A Vegan Called Bacon

One of my half-baked cooking projects is to explore traditional Scottish dishes.  Ingredients-wise, this means root vegetables, oats, and animal products.  Lately, however, I’ve been thinking about the cooking methods.

It’s cold in the Highlands, and naturally people used to cook on an open fire which was constantly burning.  One-pot dishes like soups and stews, which could easily be re-heated, were convenient and tasty.  And baking was done on a completely flat, seasoned, iron plate, called a girdle (”griddle” in English).  There’s a picture of a traditional girdle in this description of traditional Highland “blackhouses”.

The simplicity of this way of cooking appeals to me.  According to the 14th century Chronicles of Sir John Froissart, a girdle and a bag of oats were standard issue army equipment:

Under the flaps of his saddle, each man carries a broad plate of metal; behind the saddle, a little bag of oatmeal: when they have eaten too much of the sodden flesh, and their stomach appears weak and empty, they place this plate over the fire, mix with water their oatmeal, and when the plate is heated, they put a little of the paste upon it, and make a thin cake, like a cracknel or biscuit, which they eat to warm their stomachs: In this manner the Scots entered England, destroying and burning every thing as they passed.

I don’t have anything nearly as interesting to say about these particular oatcakes, apart from they were very nice, and simple to make.  I couldn’t be bothered to do them all in my tiny frying pan (I’m on the lookout for a proper girdle), so I did them in the oven.  I suppose that if you cooked them on a girdle over an open fire, they would traditionally come out tasting of smoke.  Unlike mine, The Stripey Cat’s oatcakes include smoked paprika as an ingredient, an interesting idea that I’ll try next time.  Though if I’m really trying for authenticity, I should actually get a fire burning in the garden…

Scottish Oat Cakes

Ingredients
3C/250g oatmeal (basically, any rolled oats that aren’t too big)
a good pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1T melted margarine
hot water

Mix salt and baking soda into the oatmeal in a bowl.  Pour in the melted fat and mix around.  Add enough hot water to make a stiff paste, then briefly knead and roll out as thinly as possible.

Cut into triangles and bake on a floured tin in a moderately hot oven (400F/200C), until the ends curl up and the cakes are crips (about 20-25 minutes).

Cool somewhere suitable, and store in an airtight container.  Serve plain with a fine single malt; or with salty, savoury or sweet things.  Sodden flesh optional.