Made in Scotland, Lucky Tatties were a prized sweet for us kids back in the 60's. They were quite a size, solid white fondant covered in cinnamon powder. A bit more expensive than your average penny tray items, around threepence each, which meant you could be faced with a bit of a dilemma - do you buy 3 items from the penny tray or 1 Lucky Tattie?! What swayed the occasional Lucky Tattie purchase was that they had wee charms inside, usually a plastic animal or something like that, so they would be a long lasting sweet with a small reward for your efforts!My local sweet shop/newsagent, Stan's, sold them back then but I doubt if you'll be able to find them in your corner shop nowadays. I don't know when shops stopped selling them, but I can't recall ever buying any in the 70's, or anytime after. The good news is that there are specialist shops on the net you can buy them from, although they don't make them with the charms anymore.
Were they also called Tobermory Tatties.
ReplyDeleteWould you be able to sell children sweets with hidden choking hazards hidden inside them these days. Saying that I can't remember the streets of Lochee littered with dead children with brown powder faces.
Hee hee. Nor I. A wee sweetie shop next to Life Rd Primary sold them. My fav treat
DeleteI rememeber as I was one of those dead children..I seem to remember chocking on a wee cowboy on a horse and then it all went dark.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha - that's hilarious!!
DeleteYeah - as funny as a fart in a spacesuit ;-)
DeleteI used to love these.Last night they were discussing them on Radio 2.
ReplyDeleteI used to end up chewing the toys to bits.
Many a Scots dentist got rich on treating the results of eating stuff like this.
i was the owner of many a headless commando too :)
ReplyDeleteThe Sweetie Shop in the Keillor Centre had them the last time I was in, that was a while ago though!
ReplyDeletei saw them in fortes cafe in stobswell dundee. the other day .
ReplyDeleteLUCKY TATTIES STILL HAVE A DUNDEE CONNECTION.
ReplyDeleteTHEY ARE MADE IN AYRSHIRE AT CANDYCO OF TROON, BY MYSELF, WHO LIVED, WORKED AND PLAYED RUGBY IN DUNDEE IN THE 1970'S. THEY WERE ALSO KNOWN AS TOBERMORY TATTIES AND PEEDIE TATTIES BUT NO LONGER CONTAIN THE LUCKY CHARM OR IN MY CASE FROM MEMORY A LUCKY ONE CONTAINED A PENNY (UNWRAPPED). THEY ARE NOT MADE WITH FONDANT AS SOMEONE SUGGESTED BUT WITH SUGAR AND GLUCOSE AND ALLOWED TO "GRAIN OFF" SIMILAR TO EDINBURGH ROCK. THEY WERE ORIGINALLY MADE BY BAKERS USING MARZIPAN AS THE BASE.
Lucky Tatties in Edinburgh (late 50's)had the top prize of a silver thrupenny piece inside, I got one once. There was a tiny wee sweetie shop right at the top of Leith Street (a wedge shaped shop)next to old West Register Street corner. I remember them as costing tuppence each.
DeleteI used to luv lucky tatties. There's a drink called fireball which is Canadian whiskey and cinnamon and it reminds me of these-it tastes ace!
ReplyDeleteFrom:borntoshop
Please note that whisky in Scotland & Canada is spelt WHISKY, it's only spelt whiskey in Ireland & USA.
DeleteGot one if these in rizza's in huntly yesterday . Had never heard of them before . Quite good
ReplyDeleteI remember them as Tobermory Tatties - used to love them in the 60s - probably because they were almost 100% sugar! Anyone got any ideas why they were called Tobermory Tatties as there seems to be little or no connection with Tobermory?
ReplyDeleteHello, are you sure they were not made in the 50's as I can remember buyiny them before I went into the army in 1960 >>
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine Lucky Tatties were around for many years before the 60's, but Retro Dundee only covers the 60's to 80's period which is why they crop up as a memory from the 60's.
ReplyDeletehello, just saw this, history of Lucky Tatties goes way back to the 1890's,s, but were made by wives/mums. Mainly for there miner family members. First iv heard of them was from Fife pits. The men used them as a fail safe.. if there was a cave in, a grown man could last 3 days on them. Theres a story from before then that the workers on the Forth rail bridge had them to.
ReplyDeleteI don't know but could it be that the fondant was actually macaroon? That as I discovered is mashed potato and condensed milk, probably with loads of sugar too. Hence the tattie?
ReplyDeleteThe Lucky Tattie was made from a similar recipe as Edinburgh Rock and/or Berwick Cockles, whereas a Macaroon Bar is essentially vanilla fondant covered in dark chocolate & toasted coconut. Fondant is sugar paste and a home made macaroon bar is made from mashed potato (unsalted), vanilla then with as much icing sugar as you work into it until is about a stiff as Plasticine, then it's shaped & coated as above. The condensed milk sweetie you are mixing this up with is the Bounty Bar, essentially desiccated coconut and condensed milk.
DeleteDuring the 60s & 70s you could get fruit salads and black jacks for a farthing or 4 for a penny! Or we could have 'penny dainties' hard toffee made by McGowan. Too big and too hard to bite or chew and eat in one go, we used to break them on the edge of kerb stones to be able to eat them
ReplyDeleteThe connection to Tobermory is that legend has it that a Spanish galleon sank in Tobermory Bay with treasure onboard. The "treasure" in lucky tatties is the wee toy or charm.
ReplyDeleteI remember finding half a battleship in one,don't know where the other half went.I was a hungry kid.they were very chewy..........
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know how to make lucky tatties, its the white bit.. whats in it? i've got a massive craving for these!
ReplyDeletethe lucky tattie is made from a similar recipe as Edinburgh Rock or Berwick Cockles, but those are 'lightened' by the addition of bicarbonate of soda, here's my recipe:
DeleteIngredients:
1lb loaf sugar
pinch of cream of tartar
½ pint water
Flavouring and colouring (lemon, vanilla, raspberry, rose, ginger or orange)
Method:
Crush the sugar and put it into a saucepan with the water. Bring to the boil and add the cream of tartar. Continue boiling without stirring until a little dropped in cold water forms a hard lump. Put in the required flavouring and colouring and pour on to a marble slab. As the mixture cools, push the edges to the middle with a buttered knife. Dust with a little icing sugar and pull until the sugar looks dull.
Great, thanks. I last bought Lucky Tatties in Peebles about five years ago, but can't get them there now, so I will try your recipe.
DeleteActually, it was Galashiels I bought them, not Peebles. But when I went back a couple of years later, the shop that sold them was gone, unfortunately.
DeleteThey are great
ReplyDeleteThe sweet shop in West Linton, back in the '50s when I lived in Scotland. Didn't realise they were still available. Definitely not down here in Kent. I feel a quest coming on!
DeleteWent into Glasgow Town Centre yesterday,first time in bout 2yrs.
ReplyDeleteTook wee jaunt along in direction of trongate,
jumped into Wee hidden treasure of a shop situated at 117 Trongate:
MRS MITCHELL'S SWEET SHOP
been there for years, holds all the sweet delights from the good old days, but sadly no Lucky Tatties 🤧😁🤗🤣.
One of my favourites back in the 60's, but still managed to spend little fortune on other memories.
Will definitely head back soon check on the Lucky Tatties 😁