Regional and local recipes

[cherrytree Profile]

Here I am in the Massif Central waiting for some gingerbread to finish cooking.
However I’m wondering if anyone is like me in this respect. I live in NW.Cumbria most of the time. This is the part of the world where all the spices were imported into the UK and as a result many regional recipes such as gingerbread and rum butter came from.
I’m more than happy to make gingerbread here, but would never dream of making it at home. I’m not a native Cumbrian and they all make terrific gingerbread either for events or on the ‘industrial’ section of the local agricultural shows. The silly thing is, mine always looks fine. Are there others of you who have similar worries?

[Binky Profile]

When we lived in Yorkshire, we always made or bought curd tarts.

I haven't seen them on sale anywhere else in the country, and I wouldn't know where to buy curds to do a home-baked tart.

They are still on sale at Yorkshire bakeries - the last two I had were from Thomas the Baker in York. I eat one and freeze the other.

[jeral Profile]

I'm more pragmatic about such things leaving credit where due to others and all that matters is if my version tastes good. I'm a simple folk

Things I grew up with were traybakes like slices of bread pudding (not the butter one), custard slices, date slices etc but I don't want a trayful and they don't keep well, so I don't make them.

I make ginger cakes in muffin tins that are supposed to be flat but invariably erupt like volcanoes so certainly wouldn't win any awards, but I can live with that

[Binky Profile]

There was something called Savoury Duck sold in all the Yorkshire butchers shops.

It wasn't a duck, but a collection of offal, onions and herbs. I don't know if it was fried or baked, and never fancied eating it.

I think it might be called Faggots in other parts of the country.

[cherrytree Profile]

I always knew them as savoury ducks as a child but when I lived Norfolk they were always faggots. I used to make them there (again for home consumption only) but can’t make them in Cumbria because we aren’t really a pig breeding county and I can’t get the caul

[Suffs Profile]

Sadly even here in Norfolk nowadays we have to order caul from one of the really good butchers who offer this service for our faggots ... and even more sadly the best butcher on Norwich market closed down a week ago because young folk don’t want a career in butchery ... now I’ll have to find another place to get my caul, brined pigs head and trotters for brawn, tripe and sweetbreads.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

I do love faggots, & it's been far too long since I made any, here I would have to ask my butcher for caul almost in under-the-counter tones--same when oxtail could not be had.
Unfortunately, I've not been able to buy any decent faggots for centuries so only option is making them.

Any recipes out there? Perhaps we should share & compare...……..

[Renee Profile]

I once made Delia's recipe for faggots and they were very good. I've just done a search but couldn't find the recipe. However, I've found one that's very similar.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/the_ ... ggot_22530

[wargarden Profile]

i hope this thread is not just for uk regional dishes.
maryland potato pie was regional dish.
https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/maryla ... potato-pie
Maryland fried chicken was regional dish till 1857

as per usual when regional dish travel they are changed
may times made worse since local knowledge how cook them correctly gets lost.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Binky I had an exchange with someone about Yorkshire curd recently we found that Longley Farm make it, but only sell it in catering packs not retail tubs - the smallest is 1.6 kg

It's much less rich than I thought, only 0.3% fat

https://longleyfarm.com/collections/cheese-curd/products/yorkshire-curd

Just opposite where I sit there used to be Raine's dairy, who made curd cheese which is different, more like cream cheese but sharper, and is the correct cheese for London baked cheesecake of the kind that used to be sold in Kossoff's on Petticoat lane or Lindy's in Finchley and other Jewish bakeries.. Yoplait used to make a similar cheese, but no longer do so. I used to be able to get an organic soft cheese that was similar, but that seems to have vanished too. There are various soft cheeses around the 15-22% fat mark that will work but most lack the lactic tang of proper curd cheese, a bit bland

I come from Hampshire, apart from our pork and watercress, New Forest fallow deer, we are known for the Hampshire lardy cake, which unlike other varieties contains no dried fruit. It is usually a thick finger shape, topped with a layer of icing, stodgy, and stinks of lard, so pretty unpleasant to my mind

[Joanbunting Profile]

I have absolutely no problems with cooking NE recipes here of there. The problem is doing local dishes here for local people . They are so knowledgeable and bossy. added to this, a lot are convinced that Brits can't cook.!
It will take time - maybe more than I have
!

[jeral Profile]

wargarden, do you make your Maryland potato pie? Some of us do like stodgy things

I can't think of any sweet pastry pies or tarts here that use potatoes. Perhaps butter and eggs weren't as readily available or maybe we were lucky to have more fruit orchards in days gone by.

[cherrytree Profile]

I don’t think that the conviction that British people can’t cook will ever go away in France. I’ve got my English cake stall here on Saturday and despite my efforts and everyone being very nice about it, it will make no difference whatsoever.
Last week we went to a concert in a small village with nibbles afterwards. I’m in a choir in Cumbria and quite honestly I’d have been ashamed if the French nibbles that had been produced compared with ours. However it really doesn’t matter. Getting on with our European neighbours is far, far more important.

[wargarden Profile]

here is another recipe for potato pie.
https://oldlineplate.com/maryland-white-potato-pie-2/
the recipe I use.

As for the cliche that British can not cook, the only way that will go away is if
the British win the Bocuse d'Or 5 times in a row.
the joke also goes the British only have 3 vegetables cabbage potatoes and cabbage.
Also when 100 fish and chip shops open and out sell McDonald's in France the french will
admit British food is better then french food. more likely demons
come to the surface from hell to buy cold weather gear.

[Amyw Profile]

Ah McDonalds, that staple of French cuisine....

If we were talking sweet stuff, I don't think you can beat British puddings. All the gorgeous steamed ones, trifle, Eton mess .....


When it comes to savoury, apart from a roast, British food isn't my favourite . If I could only eat food from one country for the rest of my life , wouldn't consider British.

Saying that I don't think our general restaurant scene and pool of chef talent is any better or worse than any other country. I think our continental neighbours just have a certain view of here, as cold, wet , awful food, though very polite people

[Binky Profile]

Pease Pudding is regional.

I've never eaten it or seen it on sale.

I thought it was like mushy peas until I watched this little film


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iQIeBPNPHvo

[Sakkarin Profile]

I've only had pease pudding out of a tin, bit of a squidgy texture to it which I didn't particularly like, bought from a supermarket but I'm not sure which one, I'd have thought they all have tins of it lurking near the marrowfat peas...

Had to laugh at "Tyneside Paté" and "Geordie Hummus"!

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Pease pudding was a taste of my childhood in North London, an essential accompaniment to boiled bacon and not uncommonly served with saveloys.

I suspect it was a widely prepared dish but fell out of favour in many places. Mushy peas were all but unknown in my bit of London fifty years ago - I guess almost every chippie in the land does them now.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I´d eat pease pudding if it were served, because I´ll eat anything and everything vegetable. However, a stodgy, greenish-grey mush is not something I´d want to serve to my guests.

I made my first full Christmas Lunch in Caracas after I´d been here about 5 years. Roast Turkey, roast potatoes, sprouts, all the trimmings. Went down like a house on fire!
Christmas Pudding, mince pies, custard, brandy butter - went down like a chaperone at an orgy.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Poor John, who went over to Greece to meet his girlfriend's parents took Christmas pudding, and whisky.
He was told to hide the whisky from the dad who got mean on it.
Poor John too, she'd lied about his age, she was 22, he was 45.

He heated the pudding plus brandy cream, but the family insisted on having it with vanilla ice cream.

An utter disaster, as the fats set around their mouths.

Regional recipes.
Scotch pies. We have them any time we pass a bakery on the way up near and over the border.

Appelation controlee is another kettle of poisson though.
We got a Lake District chorizo. Usually bomb proof, that's the beauty of a chorizo, you don't keep it in the fridge.
The lake district farmers market attempt went off in about 1 week in the fridge.