Sawing a spurtle

[tombear]

BTW in what way does a flattened form spurtle work better with oatcakes than say a spatula/fish slice sort of kitchen implement? Is there an advantage? I only ask because I wonder if there is some refinement behind a particular specialist tool that led to it's shape. I find the idea of incremental design improvements in tools and how the changes happened (like the stone tool developments that came about due to development of language - source a recent paper on experiments on transmission of knowledge of toolmaking or at least the media reporting of said paper).

Oh yes, the definately work better, at the moment I use some big catering palette knives ( which are a similar shape) when I do oatcakes or other stuff on the bakestone/girdle. A wooden spatula s way to thick to get underneath easily when flipping and a fish slice is way too short unless you are doing really small stuff. All it really is a specialist spatula but since I'm into the historical cooking/ social history I thought why not? There's some other related kit ill make as I get the right wood.

atb

Tom

 

[Toddy]

Look up (did you not already do this ?) bannock spades

Tartan….
Tartan is a specific match of threads, it's not just checked. So many of the so-called 'tartans' are just checked fabrics. Twill woven certainly, but not tartan. E.J.W. Barber who wrote the book about the Tarin basin European mummies edited her comments and blamed much of the dispute about her writings on the pressure to be published. It's an old argument.

The earliest textile that we have surviving in Scotland came up from the underwater excavation on the Fearnan Crannog in Loch Tay. It's checked, 2:1 twill woven, but we can no longer distinguish the original colours. Dated to c500 bce.
Predating both those cultures mentioned earlier.
As I said, tartan is a development of checked twill woven cloth.

Sorry for the total thread hi-jack.

M

p.s. Son2 makes his porridge in the microwave too

 

[Fraxinus]

Days like this make being at home with a bad back almost enjoyable, thanks Tom.

Rob.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Very nice work, glad you didn't have any mishaps.

 

[tombear]

Yup, managed to break nothing this time!

Next I fancy making a oatcake peel. Should take about 10 mins on the electric fretsaw and belt sander once I can find a suitable piece of oak or elm. I've been trying to find pics of Lancashire examples but had no joy so far. Plenty of pics of Whelsh ones and the odd Yorkshire one.

By the by,since its been a while since I made any, what size of ladle do I need to make for a typical oatcake? 8oz? 12?

ATB

Tom

PS. aye Mary, I'm still looking for a bannock spade. I could try and make one cut out of thin sheet but a proper forged one would be much better. You just don't see them down here

 

[tombear]

Just written to every vaguely likely museum and historical society in range of a Day Rover bus ticket to see what oatcake making equipment they hold. Hopefully they have digital lists of what they hold so I'm not messing anyone about.

The sad thing is while I have everything to make my own, the local Tescos stocks Staffs oatcakes so ill go and buy some!

ATB

tom

 

[Goatboy]

Haggis….pretty much British to be honest, just still made up here longer.
Anyway, spurtles useful things

M

I'd always thought Haggis had Greek roots? Certainly the first recipes and mentions of something similar were said to be of Greek origin. A bit like Stovies having a French entomology from étuvéé (steamed or braised).

Anyhow, the spurtle looks like it's coming on braw and hopefully will soon be turning many an oatcake for eating with your stovies! (A marriage made in heaven!)

 

[British Red]

The world is full of 'meat off cuts stuffed into intestines and cooked'. Pretty much all societies have them, so I doubt there is a single authentic recipe or origin. It always makes me smile that there is supposed to be only one correct Cornish party recipe. In truth I'm sure every household made them the way they liked.

 

[Goatboy]

Very true, pretty much every culture has come up with their own type of "Cornish pastie" type thing. The Greek thing was just the first written down version that's been found so far as far as I've read. (Whereas the Scottish haggis evolved on the high mountain side, hiding out in the short heather!

 

[Toddy]

I agree really. Anyone who slaughters an animal they've reared makes the most of the beast, and all that inner tubing is awfully useful to stuff with minced up bits and pieces.
Haggis though, it isn't sausage, it's a boiled meat pudding kind of thing, and do they make black pudding elsewhere too ? what about our mealie puddings ?

A lot of it's down to climate again; we live in a damp bit of the world, even a cured ham will go mouldy if not kept somewhere like up the lum Dried sausages that keep for yonks abroad wouldn't do so here, but sealed under fat like potted hough or boiled up like puddings and the water used for stock for broth or soup….and there's the original British peasant diet. Add in some form of porridge and bread, fruit and sallet and it's pretty healthy really. If folks manage a bit of cheese and fish through the year too, then it's a good diet and flexible enough that if one crop fails, then something else can be used in it's place.
British cooking only went downhill when we hit the Industrial Revolution and folks were divorced from their country roots and foods. We're by that though, and we should know better by now.

M

 

[Goatboy]

Aye black pudding is eaten in lots of other places, places like Spain & Sweden are famous for it. Not so sure on the mealy (white) pudding though. (And Red pudding seems to be a particularly East Coast Scottish thing). Did you know that there's a vegetarian Black pudding out there? The blood & fat are substituted by beetroot. (Never tried it though).

 

[tombear]

Cheers! I will admit I had to look up stovies, and guess what we will be having for supper! Since its the soft Staffordshire/Darbysh' oatcakes we like, which involve messing about with yeast and leaving to stand etc i made a quick bannock in the oven while I cleared up the kitchen. I'd found a pound bag of barley meal that needed using up and a nearly empty (small) sack of oats so it was mainly those with caster sugar ( another near empty bag ) and sultanas ( ditto ). It rose lovely and I had a 4 inch stop for my dinner with best butter. We have to hit Tescos later anyway and they usually have Stfafs oatcakes in.

I'm in mild shock how much flour of how wide a variety we ( ok I ) have amassed. So with the surfaces clear for once and the new ( to 'me ) kenwood chef in need of some exercise I think I'm going to be baking quite a lot this week!
But for now I think I've had enough faffing in the kitchen and will find something to turn for a bit.

ATB

tom

 

[Toddy]

Stovies is good food

Himself insists that link sausages are added to his since his Mum made them that way, but my Mum made them using the end of the roast and the gravy and jus from it.
Every household has it's own recipe I reckon

I'm a good vegetarian, but it took me a while to make good stovies I could eat, with big chunky slices of the huge Winter carrots, simmered long and sweet and savoury
I've just had brunch, and I'm hungry again. I made soup last night, but I'm in the notion for Stovies too now.

M

p.s. Tom, Pan haggerty is the NE of England name for something very similar, I think.
p.p.s. No it's not, that's done in cheese sauce while stovies are done in gravy/jus with maybe a bit of grated cheese on top if there's quite a lot in the fridge.

 

[Goatboy]

Aye stovies is truly a wonderful food, though everyone has their own way of doing them I dislike ones made with a tin of corned beef, that's corned beef hash, no stovies. I'm with toddy and they were used to use up the scraps and juice of anything we'd had as a roast (which was pretty rare), though they can be made with left over mince of chicken too. Have been known to make luxury stovies when the mood takes me, will by some cheaper meat like lamb chops or the likes, roast 'em off and add the juices and some of the meat too the pot. Though traditionally for the poor there wasn't that much meat in them anyway. Veggy stovies are nice though, great on a cold night. The old climbing bar in Glen Clova used to do braw stovies for the climbers when we came off the hill, sitting by a roarin' woodburner with a pint and a massive bowl of stovies while your socks dried out, heaven - and if you got snowed into the bar all the better. (I'm in the mood for a white pudding now though Toddy, haven't had one in yonks.

 

[Toddy]

Classic 'the fire's on, keep something simmering while it heats the house' type food
Like dumpling
Pain in the neck to cook in a centrally heated house nowadays though; it steams up everything but with a real fire and a cran and a pot simmering away, the steam just goes up the lum with the smoke.
I'm going to re-do my kitchen sometime, and I'm going to pester until I get a cooker hood that actually sooks steam outside the house this time.

I like (and I make a decent vegetarian one) white puddings. I like the texture of the grains in them. My Granny used to make mutton ones like those too.

Y'know what makes good stovies if you haven't a roast and it's juices ? a bit of boiling bone for soup, hough or the like, or oxtail.
If you've a pressure cooker, then cook it long and slow until the meat falls off the bones and the juice sets into jelly. Break the meat apart and season it really, really, well with black pepper, salt if you like, herbs of choice, and stew the tatties, carrots, etc., in that mix of meaty bits, jelly and jus.
I know some folks like corned beef in it, but I don't actually know anyone who makes it that way. I suppose it could be handy at camp though

M

 

[tombear]

Well, that's me starving. We've wolfed down 3/4 of the bannock , must have weighed more than three pounds just out the oven ( more like a giant scone but denser to be honest ) so I've zip locked the last of it so herself gets some befor we go shopping. Must hit B&M to see if they have any really big plastic bowls for rising in, I experimented with putting the last one on the plate warmer at the side of the oven and it sort of melted.... My two biggest Mason Cash mixing bowls died in the same week and I've not seen any big ones that weren't duff in the charity shops yet, I begrudge buying them new and recently production was in the far east I think although it may have one back to the uk.

In the mean time I took the power saw and a razor sharp Estwing hatchet to th last big piece of seasoned hawthorn to make a pestle for that giant stone mortar I dug up out back. Unfortunately by the time I'd hacked it into a straight piece ( there was a curved to it and various flaws ) it was narrower than I'd hoped it would be. Anyroad its on the lathe now and I've roughly turned it down until it is round.

I'll shape it and smooth it down tomorrow.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

The snow came down the lads were sent home from school before mid day and I finished turning and sanding the hawthorn pestle. Due to the flaws in the wood and a natural curve I had to chop out its a bit thinner than I hoped it would be, its just over two foot long and about 2 inch at its widest. It's swallowed a vast amount of walnut oil and will get more.

Well it was good practice, Perhaps I need to get a small cannon so I can use it as a rammer!

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

I scrubbed the giant mortar and the pestle is dwarfed by it! Oh well, ill have to turn a wooden mortar to fit it.

i think I will have to score a write off bowls ball for the lignum vitae and turn a head and make ash handle to fashin a pestle pretty much shaped like a carving mallet with a longer handle.

i've arranged to visit the Rochdale museums service reserve collection in a couple of week to view some 18th .C oatcake making gear, take photos, measurements etc. As well as stone bakestones they have three ladles which greatly resemble the one in the 1814 illustration of a Yorkshire women making oatcakes. They have a distinctive shape and I'd like to reproduce one.

To get some practice in making ladles I had a go today on a piece of beech that was in the wood pile.

The insides a bit rough, next time I will finish the insides completely first as I didn't leave enough thickness in the walls so when I went back to sand the scratches out there wasn't enough meat left. You can actually see through one area the woods that thin. There isn't a hole , but it was a close run thing.

ATB

Tom

 

[British Red]

Absolutely adoring the ladle!

 

[Clouston98]

Cracking work Tom!