Yorkshire Regional Recipes

Yorkshire is a county in the north-east region of England and these are a collection of local and regional recipes handed down within families who have lived and worked in the Yorkshire 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.

 

YORKSHIRE GOOSE PIE

Make a raised crust (hot water crust pastry) and form the pie the size you wish, of an oval shape.  Have ready a goose, a turkey, a fowl and a boiled tongue skinned and trimmed.  Also 2 or 3 pigeons.  Open birds up the back and bone them entirely, mix a seasoning of salt, pepper and mace to be used as you proceed.  Season birds well within and without, then place tongue within the fowl, over this fold the goose, then the turkey.  Place the whole in the midst of the raised crust and fill it up round with pigeons, boned hare and other game, all well seasoned.  Close interstices with sausage meat.  Some cooks use hard-boiled eggs, but they are apt to taint before the rest of the meat.  In a very large pie the hare is better omitted for the same cause.  When all the meat it tightly fitted into the crust, put over it 3 lb (1.5Kg) butter, cover, brush over with egg and ornament it to your taste.  Blind folds of buttered writing-paper round the pie, send it to a brick oven and bake for 6 hours – or 6 hours at home at 300F (150C).  When cut, the cover is usually removed entire so that it can be replaced to preserve the meat.  Savoury jelly may be poured over the meat after it is baked.  This pie is carved by cutting thin slices down.

 

YORKSHIRE SECRET CAKE

Roll rich puff paste into rounds the size of a breakfast plate and 1/2 inch (2cm) thickness. Strew thickly over 1 lb (500g) currants, with a little chopped candied lemon which has been well steeped in rum or brandy.  Over this place another round of paste.  Unite it closely round.  Cut it into quarters, but leave them close together and bake immediately.  Serve each cake on a plate, without separating the quarters, either hot or cold.

 

YORKSHIRE PUDDING

6 oz (170g) plain flour, 2 eggs, 1/6 pint (100ml) water (barely) 1/6 pint (100ml) milk (barely), 2 oz (60g) lard or dripping, 1 teaspoonful (level) salts.

Put flour and salt in basin.  Add eggs with 1 tablespoonful fluid.  Mix to a smooth paste.  Slowly add rest of liquid.  Beat well.  Leave for 1 hour.  Put fat in tin (10 1/2 inches by 10 1/2 inches – 27cm by 27cm) in a very hot oven.  Add 1 teaspoonful lemon juice or vinegar to batter.  When fat is smoking, pour batter into it and cook for 15 minutes.  When using wholewheat flour use an extra egg.  Finely chopped onion in Yorkshire pudding, served with mustard sauce is good.

 

SAVOURY DUCKS

1 1/2 lb (750g) stewing steak, 1/2 lb (250g) cow’s liver, 2 lb (1Kg) onions, 1 small white loaf of bread, 1 teaspoonful sage, pepper and salt.

Stew the meat and liver for 1 1/2 hours, then pass through mincer with raw onions and bread, add the sage and seasoning and knead well together. Make into small rolls, dip in flour and place in a baking tin containing hot fat.  Bake for about 1 hour browing on both sides.

 

CHRISTMAS CAKES

Christmas Cake: Mrs May, Southfield House, Wakefield

7 lbs. flour, 2 lbs. dripping, 1lb. currants, 1 lb. sultanas, 1 lb. large raisins, 2 lbs. sugar, 1/4 lb. mixed peel, 1 lemon rind and juice, 1 quart of new milk, 4 eggs, 3d. yeast, a little grated nutmeg. Prepare as teacakes, when risen, add fruit, etc. and set to rise in tins.

Christmas Cake: M. Greenwood, Mytholmroyd.

1 lb. of flour. 1/2 lb. currants, 1/2 lb butter, 1/2 lb. sugar, 2 oz. lemon peel, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 3 eggs, 1/2 pint milk. Mix the baking powder thoroughly in the flour, then rub in the butter. Add the sugar, currants, and lemon peel, beat the eggs and mix them with the milk. After mixing them all together, bake in a paper-lined tin in a moderate oven.

A Good Christmas Cake: Mrs. J.J. Howcroft, Lilac House, Streethouse.

1/2 lb. butter, 1/2 lb. of sugar, 1 lb. flour, 1/2 lb. of currants, 1 lb. raisins, 1/4 lb. sultanas, 1/4 lb mixed peel, 2 oz. of almonds, rind of lemon, 6 eggs, 1 teaspoonful baking powder, 1/2 teaspoonful vanilla flavour. Prepare the cake tin carefully by lining with greased paper, and see that the oven is hot. Cream the butter and sugar together very thoroughly, and beat the eggs; add these and a little flour alternately. Stir in the flour and flavouring and baking powder. Add a little milk. This recipe is improved in colour by adding 2 tablespoonfuls of treacle in a little warm milk.

Christmas Cake: A. Sykes

2 lb. flour, 1 1/2 lbs. butter, 12 eggs, 2 lbs. currants, 1 3/4 lbs. sugar, 1/2 lb. citron peel, 1/4 lb. lemon peel, 1/2 lb. of ground almonds, 1/2 teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, 1/2 teaspoonful of cream of tartar.

 

YORKSHIRE CHRISTMAS PIE

‘The Art Of Cookery’, By Hannah Glasse, Published 1740 ‘To make a Yorkshire Christmas-Pie’

FIRST make a good standing crust, let the wall and bottom be very thick; bone a turkey, a goose, a fowl, a partridge, and a pigeon, Season them all very well, take half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of nutmegs, a quarter of ah ounce of cloves, and half an ounce of black-pepper, all beat fine together, two large spoonfuls of salt, and then mix them together.

Open the fowls all down the back, and bone them; first the pigeon, then the partridge; cover them; then the fowls then the goose, and then the turkey, which must be large; season them all well first, and lay them in the crust, so as it, will look only like a whole turkey; then have a hare ready cased, and wiped with a clean cloth.

Cut it to pieces, that is, joint it; season it, and lay it as close as you can on one side; on the other side woodcocks, moor game, and what sort of wild-fowl you can get. Season them well, and lay them close; put at least four pounds of butter into the pie, then lay on your lid, which must be a very thick one, and let it be well baked.

It must have a very hot oven, and will rake at least four hours. This crust will take a bushel of flour. In this chapter you will see how to make it. These pies are often sent to London in a box, as presents; therefore, the walls must be well built.

‘English Housewifry’ By Elizabeth Moxon, Published 1764 ‘To make a Paste for a Standing Pie’

Take a quartern of flour or more if you have occasion, and to every quartern of flour put a pound of butter and a little salt, knead it with boiling water, then work it very well, and let it lie whilst it is cold. This paste is good enough for a goose- pie, or any other standing-pie.