Staffordshire Oatcakes

What are oatcakes?

The North Staffordshire oatcake is a culinary delicacy that until recently, was almost entirely unknown outside of North Staffordshire, England.

Hundreds of thousands of these delicious delicacies are made each year, many from closely-guarded family secrets, and Potteries people love them.

Oatcakes themselves are quite healthy and are a good source of fibre, though the overall nutritional benefits depend on the accompanying filling. They freeze well and are probably the best microwave food in the world.

Simply roll up some grated cheese, cooked bacon, tomato, cooked mushrooms - or in fact anything you like - in an oatcake and microwave it on full for about a minute. You can also grill them, or eat them cold.

Sadly nowadays there are very few traditional oatcake shops left still cooking using traditional methods, and giving that authentic taste, but we are giving you the chance to try a truly traditional Staffordshire Oatcake.

A little history

Within the local area, oatcakes are usually something that is eaten from a young age, it’s quite surprising to find that people from other areas haven’t heard of them.
Whilst people from outside of the area will refer to them as Staffordshire Oatcakes, in the local area they are just known as oatcakes.

Oatcakes originated in the Pennine Moorlands, Within the area of the Yorkshire pennines some were recorded as early as 1674 with some of these being made of a pouring dough containing yeast or being started with the remnants of the previous mixture.

‘...In the Yorkshire Pennines, several different types of oatbreads were recorded as early as 1674’ some were made of a ‘pouring dough’ with yeast or left to sour with the remnants of the previous batch added in order to work.

By the early 19th century oatcakes on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border were made from a pourable batter. Within the Stoke-on-Trent/Potteries area oatcake shops eventually developed whereby the oatcakes were initially baked & sold from living rooms of terraced houses, this seemed to happen from the 1920s onwards, using the gas baxtons to bake on that we still see today. The word baxton, originates from ‘baking stones’ that were placed over fires to cook when the oatcakes were first being sold.

The ‘Hole in The Wall’ oatcake shop was one such shop. From the 1920s the shop opened in the living room of an end terrace house and remained there until 2012 when it was eventually forced to close due to an urban renewal programme which meant the premises were demolished. The oatcakes in this shop were sold through the window, rather than having an area for customers to enter the shop. It was the last example of this style of oatcake shop.

The oatcakes were hand poured onto the baxtons, which is still the case in our shop and may others across the potteries. When the Hole in the Wall shop closed we bought the baxtons and they are currently in use in our shop with the oldest believed to be around 100 years old. 

Throughout the later part of the 20th century a number of commercial oatcake makers have moved towards having machines to ‘pour’ their oatcakes, however we make ours traditionally and still hand pour and spread our oatcakes by ladle.  

Whilst Derbyshire oatcakes and Scottish oatcakes still exist, there were other areas around the pennines that also produced oatcakes similar to those in Stoke-on-Trent/North Staffordshire and one or two places just over the border in Cheshire. 

Areas further afield such as Skipton & Keighley in Yorkshire had oatcake makers, however this tradition seemed to die out between the late 19th century and the late 1960s. At one time Lancashire also produced oatcakes.

The North Staffordshire area is the only place where oatcakes have continued to be produced on a large scale.

Oatcakes today

The Staffordshire Oatcake went through a boom period, people lived locally, they shopped locally, they used the local public houses and the local Oatcake shop.

But by the late 1960's, people had more money, public transport improved and the car was available to more people. Supermarkets began to spring up, and suddenly people were given a huge selection of new and exotic foods to try.

Sadly this had an adverse affect on the humble Oatcake Shop and as bakers retired, less people were interested in taking on the Oatcake Shop from the previous generation and for 40 years there was a steady decline.

Fast forward to the present day however, and it seems there is an Oatcake revival! People are more interested in fresh produce, where their food comes from and understanding how it is made, and the internet has now made Oatcakes and Oatcake Mixes available to all.

 

The vast majority of the information here was researched and published by Pamela Sambrook in the book The Staffordshire Oatcake : a history, published in 2009 by Palatine books. I believe it is out of print now, but it is a great book if you are interested in learning more about the history of the oatcake and is sometimes available secondhand online. Other information came from; https://traditional-yorkshire-recipes.info/havercakes/