Dorset Regional Recipes

Dorset is a county in the south-west region of England, and these are a collection of local and regional recipes handed down within families who have lived and worked in the Dorset area. All of the recipes below are regionally authentic, originally coming from recipe books published in the 1800s or 1900s, with the weights and measurements adjusted (alongside the old standards) where appropriate for the modern kitchen.

 

MATRIMONY CAKE

Take a shallow tin and line with pastry.  Core about 4 large sour apples and cut them in thin rings and lay on pastry, jut overlapping each other.  Fill the core holes with currants.  Sprinkle sugar over all and a pinch of ground nutmeg ( my mother puts a slice of lemon in the middle of the cake).  Then cover with a thin layer of pastry.  Bake in a hot oven and cut in fingers and eat hot for tea with Devonshire cream.

 

LAMB’S TAIL PIE

Good, rich pastry – short or flaky; lambs’ tails properly scalded and skinned, parsley, thyme, lemon, salt, pepper, 2 or 3 hard boiled eggs, several rashers of bacon.

Arrange lambs’ tails, bacon, sliced eggs in layers, sprinkling layers with the fresh herbs, lemon rind grated, salt and pepper. Add sufficient stock to nearly fill the dish.  Cover with rich pastry.  Brush the top with beaten egg after suitably fluting edges and decorating as seems appropriate.  Eat hot or cold.