In the Bell household, the day revolved around oats and tea. The morning began with steaming porridge eaten standing or sitting "according to one's mood." The evening meal, high tea — typically Scottish and distinct from English afternoon tea — brought together a savory hot dish (often smoked fish or eggs), bannocks and oatcakes, jams, and a cake, all washed down with countless cups of strong tea. There was no "starter-main-dessert" order: savory and sweet coexisted on the table, and tea flowed from start to finish.

Oats are the soul of Scottish cooking: they thicken porridge, crunch in oatcakes, and toast to perfume cranachan. Alongside them, the smoke — that which dries haddock on the coasts of Aberdeen — gives the dishes of the North their salty, deep character that Bell would rediscover even in the kitchens of Boston.