About oats, oatmeal, oatcakes & bannocks
"Oats...The first traces of cultivation...date from about 1000 BC in Central Europe. However, the
Greeks
and Romans of classical times were unimpressed, regarding oats as coarse, barbarian fare; and the
Romans used them mainly as animal fodder, but did foster the growing of oats in Britain, where
they were
to become important as a food for human beings. Indeed, they became the principal cereal in
Wales and,
even more markedly, in Scotland...There seems to be an affinity between oats and people of Celtic
origin."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University:Oxford] 1999 (p. 547)
"The cereal grass which produces the seeds called oats originated as a weed in wheat and barley
fields, which was accidentally harvested with the main crop. In due course it came to be cultivated
in its own right in northern Europe, and was introduced to Britain in the Iron Age. The Romans
knew of it (their word for it was avena...), but only as a weed, or as a fodder plant--although
Pliny, anticipating Dr. Johnson, mentions that the Germanic peoples made porridge with it. The
word oat, which is a descendant of Old English ate, is a pure English term, with no known
relatives in other languages. The remaining Germanic languaves have interrelated names for the
plant...Oatmeal, the term for flour made from oats, was coined in the fifteenth century."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p.
229)
[NOTE: Oatmeal, ground oats mixed with milk/cream, descends from ancient pottage. These econmical, nutritious, belly-filling dishes
provided energy needed by hard working people.]
"Oatcakes made from oats (in the form of oatmeal), salt, and water, sometimes with a little fat
added, were
the staple food of the inhabitants of the Pennines and the Lake District in England and of the
Scottish
Highlands for centuries. In these upland regions oats are the only cereal which will ripen in the
cold wet
climate. Oatcakes...were also of some importance in Wales and Ireland. They remain popular, and
are now
generally regarded as a Scottish specialty...Oatcakes had some importance as festive foods,
especially at
Beltane (1 May, and ancient Celtic festival) and Christmas."
---Oxford Companion to Food (p. 546)
"There is evidence that oats were quite qidely grown in Anglo-Saxon England, on athylle (on oat hill) is recorded in 779...The bishop
of Worcester's oat land is mentioned in a boundary charter of 984. However, oats do not feature in dues and rents as wheat
and barley do...oats may have been used for human consumption: while Pliny was not complimentary about oats he noted they were made
into porridge in Germany. Giraldus was perhaps sensationalising matters when he commented that the whole population of
Wales lived almost entirely on oats. In times of dearth they may have been utilized quite generally, but they could have been a staple
crop in aras with damp, acid soils."
---A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production and Distribution, Ann Hagen [Anglo-Saxon Books:Wilton UK] 1995 (p. 23)
[NOTE: This book contains much information about oats. Ask your librarian how to obtain a copy.]
"The word 'bannock' covers several different kinds of foods: generally it refers to griddle or girdle
cakes
made with oatmeal, barley meal, pease-meal or with flour, but there is the Selkirk Bannock...and
the
Pithcaithly Bannock...which are sweetened tea-breads or cakes. From the earliest years special
kinds of
bannocks were made for every Highland quarter day: on 1 February, the Bonnack Bride (St.
Bride's
bannock) was cooked to celebrate the first day of Spring; the Bonnach Bealtain (Beltane
bannock) for the
first day of summer, Bonnach Lunastain (Lammas bannock) for the first day of autumn and the
Bonnach
Samhtain (Hallomas bannock) for the first day of winter. Bannocks were baked for a child's birth
(Cryin'
Bannock), and there was a Teethin' Bannock baked with a ring in it which was later used as a
teething ring,
and when the bannock broke each person present got a small piece of it. There were special
bannocks
fired for St. Columba's Eve, for marriage and for Christmas. Each one was a variety of
oatcake...some
made with eggs, butter, cream and sugar. Today many of these customs have died out but the
bannock
remains in several forms. If using a griddle then it must be warmed up before starting to
cook."
---Traditional Scottish Cookery, Theodora Fitzgibbon [Fontana Paperbacks:Suffolk UK]
1980 (p.
225)
[NOTE: This book contains recipes for Selkirk and Pithcaithly bannocks]
"Myths of oats have much in common with myths of wheat, barley, rye, corn, and other cereal
grains.
Grains generally were associated with fertility of the earth and soil, and served as symbols of the
earth's
renewal."
---Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews
[ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara CA] 2000 (p. 161)
About oats in America
"Oats were introduced to North America by early European explorers including Captain
Bartholomew Gosnold, who planted them on Elizabeth Island off the Massachusetts coast. The
Dutch grew oats in New Netherlands by 1626, and they were cultivated in Virginia prior to 1648.
Oats were generally grown throughout colonial America, mainly for animal feed, but Scottish,
Dutch, and other immigrants used them in their traditional porridges, puddings, and baked goods.
Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747 and subsequent editions)...includes
oats in recipes for haggis, flummery, and hasty and other puddings, as well as for cake. Similar
recipes were published in America throught the nineteenth century. Other oat recipes published in
the United States included Scotch burgoo, an oatmeal hasty pudding in which the rolled oats were
stirred into boiling water until the mixture thickened; gruel, which was a thinner porridge
frequently identified as invalid food; and oatmeal blancmange. Baked goods included Scottish and
English oaten cakes baked on a griddle, muffins made from cold cooked oatmeal, and bread and
biscuits, for which the oatmeal was usually mixed with flour, because on its own, oatmeal or oat
flour does not develop enough gluten to support rising bread. By the nineteenth century, grocer
stores sold oat products in bulk...In 1877, rolled oats were developed and trademarked by Henry
D. Seymour and William Heston, who had established the Quaker Mill Company. The product
was baked in cardboard boxes...In 1901, the Quaker Mill Company merged with other mills, and
became the Quaker Oats Company. Directions for cooking oatmeal were printed on the outside of
the Quaker box. These recipes, in turn, were reprinted in community and other cookbooks, and
oatmeal became more popular as a cooking ingredient. During the twentieth century many new
oatmeal recipes were published, including ones for soup, cakes, cookies, wafers, drops,
maracroons, quick breads and yeast breads, muffins, scones, and pancakes. Oatmeal was also used
as a filler and binder in meatloaf..."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford
University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 208)
"Rolled otats, or Oatflakes were developed in America by the Quaker Oat Company in 1877 and are made by steaming and rolling
pinhead oatmeal."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 547)
Oats as American health food
So? Where do oatmeal cookies (as we know them today) fit in?
"The first recipe I've found for oatmeal cookies appears in the original Boston
Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer (1896). Nineteenth century, to be
sure. But just
barely (in fact they were barely oatmeal cookies, containing only half a cup). I include oatmeal
cookies here because they did not begin routinely appearing in cookbooks until the twentieth
century."
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean
Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 482)
Ms. Farmer's 1896 
Have questions? Ask!
