[Sca-cooks] Bread recipe request (OOP)

[Decker, Terry D.]

Traditional Struan Michael is a bannock (an unleavened cake) made from
cereal meal, milk, eggs and butter.  The Hebridean version usually uses
sheep milk.  The meal is dampened with milk, then the eggs and butter are
worked in, and more milk may be added to reach the right consistency.  The
cake is then baked in an oven or on the hearth.  The types of cereals used
depend upon the types grown locally.  I don't even remember the source I got
that from.

Michaelmas presumably equates to the Celtic Lughnassad, so I suspect Struan
Michael is a modification of Irish fine wheat cake mentioned in the early
literature.

The modern adaptations try to turn this into a multi-grain yeast bread,
which the original is definitely not.  I don't think you'll find a recipe
for the traditional loaf unless you come across it in someone's manuscript
cookbook.

Bear



> I'm usually a lurker, but I've run into something of a 
> problem. I promised to make a bread called struan or struan 
> michael for a get-together on 
> Sunday. It's a traditional Scottish bread made at harvest 
> time. The problem I've run into is that I cannot find a 
> traditional recipe for it anywhere. The 
> *only* recipes that I have found on-line are by Brother 
> Juniper or Peter Rheinhardt, both of which are basically the 
> same, and have "updated" the 
> recipe for the "modern world." Does anyone have a recipe 
> other than those two for struan? 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Nostas'ia Stepanova
> Barony of Ponte Alto, Atlantia
> (mka Rachel Trigg, Alexandria, VA)
>