Oatcakes!

While reading Reay Tannahill's book Food in History, I was inspired by this passage:

"The plain flour-and-water flatbread still survves in many parts of the world, sometimes improved by the addition of a little fat, usually seasoned with salt. The Mexican tortilla and the Scots oatcake, the Indian chapati and the Chinese pao ping, the American Indian johnnycake and the Ethiopian injera are all direct descendants of neolithic bread, utilizing virtually the same balance of materials. It is mainly the difference in the basic grain--maize, oats, wheat, or millet--which makes the end products seem so dissimilar."

I researched oatcake and came up with a pleasing-sounding recipe. Alas, I didn't write down the author...

Oatcakes

2 cups oats, ground to a flour-like consistency in a food processor or blender

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups oats

2 tbs. oil

6-8 tbs. hot water (I used much, much more)

Combine the oat "flour," baking powder, salt, and 1 cup of the oats and stir. At this point you may add any combination of spices to the dry mix as you wish. I added a heaping pile of cinnamon and some ginger.

Stir in the oil and enough hot water to make a ball of dough. Be warned, add too much water and your dough will be sticky and unmanageable!

Divide dough in half. Spread remaining 1/4 cup of oats on a work surface and roll each ball around in the oats to coat. With a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a circle with a diameter of about 9 inches. Edges will be ragged. Cut each circle into four wedges.

To cook, place wedges on an oiled, floured baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, or at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, until firm and lightly colored.


These will be dry and a little bland, despite the spices. I put honey on mine, and many recipes recommend butter and jam as toppings.

Ryan described this as "poverty food," and indeed, any staple grain mixed with water and cooked in whatever manner has served as fare for the less than privileged for ages. My parents lived in Puerto Rico for a time in the worst of conditions, and survived on fried flour and water until they learned how to make "soup" in a popcorn popper.

I discovered Tannahill's book while researching Roman food a few years back. It is utterly fascinating, and a great companion to more in-depth studies of period food. I have a particular interest in Medieval cookery (which makes sense, me being a Medieval studies major), and if you, too, have even the slightest inclination to such antiquated and nerdy pursuits, do look into the following:

Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks--Hieatt

The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy--Redon

The Medieval Cookbook--Black

The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages--Scully

*This has been the Reading Rainbow portion of today's entry*