Today I went to Biddulph Grange Garden in North Staffordshire – to write up a piece for the sustainable food newsletter I edit in my volunteer role at the National Trust. I would highly recommend visiting the gardens here if you are in the area or looking for a day out – they are utterly breathtaking. My photos don’t do it justice.
But what I wanted to share was my discovery of Staffordshire oatcakes. They are a bit like a pancake or crepe, and I tried them for lunch in the National Trust tearoom, rolled up with cheese inside and heated until piping hot.
All the cheese was oozing out the ends – delicious. They were really quite tasty, especially with all that melted cheese – I must investigate how else you can use them and what other ingredients you can stuff inside them. I’m assuming most things, but I wonder if there are traditional ways of eating them.
Luckily I was able to buy myself a packet of Staffordshire oatcakes from Glebe Farm Shop in Astbury. I was told they were locally made in Congleton, freezeable, and I can’t wait to try them out at home.
Eat the Earth 
4 comments
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September 24, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Jen
These look lovely! Never heard of them before, but a big fan of anything which you can fill with melted cheese! You’ll have to let me know how you get on with other fillings, they look yummy! x
September 26, 2011 at 8:50 am
CharlieB
Me too Jen – cheese and butter are the two things I don’t think I could live without!
January 25, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Anthony
Yes, they’re wonderful, my girlfriend heralds from Stoke and I harass her to take me to an oatcake shop every time we’re in the area. They’re used much like wraps, sold in the kind of shops you would buy yourself a bacon butty. A cheese, bacon, and mushroom double is my personal favourite, the double being a second layer of oatcake. She tells me they were a working-food sold to potters from holes-in-walls in times gone by. Sadly there’s only a single shop left where you can still buy them in this traditional manner.
She also tells me you can have the oatcake sweet if you’d like, some will have them filled with jam, marmalade, honey, whichever, I assume they would still be served hot in this context – I’m not taken with that idea myself, but there you are. Substituted into savoury pancake recipes perhaps?
Anyway let me just say I discovered your blog a few a days ago and I’ve enjoyed browsing it, so thank you for writing it.
January 25, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Charlie
Thanks for all the top tips for eating oatcakes – I really want to get back over to Staffordshire to stock up on some more. Must try them with the addition of bacon and mushroom, filled with lots of cheese they are certainly delicious 🙂 Does you girlfriend know where the single traditional shop is? Would love to try and go one of these days. Haven’t tried them sweet yet but might give it a go if I can part with the idea of them oozy with loads of cheese! So pleased you are enjoying the blog, hope you find some interesting things on it.