Bone-in ban threatens Shetland delicacy

23 April 1998

Bone-in ban threatens Shetland delicacy

MASS flouting of the Governments beef on the bone ban is expected following
a decision by a sheriff to dismiss the first case against a Scottish hotelier.

The Scotsman Diary asks whether we are likely to see a reprieve for Reestit mutton, which is a Shetland delicacy traditionally made by crofters from home-killed sheep, whose meat, very much on the bone, is salted, and dried over a peat fire before being reconstituted via various boilings into a soup.

Acquiring the correct cuts for the delicacy is impossible under the current ban, which insists on the heads, spleens and spinal cords of all home-killed animals to be dyed blue and taken to a registered slaughterhouse for veterinary inspection.

• The Scotsman 23/04/98 page 19 (Diary)