An American woman has claimed to have solved the classic scone debate of how to add cream and jam to the British sweet treat.
Depending on who you ask, there are different ways to add the condiment combination to your scone. With the origins going back to 11th-century Devon and Cornwall, the two places each bicker about the right way of doing things.
The Cornish method traditionally involves spreading jam first, then dolloping a spoonful of clotted cream on top. Conversely, the Devon approach includes putting the clotted cream on first and then adding the jam. Across the country, people enjoy passionately defending their preferred method to prepare the baked good.
Taking to TikTok, the woman’s British girlfriend, Kirsty Leanne, posted a video of the pair during a trip to Fortnum and Mason in London.
She captioned the TikTok video with: “My American [girlfriend] thinks she’s fixed the age old British issue of what goes first and apparently it’s both at the same time.”
The video then shows her girlfriend scooping up the jam and cream at the same time on to her knife before smearing the two toppings together on one side of the scone.
This result in an evenly blended concoction that although appearing messy, had done the job.
In the caption, Kirsty added: “Problem solved, I guess.”
But the audience were not as on board as the couple, with the comments full of opposing statements.
One said: “Good job she’s not doing that in a public place. Imagine if she did that in a tea room!” Later learning the couple had been in Fortnum and Mason’s, they once again wrote: “And they let you stay?!!”.
Another added: “As a Brit the ‘debate’ never made sense to me. Clearly the only way to eat a scone is to put jam on one half, cream on the other, then shove the whole thing in your mouth like a sandwich”.
The cream/jam dispute subsequently resurfaced in the comments, with one person proclaiming: “Jam first, no exceptions.”
Another person disagreed: “The cream is a replacement for butter and goes first to provide a stable base for the jam.”
One person saw a silver lining however, and wrote: “Cornwall and Devon finally united in agreement that this is objectively the wrong answer.”