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Cereals and bread from Scotland and Shetland

Sour oat jellies (Scottish sowans and Russian oat kissel)sowans

Oat husks with starch still on them, or oat flakes, are steeped in water until they sour. The liquor is strained off and left to settle; the starch that sinks is boiled with water and salt into a sour porridge or jelly, and the thin sour liquid on top (swats) is drunk.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Sour oat jellies itself.

DocumentedCereals and bread24 h – 7 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are one Russian Orthodox Lenten recipe for oat kissel. Sowans has no fixed recipe; the husks of oats are steeped in water.
Oat flakes500 gRussian oat kissel; covered with warm water[azbyka]
Rye (yeast) bread3 crustsAdded to the pot with the oat flakes[azbyka]
Water, added after straining0.5 l[azbyka]
Salt and sugarTo taste[azbyka]
Starterspontaneous (sowans)

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 7 days

Start
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SugarsLactic acid

What changes: Oat husks or flakes steep in water until the mixture turns sour

Step 1 of 4
Steep the oats until sour
Time
24 h – 7 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

A food-history blog says sowans takes between 3 and 14 days to sour, depending on the time of year. Output: sour oat liquor.

Flavour
sour
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Oat husks with starch still on them, or oat flakes, are steeped in water until they sour. The liquor is strained off and left to settle; the starch that sinks is boiled with water and salt into a sour porridge or jelly, and the thin sour liquid on top (swats) is drunk. Made in 4 steps over 24 h – 7 days. The longest step, steep the oats until sour, takes 24 h – 7 days (Robinson C. (Scottish Language Dictionaries)).

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 7 daysReported[sld][azbyka]Steep the oats until sour

What makes this one different

These are starch ferments of oats. The husks or flakes sour in water, and only the strained liquid, or the starch that settles from it, is cooked. Welsh llymru is similar but is soured oatmeal, often with buttermilk, not husks.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Russian oat kissel (Lenten)Oat flakes left a day in a warm place with rye bread crusts, strained, boiled for 5 minutes after it reaches the boil and poured into dishes to set as a jelly.
  • Shetland virpaThe Shetland name for sowans.

Safety

The starch is boiled before it is eaten; the raw sour liquid (swats) is drunk uncooked.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The word sowans comes from Gaelic subhan and first appears in Scots in the late sixteenth century. British Food, A History says sowans was associated with harvest time and Hallowe'en, and quotes an 1861 article on drinking it on Auld Yule morning (Christmas). Russian oat kissel is eaten as a Lenten dish.

  1. [sld] Robinson C. (Scottish Language Dictionaries), SOWANS, fermented oat bran or husks, Scots Language Centre word articleweb
  2. [bfh] British Food, A History 2022, Sowans (sowens), 17 September 2022 (blog, with the author's own trials and a summary of McNeill's The Scots Kitchen)web
  3. [azbyka] Azbyka.ru, Овсяный кисель (постный холодец) [Oat kissel (Lenten aspic)], recipeweb
  4. [wp] Wikipedia, Sowans (outline only)wiki