|
|
|
|
MacleanNet |
an informal meeting place for MacLeans Worldwide |
| |
|
|
| Forres Bakery Wins World Meat Pie Championship |
|
| Last February, meat pie chefs and enthusiasts alike made a pilgrimage to the Glasgow College of Food Technology for the 4th Annual World Scotch Pie Championships. The competition - open only to Scottish bakers - saw 65 entries in the pie division, 56 in the bridies division and 123 in the "savoury section" which includes everything from Beef Wellington to haggis-and-neeps pie. |
| Scotch pies were traditionally made with mutton, but today the preferred ingredient is beef — from Aberdeen, if possible. According to chief judge Robert Ross, it takes a lot to make a winning pie: "Appearance! Crisp! No fat on the lid, moist on the inside but not too moist and a nice peppery flavour, but not too peppery. It takes great skill and I will disqualify anything that comes in a foil case!" |
| This year's winner was Lewis McLean whose family pie shop is on High Street in Forres. He broke the run of Aulds of Greenock, Renfrewshire, who had won the previous two years. |
|
| |
| The Olympics of Stone Skimming |
|
|
| Every year competitors gather at Easdale, a tiny island off the west coast near Oban, for the World Stone-Skimming Championships. This past October, 214 entrants from nine countries skipped stones across a water-filled quarry as hundreds of spectators cheered them on. |
| The men’s competition ended in a tie, with Alisdair Judkins, a temporary island resident from New Zealand, and Guy Bishop from England both skipping stones off the quarry’s back wall. |
|
| Other competitions went to Scots: Shona MacLean won the women's event with a skim of 33 metres; Chris MacMahon captured the juniors with a throw of 51 metres; and a local lad, Alan Laycock, took the Under 10 division with a world record toss of 49 metres. The annual event raised £1,100 for the Island Community Funds. |
|
| Extracted by Pat & Jim McClean, Oregon, USA from "Scottish Life" Spring 2003 edition. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
