A bakery classic that just keeps bouncing back
AS one baker begins a new chapter in the history of the stottie, it’s worth reflecting on the history of an iconic Geordie delicacy.
The stottie cake, a heavy, stodgy bread that no North East bakery should be without, is a staple of culinary life in our corner of the British Isles.
After Mr Baker’s of Birtley produced a stottie wedding cake – a towering, fourtier achievement – it seems like a good time to remember just where the stottie comes from and how much we love them.
Just like the Cornish pasty has a thick crust so it can be held and discarded by the dirty hands of miners and labourers, the stottie comes from a humble background.
Traditionally it was made with scraps of leftover dough by working -lass families – a cheap and easy bread to make in the coal-fired ovens that warmed the kitchens of the region’s terraces.
But like all food born of poverty and toil, it has an enduring charm and identity that have ensured its survival in the age of the ciabatta and foccacia. So, what makes a stottie a stottie? Well, it’s all about where it’s placed in the oven – to be specific, it should sit as low down as possible.
Heat rises so the lower in the oven it sits, the longer it will take to cook, allowing the ingredients to bind and give it that signature chewy, stretchy texture.
And, of course, it should bounce when it’s dropped - the name stottie derives from the Geordie vernacular term ‘stot’ – meaning ‘throw’.
Forget presentation: this dish needs to be belted off the floor when it’s finished, not garnished and decorated like a Christmas tree.
Today, the most famous stottie is produced by Greggs – and a very good stottie it is.
But back in the day, they looked a bit different from the modern version – browner, crustier, even with seeds sprinkled on top.
The most famous picture of a stottie cake ever taken bears this out: Muhammad Ali, munching on Bigg Market-bought bap during a visit to Newcastle in 1977.
Snapped by our own Dennis Hutchinson, the image of the world heavyweight champion sampling one of the Toon’s finest secured its place in cultural history – but look closely and it isn’t much like the stottie you would buy today.
Our humble stottie has many uses.
Classically, it should be served with ham and pease pudding, the marriage of two of the North East’s finest contributions to life on planet Earth, along with the first commercial locomotive and Alan Shearer. It can also – and should also – be served alongside soup, such are its sponge-like qualities and impossibly high saturation limits.
And, of course, those who truly know the stottie will testify that it is the perfect hangover cure; just don’t tell anyone from outside the region.