it as a side dish at £2.95.
Questions people ask
What is skirlie made of?+
Oatmeal, onion, fat and seasoning, and very little else. The oatmeal is usually pinhead or medium rather than the rolled oats you would use for porridge, and the fat is traditionally suet, beef dripping or lard, although butter is common now.
What does skirlie taste like?+
Savoury, nutty and a little coarse in texture, closer to a toasted oat crumb than to bread. The onion goes sweet as it softens and the fat carries the flavour of whatever it came from.
Is skirlie the same as stuffing?+
Not quite. Skirlie can be used as a stuffing for chicken and other poultry, but it is oat based rather than bread based and it is normally fried in a pan and spooned onto the plate rather than cooked inside the bird.
What do you eat skirlie with?+
Roast beef and roast chicken, mince and tatties, haggis with neeps and tatties, and Christmas dinner. It is also stirred through mashed potato, which is a common way to serve it in the north east.
Is skirlie vegetarian?+
It depends entirely on the fat. Made with suet, lard or beef dripping it is not. Made with butter it is vegetarian, and made with oil it is vegan. Ask before you order, because there is no standard recipe.