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Hatepe (R.I.P.)
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Posted -
15/12/2004
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22:11
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Does anyone remember the oatcake man who had a shop at the bottom of Barkerhouse Rd., Nelson and who hawked oat cakes round Kelbrook, Earby and Barlick, mainly in the pubs and clubs for that wonderful drinking man's delicacy "STEW and HARD"????
My father-in-law kept the Stone Trough Pub for over 21 years and the racks in the kitchen were festooned with soft oatcakes drying to make the "hard" for the stew and hard.
The "Stew" was a concoction of meats, pigs feet or a cow's foot and a touch of gelatine, peppers and salt, that were boiled for ever and ladled into basins to "set".
Commercial Travellers would congregate daily at dinnertime for a Gill of ale and a stew and hard and walk out smacking their lips.
My mouth waters at the thought of an oatcake with thick slices of stew and raw onion and a pint of Tetley's bitter beer. Food of the Gods!!!
Unfortunately we cannot get oatcakes in New Zealand, but from time to time I make the "Stew" and eat it with an oat biscuit similar to "hard", the missus thinks I've got summat wrong with me, just shakes her head and says "Who the hell eats that kind of tucker....???"
Aye Hatepe
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Another
Traycle Mine Overseer
6250 Posts
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Posted - 24/06/2008 : 19:02
I've just come across this on the Cowling.Web site
"Oatmeal Cakes Secret Daily Mail - Monday 20th January 1941 Supplied By: Tony Vardy of Belper, Derbyshire. Feb 2008 VILLAGE TELLS By Daily Mail Reporter COWLING, Yorkshire village, which is just 100 years ahead of Lord Woolton in his appeal for the use of oatmeal, says, with care, any housewife can achieve skill in making oat cakes. Its secret of success hint is always have a hot oven. All this district has been famous for oat cakes for generations. They used to call them "haver cakes." Oat cake in Cowling is thin, pliable, and tasty. They make oatmeal scones, too, and melt-in-your-mouth oatmeal biscuits. Mr. Fred Snowden, a member of one of the old families, told me yesterday how rolled, with butter and cheese in the middle, they once made the staple midday dinner for nearly every worker. Recipes But oat cake can be made this way : Four ounces fine or medium oatmeal, one teaspoonful melted dripping or bacon fat, a pinch of salt, a pinch of baking soda, and a little hot water. Mix the oatmeal, soda, and salt and make a well in the centre and add the dripping and enough hot water to make a fairly stiff mixture. Put plenty of meal on a baking board, roll the mixture fairly thin, and bake in a hot oven. For oatmeal scone add some sugar, a little flour, and a little more fat. For oatmeal biscuits take five ounces flour, seven ounces oatmeal, four ounces margarine, one egg, quarter teaspoonful of baking powder, one teaspoonful sugar, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Add the beaten egg to the dry ingredient, make the dough fairly stiff, roll on a well floured board, put in greased tins and bake for 15 minutes. "
http://www.cowlingweb.co.uk/local_hisoty_information/oatmeal_cakes_secret.html
Nolic
" I'm a self made man who worships his creator" |
skooch
Regular Member
102 Posts
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Posted - 24/06/2008 : 19:21
I laugh every time I hear 'Do you know....'
It reminds me of the (one of the, it seems to me, funny) lines in Shrek - I think it was Shrek (so many kids films.....) Something like this ...
Q. 'DO you know the Muffin Man?
A. 'The Muffin Man.... the Muffin man?'
Q. 'Do you KNOW the Muffin Man .....Who lives down Drury Lane?'
A. 'YES, I know the Muffin Man! Q. 'The Muffin Man? The Muffin Man?
A 'YES! I know the Muffin Man! He lives down Drury Lane!'
Sorry - edited - I got the whole thing wrong first time.
Edited by - skooch on 24/06/2008 10:12:05 PM
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skooch
Regular Member
102 Posts
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Posted - 24/06/2008 : 19:24
Oh, I suppose you had to be there!
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moh
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Posted - 24/06/2008 : 20:08
I remember that!!
Say only a little but say it well |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 25/06/2008 : 08:06
It's far older than Shrek, it's an old nursery rhyme.
Comrade, I begin to think there are more recipes for otcakes than oatcakes.... The ones I have seen made, the thin ones for stew and hard, didn't need rolling, the dough was thin enough to pour and thats why they had that distinctive oval shape. By the way, 'haver' is the Old English name for oats, hence 'haversack', Havre Park in Barlick etc.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
skooch
Regular Member
102 Posts
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Posted - 25/06/2008 : 08:37
I know that!
It's just the way it was handled in the film - as part of an ongoing conversation - I don't think it was sung. V funny.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 25/06/2008 : 17:30
Sorreeeeeee.... Hides under desk after logging off.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Sue
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Posted - 25/06/2008 : 18:02
I had a medieaval recipe for oatcakes. I remember looking it up when I was doing the local history course 2 years ago
Sue
If you keep searching you'll find it |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 26/06/2008 : 06:54
Bits of stone grit in the oatmeal?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Julie in Norfolk
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Posted - 26/06/2008 : 08:35
"By the way, 'haver' is the Old English name for oats, hence 'haversack', Havre Park in Barlick etc. "
Hafer is German for oat so here we go another step with origins of words.
Measure with a micrometer. Mark with a pencil. Cut with an axe. |
allotmentgirl
Regular Member
82 Posts
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Posted - 28/02/2010 : 21:07
I used to work for Stanleys crumpets when I was a schoolkid I used to do 7.30-8.30 in a morning before school packing crumpets. Betty Wordsworth used to make the oatcakes and fling them onto the hot plate with a right weird contraption that had wheels on with a cloth going round and it was suspended over the hot plate...she use to put 2 ladels of the mixture then push the trolley contraption down the hotplate and it made 2 long oatcakes. when they had cooled we used to then dry them out on racks to make the 'hard'. We also made crumpets, muffins, scotch pancakesand potato cakes. All Yummy. The process of making the crumpets etc probalby was no different to 100 years previously , it was brilliant to see the process and the taste of those crumpets was streets ahead of mass produced crumpets. It was a sad day when Betty decided to shut down, I remember filling my freezer with her produce. We used to have stew made from shin beef on the hard and on top of that really finely sliced onions....delicious.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/03/2010 : 06:44
Brillian post Aggie! I saw that cloth conveyor for throwing the mixture onto the backstone as well. Have a look at Jim Pollard's transcripts in the LTP, his mum and dad had a backstone bakery on Red Lion Street.
Thing is can you remember what they put in them, any info valuable.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Callunna
Revolving Grey Blob
3044 Posts
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Posted - 08/04/2011 : 16:47
Stew and hard still very much in demand these days in Barlick, I understand. Steven Bell says he sells bucket loads of it.
I actually went inside to check out the oatcakes (and me a veggie and all) and they did look tempting.
Grrrr! Lo res 72dpi and the photo still comes out tiny!
=================== www.sheldrickrose.co.ukwww.bernulf.co.ukwww.bernulfsplace.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 13/05/2011 : 08:28
A letter in the BET caught my eye this morning because it refers to the oatcake shop that Bob King started this topic with;
STEW AND HARD.
In reply to the letter, I remember very well the bakehouse at the bottom of Barkerhouse Road in Nelson [because] it was my dad and grandad who owned it. .... The otcakes were sold from the door warm, sprinled with sugar and rolled up or left to cool and delivered to pubs and shops. The publican would hang them on a rack to dry and then serve them with a slice of stew and pickled onion rings, these were then known as 'stew and hard'. My brother Tony is developing a website which gives more information. www.oatcakebaker.co.uk
Sue Palfrey (nee Holroyd)
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Sunray10
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Posted - 13/05/2011 : 13:30
Yes I do indeed remember the chap who made oatcakes at the bottom of Barkerhouse road., Nelson. My mother took me in his little place and I loved the smell of them, especially on a cold day. We used to put margarine or Lurpak butter on them. Delicious. I think his bakery shop has gone now, though there are two buildings there, one of these might be his ? I think I remember the vac shop opposite too. Did that become a plumbers shop ? My mother thinks the oatcake man bottom of Barkerhouse Road was called Mr Holroyd, did he have a son called Alan ?
Re The Oatcake man. He was called Mr Holroyd. Stanley, I also spotted that letter in Nelson Leader.
Edited by - Sunray10 on 13/05/2011 17:36:5
Edited by - Sunray10 on 13/05/2011 17:40:51
R.Spencer. |