To many modern cooks it looks strange, perhaps even unappetising. Yet for generations caul fat was a valuable ingredient. It wrapped sausages, protected joints of meat during roasting and, perhaps most famously, encased faggots.

Today, faggots are often misunderstood. The name raises eyebrows, in the UK they are a supermarket convenience food. But traditional faggots tell a different story. They belong to a world in which every part of the animal was valued, where liver and kidney were everyday foods, and where thrift and good eating went hand in hand.

For anyone interested in ancestral foods, faggots are a perfect example of nose-to-tail cooking. They transform humble ingredients into something nourishing, economical and deeply satisfying.

Faggot – A Dish Born of Economy

Historically, faggots were working people’s food.

They were made from the parts of the animal that wealthier households often ignored: liver, heart, lights (lungs), kidneys and fatty trimmings. Rather than being wasted, these cuts were minced together, seasoned generously and wrapped in caul fat before baking.

The result was far more delicious than the humble ingredients might suggest. The offal provided richness and nutrition, while the caul fat basted the meat as it cooked, creating a dish that was both economical and satisfying.

While traditionally, faggots relied heavily on offal, recipes these days include minced pork and bacon alongside liver and kidney, making them more approachable to modern tastes.

What Is Caul Fat?

One of the most distinctive features of faggots is the wrapping.

Caul fat is the thin membrane of fat that surrounds the stomach and internal organs of an animal. Pig caul fat is particularly delicate, resembling a lace curtain or net. Despite its fragile appearance, it is surprisingly strong.

When wrapped around a faggot, the caul fat performs several jobs. It holds the mixture together, just like a sausage casing would. As it cooks, it melts slowly into the meat, keeping it moist and adding flavour. By the end of cooking, you don’t even notice the caul fat, it has disappeared into the faggot itself.

Beef caul fat can also be used, but it is considerably thicker than pork caul fat.

Traditional Pork Faggots

This version combines pork mince, liver, kidney and bacon with mushrooms, onion, oats and warming spices. It includes an onion and mushroom-enhanced gravy, which is poured over the uncooked faggots in their baking dish before the whole thing is put in the oven.

• Makes: 12 faggots
• Preparation time: 40 minutes
• Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

For the Faggots

• 500g pork mince/ground pork
• 100g pig liver
• 1 pork kidney
• 4 rashers back bacon (if you are using streaky (American) bacon, use 6 rashers)
• 1 onion
• 150g mushrooms (about 6 medium mushrooms)
• c. ⅜ cup oatmeal (oatmeal is the English term for uncooked, stone-ground oats. If you can’t get this, you can use rolled oats that have been ground into a coarse flour.)
• Salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• Ground mace, to taste
• Ground allspice, to taste
• Pig caul fat

For the Gravy

• 1 onion, chopped
• Mushrooms, chopped
• Stock (pork or chicken work best)
• Flour, for thickening (most often I use chickpea flour)

Method

1. Remember to, at the right time in your process, preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Roughly chop the liver, kidney, bacon, onion and mushrooms.
3. Place them in a food processor with the pork mince, oatmeal, salt, pepper, mace and allspice.
4. Pulse until everything is finely minced and evenly combined and a consistency that can be loosely shaped into balls. If your meat was previously-frozen you may need more oatmeal/oat flour to do this. (You can do steps 2 and 3 by hand if desired, cutting the ingredients up finely.)
5. Carefully unravel the caul fat, separating it into pieces large enough to wrap individual faggots, each at least 6 inches square.
6. Shape the mixture into balls roughly the size of large golf balls.
7. Place each ball onto a piece of caul fat and wrap it around the meat, tucking the ends underneath.
8. Arrange the wrapped faggots in a lidded baking dish with the tucked side facing down.

This mixture usually makes 12 faggots. If you find that you have mixture left over, you can, if you have enough caul fat, make more faggots or you can shape the mixture into burgers to fry. These taste really good!

To Make the Gravy (to be added to the baking dish)

1. Gently fry the chopped onion and mushrooms before adding the stock.
2. Thicken this mixture to make a gravy. I use chickpea flour, adding 2 rounded tbsp per 500mil stock. I make a paste with the flour, taking a little warm stock from the saucepan and stirring it into the flour before returning the paste to the saucepan and stirring the whole thing for 5-10 minutes while the flour cooks and thickens the liquid.
3. Pour the gravy around the faggots in the baking dish.

Put the lid (or foil) over the dish. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 40 minutes, until the faggots are cooked through and the gravy is bubbling.

Serve with greens and plenty of gravy.

Why Faggots Deserve a Place on the Modern Table

Faggots remind us of a way of eating that was once entirely normal.

Earlier generations understood that the most nutritious parts of an animal were often the least expensive. Offal wasn’t a specialist ingredient. It was simply food. Caul fat wasn’t discarded. It was valued for the flavour and practicality it brought to the kitchen.

Today many people are trying to eat more sustainably, make better use of the animals they buy and reconnect with traditional foods. Faggots embody all of those values. They are nourishing, economical and rooted in centuries of practical wisdom.

Most of all though, they are delicious. And making them this way, with pork mince/ground pork and bacon, with a rich gravy, you really do not notice that liver and kidney are hiding inside. THey are a great way to get kids eating offal!

Why Are They Called Faggots?

Historically, the word faggot referred to a bundle of sticks tied together for fuel. The term comes from the same root as the French fagot, meaning a bundle of twigs. By extension, the word was also used for anything gathered together into a compact bundle.

In culinary terms, the name makes perfect sense. A traditional faggot is a collection of minced meats and offal bound together into a ball and wrapped in caul fat. It is, quite literally, a bundle of ingredients tied together.

Food historians generally regard this as the origin of the dish’s name. Similar uses of the word can be found in historical English dialects, where faggot was used for various kinds of bundled materials.

While the word has acquired other meanings over time, the dish preserves the older and entirely innocent sense of the term. In the Black Country, South Wales and other areas where faggots remained popular, the name has continued in everyday use for generations.

In that respect, faggots are rather like haggis, pudding and other traditional foods whose names preserve traces of older ways of speaking and thinking. The dish is not simply a recipe; it is a small piece of cultural history that has survived on the dinner table long after much of the world that created it has disappeared.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do faggots taste like?

These faggots have a rich, savoury flavour something like pork meatballs. The liver provides depth, while the bacon, pork and spices soften its intensity. Even people who don’t usually enjoy liver are often surprised by how much they like faggots.

Can I make faggots without caul fat?

Yes, but the result will be different. Caul fat helps hold the faggots together and bastes them as they cook. Without it they can become drier and less tender. If you cannot find caul fat, you can still make the mixture into meatballs and bake it in the gravy.

Where can I buy caul fat?

A traditional butcher or your local farmer is your best source. You’ll probably need to ask for it specially and give them a bit of notice.

Can I freeze faggots?

Yes, I freeze them often – both before and after cooking. If freezing before cooking, place them on a tray until firm and then transfer them to a container or freezer bag.

Why are faggots wrapped in caul fat?

Historically, caul fat was an economical way of holding minced meat together before modern casings and packaging were widely available. It also improves flavour and texture by slowly melting into the meat during cooking.

What stock should I use in faggots?

I use home-made bone broth or meat stock. If you’d like to know more about how to go about producing this yourself, listen to Ancestral Kitchen Podcast episode Bones & Water: The Magic of Stock

Are faggots healthy?

Traditional faggots are nutrient-dense foods. Liver and kidney are rich in vitamins and minerals, while the oats add texture and help bind the mixture. As with many traditional foods, they are most satisfying when served as part of a balanced meal with vegetables.

Can I use different offal?

Absolutely. Historical recipes varied considerably. Heart, lights (lungs) and other inexpensive cuts were commonly used alongside liver. The exact ingredients often depended on what was available after slaughter.

Are faggots Welsh or English?

Both. Faggots are particularly associated with South Wales and the English Midlands, especially the Black Country. Closely related recipes appear across Britain, reflecting a widespread tradition of turning inexpensive cuts and offal into nourishing meals.

You might also like:

My 5 Favourite Ways to Use Bone Broth
What Does Eating Ancestrally Mean?
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But although the ingredients are simple, there are a few things that can make the difference between an easy, satisfying ferment and a jar that doesn’t quite behave as you expected.

I’ve made a lot of sauerkraut over the years, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. These nine tips are the things I’ve learned that make the biggest difference in my own kitchen—from choosing the cabbage and getting enough brine to keeping your ferment safely tucked underneath the liquid.

If you’re new to making sauerkraut, these are the things I wish I’d known when I started.

Ready to make sauerkraut?

If you’re not made sauerkraut before, you don’t need to master all nine of these tips before you begin. The best way to learn is to make a batch yourself.

I have a Super Simple Sauerkraut recipe that takes you through the whole process, from preparing the cabbage to packing it into your jar and leaving it to ferment.

It’s the straightforward, no-fuss method I recommend if you’re looking for an easy way to get started. Once you’ve made a few batches, these tips will help you refine your technique and troubleshoot anything that doesn’t go quite as expected.

1. Use a sharp knife

I bought myself a proper sharp knife earlier this year.

How on earth had I been chopping up 2kg (4lbs) of cabbage for sauerkraut before having a sharp knife?

It has made a huge difference to those mammoth cabbage-dicing sessions. When you’re preparing a large quantity of cabbage, a good, sharp knife makes the job considerably easier.

If you struggle with chopping cabbage for a long time, you can also use my simpler sauerkraut method here, which involves much less chopping.

2. Start with fresh cabbage

For a long time I couldn’t understand why, after adding salt to my cabbage and squeezing it, I sometimes had so little liquid. There simply wasn’t enough brine to properly cover the cabbage.

I eventually learned that the freshness of the cabbage makes a big difference.

Cabbages that have been sitting in cold storage for months before we buy them can contain considerably less available liquid than really fresh cabbage. Fresh cabbage releases its juices much more readily when salted and squeezed.

So, work hard to find fresh cabbage – or grow your own. It can make creating enough brine for your ferment much easier.

3. Use the right amount of salt

Getting the salt right is important when making sauerkraut.

I weigh the cabbage I’m using in grams and then multiply that weight by 1.375%. The resulting figure is the amount of salt, in grams, that I mix into the cabbage.

For example, if I have 1,000g of cabbage, I use 13.75g of salt.

If I later need to make additional brine to top up the liquid in my fermentation, I mix 5g of salt with every cup of water.

4. Give the cabbage time

Most sauerkraut methods recommend squeezing the cabbage soon after the salt has been mixed through it.

I’ve found it easier to let the salted cabbage rest before squeezing or pounding it.

After chopping my cabbage and mixing in the salt, I leave the bowl in the fridge for 24 hours.

When I come back to it, the cabbage has had plenty of time to release its juices, making the next stage much easier.

5. Don’t overfill your jars

Sauerkraut is alive while it ferments. As fermentation gets going, gases are released and the contents of the jar can rise.

If you overfill your jars, this can mean cabbage and brine bubbling over the top—particularly if you’re not using an airlock.

Leaving some space at the top of the jar helps lessen the impact.

This is the most cabbage I will put into a 1 litre/quart jar:

It’s tempting to squeeze every last bit into a jar, especially when you’ve spent time preparing a big batch of cabbage, but giving your ferment a little room can save a lot of mess.

6. Make sure you have enough liquid

One of the most important things when making sauerkraut is making sure the cabbage is covered by liquid.

If your salted cabbage doesn’t produce enough liquid to cover it, you may need to add some brine.

Sauerkraut is an anaerobic fermentation. In other words, it does not need or want access to oxygen. Keeping the cabbage beneath the liquid helps create the conditions the fermentation needs.

If your cabbage isn’t covered by enough liquid, mix up a brine using the salt ratio from tip 3 and use it to make up the difference.

7. Keep the cabbage underneath the brine

Having enough liquid isn’t enough on its own—you also need to make sure the cabbage stays underneath it throughout fermentation.

I do this by firstly cutting a circle of cabbage to use as a “cap”:

I then weight the cabbage and the cap down with “pickle pebbles”, little circular glass weights:

The cap helps keep smaller pieces of cabbage together, while the weights hold everything underneath the brine.

8. Put something underneath your fermenting jars

If you’re not using a fermentation lock, brine will likely escape from your jars as the sauerkraut ferments.

And if you don’t put the jars onto something, that brine will go straight onto your work surface.

Sometimes I use plates for this, but more recently, to save space in my tiny kitchen, I’ve been using a simple plastic tray:

It’s a very small thing, but it makes fermenting much less messy. If a little brine escapes, it’s caught by the tray rather than running across the kitchen worktop.

9. Label your ferments

I spent far too long not doing this.

I’d start a ferment and then, a few days -or sometimes weeks – later, find myself wondering when exactly I’d made it.

Now I use masking tape and a Sharpie to label all my ferments with, at the very least, the date.

It takes seconds and makes such a difference. Once you have several jars of vegetables fermenting at different stages, you’ll be very glad you know when each one was started.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of cabbage is best for making sauerkraut?

Fresh cabbage is the most important thing to look for. Cabbage that has been stored for a long time can be drier and may not release enough liquid when salted.

If you can find freshly harvested cabbage, or grow your own, that’s ideal.

As to variety, hard light green or deep red cabbages – the weighty ones with closely packed leaves – produce the best results.

Can I make sauerkraut without special equipment?

Yes. You don’t need complicated equipment to make sauerkraut. A jar, a sharp knife and something to use as a weight are enough to get started.

Where should I keep my sauerkraut while it ferments?

Keep your sauerkraut at room temperature somewhere where you can easily keep an eye on it.

I like to keep my jars somewhere accessible in the kitchen. That way I can see what’s happening, check that the vegetables remain underneath the brine and deal with any liquid that escapes.

How long does sauerkraut take to ferment?

The length of fermentation depends on the conditions and on how you like your sauerkraut. Taste is a useful guide: as fermentation progresses, the flavour becomes increasingly sour.

If you’re new to fermentation, it’s worth keeping an eye on your jar and tasting it as it develops so you can discover what stage you enjoy most.

In my kitchen, which ranges between 17C and 25C (62-77F), I usually leave my kraut about two weeks before transferring it to the fridge.

Why is my sauerkraut bubbling?

Bubbling is a normal sign that fermentation is taking place. As the microorganisms ferment the cabbage, gases are produced.

This is also why sauerkraut can rise up in the jar and why brine may escape during fermentation. Leaving some space at the top of the jar and putting your jars on a tray makes this much easier to manage.

When is my sauerkraut ready to eat?

Your sauerkraut is ready when it tastes good to you.

As it ferments, the cabbage develops a more pronounced sour flavour. You can taste it as it progresses and decide when you like the balance of flavour and texture.

Once you’ve found the point you enjoy, you’ll have a much better idea of how long to ferment your next batch.

How can I store my sauerkraut when it’s ‘done’?

When the sauerkraut is fermented to your liking, transfer it to a refrigerator. Fridge temperatures stall the fermentation, and the kraut will keep for many many months this way.

It is then ready for you whenever you want it!

In what ways can I eat my sauerkraut?

Here are my five favourite ways to eat sauerkraut:

1. Sprinkled on top of fried or poached eggs
2. Mixed into a salad
3. In a sandwich
4. Topping a stew just before serving
5. With sausages!

You might also like:

Super Simple Sauerkraut – You don’t need to stand there chopping and squeezing all day. Follow my method and use your food processor

Fermenting Vegetables: Your Questions Answered – Ancestral Kitchen Podcast episode with tonnes of information about sauerkraut and other veg ferments

7 Ways to Stay on Track with your Gut Healing – gut healing is not easy. This mini pep talk will help you get some more motivation and perspective.

But simple did not mean careless. Porridge had standards. The best porridge was carefully-stirred, smooth free from lumps. Across regions, there are references to the care taken – by women at the hearth – to get it just right.

Lumps, in this context, were a failure.

And yet, within this culture of careful, lump-free porridge, there are occasional glimpses of something quite different.

In the English regions of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, a dish known as ‘lumpy tums’ appears in the record: oatmeal squeezed by hand into small pieces and dropped into boiling water, forming a pot of oat lumps. In some dialect sources, it is also called ‘lumpy dicks’, where ‘dick’ was an old regional term used for a type of boiled pudding.

Upon reading about this dish, I was curious to try and replicate it myself. A few attempts later, it became clear that what I had made was not just an historical curiosity, but a delicious and practical meal: small oat dumplings with a soft, pasta-like texture held within a creamy liquid. As soon as my family ate them, they called them gnocchi – and in that moment, I began to see how easily they might find a place in a modern kitchen.

From there, the shift was almost inevitable. If these were, in essence, oat dumplings, then I could use them in many ways – not only eaten like porridge, but also served as we might serve gnocchi, with sauces that bring out their texture and flavour.

What follows, then, is not a strict reconstruction of the English dish lumpy tums, but a modern working of the idea: oat gnocchi, rooted in tradition, but adapted for the way we cook and eat today.

You can get three traditional oat recipes in my free download The Heritage Oat Collection. Enter your details below and I’ll send it to you inbox!

Oat Gnocchi (A Modern Take on ‘Lumpy Tums’) with a Bacon, Mushroom & Cheese Sauce

Makes: 3 portions
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the oat gnocchi (lumpy tums):

• 180g (1 1/2 cups) fine oatmeal (can be substituted for the same weight of rolled oats ground into a flour)
• 1.8g (1/3 tsp) fine sea salt
• About 90g (1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp) water, for wetting
• 650g (2 3/4 cups) water, for boiling

For the bacon, mushroom and cheese sauce:

• A small amount of fat, for frying
• 1/2 medium onion
• 180g (6.5oz or about 8 medium) mushrooms
• 180g (6.5oz) bacon
• 1/2 tsp dried sage
• Greens for three people (e.g. finely chopped Brussels sprouts or kale)
• 100g (3.5oz) medium cheese, Cheddar-style

Method

1. Finely dice the onion and gently fry it in a little fat, stirring occasionally.
2. Slice the mushrooms thinly, add them to the onions. Dice the bacon and add it to the pan.
3. Add the sage and cook until the onions and mushrooms are soft and the bacon is cooked (15–20 minutes), stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat.
4. Meanwhile, place the oatmeal in a bowl, mix in the salt and add the 90g (1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp) water.
5. Mix well to form a dough. (If using ground rolled oats, you may need a little extra water.)
6. Break off small pieces and form into small lumps, mostly under 1 cm. Irregular shapes are fine.
7. Bring 650g (2 3/4 cups) water to the boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
8. Add the oat lumps in batches, stirring as you go.
9. Return to the boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Stir every few minutes during the 25-minute cooking time to prevent sticking.
10. Meanwhile, cook the greens by steaming or boiling.
11. Grate the cheese and set aside.
12. As the oats cook, the mixture will thicken. Stir well towards the end to prevent burning. Taste a piece at around 25 minutes—it should be fully cooked with a soft pasta-like texture.
13. Stir in the bacon and mushroom mixture, the greens (well drained), and the cheese.
14. Mix thoroughly, adjust seasoning, and serve hot.

Variations:

This is a truly versatile dish. It’s easy to add dried herbs, like rosemary, sage, or thyme, to the oat dough. You can also serve the dumplings with many other sauces: a tomato bolognese, butter and sage or ratatouille. The creaminess of the oaty sauce lends luxuriousness to any topping.

You might also like:

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

Millet Gnocchi (Egg & Gluten-Free)

Different Types of Oats (& How to Use Each the Traditional Way)

The History of Porridge (Oats and More Plus Recipes!)

In this post, we’ll explore what porridge really is, where it comes from, and why it has endured for millennia. We’ll travel from Stone Age hearths to Scottish kitchens, from barley and rye to oats and fermentation, and uncover how traditional porridge was made, eaten and valued. If you’ve ever wondered why porridge feels so deeply nourishing — or how to make a better bowl using ancestral methods — keep reading!

What Is Porridge? A Traditional Definition

Across the Atlantic, the words oatmeal and porridge mean very different things.

In the US, oatmeal usually means one specific dish: oats cooked with milk or water, often sweetened with brown sugar or maple syrup. In the UK (and much of northern Europe), the word porridge has traditionally been broader. It isn’t tied to one grain or one method. Porridge is, at heart, a grain-based stew — something cooked slowly in a pot.

The history of word itself tells the story. Porridge appears in English in the early 16th century and is closely related to pottage: a thick soup or stew cooked in a pot. The French potage and even the Latin porrum (leek — often used in thick stews) hover in the background. By the 17th century, porridge had come to mean a cereal cooked in water or milk. In Scotland it became parritch; in Ireland, stirabout.

When European settlers crossed to North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, they took the dish porridge with them — but used whatever grain grew locally, most often maize. Oatmeal didn’t take off in the US until later, when the company Quaker took advantage of recently-invented technology to roll oats: they saw a potential market for a new breakfast food and their ‘oatmeal’, promoted with the first ever national advertising campaign for a breakfast cereal, caught on.

How Long Have Humans Been Eating Porridge?

Porridge is ancient. Astonishingly ancient.

Archaeological finds in Italy show that around 32,000 years ago people were already drying, heating, grinding and cooking wild oats. Residues on a stone pestle reveal swollen, gelatinised oat grains — in other words, porridge.

In Denmark there is evidence of grain porridges from around 4200 BCE. And the famous Tollund Man, a bog body from around 400 BCE, had eaten a porridge-like meal shortly before his death — mostly barley, not oats.

This matters, because it reminds us that porridge is not all about oats. Oats are just one chapter in a much longer story.

Porridge Around the World: Grains, Roots and Legumes

Once you start looking, porridge is everywhere.

Rice becomes congee. Wheat becomes frumenty or cream of wheat. Barley was widely used in Britain before oats took over. Maize gives us polenta, atole, mush and grits. Millet makes glorious, creamy porridges across Africa and Asia. Buckwheat becomes kasha. Rye becomes the dark, sour Danish øllebrød. Sorghum, roots like taro (poi), even legumes (pease pottage) all find their way into the pot.

If you search for porridge with an open mind, you will almost certainly find one you have never tried. And that’s before we even begin to explore the many, many ways oats themselves can be made into the dish.

Traditional Oat Porridge: What, No Rolled Oats?!

Rolled oats dominate our shelves because they cook quickly. But they are a recent invention – roller milling only being developed in the late 1800s.

Traditionally, porridge was made from oats ground into a meal on a stone mill (confusingly, these stone-ground oats are called ‘oatmeal’ in British English). These stone-ground oats came in different grades – fine, medium or coarse/pinhead. Pinhead oatmeal, roughly the size of steel-cut oats, was especially prized for porridge. It takes longer to cook, but rewards you with depth of flavour and a far better texture.

Rolled oats, before you buy them, have been heat processed twice – once to stabilise them and a second time to help them roll more uniformly. Oatmeal, stone-ground oats, in comparison, have only been heat-treated once, for stabilisation. Less processing means more flavour, hence ‘proper’ porridge, made with stone-ground oats, does not need to be smothered in sweeteners to be enjoyable. Save the crazy toppings for the heavily-processed instant oats!

If you truly love porridge, one of the biggest upgrades you can make is to move away from shop-bought rolled oats – switch to pinhead oatmeal (or, if you’re in the UK, steel-cut oats) or roll your own oats from the whole grain at home. I’ve written a detailed guide on how to roll your own oats (and why it makes such a difference).

How to Make Traditional Oat Porridge (The Slow Way)

These days, oatmeal or porridge (depending on where you hail from) seems to be all about speed – the more quickly it can be cooked, the ‘better’. But cooked quickly, we miss out on flavour, texture and nutrition.

Here’s how you can make porridge more traditionally:

For everyday, pinhead (or steel-cut) oatmeal makes a superb porridge. It needs time — but you’ll not be tied to the stove:

• Soak pinhead oatmeal overnight in water (use four times as much water, by volume, to the oats).
• In the morning, bring the oats and their soaking water to the boil, then simmer gently for around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

A method that produces an even better porridge, and one that mimics the very long cooking times of the past, needs a two-day approach:

• On the morning of day one, soak 1 cup pinhead oatmeal in 1½ cups water.
• In the evening, add a further 3 cups water, bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 30 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and leave, covered, overnight.
• The next morning, slowly reheat the porridge.

The result is a rich and deeply satisfying porridge — worlds away from anything hurried.

You can get three traditional oat recipes in my free download The Heritage Oat Collection. Enter your details below and I’ll send it to you inbox!

How Porridge Was Traditionally Eaten in Scotland

The Scots did not add sugar or honey to their porridge. In fact, porridge, traditionally, for them, and for all the other British porridge-eaters was a savoury dish – cooked with water and salted before serving.

Very often brought to the table in a communal bowls, each person would have their own spoon, usually made from horn. Milk, cream or buttermilk would be set on the table in a separate bowl. Rather than mixing it through, people would lift spoonfuls of hot porridge and dip them into the milk or cream as they ate.

Leftover porridge was never wasted and we can use it in our modern kitchens too! Try reheating it with a little more liquid, slicing it and eating cold, adding it to bread dough for a super-soft crumb, blending it into soups for extra creaminess or mixing it into a stiff dough with flour and eggs before frying into a thick pancake.

Fermented Porridge, Sowans and Forgotten Oat Traditions

Fermenting oats was once common, and for good reason. Fermentation improves flavour, makes nutrients more available, helps break down starches and phytic acid, and introduces beneficial bacteria.

One of the most fascinating Scottish oat dishes is sowans. Once central to Scottish life, sowans was made from the fermented soaking water of oats – creating both a porridge and a probiotic drink. It was born from thrift and necessity but, having made it regularly in my own kitchen now for nearly five years, I can attest that it is also absolutely delicious!

If you want to explore oat fermentation in more depth, I cover it extensively in episode 70 of my podcast, Ancestral KItchen Podcast: Fermenting Oats.

Why Porridge Is the Original Comfort Food

Porridge endures because it works. It is cheap, adaptable, nourishing and deeply comforting. And, these days, we can make it however we wish – plainly or elaborately, savoury or sweet, quickly or slowly.

Next time you wrap your hands around that steaming bowl, remember you are not indulging in a modern trend. You are standing in the shoes of your ancestors and participating in a delicious food tradition that stretches back tens of thousands of years.

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What is Sowans?

Different Types of Oats (& How to use Each the Traditional Way)

Several decades on, I am still an oat-lover (in fact, I’m such a fan that I’m currently writing a book on traditional British uses of them). But if you look in my kitchen now, you’ll find many more types of oats than just my childhood rolled ones.

The choice on our shelves these days can be bewildering – groats, rolled, thick, old-fashioned, quick, instant, oatmeal, pinhead, steel-cut, sprouted, black and naked. This article is a comprehensive guide to the types of oats available, how they’ve been processed and how to use each type the traditional way.

What are oats?

Almost all of the oats you’ll find in kitchens throughout the world are seeds of the grass genus Avena Sativa. These grow covered by a hard, inedible hull which has to be removed before the seed can be used as a grain. The hull adheres strongly to the seed and in the process of removing it the grain is very often damaged and exposed to the air. This activates an enzyme called lipase which degrades the fats in the oats causing them to go rancid, giving them a bitter taste. To avoid this happening, oat grains are ‘stabilised’ (heat and steam treated) at the very early stages of processing.

Most of the oats we buy are already ‘cooked’

This stablilsation means that the oats that make it to our kitchens (unless they are naked or sprouted oats) have been ‘cooked’ using a mix of heat and moisture (at an average temperature of 90-100°C).

Once the dehulling and stabilisation has been completed, oats are processed in a number of ways. This article explains what you might see at your mill or supplier, sorted from the least-processed to the most-processed:

Types of oats, how they’ve been processed and how to use each the traditional way

Oat groats

These are whole, unground, uncut oat grain. As they are whole grains, they take the longest to cook of any oat.

These weren’t often traditionally-used for porridge (though our ancestors in the UK did use the for savoury ‘puddings’), but I think they are great cooked this way.

If you want to use oat groats for porridge/oatmeal, cook them as an alternative to rice or add them to a stew, I suggest soaking them overnight in water. The next day, drain and rinse them, before cooking for at least 35 minutes. For a cup of soaked groats, you’ll need around 3 cups of liquid (broth is a great savoury choice instead of water here!)

Stone-milled oats:

The only way of making the whole oat grains into smaller pieces, more suitable for cooking, until well into the 1900s was to process the grains in stone mill. This created a meal (rather than the more commonly found rolled oats we see today). This meal is what our European oat eating ancestors (who didn’t have rolled oats) would have eaten.

Why Our Scottish Ancestors Didn’t Eat Rolled Oats (link to article)

Stone milled oats are still available, though can be harder to source outside of the UK. They come in three grades:

Pinhead oatmeal

Oat groats ground between two millstones set very widely apart to break the groat into a few pieces.

This was traditionally used for porridge (oatmeal), particularly in Ireland.

To make a traditional pinhead oatmeal porridge, soak the oatmeal in water overnight using one part oatmeal to four parts water by weight (you can add a tablespoon of something acidic, like apple cider vinegar to aid digestion) and then, in the morning, cook the mix, adding some salt (traditionally porridge was salty, not sweet), for 20 minutes, stirring regularly.

Medium oatmeal (often called Scottish oatmeal in the US)

These oats have been stoneground with the millstones set to create a medium meal.

Medium oatmeal was traditionally used for porridge in Scotland and in many other parts of the UK. It was also used in haggis, in puddings and sausages and as a coating when frying fish.

To make a traditional medium oatmeal porridge the Scottish way, bring water to the boil and, when it’s boiling, sprinkle in the medium oatmeal, stirring constantly. Once all of the oatmeal is incorporated, turn the pan down low, add salt (traditionally porridge was salty, not sweet) and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring regularly. To serve three people I use 180g medium oatmeal, 900g water and a half teaspoon salt.

Fine oatmeal

By stone-grinding the oat grains with the millstones more closely together, a fine oatmeal is produced.

Fine oatmeal was traditionally used for oatcakes – a savoury oat cracker – as well as a thickener for soups and stews.

Try my recipe for Naturally-Fermented Staffordshire Oatcakes which makes a delicious crêpe-like pancake or my Traditional Scottish Oatcakes recipe which will give you authentic Scottish oat crackers, great with soups or some cheese!

(If you want to try these two recipes and you don’t have fine oatmeal, don’t despair, they can easily be made with rolled oats too – follow the instructions in the recipes!)

Oats produced in steel mills:

In contrast to this traditional stone milling, most of the oats on our shelves today have been processed in modern steel mills. Here’s what you can find:

Steel Cut/Irish oats

Steel cut oats are so called because steel blades cut the whole groat into two or three pieces.

This type of oats are often called Irish oats in the US because the pieces are the same size as pinhead oatmeal, the type of oatmeal historically used to make porridge in Ireland.

In the kitchen, steel cut oats work in a similar way to their stone-ground cousin, pinhead oatmeal. If you want to make a traditional porridge with them, follow the instructions in the pinhead oatmeal section above.

Rolled Oats:

Rolled oats are so ubiquitous these days that one might think they’ve always been around. They are, however, a modern creation; the process of rolling oats only having been invented in 1877.

The Differences Between Rolled Oats and Oatmeal (link to article)

All rolled oats, whether large or small, are steam processed (for a second time, remembering they’ve already been steamed to prevent rancidity) before being rolled. This makes them softer and less likely to create dusty waste.

‘Old-fashioned’ Oats/Rolled Oats/Jumbo Oats

These, being the largest form of rolled oats, are whole oat grains that are re-steamed and run through roller mills to create large flakes.

These can be used to make a non-traditional (but very tasty!) porridge. There’s no need to soak them, cooking for 10-15 minutes on the stove does the job. If you’d like to serve traditionally, add salt during the cooking time.

I also have some traditionally-inspired recipes that use rolled oats! Try my cheesy oatcake-topped cottage pie or my sourdough oatcakes.

‘Quick Cook’ Rolled Oats

To make these smaller flaked oats, broken oat grains are re-steamed and put through roller mills.

These take just a few minutes on the stove to produce a porridge.

‘Instant’ Rolled Oats

These are the smallest, and hence the quickest cooking, form of rolled oats. They were brought to the oat market in 1966 by Quaker (who are now ownedi by Pepsi). Small pieces of oat grain are re-steamed and put through roller mills to create tiny, thin flakes.

I don’t think our ancestors would recognise instant oats (in texture or flavour). As a real food oat-lover, I’ve never used these.

The oat challenge:

If you’ve only ever used rolled oats, try something different this week. It’s easy to get hold of pinhead or steel cut oats – soak them before bed and take a few more moments in the kitchen to cook up your porridge the next morning. I think you’ll be surprised at how great it tastes!

Different Types of Oats – FAQs

Which type of oats is the healthiest?

Generally, the less a food is processed, the healthier it is. With this criteria, oat groats, that have had no further processing than their initial dehulling and stabilising are the healthiest.

But I am of the mind that the real food that you like is the healthiest. If you’re buying, cooking, and eating real food that you will like you’re more likely to continue with it – so choose the type of oat you like best.

How can I access stone-ground oats outside of the UK?

There are companies that import oats that have been stone-ground in the UK to other parts of the world. Check online to see if there’s one near you. In the US, Bob’s Red Mill sell a product called ‘Scottish oatmeal’ which is stoneground oats that are similar to British medium oatmeal.

Can I roll my own oats at home?

Yes you can! And they taste so much better rolled at home! Have a look at my article How to Roll Oats at Home (& 3 Good Reasons To Do It!).

Can I stone-grind my own oats at home?

It is possible to stone-grind oats from groats at home, but it is very difficult to replicate the pinhead/medium/fine grades of oatmeal that are available from large stone mills. This is because the stone mills use a number of sieves to sieve the meal into uniform sizes.

If you have a Mockmill, you can grind oats on any number above #3 (do not grind them on numbers #1 or #2 – the grain is too fatty and will clog up your meal). Using #3 or above will grind the oats but will give you a range of particle sizes from very fine dust to large chunks of oat groat. For making porridge this method works practically but does not replicate the porridge that you would make with uniform-sized commercially-produced oatmeal

How To Make Stone-Ground Oats in the Mockmill (link to article)

I love porridge/oatmeal. What else can I make with oats?

So many things! Here’s a selection of my traditional and traditionally-inspired recipes:

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

Naturally-Fermented Staffordshire Oatcakes

Sourdough Oatcakes

Cheesy oatcake-topped cottage pie

Sowans: The Scottish Oat Ferment

You can get three traditional oat recipes in my free download The Heritage Oat Collection. Enter your details below and I’ll send to your inbox:

I am currently in the process of writing a book to be called Oats: Recipes & Stories from the British Isles. It will include 50 recipes along with the stories of how this grain sustained many generations of people in the UK. Stay in touch via my newsletter (there is a sign up at the top of every page on this site) to hear the latest on this.

How can I make my oats healthier?

Fermenting your oats will unlock more nutrition and make them easier to digest. Learn how in my comprehensive article:

How to Make Fermented Oats

Is buying organic oats important?

I would always recommend buying organic oats. Choosing organic means that you are supporting farmers who care for our soil and our environment, stewarding it for the next generation. It also means that any residues left over from pesticides or fertilisers aren’t on your grains.

What are ‘naked’ oats?

‘Naked’ oats are a type of oat that, instead of having a hard difficult-to-detach hull, has a paper-thin hull. It is easier to prepare these grains for human consumption – it takes a lot of energy to remove the hard hull on standard oats; not as much energy is needed to remove the paper-thin hull on ‘naked’ oats.

Because these ‘naked’ oats do not have to go through a tough, damaging, process to remove their hulls, they are not heated before they get to our shelves. This results in a oat that is raw.

What are sprouted oats?

Sprouted oats are raw oats that have gone through a soaking and germination process to sprout them. This process is then halted by drying and the sprout knocked off. The sprouted groats can then be used as you would use a standard oat.

What are black oats?

Black oats are a type of oats that has a black hull. They were traditionally grown in large areas of Scandinavia and in Wales. Here are some I saw on a visit to Holden Farm in Wales:

What about oat flour?

Oat flour is a modern phenomenon which is finer than fine oatmeal. It can be purchased but can also be made from oatmeal or rolled oats by processing them in a high-powered coffee grinder or mixer.

You might also like:

The Heritage Oat Collection

The Difference Between Rolled Oats and Oatmeal

Sourdough Porridge

The Fascinating History of Jannock: The Giant Oat Bread That Defined Authenticity!

The Best Way to Soak Oats

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

I make 100% wholegrain sourdough rye loaves in my kitchen every week. The flavour is deep, rich and tangy and the breads – which I can slice and make into sandwiches – are always finished too quickly! That’s where these sourdough rye crackers, made again with 100% wholegrain rye flour, save the day. I can make up a batch at the weekend and they will keep all week, filling holes in my families nutrient-dense food when they are needed.

Simple ingredients

The recipe is deceptively simple. It can be made with a fresh sourdough starter or with sourdough discard. Aside from the flour and starter, all your need is a bit of fat and some salt/flavourings.

For the crackers you see in this post, I used rye flour that I freshly-milled at home using rye berries from Grand Teton Ancient Grains. Freshly-milled flour is the icing on the cake when it comes to these crackers, but they can easily be made with pre-milled wholegrain rye flour too.

By hand or food processor

I mix the dough by hand. It’s not difficult and I’ll walk you through the steps. If you prefer to use a food processor, it’s even quicker!

I cut these into rounds using a 3-inch (7.6cm) cookie cutter. There’s no need for you to do this though, you can score the dough manually into squares before cooking or even bake as one whole sheet of cracker (it’s fun to break this by hand when it’s crispy!)

Wholegrain Rye Sourdough Crackers Recipe

• Makes: 28-30 3-inch crackers
• Prep time: 25 minutes (plus overnight rest)
• Baking time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:

• 100 g (approx 1 cup) wholegrain rye flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
• 50 g lard (can be substituted with butter or olive oil)
• 100 g (approx half cup) sourdough starter, can be discard
• 1- 4 tbsp water, if needed

Method:

• In a bowl, mix the wholegrain rye flour, salt and caraway seeds.
• Measure in the lard (or butter) chopping it into small pieces as you do so.
• Using your fingers, rub the fat into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Measure in the sourdough starter (or discard), mix this in well – the dough should start to come together as you do so.
• Depending on the hydration of your sourdough starter, your dough may need more water to adhere together well. You want your dough a little sticky, this way it’ll crack less when you roll it out. Make a judgement and add more water if necessary. (When I make these crackers using freshly-ground rye and my 70% hydration wholegrain rye sourdough starter, I generally need to add 2-4 tablespoons of water to get a good dough.)
• Bring the dough together into a ball and wrap it or place it inside a sealed container before putting it in the fridge overnight.
• The next day, when you’re ready to make the crackers, preheat your oven to 180°C/375°F.
• Liberally coat your work surface and rolling pin with wholegrain rye flour.
• Uncover your dough and, using a knife, chop it in half.

• Gently work the first half into a ball, place it on your floured work surface and, using your palm, push it down into a circle.
• Sprinkle the top of the circle with wholegrain rye flour and roll the dough out. You are aiming for a thickness of 2 mm or under. Turn the dough often and liberally apply extra flour to avoid it sticking to your surface or your pin.
• When the dough has a thickness of 2 mm or under cut circles of cracker out from it and place them on a baking sheet/sheet pan.

• Gather up the offcuts, add them to the second half of the dough and repeat the process until you have used all of your dough.
• Bake the crackers act 180°C/375°F for approximately 12 minutes. Close to the end of the time, keep a careful eye on the crackers, removing the ones from the edge of the sheet pan if they start to look as if they will burn.
• Remove the crackers to a cooling rack and allow them to come to room temperature before enjoying.

FAQS

How should I store these rye sourdough crackers?

Because of their thinness, these crackers are dry. They will store well in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

How do you like to eat these sourdough rye crackers?

It’s hard to resist eating them straight from the cooling rack! Thankfully, making a batch of 30, there’s usually loads left over after this. They are great spread with butter, eaten with cream cheese or as a simple side to a salad. I love the flavour of avocado with rye, so will often top these crackers with sliced avocado or avocado mashed with olive oil.

What’s the best fat to use in these crackers?

I like to use lard, which I home render, for these crackers. You can easily substitute unsalted butter.

Can I use olive oil instead of lard/butter to make these rye sourdough crackers?

Yes, olive oil is possible. If you’d like to use it and it at the same time as a sourdough starter.

Do these crackers work with freshly-milled rye flour?

Yes, I make them with freshly-milled rye flour ground in my counter-top Mockmill. If you don’t have one of these, shop-bought wholegrain rye flour works well.

Can I use sourdough discard to make these crackers?

Yes, these crackers work with sourdough discard as well as fresh sourdough starter. Your starter does not need to be wholegrain rye – you could use a spelt, wheat or gluten-free starter with the crackers.

Do I need to/can I roll these crackers out using parchment/greaseproof paper?

Parchment/greaseproof paper can be used instead of the flour to create a surface upon which to roll out the dough. If you then struggle to move the crackers from this, you can lift the entire sheet of paper onto your baking sheet/tray. I prefer to use rye flour to stop the dough from sticking to my surface or pin as it is simpler.

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How to Make Wholegrain Rye Sourdough from Scratch

100% Wholegrain Rye Sourdough Bread

Russian Bread Kvass

Einkorn is the ancient grain of all ancient grains. It is the oldest cultivated variety of wheat and also, genetically, the simplest. It’s remained unchanged for over 10,000 years meaning that, when we cook with it in our modern kitchens, we really are bringing to life a grain of our ancestors.

The word einkorn comes from the German language, meaning single corn. It’s grains are small, helping me see why, when I lived in Italy, I knew this grain as ‘farro piccolo’.

I am lover of ancient grains – over 10 years of making sourdough and I’ve never baked with modern wheat. Having explored einkorn’s cousin, spelt, so deeply, I was really keen to metaphorically step back in time and play with the ‘original’ ancient grain!

So, when I was gifted a bag of einkorn berries by Grand Teton Ancient Grains, I couldn’t wait to use them.

Having previously developed a sourdough bread recipe with their emmer berries, I wanted to try something a bit different. My son loves chocolate, particularly in cookies, but, he can’t eat egg. This means that a lot of cookie recipes out there are a no-go for us. I knew I wanted to get him involved in the actual making – being in our kitchen is part of his home-school life – so chocolate cookies seemed like a great option. I’d keep it simple, avoid eggs and develop the recipe with him.

These crunchy wholegrain einkorn chocolate chip cookies came out of our third kitchen session. This recipe was the clear winner – the addition of milk kefir making the resulting treat delightfully airy and crisp.

Why wholegrain?

These einkorn chocolate chip cookies are made from wholegrain. A couple of years ago I invested in a Mockmill counter-top grain grinder and I freshly-grind whole berries in my own kitchen. This practice has transformed the flavour of my grain products, saved me money and is connecting me more deeply with my food.

A lot of the nutrition of grains is in the bran. If you use white flour, this has been stripped out. Store-bought wholegrain flour often sits on the shelf, losing vital nutrients. By freshly-grinding whole berries, you get as much nutrition and flavour as you can.

Let’s talk about the sugar

The sugar in these cookies is minimal. Having been away from processed food for years, my family find they don’t need (or want) the same levels of sweetness in their food. The sugar amount in this recipe is to their taste. If you’d like them a bit sweeter, feel free to increase the sugar.

…and, of course, the chocolate

The chips in these chocolate chip cookies are hand-chopped from a bar of 90% cocoa chocolate. We love the depth that this level of cocoa brings. If you prefer your chocolate sweeter (or want an overall more sweet cookie) choose a chocolate with a lower cocoa percentage.

Wholegrain Einkorn Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 8 cookies
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:

145g wholegrain einkorn flour
1 tsp baking powder
60g salted butter
25g soft dark brown sugar
28g dark chocolate, cut into chips
20–25g milk kefir
For the topping:
½ tsp cinnamon
2 tsp dark brown sugar

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C/375°F and prepare a baking tray/sheet, lining it with baking/parchment paper
• Measure the einkorn flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl and combine well.
• Cream together the butter and sugar.
• Put the creamed butter and sugar into the bowl with the einkorn and baking powder and, using your fingers, combine into a breadcrumb-style mix.
• Stir in the dark chocolate chips.
• Bring the mix together into a dough using the milk kefir to help bind. Start with the less milk kefir and, checking the consistency, add more if needed.
• When the dough is well combined, break off a small amount to make each cookie. I aim for each portion to be 30g.
• Squeeze this piece of dough a few times forming it into a ball. Place the ball onto your lined baking tray and flatten with the palm of your hand. Shape the dough into a 2 inch circle, pinching the outside edges together if they begin to crack.
• Repeat this process for the remaining dough, ending up with eight cookies.
• In a smaller bowl, for the topping, mix together the cinnamon and dark brown sugar.
• Sprinkle this topping generously over the cookies before placing them in the oven.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, watching towards the end of the cooking time to make sure the edges don’t burn.
• When the cookies look golden brown and feel hard on outside, remove them to a cooling rack.

FAQs

I don’t have a grinder, can I use store-bought wholegrain einkorn flour?

Yes these chocolate chip einkorn cookies will work just as well with store bought einkorn flour as they do with freshly-ground flour. Just remember to choose wholegrain, not white, flour.

How long do these cookies keep for?

These cookies will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container

Where did you get your grain grinder?

I purchased my grain grinder from Mockmill. You can read about my experience here.

Can I use other grains for these chocolate chip cookies?

Yes! I have also made these with freshly-ground wholegrain spelt flour and I think they would also work really well with wholegrain emmer flour, which has a naturally sweet flavour.

Can I use different chocolate?

You do not have to use 90% cocoa chocolat}e for this recipe. Feel free to use a darker, or lighter, chocolate or even a flavoured one.

I don’t have milk kefir, can I use something else?

The milk kefir works with the baking powder to make these cookies light and airy. You can buy milk kefir in many stores, if you don’t make it yourself. If you can’t find milk kefir, another acidic, creamy option – like yoghurt – would work.

Thank you so much to Grand Teton Ancient Grains for sponsoring this post, allowing me to develop, test and write up this recipe.

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Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

I am used to baking with ancient grains. I have cupboards full of non-wheat cereals: spelt, rye, buckwheat, millet, einkorn…I bake with them all every week. But, up until recently, I’d always been a bit daunted by baking with emmer. I’d heard that it was difficult to handle, that it made a dough that felt like wet sand and that it wouldn’t rise.

And so, when I was gifted a big bag of emmer by regenerative, organic farm Grand Teton Ancient Grains, I knew it was time to take on the challenge of creating a good sourdough emmer loaf.

At first, I tried the same techniques I use for spelt. I’m good with spelt (I’ve written a book on it). But my spelt recipes didn’t work with emmer. I could make a passable loaf using the same techniques I use with spelt, but the dough was so sticky and the rise I was able to obtain was not great.

I knew I had to try a different approach. After failed attempts with autolysing the flour (that is mixing flour and water and leaving it overnight to ‘settle’) and failed attempts at intensive kneading, I decided to turn to the techniques that I use to make sourdough rye bread.

Using these techniques, designed for the low-gluten rye grain, was a revelation with emmer. The loaves bloomed – the mixing was a dream and they rose well in the oven.

Tasting this sourdough loaf made with emmer was a revelation. The flavour is like nothing else; it is incredibly sweet and also fragrant and nutty. It leaves your mouth happy in a way that I’ve not experienced with other ancient grains.

As you might guess, this loaf is now regular part of my ancient grains sourdough baking!

If, in the past, you’ve tried and failed to make a sourdough loaf with emmer or you’ve read that it’s a difficult grain to handle in breadmaking, this recipe will dispel all your fears. It’s simple, it’s foolproof and it makes the most amazingly flavoured ancient grain sourdough.

First of all, let’s dive a little bit into emmer:

What is emmer?

Emmer is an ancient grain, that is, a cereal grain that has been used for thousands of years and comes to us, in the modern era, virtually unchanged genetically.

It is much lower in gluten than wheat, and, as an ancient grain, many people who have problems with wheat find they are able to digest emmer – especially when it’s made into sourdough – without problems.

For answers to more questions about emmer, including its similarities to and differences from other ancient grains, see my FAQ section below.

Is emmer good for sourdough?

Yes, emmer makes the most amazingly-flavoured sourdough. It is not, however, easily to get good results from emmer if you apply the same bread-making techniques that would be applied to wheat. A different process is needed. To get good results from emmer, I found it best to employ the same techniques I use when making rye bread – that is no kneading, a pre-ferment and a very high-hydration dough. When treated this way emmer makes a glorious sourdough bread with flavour that is unbeatable. My recipe will show you how!

The practical stuff:

This bread needs to be started the night before you wish to bake it. At that time, you create a pre-ferment along with soaking the sunflower seeds. Both of these are left on the counter overnight before mixing the main dough in the morning and baking it around lunchtime.

You will need a loaf pan and ideally it will have a lid. This bread comes out best for me in my 1kg/2lb Emile Henry ceramic loaf pan. If you don’t have a lid you can improvise one by tenting your pan with aluminium foil.

I make this loaf using emmer berries from ancientgrains.com, ground at home in my Mockmill. If you are in the UK you can source whole emmer grains from Hodmedods. If you don’t have a mill at home, using pre-ground emmer flour for work fine

Although this bread is 100% wholegrain emmer flour, it will work with sourdough starter made of any flour. I would not be without my rye sourdough starter (find advice on how to create one of these here).

Seeded Wholegrain Emmer Sourdough

Ingredients:

For the pre-ferment:

230g wholegrain emmer flour

230g water

45g sourdough starter (can be any grain)

For the main dough:

320g wholegrain emmer flour

9g salt

120g water

100g pre-soaked sunflower seeds

Method:

The night before you want to bake:

The sunflower seeds need to be soaked:

• Put them into a bowl and cover them with ample water, before leaving them on the counter overnight.

Make the pre-ferment:

• Combine the water and sourdough starter, mixing well. Stir this mixture into the flour.
• Clean the sides of the bowl and flatten the top of the mixture with wet spatula.
• Cover the bowl tightly with a plate or some clingfilm/plastic wrap.
• Leave this mix overnight in a warm place – when I created this loaf the daytime temperature of my house was 24C/68F; try to find a space that’s somewhere between 20C/68F and 24C/75F.

The morning of the bake:

• Retrieve the mixture that’s been pre-fermenting overnight. It should be visibly expanded and smell fermented The bowl should sound hollow when you knock the side of it and you may also see tiny pin holes on the top of the surface. If you’re unsure whether the mix is ready, you can dig a spoon into it – you should find honeycomb-style network of holes. If you are in any doubt that the mixture is ready, return it to your warm place and check it again in an hour or two.
• When you are ready to proceed, drain and rinse the sunflower seeds, before pouring them into the bowl that contains the pre-ferment.
• Add the water to this and stir until well combined.
• Stir the salt into the flour.
• Add the flour/salt to the liquidy pre-ferment, stirring until there is no loose flour and the mixture is well combined.
• Using a wet spatula, clean down the sides of the bowl before pressing down and smoothing the top of the dough.
• Cover the bowl tightly with a plate or clingfilm/plastic wrap.

• Leave in a warm place to ferment. In my kitchen, at 24C/75F, I leave this two hours.
• Prepare a loaf pan for the bread, greasing and flowering the inside.
• When the dough is ready (it will be bigger, smell active, and be airy) it’s time to get it into the pan. I find the best way to do this is to use a wet spatula and scoop portions of the dough out at a time, dropping them into my pan. Once I have all the dough, I wet my spatula again and shape/smooth the top of the loaf.
• Cover the loaf pan. If your pan doesn’t have a lid you can tent the pan with aluminium foil.
• Leave in a warm place to ferment. In my kitchen, 24C/75F, I leave this for an hour and a half.

• About 20 minutes before you judge the bread to be ready, preheat your oven to 210C/410C.
• When the loaf is ready (it will be bigger and may have tiny pin holes on the surface), ensure the lid is well fitting and place inside your preheated oven.
• Cook the bread at 210C/410F for 25 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 190C/375F. My loaf (cooked in a Emile Henry ceramic baker) takes a further 30 minutes at this temperature.
• The bread will be done when it registers 95C/200F at its centre with a probe thermometer. If you don’t have one of these, you can judge doneness based on the colour of the crust and the loaf sounding hollow when you tap it on the bottom.
• Remove the bread from its pan to a cooling rack and leave it to cool completely before cutting.

This seeded wholegrain emmer sourdough will keep at least four or five days in a bread bag or tin. If you are used to spelt loaves going stale after two or three days, you will be pleasantly surprised at the keeping qualities of emmer.

FAQs

What’s the difference between emmer and spelt?

Both emmer and spelt are ancient grains. They both have wheat-like qualities (as does their sister ancient grain, einkorn). Their similarities are shown by what the Italians call them. In Italian, einkorn, emmer and spelt are all part of the ‘farro’ family; einkorn is ‘farro monococco’, emmer is ‘farro dicocco’ and spelt is ‘farro spelta’. Emmer is genetically more complex than einkorn but simpler than simpler than spelt.

From the bakers point of view, emmer handles very differently to spelt. It stretches much more, but with its lower gluten content it is harder to use the methods of conventional wheat bread-making. This is why my recipe uses the techniques I would normally apply to very low-gluten doughs, such as those made with rye.

Does emmer contain gluten?

Yes, emmer does contain gluten. Therefore if you are coeliac you shouldn’t eat it. If, however, you have non-specific gluten intolerance you may find, as others do, that eating sourdough made with ancient grains such as emmer does not cause you problems.

What’s the difference between wheat and emmer?

Emmer is an ancient grain, a cereal that our ancestors have been using for thousands of years. Modern wheat that we buy in shops today is a product of an intensive selective breeding programme in the 1960s. This was designed to increase wheat yield, with no concern for flavour or health benefits. When you choose to bake with emmer you are choosing a grain that has sustained ancestors for many years and has not been messed with as has modern wheat.

You might also like:

5 Reasons to Bake With Ancient Grains

All About Spelt Sourdough (podcast episode)

How to Make Sourdough Rye Bread From Scratch

Thank you so much to Grand Teton Ancient Grains for sponsoring this post, allowing me to develop, test and write up this recipe.

Øllebrød is my new favourite breakfast! Who would’ve believed that such a complex-flavoured, adaptable, moreish dish could come from the combination of some stale rye bread and half a can of ale?! Pair it with a few flavourings (which I’ll share with you below) it’s like creating magic in your breakfast bowl.

What is Øllebrød?

Øllebrød is a oatmeal-style dish from Denmark that pairs previously-baked rye bread with beer to create a warm and hearty porridge. The earliest references to it are from the Middle Ages and, in its traditional form, it was a simple, frugal dish that provided nourishment from readily-available staples.

Why bread and beer?

Before industrialisation, communities depended on the crops that grew around them. Rye was a grain that worked well in Denmark, hence it was used to make bread. As firing an oven is quite an expense, this bread was often made in large batches and designed to be kept. As these breads aged, creative home cooks found ways to bring them to life, including this delicious porridge øllebrød.

 With bread-making comes beer-making – providing both was an unquestionable part of the household duties of women for centuries. And if we go back beyond a couple of hundred years, beer (or ale) was a day-to-day drink; given to the whole family at meals.

Bread and beer would have been part of our ancestors lives. Combining them into a daily dish just made sense.

A traditional version:

I first read about øllebrød in Alex Hely-Hutchinson’s book 26 Grains. Her version, like many of the øllebrød recipes you’ll find online, modernises the dish, leaving out the beer and adding sweeteners, fruit and spices. Whilst øllebrød does taste good this way, I love adding beer – it gives the dish a deep, rich flavour that is so distinctively different.

In this recipe, half of the liquid used is beer (I’ve used a stout as the flavours combine so well, but you could use any beer). To balance the flavours, I’ve also used a very small amount of sweetener. Taste your own øllebrød before it’s done and add more if you prefer it sweeter.

I make 100% wholegrain rye sourdough rye bread at home every week (my methods are in my course Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics) and use the last slices of the loaf to make øllebrød. Sometimes, though, I am so keen to have the porridge that I’ll use fresh bread, or even make a loaf especially. It’s not important whether your bread is old or new, the flavour will be good with both.

You could use shop-bought rye bread, but, as with all industrially-made foods, the flavour won’t be as special.

My favourite spices and flavourings are below, but there are so many options to chose from. Using my suggestions and your imagination, you can make the dish a different experience every time.

Øllebrød needs to be started the night before you want to eat it by soaking the bread in beer and water. I suggest doing this in the saucepan that you intend to cook it in, saving washing up!

Traditional Danish Øllebrød

Serves: 3

Time to soak: overnight

Time to cook: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

250g rye bread, sourdough is best

300g stout (or any beer/ale)

300g water

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp dark sugar

Spices/flavourings (I often change these up, but like this combination):

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp vanilla seeds

Zest of 1/3 of a lemon (c.1/2 tsp)

You could also experiment with orange zest/juice, caraway, cardamom, star anise and more!

Method:

The night before you want to eat øllebrød:

• Break the bread into chunks around 2 cms and place them in a saucepan.
• Pour over the beer and the water and stir to combine.
• Cover and leave on the counter overnight.

In the morning:

• Add the salt, sugar and spices to the bread mixture.
• Put the pan onto the stove on a medium-high heat, stirring frequently until you start to see it bubble.
• Turn the heat down to low and cook for 20 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid it sticking to the bottom of your pan.
• When the porridge is smooth, taste it for seasoning, adding more salt, sweetener and/or spices if you would like.
• Serve into bowls, add any desired toppings and eat straight away.

Serving suggestions:

• Øllebrød is great served simply with crushed nuts/seeds and some yogurt or cream (or my favourite, ghee!)
• If you’d like to, toasting nuts before topping øllebrød with them brings more flavour.
• Fresh, seasonal fruit is a nice option.
• For a special treat you could add honey or maple syrup; my son likes it if I infuse cardamom pods for 15 minutes in a 50/50 warmed honey/water solution and pour that over the top of his øllebrød.

FAQs

Can I use new rye bread?

Yes, I often use freshly-made rye bread to make øllebrød. I ends up being slightly more liquidy than if I’d used stale, dry bread, but you can extend the cooking period if you prefer it thicker.

Can I use standard rye?

Yes, you don’t have to use home-made sourdough rye. You can use yeasted rye or shop-bought rye bread. Bread with seeds in will work too, but your porridge will not be as smooth as a non-seeded loaf.

Can I use other breads?

Yes, I often make øllebrød with sourdough spelt bread. When I do this, I prefer to replace the beer with cider. The flavour is wonderful!

Do I have to use alcohol?

No! Øllebrød was traditionally made with beer, but you could soak the bread in water instead. A lot of modern recipes do this.

Can I use non-alcoholic beer?

Yes! Non alcoholic stout or beer works well for this recipes.

I don’t like stout, can I use another beer?

Yes, you can use any type of beer, ale, cider (even home-brewed ancestral ale!). The flavour will change based on the type of drink you use.

What other flavourings go well with øllebrød?

I have used lemon zest, cinnamon and vanilla in the recipe, but often use other spices. Caraway works very well with the deep rye flavours, as does star anise and cardamom. Lots of recipes online use orange juice and zest.

You might also like:

Russian Bread Kvass

Wholegrain Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics (podcast episode)

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And, if you want to get my go-to recipe for 100% wholegrain rye sourdough bread, plus tips for making sourdough rye at home, go here.

My son, who is 11, likes experimenting in the kitchen. His combinations are often weird and wonderful. I try to let them be – isn’t trying, tasting and evaluating a huge part of the process?!

Because of my desire to allow him to play, we’ve eaten some weird dishes (chocolate and cheese, linseed and cabbage…the list goes on!).

But when it came to the idea of a spelt bread stuffed with olives and mozzarella, I was quite enthusiastic. I’m a lover of the ancient grain spelt. Add two delicious Mediterranean treats; what’s not to like?! My son had the idea of layering the dough in a cake tin. I never seen anyone doing this before I wasn’t sure whether it would work, but it does!

We decided to called this dish layered spelt focaccia with mozzarella and olives. It’s delicious, luxurious and interesting. When I initially included a picture of it in one of my newsletters, I received emails asking for the recipe! My son was proud and together we baked the bread again, this time noting all the weights and the process.

The bread uses instant yeast. That’s a departure from all of my previous bread recipes which have all been sourdough. 11-year-olds aren’t as patient as I have learnt to become, so he wanted to use yeast. In practice, you can make this focaccia using sourdough, check my notes at the end of the recipe for specific details.

Layered Spelt Focaccia with Mozzarella & Olives

Ingredients:

270g white spelt flour

4.5g salt

5g instant yeast

115g water

2 tablespoons olive oil

175g mozzarella

110g olives

1 teaspoon rosemary

Method:

• Measure the flour, salt and yeast into a mixing bowl.
• Combine the water (if your environment is cool, warm the water that you use to around 30°C/86°F) and olive oil in a jug.
• Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well, kneading till you have a soft dough.
• Use a little olive oil to grease the bowl, place the dough back in it, cover lightly and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (for me, at 28°C/82°F this took two hours).
• Remove the mozzarella from its packaging and dice it. Leave these pieces on a plate to rest and drain any liquid that comes from them.
• Depending on the size of your olives, chop them either in half or in quarters.
• Prepare a 7 1/2 inch/19 cm loose-bottomed sandwich cake tin by greasing and/or lining with parchment paper.
• Check your proofing dough. If it’s sufficiently risen, remove it from your warm space (if not, return it and keep checking).
• Flour your work surface and, removing the dough gently from its proofing bowl, divide it into four relatively equal portions.
• Stretch/push/roll the first of these four portions into a circle that will fit the bottom of your cake tin. When it’s the right size, place it at the bottom of the tin.

• Top this layer with a third of the olives, a quarter of the mozzarella and a sprinkle of the rosemary.
• Take the second quarter of dough, stretch/push/roll it as you did the first and place this over the top of the last one.
• Sprinkle this second layer with a third of the olives, a quarter of the mozzarella and a sprinkle of the rosemary.
• Repeat this process with the third quarter of the dough.

• Stretch/push/roll the last quarter of the dough and place it over the top. You should now have a quarter of the mozzarella to dot on the top. Add a little rosemary too.
• Cover the cake tin with a damp tea towel and move it back to your warm space for a final proof; at 28°C/82°F, I like to allow half an hour for this process.
• Whilst its proofing, preheat your oven to 180°C/355°F.
• When the layered focaccia is ready (it will have risen, not a great deal, but noticeably, in the tin), place it in the oven.
• Cook for 25-35 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
• Eat warm!

How to make this with sourdough:

If you’d like to make this a sourdough spelt focaccia, I recommend swapping the yeast out for 55g of active sourdough starter. It may take longer to ferment/proof.

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