School: Naoimh Ióseiph (roll number 15628)

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1. Food in Olden Times (continued)

   

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   was available they broke a piece off a cake and ate it with new milk. More often than not they placed it in their pocket and ate it while they trudged along the road. It was a very nutritive food and a small quantity of it was sufficient to satisfy the most ravenous appetite.
   People made it a rule to have a quantity of oatmeal in the corner near the fire. This was ground from their own oat crop in the local mill. The women before commencing baking made many preparations. First a board or table was scrubbed and scoured scrupulously clean and on this they kneaded the bread. To the oatmeal, well-to-do people added some butter and carroway which helped to make the bread brittle. The women in those days used to vie with each other to see who would bake the thinnest cakes. There were two ways in which this bread was baked namely: on a grid-iron, and on the bare hearth stone. The latter was by far the commonest form of baking. A grid-iron in those days cost at least seven shillings and sixpence which was indeed a large sum for so trivial an aarticle. When baking on the hearth it was scrubbed thoroughly clean, and a bright glowing, smokeless fire was lighted. A large light sandstone flag was placed on its edge close

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. products
      1. food products (~3,601)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mark Dwyer

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Assylin, Co. Roscommon

   Informant

   Mr Bernard Mc Hugh

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Boyle, Co. Roscommon

   Informant

   Mrs Dwyer

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   62

   Address

   Assylin, Co. Roscommon