Scones, buns, oatcakes and baps: the secrets to British baking, and how climate and trade make it different from north to south

Oats In the North, Wheat From the South by Regula YsewijnThe title of the cookbook Oats in the North, Wheat from the South (2020) succinctly sums up the dividing line that the climate in Britain imposed on the crops grown there, and which in turn influenced baking across the British Isles.Regula Ysewijn, a Belgian writer and food historian, writes in the introduction to the book, “The many bakes made with oats in the North tell the story of a rougher and wetter climate in the northern areas,…