Oatcake variations exist based upon the different preparations in various countries and regions.
Great Britain Seen as a typically Scottish food item, oatcakes have also long been made elsewhere in Britain. Oatcakes may replace toast at breakfast in Scotland. Queen
Elizabeth II typically had Scottish oatcakes for breakfast and Walker's Oatcakes carry a
Royal Warrant. British Prime Minister
David Cameron named Scottish oatcakes as his favourite cake.
England The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce and Manufacture of the 1790s notes the bread of
High Furness being thin oatcakes, whilst in
Lancashire a
leavened oatcake known as riddle bread was made. The
Staffordshire oatcake is quite different from those from Scotland, being more of a pancake in form, containing a significant proportion of wheat flour along with oatmeal. In
Yorkshire, oatcakes are cooked from the bottom only, and the tops are bubbly in appearance. File:Oatcakes.jpg|
Staffordshire oatcakes File:Oat cakes in the Beamish Museum.JPG|Oatcakes at the
Beamish Museum in
Beamish, County Durham, England
Scotland In Scotland, oatcakes are made on a
girdle (or
griddle, in other forms of English) or by baking rounds of oatmeal on a tray. If the rounds are large, they are sliced into
farls before baking. Oats are one of the few grains that grow well in the north of Scotland and were, until the 20th century, the staple grain eaten in that area. Scottish soldiers in the 14th century carried a metal plate and a sack of oatmeal. According to contemporary accounts, a soldier would heat the plate over fire, moisten a bit of oatmeal and make a cake to "comfort his stomach. Hence it is no marvel that the Scots should be able to make longer marches than other men."
Samuel Johnson referred, disparagingly, to this staple diet in
his dictionary definition for oats: :A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.
Lord Elibank was said by Sir
Walter Scott to have retorted :Yes, and where else will you see such horses and such men? The texture may vary from rough to fine depending on how the oats are ground. Oatcakes may be slightly chewy or hard, depending on the water content and for how long they are cooked. Oatcakes were traditionally eaten with every meal as a major source of
carbohydrate in the diet. From the 19th century onward, they were commonly served to accompany soups, meat, and fish dishes. Today, they are sometimes eaten as an alternative to bread or toast at breakfast. Nowadays, many brands of oatcakes are commercially available, such as Nairn's, Stockan's, Paterson's, and
Walker's. Apart from those larger commercial manufacturers of oatcakes, there are many local bakers providing variations on the basic recipe. File:Girdledalgarven.JPG|A
girdle from
Dalgarven Mill near
Kilwinning in
North Ayrshire, used for baking oatcakes and other foods such as
bannocks File:OatcakesTrangia.JPG|Oatcakes being cooked outdoors File:Clapshot and oatcakes.jpg|Oatcakes (top) with
clapshot Wales In
Wales, oatcakes (bara ceirch) tend to resemble savoury
pancakes., or served in a streetfood sandwich called Cocos a Wya (cockles and eggs), with fried cockles and eggs served between slices of thin oatcake.
Ireland , just outside
Omagh, in
County Tyrone,
Northern Ireland, in a demonstration of their preparation Oatcakes similar to the Scottish variety are produced in
Ireland, in shared tradition with the Scots. Ditty's is a Northern Irish brand of oatcake.
Canada Scottish immigrants to the
New World brought the recipe for this sustaining food to
Canada. One such journey was
HMS Elizabeth, which brought immigrants to
Prince Edward Island in 1775. Caught in a storm just off the coast of the island, the settlers and crew all survived and made it to the island in
lifeboats, where they waited for three days for the storm to die down. When they returned to their ship to retrieve their possessions and provisions, they discovered that several barrels of oats were among the few foodstuffs that remained. The oats were full of sand and salt water, but that did not stop them from breaking out the frying pans and cooking oatcakes as their first meal in days. One settler wrote in his journal, "This I thought was the Sweetest morsel I ever Ate in my life though the Outside was burnt black and the middle was not half done". Oatcakes in Canada gradually moved from being a mainstay of the diet to being a part of afternoon tea. Sweet and savoury versions were developed, to be served with jam or cheese respectively. == See also ==