Souling Cakes are from the Cheshire region, on the border with North Wales. A Souling cake (or soul cake) is a small round cake, like a biscuit, which is traditionally made for All Souls’ Day (the 2nd November, the day after All Saint’s Day) to celebrate the dead. These plain cakes, often simply referred to [...]
Chester Pudding is a very early (Victorian) and regional version of a Lemon Meringue Pie, baked in a shallow tart dish. It is very quick and easy to make and it should be served slightly warm for friends and family on a golden evening in Summer. Unlike a Lemon Meringue Pie, a Chester Pudding tastes [...]
Yorkshire Parkin is a regional ginger cake of the north-west, with slight variations across the area. Having read and made many different recipes for Parkin, many coming from ‘A Yorkshire Cookery Book’ 1916 (recipes for which Mary Gaskell collected from Yorkshire housewives, to print in a cookery book to raise money for the 1st World [...]
Easter-Ledge Pudding is a traditional Cumberland, Lake District and Yorkshire dish served at Easter (sometimes also known as Dock Pudding). The pudding is made using the young leaves of Bistort, cooked with onion, pearl barley, butter and eggs, and is then often served as a side vegetable with seasonal lamb at the Easter festival. At [...]
Mollag is a Manx word, and for those of you who don’t know, Manx is the language spoken on the Isle of Man, an island situated between Cumbria/Scotland and Northern Ireland in the Irish Sea. Mollag is the name given to a round fishing float, or larger round buoy from a boat or fishing net [...]
A Christmas Standing Pie is called this because these pies are always made with a hand-raised ‘standing crust’ and were popular at Christmas. This particular version is made with lamb and comes from Cumbria. The standing crust is shaped while the pastry is still warm, which makes it pliable enough to mould into a raised [...]
This authentic rum butter recipe (also known as ‘hard sauce’) is traditional in Cumberland, in the North-west of England. The exact origins of Rum Butter are shrouded in a bit of a mystery, no-one knows for sure who invented it, (and a lot of myths have grown up around it) but it first appeared in [...]
Hackin is the fore-runner to the Christmas Pudding. Some reports say that the Victorian Plum or Christmas Pudding is descended from a soup, a plumb pottage, but more probably it is descended from this, far more pudding like recipe … an Hackin. This dish is like a sweetened haggis, boiled, then sliced and fried in [...]
This Chocolate Brownie recipe, like our Hot Chocolate Puddings recipe, is the real thing; they are definitely not your average Chocolate Brownie. If you ever felt you and your friends or family really deserved a treat or reward, or it is a very special occasion, then this is what you should make. Buy bars of [...]
From at least Medieval times salt was mixed with saltpetre, and other ingredients such as sugar, honey, pepper or juniper berries, to carry out the processes of preserving pork. Dry Cured Hams are the hind leg of a pig that have been salted, then air-dried to ‘cure’. This is done using a curing compound, (consisting [...]
When you hear that jam can be made in 20 minutes, any jam, in twenty-minutes, you might well be skeptical … by saying it even I feel like a snake-oil salesman trying to convince you that rubbing on this lotion will miraculously make you live longer. But its true, any fruit, any jam, in 20 [...]
Sticky Toffee Pudding is a great tasting recipe, and certainly a modern British ‘classic’, (alongside Jam Roly-Poly and Spotted Dick puddings) capturing for many the childhood memories of growing up in the 20th Century. Some say Sticky Toffee Pudding was developed in the Lake District in the 1960′s while others claim it is from an [...]
Scones are a great treat at tea time, (once served at 4 pm sharp) and quintessentially British. While the English have taken credit for their popularity, this is a dish which all regions of Britain enjoy, and have a history with. The simple scone is thought to have originated from Scottish Quick Breads, (baked on [...]
These Victorian, regional Cherry Turnovers are a speciality of Buckinghamshire in southern England, where wonderful, local Cherries are grown in many private and commercial cherry orchards. They have a light pastry top and bottom, and ripe, tangy-juicy cherries in the center. Cherries have a very short growing season if you are after picking your own; [...]
Blackberry Jam is a real treat on toast in the mornings. It has a unique, and easily recognisable flavour amongst jams, with its sweet-sharp dance on the tongue and deep berry taste. To help the jam set, (adding in extra pectin) the recipe uses one brambley apple and a small amount of fresh apple juice [...]
Many people’s favourite jam is strawberry, and with good reason, this fruit lends itself to jam making, and is wonderfully delicious when eaten on a fresh piece of buttered Manchet Bread. Collecting the fruit is a great summer time family day out and the return on the labour by having your own home-made jam to [...]
