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Daily Life

Food

Oatmeal was a main food for the Scots. Usually it was cooked and eaten as a hot cereal called porridge. Oatmeal was also made into oatcakes, cooked on a griddle.

The Scots also ate bread, potatoes, various fish, and pork. Many Scots enjoyed lots of seafood, such as lobsters, crabs, oysters, mussels, and clams. They kept dairy cows to supply milk. Tea was a favourite drink.

Recipe

Oatcakes

Makes one large oatcake, the size of a dinner plate, or four small ones.

Ingredients

125 g oatmeal
a small amount of additional oatmeal, for kneading
a pinch of salt
10 mL melted fat (bacon dripping is good)
approximately 65 mL hot water
a pinch of baking soda

Directions

• Mix the oatmeal with the salt and the baking soda in a mixing bowl.
• Make a depression in the middle and pour in the melted fat.
• Stir, then add enough hot water (about 65 mL) to make a stiff paste.
• Cover a board or table thickly with oatmeal in order to keep the paste from sticking to the surface. Turn out the oatmeal mixture and roll it into a ball. Knead well with hands covered in oatmeal, to prevent sticking.
• Roll out oatcake, till it is 6 or 7 mm in thickness.
• Sprinkle the oatcake with a little meal; cut it into quarters.
• Bake in a moderate oven (165º C) for about 20 minutes.

Recipe take from: The Scottish Canadians, by Allen Andrews. (Toronto: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981), P. 48