Bannock

Bannock. Breville USA / flickr.com / 2013 / CC BY 2.0

Bannock is a quick, flat bread.

The most authentic version is a round or oval piece of unleavened dough, cooked on a griddle or girdle. The middle will rise or puff a bit.

There are many, many different recipes. They vary by flour or meal used, by whether leavened or unleavened, by special ingredients added, by method of cooking, and by any festival or ritual that the bannock is meant for.

When a bannock is cut up into four quarters, each quarter is called a “farl.”

The word “bannock” is often applied to any sort of grain or meal based baked item that is round, and largish. Closely related items in English-speaking countries are Damper in Australia, Damper Dogs and Toutons in Newfoundland.

Leaveners used

Some bannocks come out quite heavy, and are meant to.

Historically, bannock were more likely to be made without any leavener.

Yeast-risen ones would also have been made, by saving starter dough from the last batch to make the next batch with. Selkirk bannock is an example of a yeast-risen bannock.

In the early 1800s, baking soda came on the market commercially, and started to be used in some bannock recipes along with an acidic ingredient for it to react with, such as clabbered milk or buttermilk. Then in the mid 1800s, baking powder came along which didn’t require the added acid.

Bannock leavened with a chemical leavener, such as baking soda or baking powder, can be similar to baking powder biscuits or scones, except the dough is pan cooked rather than baked in an oven.

Flour

Some bannock recipes use just flour, some add rolled oats. The flour could have been wheat flour, if available and affordable to you, or barley meal. As bannock originated in Scotland, the flour would have originally been barley meal, because in Scotland, barley preceded both oats and wheat. The poor kept on eating barley long after the affluent middle-classes had forgotten it existed. Bannock could also be made from “pease meal”, which is ground field peas. Wheat flour, however, bound ingredients together the best, so it was always popular when it was available. In the West of Scotland, bannock is still more likely to be made with oats, and exclusively with oats — in fact so much so that the distinction between bannock and oatcakes can blur.

Fat

Some bannock recipes (particularly perhaps Canadian ones) use bacon fat instead of butter, dripping or lard. Some bannock would be fried up in any kind of fat available, depending on the location and geography, from beef dripping to pork lard to moose fat.

Other ingredients

Some bannock versions use water as the liquid, some use milk.

A basic bannock doesn’t have much flavour to it. It will take on flavour from the kinds of flour used, special ingredients added, and any fat it is fried in.

Bannock can have dried fruit or peel mixed in to become a treat with tea.

Cooking methods

Generally, you form bannock dough into balls, and press with your hands until flat. Bannock can be cooked as one large piece that you break up, or as several small cakes.

Scots cooked bannock on a griddle called a “bannock stone” (“clach bhannag” in Scottish.) It was a flattened, D-shaped piece of sandstone used as a griddle. It would be put on the floor in front of a fire where it could heat up. Some people bake bannock in ovens now, though home ovens of course weren’t really widespread until the late 1800s.

Bannock dough can also be put as balls into stew and served as dumplings

Bannock in North America

Bannock was brought over by Scottish explorers, traders and settlers. In Canada, traders for the Hudson’s Bay and Northwest companies, many of whom were Scottish, set up a network of permanent trading posts and sold flour at them, for which natives could trade. They probably introduced bannock to native North Americans. Now, bannock is not particularly well known in Canada outside of some native communities, grade school history books, and food historians.

At some folksy tourist shops in Canada, you can buy “bannock mix.” There is usually at least one obligatory bannock recipe in every Canadian cookbook. Many Canadians are unaware of bannock’s Scottish origins.

In the United States, bannock tended to be made more by Indians, and known by white people as “Indian bread.” The grain used was often cornmeal. Some Indians will deep fry it, making it very close to fry bread.

Different First Nations in North America have evolved regional versions for which they are known. The Chippewa have two versions which both use baking powder, a fat such as lard and a dried fruit. One of the versions uses wheat flour and is often unsweetened; another uses cornmeal, and a sweetener such as honey or maple. Both versions are fried up in a small amount of oil.

North American versions put most emphasis on cooking bannock using campfires. They can be cooked in cast iron frying pans, on top of a heated rock, or wrapped around a stick, preferably a green wood one that won’t burn.

Scottish versions

Yetholm and Pitcaithly bannock are actually what we would call shortbread.

Four main variations of bannock were historically tied to the druidic divisions of the year into four main parts:

• St Bride’s Bannock for 1st February (spring), Imbolg;
• Béaltaine bannock for 1 May rituals;
• Lammas bannock for harvest festivals 1 August, Lughnasadh;
• Samhain Bannock for the start of winter rituals at the end of October.

Literature & lore

In 19th Century USA cookbooks, cornmeal bannock is common.

“Bannock Cake. 1 ½ pint of Indian meal, scalded; four eggs, well beaten; one quart of milk, warmed, with two tablespoonfuls of butter stirred in; salt to your taste; bake in a square or round tin pan, and cut it up in slices. The lightness of this depends on the beating.” — From “Mrs. Goodfellow’s Cookery As It Should Be,” 1865.

“Indian cake, or bannock, is sweet and cheap food. One quart of sifted meal, two great spoonfuls of molasses, two teaspoonfuls of salt, a bit of shortening half as big as hen’s egg, stirred together; make it pretty moist with scalding water, put it in a well-greased pan, smooth over the surface with a spoon, and bake it brown on both sides, before a quick fire. A little stewed pumpkin, scalded with the meal, improves the cake. Bannock split and dipped in butter makes a very nice toast.” — Lydia Maria Francis Child. The American Frugal Housewife. 1833.

“Sift a quart of fine Indian meal, mix it with a salt-spoonful of salt, two large spoonfuls of butter and a gill of molasses; make it into a common dough with scalding water, or hot sweet milk, mixing it well with a spoon; put it in a well-buttered skillet, make it smooth, and bake it rather briskly. When it is done, cut it in thin smooth slices, toast them lightly, butter them, stack them, and eat them warm.” — Lettice Bryan. The Kentucky Housewife. 1839.

Language notes

Bannock comes from the Gaelic word spelled variously as “bannach” or “bonnach”, which meant “morsel.” Some attribute the Gaelic word to the Latin word “panicum”, thinking it meant bread, but it actually meant “panic grass”. An alternative Latin word for bread, “panicus”, wasn’t invented until the 1500s, so it’s very unlikely that “bannach” was influenced in fact by a Latin word.

In the 1500s, the plural was spelled “bonnokkis” or “bannokis.”

Types of bannock

Béaltaine Bannock

Béaltaine Bannock was a form of bread. There were various traditions and forms of it being made up until the end of the 1800s. It was a bannock that was usually round, though sometimes it was triangular. While making it, no metal implements were ...

Beremeal Bannock

A beremeal bannock is made from a mixture of wheat flour and flour ground from an old variety of barley. It is leavened with baking powder or baking soda.

Bride's Bannock

Bride's Bannock is a bannock that ends up similar to shortbread. It is made from flour, baking powder, sugar, butter, and caraway seeds. All ingredients are mixed, with just enough milk to form a dough. The dough is then formed into a ¾ inch (2 cm)...

Cod Liver Bannock

Cod Liver Bannock is made from oatmeal and minced-cod liver, and steamed. It is particularly made on the Isle of Barra, a small Scots-Gaelic speaking island off the west coast of Scotland. Cooking Tips For each Cod Liver Bannock: Soak 1 cod's liver...

Cryin' Bannock

In some areas of Scotland, a woman's going into labour (confinement) was called a "cryin" (likely for obvious reasons.) When a child was born, a special bannock called a "Cryin' Bannock" or a "Cryin' Kebback" would be made from oatmeal, milk and sugar. The...

Fallaid Bannock

"Faillad bannock" in Scottish means basically "leftover bannock." If you left an uneaten bannock in the house overnight, that would grant admission to the Faeires into your house. You could prevent Faeires admission by breaking a piece off of the Fallaid...

Fife Bannock

Fife Bannock is made in Fife, an area on the east coast of Scotland. In Fife, bannock is more likely to be made with wheat flour, and another grain that has been finely ground, as opposed to some other parts of Scotland, which is likely to have more...

Hogmanay Bannock

Hogmanay Bannock was made for Hogmanay (Scottish New Year), in the form of a small bannock made with oats and caraway seeds, with a hole in the centre and notched edges. One would be made for each child. Children got them in the morning, and had to...

Lammas Bannock

A Lammas Bannock was made from the grains that had been newly harvested. Later Lammas Bannock became a loaf of actual bread made from the first grains harvested. Lammas Bannock would be either given as a gift to the local clergy, or taken to Church...

Marymas Bannock

Marymas Bannock was originally known as Lammas Bannock. Lammas Bannock eventually was assimilated into Christianity, and Marymas Bannock was made in honour of the Virgin Mary on the 15th August, the Feast Day of Mary ("Feill Moire" in Scottish.) The...

Mashlum Bannock

Mashlum is a Scottish expression for a mixture made with a mixture of flours, rather than entirely from one grain, such as oatmeal, barley or wheat. In English, we'd just say "mixed grain." Literature & Lore "Tell you guid bluid o' auld Boconnock's I'll...

Michaelmas Bannock

Michaelmas Bannock was baked in northern Scotland and in Ireland on St Michael's day (in some traditions, it was made the night before.) Many of the activities that had been done at Lughnasadh -- sports, games and horse races -- migrated to this day. The...

Pease Bannock

Pease Bannock is made using dried field peas ground into a meal. Pease Bannock was often made near the border between Scotland and England. It would be made in an oval shape, and called a "fadge." Often ground bean meal was mixed in as well. Pease...

Pitcaithly Bannock

Pitcaithly Bannock is actually more what we would think of as shortbread. It is made as a large, round circle, from a mixture of wheat and rice flours, sugar, and butter, along with chopped almonds, and candied citrus peel. You mix the flours and sugar,...

Salt Bannock

Salt Bannock was a bannock made from whatever meal was available with the addition of a whole lot of salt. You were supposed to eat Salt Bannock, then go to bed without saying another word before drinking or going to sleep. You would then have dreams...

Samhain Bannock

Samhain Bannock started off as a plain bannock made at Hallowe'en. It would be left outside the door along with milk for the dead, or it could be included amongst food set on a table inside for your ancestors who had passed to the "Summerlands" and wanted...

Sautie Bannock

Sautie bannock was made for Bannock Nicht (aka Shrove Tuesday ) from oats , egg , and salt , with the liquid for the mixture being either beef broth or milk . Only one person made the sautie bannock, and she was not allowed to speak. The other girls...

Selkirk Bannock

Selkirk bannock is a round Scottish bread made with wheat flour, butter, and a generous amount of sultana raisins.

Silverweed Bannock

Silverweed Bannock was made from the boiled roots of Silverweed Cinquefoil. Because Silverweed was known to be a favourite Fairy food, this particular type of bannock might have been one you particularly did not want to leave in the house overnight as...

St Bride's Bannock

St Bride's Bannock was baked for the first day of spring and was called "bonnach Bride" -- "Bride's Bannock." The first day of spring was called various names including: Imbolc, Imbolg, Là Fhéill Bhrìghde, Feast-Day of Bride and St Brigid's Day. St. Br...

St Columba's Bannock

St Columba's Bannock was a special bannock made for St Columba's Day, which is celebrated on Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday.) The night before, the bannock would be made out of oats or rye with a silver coin in it, and cooked on a fire made...

Teethin' Bannock

Teethin' Bannock was a large bannock made of oatmeal and butter or cream, for young children whose teeth were coming in. Teethin' Bannock was baked with neighbours present, but the person making it had to remain silent. Sometimes a large teething ring...

Yetholm Bannock

As with Pithcaily Bannock, Yetholm Bannock is actually a shortbread, but one with candied (aka crystallized) ginger pieces in it. You make plain shortbread from wheat flour (with no oatmeal) and add 1 egg yolk for added richness, plus 1 generous tablespoon...

Yule Bannock

Yule Bannock was a bannock that was made round with notched edges. The dough was made from finely-ground oatmeal. After the arrival of Christianity, the bannock came to be marked on the top with a cross, dividing it into four. The tradition was to bake...