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Oatmeal Griddle Cakes
Mrs. J. M. Wetherell.
One cup oatmeal, one cup flour, one teaspoon sugar, one teaspoon Cook's Friend baking powder, one-half teaspoon salt; sift the baking powder in with the flour; add cold water to make a batter of the consistency of buckwheat cakes; beat very well together and bake immediately. This receipt is sufficient for a family of three.
A lean, eggless, dairy-free griddle cake that depends entirely on the batter's consistency and on being cooked the moment it is mixed. A few of the terms need translating.
- What "oatmeal" means hereIn a Canadian book of this era, oatmeal usually means dry, coarse-ground or steel-cut oatmeal rather than the thin rolled flakes sold today. Rolled oats will work but give a softer, pastier cake; pulsing them briefly in a food processor comes closer to the original texture.
- Cook's Friend baking powderA Montreal-made brand widely advertised in Canada in this period. Substitute modern double-acting baking powder, one teaspoon as the recipe calls for.
- The consistency cue"Buckwheat cakes" batter is pourable but not thin -- roughly the body of heavy cream, thick enough to mound for a second before it spreads. The recipe gives no water quantity; add it gradually rather than all at once and judge by the batter.
- Bake immediately, and whyThis is the hinge. With no egg and no soured milk, the only lift comes from the baking powder hitting the water, and a modern double-acting powder gives its second push on the griddle. Batter left to stand goes flat and heavy.
- Let the oatmeal drink, or don'tIf you use coarse oatmeal, a 10-minute rest softens the grain but costs you some rise. A workable compromise is to soak the oatmeal in the water first, then sift in the flour, powder and salt and cook at once.
- Griddle heat and fat"Bake" means cook on a griddle. Medium heat, around 375F, with a light film of fat "= the batter carries none of its own, so an unseasoned pan will stick. Turn once, when the edges look dry and bubbles break on the surface.
- Yield and serving"A family of three" comes to roughly 10 to 12 cakes of about four inches. They are deliberately plain; the period expected butter and syrup, molasses or maple to carry them.
The Home Cook Book was compiled in Toronto in 1877 by "ladies of Toronto and chief cities and towns in Canada" and sold in aid of the Hospital for Sick Children, which makes it the ancestor of every church-and-charity fundraising cookbook that followed in Canada. Recipes like this one arrive with a contributor's name attached and, tellingly, a brand name: Cook's Friend baking powder was a heavily advertised Canadian product, and here it sits in a household receipt. The oatmeal is often associated with Scottish settlement, where oats were the ordinary grain rather than a health food, though they were common well beyond Scottish households; mixed half-and-half with wheat flour and bound with nothing but cold water, this is a thrift recipe, the sort of breakfast that used up the cheapest thing in the pantry.