Edible Souvenirs

Staffordshire Oatcakes

The oatcake closely associated to Staffordshire - and north Staffordshire in particular, around Stoke-on-Trent - is a pancake-like flatbread of griddled batter, not a biscuit like its Scots namesake, nor tricky to mass-produce like Yorkshire Haverbread. Increasingly they are available nationally, but the Stoke on Trent area remains the centre of production (there are at least half a dozen makers in Stoke & Burslem alone) and you know you are in Stoke, or Stone, or Leek, or Hanley, when your B&B offers oatcakes for breakfast or your local lunchtime takeaway is a filled oatcake (perhaps with hot bacon or cheese), which has been baked on the premises. Burslem Oatcakes (on Burslem High Street) still use cast iron 'baxtons' as the hot-plate on which the oatcake mixture is poured. Oatcakes are ubiquitous in many cafes in the same way that baguettes or paninis are in other parts of the country; the Passion of India restaurant at The Elms, Shelton, serves them as part of a vegetarian curry menu.

As souvenirs, oatcakes are best eaten warm and fresh in the county and you can savour the memory; though you can take a packet home and re-heat the contents, adding your own fillings. You can even get a 'Traditional Staffordshire Oatcake Mix' from The Original Oaties Company, at the Staffordshire Oatcake Shop in Middleport, Stoke.

Although in general they are a blend of flour, oatmeal, water, yeast, salt and fat, the actual recipes used by professional makers are often kept secret. Poveys of Biddulph "are made from a secret recipe, in this instance known only to Mr. Povey!", and as the Hole In The Wall at Hanley puts it "If you should enquire after an oatcake baker's secret recipe … you'll find they say "You can have the recipe but first you've got to buy the business!" or "You could ask the last owner - you'll find her in Burslem cemetary!""

More information:
<www.tasteofstaffordshire.com>
<www.staffordshireoatcakes.com>
<www.poveysoatcakes.com>
<www.oatcakes.net>
<www.highlaneoatcakes.co.uk>