School: Castlecoote (roll number 6344)
- Location:
- Baile Mhic Oireachtaigh, Co. Ros Comáin
- Teacher: Máire, Bean Uí Ghabhláin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0263, Page 232
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Castlecoote
- XML Page 232
- XML “Food in Olden Times”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- (continued from previous page)Oat-cakes were commonly used. These were made by mixing oatmeal and water, kneaded and rolled out on a board and shaped into large round cakes. They were baked on a griddle and were often browned by standing them vertically on the hearth, before a bright red fire. Those cakes were exceptionally hard and required slow chewing. No wonder our forefathers had such beautiful white sound teeth which went to the grave with their owners!
When people had to go long journeys to fairs or markets, they always brought a bit of oatcake in their pockets, lest they would get the féar gorta on the road.
Sugeen was the name given to a drink of oatmeal and water. When men were out working in the fields in summer, they always had a vessel of sugeen near at hand to allay their thirst. They sometimes call the drink Whitewater.
Sheerins was the name applied to the hulls and coarse meal of the oats steeped in a crock of water and allowed to ferment. This was used as a drink by the people instead of milk. They usually eat potatoes and salt with sheerins and often it formed the principle meal.(continues on next page)
