[Sca-cooks] Buttered wortes

[wyldrose]

I suspect the oatmeal thing is cultural.  Many older Native Americans put 
oatmeal in all their soups as a thickening agent and just love it.  (you 
don't add a lot just a little and you don't really taste  it.)   When I 
lived on the Rez I got over my  bias and had lots of pot luck dishes that 
had oatmeal hidden in them.   The Native Americans began their love of 
oatmeal  in the 1600's when fur traders brought oatmeal along as a staple 
food when trading.  The oatmeal is fairly quick to cook and can be added 
into the  other foods (usually salt pork)  for a quick high calorie meal. 
For the fur traders the food  was easy to transport on the long routes and 
was taken every where the traders went.
   Another thing to think about is that oats are a quick and easy crop and 
can be harvested in multiple ways to get different  taste and textures. 
They usually grow faster than the weeds! A good farmer could easily get  at 
least 2 crops of oats a year,a great farmer  could get 3 or  4 in the right 
climate, and the grain when for human food and the straw as bedding or food 
for the animals.  Most wheat is more temperamental than oats for growing and 
takes longer for maturity.  In the  British Islands I suspect the cooler 
wetter weather was more suited to oats than to  most of  the wheat of the 
time.
   Again,  you  only add 'some' to the soups/stews not so much that it looks 
like  oatmeal.
                            Kay



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Johnna Holloway" <johnnae at mac.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Buttered wortes


> THere are traditional recipes that do this.
>
> Try a search under oatmeal and leek soup or pottage. Shows up in Wales 
> and Scotland.
>
> I suspect poverty and having something, anything, to eat in hard  times 
> made it more appealing.
>
> Johnna
>
> On Feb 6, 2010, at 5:56 AM, Claire Clarke wrote:
>
>>
>> Johnna wrote:
>> There are a number of these Wortes recipes. Have they looked at the
>> other versions and talked about those?-------
>>
>> Has anyone ever tried putting oatmeal in this recipe just to see what
>> dreadful consequences arise (well, probably it just tastes  disgusting)?
>>
>> Angharad
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