Splits are the traditional soft bread rolls baked every day and sold in all the Cornish bakers’ shops. I can only presume they are called ‘splits’ because the tradition is to cut or ‘split’ them in half and spread them with butter or cream and jam. Cornish clotted cream (see here) was always piled thickly on to them at tea-time. Splits are still much eaten by Cornishmen as well as by the millions of visitors who flock to the tea shops that advertise Cornish Cream Teas all over the West Country. A variation on the cream and jam theme was to spread the splits with cream and then pour golden syrup or treacle on top. This was known locally as ‘thunder and lightning’.
Tea was an important meal to the Cornish. It was eaten when the menfolk returned from their work down the mines or in the fields and was likely to be the last meal of the day. Besides bread and splits, there may have been saffron cake (see here), maybe part of a pasty left over from lunch or some cold bacon and pickles. It was not generally a cooked meal.
450 g (1 lb) flour
a good pinch of salt
50 g (2 oz) lard
25 g (1 oz) yeast
450 ml (¾ pint) warm milk
1 teaspoon sugar
Sift the flour and salt and rub the lard into it until it is all well absorbed. Put the yeast in a basin with 150 ml (¼ pint) of the warm milk and the sugar. Mix the remainder of the milk into the fat and flour, then finally stir in the yeast. Give the dough a good kneading and put in a bowl in a warm place to rise.
When risen turn out on a board dusted with flour. Cut into smallish rounds and put on a baking sheet. Leave to rise again, then bake in quick oven – 190°C (375°F) Gas 5 – until bottoms are brown – about 15 minutes.