Bodges Staffordshire Oatcake Tutorial (pic heavy)

[Andy2112]

Bodges oatcakes are bang on, i ate one made by the oakcake king himself a while ago with bacon and melted cheese in. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[AJB]

I forgot about this thread, I now have some rising in the kitchen - thanks for the effort

 

[Wallenstein]

Is the bacon pre-cooked before it's rolled into the (cooked) oatcake?

Then some cheese and 2 mins back on the griddle for meltage?

 

[AJB]

Just made my first batch - wonderful - feel sick now, which is always a good sign.

(And yes mate, I should pre cook the bacon)

 

[addo]

Is the bacon pre-cooked before it's rolled into the (cooked) oatcake?

Then some cheese and 2 mins back on the griddle for meltage?

Yeah, as you say 2-5 mins depending on heat, turning once or twice.
I find stripey gridle pans burn the oatcake, but flat pans preferably non stick cast ones, are the best.

 

[Melonfish]

weekend experimentation set and ready to go!
sweet. i already have all these ingredients too!
i'll let you know how this goes

 

[Dangerous Dan]

Hmm, fried porridge. You, Bodge, have a lot to answer for.

Apologies for dragging up such an old thread but made these for the first time today and figured it was worth resurrecting.

True to form, I ignored all the measurements and went for the 'bung-it' approach - a couple of handfuls of this, slightly less of that and add a pinch of the other.

Restrospective analysis suggests it was something like:

180g Oats
80g Strong White Flour
1.5 tbs Milk Powder
2 tsp Yeast
1 tsp Sugar
300ml water

+ 300ml and 1tsp Salt once risen

Either way the results were truly divine, I may have found a replacement for my usual camping staple of tortilla wraps.

Thank you!

 

[Bodge]

Hmm, fried porridge. You, Bodge, have a lot to answer for.

Apologies for dragging up such an old thread but made these for the first time today and figured it was worth resurrecting.

True to form, I ignored all the measurements and went for the 'bung-it' approach - a couple of handfuls of this, slightly less of that and add a pinch of the other.

Restrospective analysis suggests it was something like:

180g Oats
80g Strong White Flour
1.5 tbs Milk Powder
2 tsp Yeast
1 tsp Sugar
300ml water

+ 300ml and 1tsp Salt once risen

Either way the results were truly divine, I may have found a replacement for my usual camping staple of tortilla wraps.

Thank you!

Looks good

 

[swotty]

Brilliant....why haven't I seen this before!?!?! I haven't had oatcakes since I was living near Stoke a good few years ago and used to work near a great oatcake shop where we'd have many a hearty lunch!
I'll have to give this a go on the weekend.... Thanks

 

[Robson Valley]

Must try that! I think I'd need grape jelly from my own vines.
Bodges' formula is almost identical to one I use for soft tortillas!
Instead of the oats, I use half and half cornmeal and buckwheat flour and a little more water, no milk.

 

[tombear]

Ok, here's a dumb question, what size, in fluid oz, ladle full makes a standard sized, call it between 8 and 10 inch diameter, oatcake?

The thing is I've been doing a bit of research on the ladles they used back when oatcakes were standard fare all over the north. Once I have the wood I'll make one but the dimensions I have are to make the huge jobs that they made in farm kitchens, up to 18 inch across. I'd like to make a scaled down version as well to make "modern" oatcakes so I need to know the volume. From that I can get someone brighter than me ( not hard to find ) to work out the diameter of a hemisphere for me to turn. Saying that, one of the original, probably 18 th century, ladles I examined had a flat bottom turned into it although the ladles bottom was still rounded to facilitate using it to stir the poured mixture and spread it out on the bakestone.

I said it was a dumb question...

i will be making oatcakes again but with the local Tescos selling them I've been sooooo lazy. That and there being 5 of us and all greedy, have to make loads at once.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Just measured the ladle that I use = 1/2C = 4 floozies. I get a "tortilla" about 8" across x 1/4" thick from thin batter.
I'll guess that the oat cake batter is much more viscous. Shake the pan with 8oz should give you what I see posted here.

Dang but they look good. Experiment later today. I'll presume that "strong" flour has a substantial bread wheat gluten content. Yes?

 

[Robson Valley]

Tombear: the volume of a sphere is 4/3 x pi x r^3. 1C is approx 250ml.
a) if the diameter of the sphere is 10cm, V = 523.5ml.
b) if the the diameter of the sphere is 12cm, V = 904ml.
c) if the diameter of the sphere is 14cm, V = 1436ml.
The volume is going up very quickly with the cube of the radius.

I suggest that the volume of a hemisphere (with an inside diameter of 12cm and 6cm deep) will be about 450ml to the brim [(b) divided by 2.]
That's a bit less than 2C/16 oz.

So a blank of diameter 14cm x 7cm, turned with a wall thickness of 1cm, will be very generous for measuring oatcake batter.

 

[Robson Valley]

Well, the verdict is in = excellent. Bodge rules. With the original recipe, I got 9 x 1/2C measures, running 2 pans, about 8" diameters.
Mine looked like the others posted in pictures here.
Being a heathen from the colony, some condiments were explored as 2 of them were demolished:
Brown sugar and cinnamon = so - so.
Aunt Jemima pancake syrup = not again. Possibly a petroleum derivative.
Canada #1 Fancy Maple syrup = quite good, not as sweet as you might expect.
Birch syrup = costly but heavenly. There's a birch smokiness on top of the oat taste.

I do quite a lot of yeast baking. I'm not so sure that Baking Powder would yield a flavor as the yeast activity does.

 

[Bodge]

Great stuff

Sent from my battle droid.