Crowdy?

[tombear]

I've started reading one of Mr Brears excellent books, " Food in Northumbria". And decided to try Crowdy, a form of porridge.

To to this end I toasted about a pint of flaked oats, stirring it constantly in a dry pan until it darkened and gave off a lovely nutty smell. Then I ground it up in a mortar and pestle a few table spoons at a time ( which of course made it go lighter but I don't think that will signify) The receipts refer to fine meal, the first lot I made into, well, dust so I erred on the side of caution with the rest which I now suspect is too coarse. Easy enough to grind it some more but not so to put it back together.

Since you basically add boiling water and stir like mad its more instant and uses less fuel than other forms of poridge so if I like it it seams to me to be a ideal traveling ration. The meal could be also used to thicken soups and stews and like breadcrumbs for rissoles and such.

it was the decline in eating Crowdy that is attributed the loss of hardness amongst the agricultural workers by many according to Brears. You really didn't want to eat it without milk so when farms stopped paying folk in kind and went over to cash keeping their own milk cows declined as folk got money rather than pigs and cows to use. White bread and tea wasn't a substitute for Crowdy and milk for breakfast it would seam.

At harvest or shearing time, when there was no time for cooking properly, huge pots of the stuff would be made up, the stirring stick being so big and heavy that to make it easier to use it was suspended on a rope from the roof into the pot. When it was time portions enough for each five man were tipped into wooden tubs and sent out with 5 mugs of milk and five wooden spoons and the men would lay around the tubs and eat directly from it.

Any advice from those both sides of the Border who still eat the stuff gratefully rceived!

ATB

Tom

 

[Big G]

I've never heard of it.. but sounds nice I love porridge with a spoon of honey.

This sounds similar to : Chowder is often prepared with milk or cream and thickened with broken crackers, crushed ship biscuit, or a roux. Variations of chowder can be seafood or vegetable.

Thanks for posting.. interesting stuff

 

[mrcharly]

Would the oatmeal have been grounds groats or ground up rolled oats?

 

[tombear]

From what I've read the oats would have been grown on the farm and apart from winowing the chaff away be whole, like you'd take to a mill to be ground or feed to stock. In a later chapters on bannocks breads and oat cakes they describe the process of milling into meal and that's something separate. I've only got a small stock of whole oats so used the flaked stuff from ASDA.

ATB

Tom