School: Cill Fhearga (roll number 15128)

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1. The Food in Olden Times

   

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   The food of the people in olden times was of a very fragile nature, and consisted chiefly of oatmeal, potatoes, milk and butter. As a rule the people only ate three meals each day that is, breakfast, dinner and supper. They arose about seven o'clock in the morning when they immediately went to the fields and worked till nine o'clock. Breakfast was then ready and it consisted of oatmeal porridge and milk. Dinner came about two o'clock and this was usually what was known as "boncannon." This was cooked in the following way. The potatoes were peeled and boiled then put into a large wooden tub where they were bruised into a pulp. A wooden vessel called a coppan was filled with butter and placed in the center of the tub. The people then sat around the tub on small stools called "creepies" and sometimes on stones, and arose more satisfied than they would now in a first class hotel. Oatmeal cooked in different forms constituted another great item of the diet of our forefathers. When being made into bread, it was mixed to a stiff dough and baked before a turf fire on an article called a maide

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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

   Eileen O' Rourke

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Gortnacorkoge, Co. Leitrim

   Informant

   Joseph Boles

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Gortnacorkoge, Co. Leitrim