Scones: A Brief Overview

Scones are probably one of the single most iconic British foods around, an honour shared with the likes of crumpets, jellied eels, and pie & mash, to name but just a few. The traditional scone is made using a mixture comprised of either Wheat, Barley, or Oatmeal and Baking Power, mixed with butter and milk before being baked on sheet pans and slightly sweetened.

Occasionally, they are also glazed using an egg wash mixture. They make up one of the core elements of a Devonshire Cream Tea, a light afternoon meal which includes (funnily enough) tea, scones, and lashings of clotted cream and strawberry jam. A number of variations on the scone exist, with one of the most popular including raisins in the mixture before baking, or occasionally currents.

Some more eclectic variations on the scone include savoury scones (typically flavoured with cheese or herbs), griddle scones (which, as the name indicates, are cooked atop a griddle on the stove rather then baked in the oven), and lemonade scones (which use lemonade and cream in place of butter and milk, but otherwise retain the same cooking process); everyone has a favourite.

In addition to being an item of great national pride, the scone is also a point of great debate among us Brits; specifically, the pronunciation of the name, and exactly how they should be taken as part of a Devonshire Cream Tea.

In the case of the former, do you pronounce the name as if it rhymes with Gone, or as if it rhymes with tone? In the case of the latter, do you break the scone in half, apply cream to both halves and spread the jam on top, or do you spread the jam and clotted cream on the inside of the scone? Whichever way around you do it and whatever way you say it, you’re bound to annoy someone.

For me personally? Being the middle class lad that I am, anything other than scone (rhyming with tone) would be a national insult to my peers.