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Scotch Oat Cake

A simple oat cake made with coarse meal, bacon fat, and boiling water, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Scotch Oat Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine the coarse meal and salt.

  2. Rub in the bacon fat until well mixed.

  3. Add boiling water to form a stiff paste.

  4. Knead in enough oatmeal until firm.

  5. Roll out into a very thin round cake using your knuckles.

  6. Cut the cake into quarters.

Bake

  1. Bake on a griddle or in a 300°F (150°C) oven until hard but not colored.

  2. Heat the griddle over the fire and sprinkle with flour.

  3. When the flour browns quickly, place the cakes on it, turning once with a knife.

  4. To keep them white, rub with fine meal and dry in the oven or by the fire.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Coarse meal
Forms the main body of the oatcake, giving it its structure and grainy texture.
Bacon fat or dripping
Adds fat that shortens the dough, making it tender and crisp rather than tough.
Boiling water
Hydrates the meal and starch so the mixture binds into a stiff, workable paste.
Coarse oatmeal
Used for kneading to stiffen the dough so it can be rolled thin without sticking.

The step that matters

Rolling the cake very thin. A thin round dries out and sets crisp during baking, while a thick one stays doughy inside. Even thickness also lets the cakes bake through evenly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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