Barley
Barley is a hardy cereal, domesticated in the Middle East over 10,000 years ago, eaten whole, pearled or milled, malted for brewing, and grown with koji mold for barley miso.
Modern method
Orkney barley or oat bannocks
Bannock · bere bannock · Scottish bannock
Two round, chemically raised bannocks made with equal weights of white flour and beremeal, barley flour or oat flour, following Anne Johnson's Orkney formula.
A name broader than one recipe
Bannock has long named a flat round cooked on a girdle, the Scots word for a griddle. Older Scots records describe barley, oat and pease meal versions. The dictionary's quotations span 1500–1687 and include a meal allowance associated with milling as another sense of the word. These attestations document language and food practice; they do not establish an earliest date for the modern Orkney formula.
The regional name does not make every bannock the same bread. A round made with baking powder, milk and spread should not be presented as a reconstruction of a sixteenth-century meal cake. Its raising is chemical, with no yeast culture or fermentation rest in the procedure.
History
The modern formula is attributed to Anne Johnson in Orkney. The older Scots name covers a broader family, rather than proving continuity of this baking-powder recipe.
Ingredients
Yield 2 round bannocks · Scaling: source batch only
115 g
Baking powder
6 g
Salt
A pinch.
Vegetable oil spread
15 g
Semi-skimmed milk
160 mL
Sugar (optional)
15 g
Method
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Raw flour
Flour can carry harmful bacteria before cooking.
Hazard sourceDo not taste raw dough. Keep raw flour separate from ready-to-eat foods; wash hands, utensils and surfaces after mixing.
Control sourceThe cooking times describe this household formula, not a validated safety endpoint. Storage conditions and shelf life are not supplied.
- Sift the dry ingredients together; include the sugar if using. Rub in the spread, then stir in the milk.
- Divide into two rounds, each about 2 cm thick.
- Heat a griddle or heavy-bottomed pan. A dusting of flour should turn golden on its surface. Cook each round for about 3–5 minutes per side.
- Alternatively, bake at 180°C for around 20 minutes.
Conditions
Yield2 round bannocks
Places
Orkney
Documented preparation · Region evidenceAnne Johnson's Orkney formula; no birthplace claim.
Related
Made from
Barley flour
Barley flour is ground barley grain; whether it comes from pearled or hulless kernels, its milling and limited wheat-like gluten-forming ability shape the doughs and foods it can make.
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Sources
University of Aberdeen, Rowett InstituteRecipe · Geography
Bannocks — Anne Johnson's Orkney recipeIngredients, two-round yield, 2 cm thickness, pan and oven methods; Orkney attribution.
Cited in: A name broader than one recipe
Dictionaries of the Scots LanguageHistory · Identity
Bannok, n. — A Dictionary of the Older Scottish TongueHistorical breadth, meal types, griddle cooking and quotation dates; not a dated source for this modern formula.
Cited in: A name broader than one recipe
U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationSafety
Handling Flour Safely: What You Need to KnowRaw flour hazards, no tasting raw dough, separation and cleaning.