Scroggin - and not the high energy fruit/nut mix!?

Question

I have an old hardback recipe book, from about 1945, comprised of recipes sent by readers into The Farmers Journal of that time. It's really interesting, there are some amazing recipes (rook pie with figgy pastry, anyone?!).

But what has always intrigued me is the Scroggin Cake. It's a proper cake, with flour/sugar/fat; and the fruit element is a fruit called a scroggin. You even top and tail it, according to the instructions. So perhaps it's a gooseberry, or a currant.

But I would love to know! I have done several web-searches, with no luck.

I think perhaps it's a regional name; does anyone remember their grandparents or great grandparents talking about picking or eating scroggins?

Answer 1

try your local museum or ask an old person someone that was around in 1945 a woman in her 70's is likely to know about cooking in that period (old enough to cook 60 years ago) but your unlikely to get 70 year olds on answers

Answer 2

Scroggin is a snack invented by New Zealand trampers. It is similar to Trail Mix (or "Gorp").

It has been suggested that the name scroggin is an acronym, taken from the first letter of eight ingredients:

* Sultanas
* Chocolate
* Raisins
* Orange peels (candied)
* Ginger (crystallised)
* Glucose (generic candy, such as barley sugars)
* Improvisation or imagination (i.e. the chef is supposed to add a favorite ingredient)
* Nuts (any kind, so long as they are not salted)

However, this could be a backronym, and the assumption that "scroggin" is an actual acronym may be a folk etymology (as is likely the case with gorp).

These ingredients can be anything desired, but traditionally they must have chocolate, raisins, and nuts. Dried fruit, such as dried apricots, dried apples and banana chips, plus sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds are very popular inclusions in these mixes.

The idea behind Scroggin is to have an energy-packed mix of anything you want, kept in a waterproof bag which the consumer dips into when in need of an energy boost.

Answer 3

my grandfather always use to say that scroggin was the apples that had fallen from the trees but he also said that it was a name in the 1950's for a measure of mixed dried fruit which contained apple amoungst others i have a smililar cook book of his and i have found the best way to do it is to try different things or go to the mrs beaton web site and post a message on there as there is a program on tv at the moment about all her recipes
may help hope it does

Answer 4

A scrog, in Scots or Northern English Dialect is a wisened crab apple, so a Scroggin may be an Irish derivation of this.
It is also described as a shrubby bush, so your theory about berries may be just as good.

Answer 5

My guess is that it is something in the family of muscadines, wild fox berries, or maybe even persimmin berries... maybe it was called a scroggin because while out harvesting them they fell off the trees and hit them in their noggin!! Sorry but this is the best that I could come up with at the moment!

Answer 6

The scroggin Bondi is thinking about is a snack from New Zealand! I am trying to find out what it is for you & will update later if i find it!

Answer 7

Scroggin is an acronym for a number of ingredients, and is why high energy bar is named it, because it contains those eight ingredients

Answer 8

It's an acrostic of the ingredients:
sultanas
chocolate
raisins
orange peel (candied)
ginger (crystallised)
glucose (barley sugars or the like) (I have no idea what this is)
imagination
nuts
Enjoy!

Answer 9

in 1945 there was food rationing and they had to use what was available it probably mean whatever fruit you you could get hold of (bits of this and that) i don't think its a actual fruit name

Answer 10

Never heard of it in NYC