School: Coill an tSrotha (roll number 5352)
- Location:
- Cullentragh, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Ss. Mac Dhorchaidh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0197, Page 463
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- XML “Bread in Olden Times”
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- In olden times the people had were boxty, potato-cake, (slim cakes) and bannags or oat cakes. Bannags were baked before a flag which was left in front of the fire. The way the old women made the oat cakes was first they got the corn and thrashed it. Then they brought the oats to the quern and got it ground into oatmeal. The oat meal was then wet with boiling water after which it was mixed and flattened and cut into quarters. Each quarter was one quarter inch in thickness. Some people baked oat cakes on a tongs which was left on top of coals. Slim-cakes are made by washing potatoes and boiling them in a pot. After this the potatoes are peeled and bruised and flour and a pinch of salt are mixed along with them. The mixture is flattened in the shape of a cake which is cut in four parts, which are baked in an oven. Another sort of bread which the people generally made at Hallow-Eve and Christmas Eve was boxty. Boxty was made by grating potatoes on a grater. Then the grated potatoes are put into a piece of cloth and the water is rung out of them. Flour and salt are mixed with still remains in the cloth. Sometimes the mixture is flattened into a cake which is baked in a greased oven other times smaller pieces are made which are boiled in a pot.
- Informant
- Patrick Clancy
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 72
- Address
- Barr of Farrow, Co. Leitrim
