Pratie oaten is a culinary reminder of how important oats were in the diet, especially before the widespread use of flour. While it’s primarily associated with the north, especially where it is known as pratie oaten, paddy oaten, rozel, or roozen (Co. Antrim), oat-based cakes and bread were a significant component of everyday rural life.
Pratie oaten only has two requirements: potatoes and oats. There are no set ingredients or quantities. Oatmeal, usually fine (pinhead), is mixed with cooked mashed potatoes until it forms a dough that can be baked like an oat cake. Theodora Fitzgibbon recommends a potato:oat ratio of 2:1. Georgina Campbell suggests it as a substitute for dishes like potato galette, and today it’s often seen as a side to meat-based courses, and primarily for tea and breakfast in northern regions.
Pratie comes from práta, which is Irish for potato, and is heard throughout Scotland, northern England and parts of Ireland. The term “pratie oaten” is also part of those lexicons, such as “as coarse as pratie oaten.”
She left him baffled by explaining, “Ach son dear, I’ve been claugherin’ that much my throat’s as rough as pratie oaten.”
Mrs. B Hunter, 9 Cheston Street, Carrickfergus (Belfast Telegraph, 16 Aug 1969)
As coarse as “Pratie Oaten” – comes from coarse bread that used to be made from potatoes and oatmeal
Ballyhunterhiggin, Co. Donegal (NFCS 1026:227)
The Grey Roots Museum and Archives in Owen Sound, Ontario holds a Pratie Oaten Irish Festival.
Pratie Oaten Recipe
I tried two types of oats for these – steel cut (pinhead) and rolled (old-fashioned), since the few posts I were based off a recipe that happened to use the latter. Those actually held together better than the pinhead oats, as you can see below, but if you want to keep it traditional you can stick with McCanns or an equivalent.
INGREDIENTS
1lb potatoes
2/3 – 3/4 cup fine oatmeal
2-4 tablespoons butter
salt
METHOD
1. Boil and cook peeled potatoes.
2. Work oatmeal into potatoes. Add salt if desired. Roll and cut into farls or cakes.
3. Melt butter and cook on a hot griddle, about 3-4 minutes per side.
4. Serve hot or cold.
cleite agus cnámh 