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| Cowree |
A recipe filched from the
Li'l People
After the oats were ground at
the mill, the husks would also be returned and were used to make cowree
- the traditional dish left by the hearth at night for the fairies, or li'l
people, as the Manx folk call them. A thick gruel, cowree was also the
food taken up the mountain for sustenance on a turf cutting
day.
Steep the husks of a bushel of oats with
a handful or two of fine oatmeal for nine days, in sufficient water to cover.
When it has fermented and become bitter, run the water through a sieve to
remove the husks. Now fill the biggest pot you have in the house with the
liquid. Stir with a pot-stick all the time it is on the fire until it becomes
thick and solid. When it is quite cold, boil it with milk and
serve.
The cloudy water in which the husks and
oatmeal had been steeped was sometimes drunk without being boiled, and this was
called sooslagh - " a drink with body in it".
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