« Paper Scraps Vol 6 : Ricotta 101 | Main | Step-By-Step : Poaching And Flaking A Haddock »
December 1, 2006
Things you did'nt know about "Lancashire Hotpot"!
.... and nor did I!!
Lancashire Hotpot was traditionally cooked in a deep earthenware or porcelain casserole. As in many regions of Europe, poorer families would take their 'pot' to the village baker to cook the stew in his ovens, when bread baking was over for the day. [This practice is still prevalent in many developing countries, although the items baked vary widely. When I was younger, I remember tagging along with my Mum to a bread baker's shop in our town. My mum used to prepare these crumbly, melt-in-your mouth sugar cookies and carry them in a box to be baked at the big bakery. Once there, she used to lay them out on their massive metal sheets and in it used to go in temperatures which were hard to achieve at home in our small 1-cake capacity oven. An hour later, we used to trudge back home, with a big box of over 200 hot from the oven golden cookies]
Coming back to the Lancashire Hotpot, it was once a poor man's supper [as most stews normally are]. The main ingredients were scrag end or middle-neck lamb chops, onions and potatoes. Other fresh vegetables were a luxury. It may have contained lamb's kidneys or mushrooms and when they were cheap and plentiful in supply, then oysters.
Here you will find an authentic Lancashire Hotpot recipe.
Posted by Gel at December 1, 2006 1:16 PM
