Tablet is a traditional Scottish sweet which dates back to the early 18th century. If you’ve never had it before then you’ve been missing out for years! The texture is hard to describe; I’d say its somewhat like slightly grainy and crumbly fudge with a rich buttery and caramel flavour. To really understand it you’ll simply have to try it for yourself….
And on that subject I must point out that making tablet is actually quite nerve-wracking and fairly dangerous. It’s certainly the most dangerous thing I can remember ever doing in the kitchen. You’re required to boil and then simmer a pan full of molten sugar. The mixture will be simmering at approx 116C. Not that much higher than water, you might be thinking. True! But the sugar will stick fast to your skin and give very nasty burns. So, wear long sleeved tops (no naked chefs here!) and farm your children out for the day. They’ll thank you when they come home to a mountain of sugary goodness! (Telling them to stay out the kitchen won’t work; the smell is simply too enticing.)
With that said, I can now reminisce in good conscience. I grew up on tablet. I don’t mean it was a staple part of my diet though! I would always look forward to the summer as it was always sold at local fairs and my Granny’s next-door-neighbour Nettie (who clearly loved sugar as much as I do) would often make huge batches, especially if her grandchildren were visiting. My brother and I would run round to her backdoor and get a paperbag full of tablet for ourselves which we’d savour for hours. This would simultaneously horrify mum and the dentist. When I went to highschool I found that the dinner ladies would make up a batch every month and sell it from the tuck shop. Bliss!
Despite this deep-rooted love for tablet, I’d never made it before. Until yesterday that is. I’m still not sure why I suddenly decided to make some but I did and it turned out pretty well! Dave loved it and his taste testers at work seem to like it too.
After searching around for recipes I decided to use this one. Primarily because it had photos! Never having seen Nettie making tablet I had no idea what it should look like at each stage so I was delighted to come across a site with such comprehensive instructions!
I only have a couple of notes to add to this. I used a 24cm Le Creuset Cocotte (my largest pan) which worked well and was just large enough. The sugar will definitely at least double in volume when simmering, so you really need a huge pan. The downside to using a Le Creuset was that it was really heavy and it was impossible to scrape all the tablet into tin (unless you have Wrists Of Steel!). The tin I used to set up the tablet was a 13×9″ Swiss Roll tin which took the vast majority of the mixture. I think I could have actually fitted all of it in if I’d been brave – there’s certainly a couple of millimeters between the tablet and the brim of the tin. At any rate, I poured as much as I could into another tin and used the tablet in that to tide us over whilst the large tin set properly. Using a swiss roll tin will give you thick tablet. The size of tin specified in the recipe (at the very bottom) will give you very thin tablet which I always think is a bit mean.
Alas, I didn’t have enough unsalted butter for the recipe so I scoured the shelves in our Tiny Tesco and found some very lightly salted butter. This hasn’t made the tablet in the slightest bit saltyI didn’t have any vanilla pods (or indeed the patience to make vanilla sugar) so I simply added in a scant teaspoon of vanilla extract just before I began to beat the cooked tablet.
I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the tablet began to grain. I very conscienciously scraped the sides of the pot and incorporated all the crystals into the liquid mixture. I must admit I was relieved to not discover any nasty lumps in the finished tablet. The tablet grained initially around the edges of the pan and you can definitely feel it going grainy. Its like grains of fine salt and you can almost hear a scratching noise when you scrape the spoon over the bottom of the pan. I then whisked the pan over to the prepared tray and tin and poured out as much as I could. The remainder in the pan was scraped out a little later when it was firm but not solid. Thus my cocotte has survived its adventure!
Cutting the tablet today was an interesting experience. I wish that I had scored the tablet 10 minutes after pouring it into the tins as was suggested on some other recipes I read. I wound up using a tomato knife (small serrated knife) to cut it into decent sized squares. (Use a pallette knife as a size guide, it makes life so much easier.) It came out very easily once cut which was a relief. I was convinced that I’d have to chisel it out.
The texture is deliciously crumbly with a real melt-in-your-mouth aspect to it. I’d go so far as to say that its downright gorgeous! I’m sorely tempted to make batches of this as foodie Christmas presents this year….
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ooooh this takes me back to childhood
thanks for putting it in here
Tablet on Wikipedia
There’s now a rather short Wikipedia article on Scots Tablet. I also discovered, thanks to A Spoonful of Sugar, that there’s a similar South American sweet called tableta de leche.
I guess we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns, united worldwide with b…
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tablet! looks like it turned out well.
my teeth hurt just looking at that photo!
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Thanks Shauny! I’m not surprised your teeth hurt – its a dentists nightmare
I’m hoping to make it all last for at least a couple of weeks to minimise the damage to teeth and hips.
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Little dentist devil sitting on my shoulder screaming: DON’T!!! DON’T DO IT!!!!!!! Or wait, is that the angel?! Looks scrumptious!
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Delicious. The photo looks good enough to eat! Tablet reminds me of the Latin American – Tableta de Leche that my mother makes. It looks almost the same but is less grainy in texture, smoother. I am going to try out this recipe immediately!
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Marvellous stuff tablet. Although I seem to remember my Grandmother’s was lighter in colour, almost whitish I think. Could be wrong on that though. Whatever, I think I’ll give this a go. Thanks for the tips on cutting it.
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The tablet was indeed scrumptious, Zarah Marie! The dentist devil is probably absolutely right, but I think everyone should taste tablet at least once. You could always halve the recipe
Hey Nia! I’ve never heard of that Latin American sweet. Do you have a recipe? The tablet I made should probably have been grainier, but I was a bit nervous about beating it really vigorously.
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Hi Pieman – I cooked the tablet for a little extra so that I got the rich colour I remembered. You could cook it a little less (still to a softball stage) to get the colour you remember.
This recipe http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usrecipes/scottishtablet/ gives a very pale crumbly tablet. I suspect due to the tiny amount of condensed milk and using water rather than milk to loosen the mixture before cooking.
There are tons of different recipes out there, I just picked the one that seemed to resemble the tablet of my childhood
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two things puzzle me.
why isn’t there some electric tablet cutting gadget that would make you life easier?
and
why have i, a primate with a serious sweet tooth, never heard of this culinary joy? better late then never!
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Hi Monkey! Thanks for dropping by
I’m not surprised that you haven’t heard of tablet; it is rarely sold or made outside Scotland.
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well, i’m eager to try the recipe. i believe my dentist is eager for me to sample it as well.
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I am counting the days until this weekend when I can make this. I’m due for dental work anyway, so will postpone it until I’ve had a good go at this stuff. Thanks!!
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Mmmm wow! It does look gorgeous!
I hear tablet travels very well by post
hint hint!
x
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After visiting Scotland this past summer I’m eager to try to duplicate the wonderful tablet I had there. I’m especially fond of ginger tablet but can’t find a recipe. I plan to experiment with adding ginger to plain tablet unless someone can suggest where I might find a ginger tablet recipe.
The picture of your tablet looks wonderful, but I wasn’t able to open the link to the recipe. Could you provide the URL for the recipe, or include the recipe with your interesting comments?
Hello,I have come across a recipe for ginger tablet in the Good housekeeping cookery book dated 1951.2lb.demerara sugar 1/2pint water.1/2oz.ginger.dissolve the sugar in the water quickly,bring to the boil and continue boiling until temperature of 245oF.is reached.Cool a little and beat after adding the ginger
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Hi Roberta – the URL for the recipe is correct. It looks like there is a problem with the website itself or the server that it is hosted on. The quantities are:
1kg granulated sugar
1 tin sweetened condensed milk (full-fat, 405g)
60g unsalted butter
125ml whole milk
It’s the instructions and photos that really make the recipe though. I really wouldn’t recommend making it without them. The author’s email address is scruss@gmail.com – I’d suggest contacting him (Stewart, I believe). Good luck!
Hi Pauline, I’m sure it does travel very well but I’m not planning to make it again any time soon! It was most nervewracking….
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Thanks for finding and expanding on my recipe, Angela. I wouldn’t let the hot sugar put anyone off making it. I just wouldn’t want kids to make it unattended.
Sympatico.ca is a bit random at keeping my web pages online. I really must move it to my domain someday. I do have a permanent URL — http://purl.oclc.org/NET/scruss/scots_tablet — for the Scots Tablet recipe, which should be current no matter where I roam.
(Although I’m in Canada, I’m really originally from the southside of Glasgow.)
Looks absolutely wonderful!! Would you consider making a pan for a friend of mine in Britian? for a profit of course
hey there,
this is a great tablet…I live in nashville Tn. with a lot of Scottish people and we are always trying out new tablet recipes and also other scottish food that we grew up on…Thank you so much …
i think im going to try this recipe, normally i use my granny’s family recipe and was suprised to see how short a time you cook it for! when using my recipe its cooked in the pan for an hour or two, stirring occasionally on a low heat, i will get back to you and say which was best! thanks
can anyone help me?
I’ve made 3 batches of tablet in the last 3 days for a charity thing in work.
the first batch didn’t set, the second turned out perfect and the third is grainy and still a but soft.
I used the same ingredients for them all adn I think the same method.
what am I doing wrong?
Hey ive just made this tablet and it is just cooling now. with the help of the recipie suggested above i mananged to make this after tasting some the other week. I do reccommend using an absolutely gigantic pan as i panicked at one point when i thought the mixture was about to boil over!
Many thanks to everyones suggestions and tips on how to make this.
Awesome! This is the recipe that I used the last couple of times I made tablet – the first time it came out brilliantly but the second time was a bit of a disaster… I’ve made it my mission to make tablet that my granny would be proud of. Maybe someday… we can all dream eh?!
I am desperatly trying to make rum and raisin fudge for a competition. I dinna want to make it with choc chips, just the traditional way. Would I be right in saying that there is not much difference between tablet and fudge just the beating in the end?
Hi – I made some tablet last night, not this recipie tho, however pretty close. My question is what is wrong when it doesn’t set properly and tastes a little sugary, looks great, but it when I tried to take it out of the pan, the bottom was very soft – HELP I love tablet.
Lovely (and very sugary) sounding stuff! But I am a chicken and am scared of the very idea doing an episode of extreme cooking: sugar edition