PEASANT FARE

I often embarrass my rather conventional offspring by my appetite for simple old-fashioned food which they term “peasant fare”. Well, I revel in these foods and greatly regret their decline. So, when I order say, black pudding, my family will avert their gaze, shake their heads in a despairing manner and gaze forlornly at their boots. But I scoop the gastronomic pool!

Delicious Black Pudding

             

Black Pudding is a type of sausage made with pigs’ blood, pig fat, suet and cereal, usually oats or barley. It is encased these days in a cellulose skin. Sliced fried portions are often served as an accompaniment to a full English Breakfast of bacon, fried eggs and pork sausage. In my banking days I regularly had occasion to take the train to Leeds, travelling First and on expenses, (natch!) and fortifying myself with a British Rail breakfast. I particularly appreciated the black pudding as the duller parts of industrial England passed by.

More recently a local gastropub in my present home town of Folkestone serves black pudding garnished with a chutney as a starter, cunningly disguised in Frog as Boudin Noir but it is black pudding in anyone’s language and the pungent flavour delights.

Warming Stovies

I ascribe my pleasure in “peasant fare” to my upbringing in the North-East of Scotland whose culture had been predominantly rural until the 20^th century. The hard life made people economical and frugal and such habits die hard. As well as Scotland, Yorkshire, The Midlands, Lancashire and The Black Country shared this background and have their own local delicacies. My parents and siblings had a comfortable middle-class life, without any hardship, and they chose to eat certain old dishes out of habit, which is my situation too.

Using up left-overs is one of the functions of Stovies, a dish mixing up baked odd cuts of meat with potatoes and onion with many additions possible, like cheese and herbs.  Simple, filling, yet delicious, if one drops the airs and graces. Similar use of leftovers is seen in Bubble and Squeak, mixing fried potato and cabbage, happily accompanying grilled meat in good English pubs.

A highlight of Scottish traditional cuisine is Haggis, boiled and served with mashed potatoes and mashed turnips (“neeps”). It is conventionally eaten at Burns Suppers (25 January) and St Andrew’s Day beanos (30 November) but it is really a “winter warmer” welcome whenever it gets chilly under your kilt (that is, quite often). I hate to shatter illusions but a haggis is not a wee hillside beastie with one leg longer than the other to aid hill-running.

Wonderful Haggis with Neeps and Oatcakes

Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep’s “pluck” (heart, liver and lungs) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock, traditionally encased in the animal's stomach, though now often in an artificial casing instead. According to the 2001 English edition of Larousse: "Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour". I would admit it is an acquired taste – one I acquired years ago. The over-fastidious Americans have long banned the importation of this exquisite food into the US, claiming health concerns over sheep’s lungs – more fool them, I say – they are missing an ambrosial experience.

My parents would talk of Skirlie (fried oatmeal with onions and seasoning) and Sowans (a sour concoction derived from the husks of oats). Neither was ever eaten by us and Sowans was rather used as a pet-name. My mother, a gifted mimic, would drop into the Doric and humorously ask my father “Hey, Sowans, fit wye wid ye dee ‘at?” (Hey, Sowans, what way (viz, how) would you do that?).

The list of peasant fare is a long one and could include Scotch Eggs (boiled eggs encased in sausage meat, Mealy Puddings (Black puddings without the blood), a dream with mince, and the sharply tasty Pickled Eggs seen in English pubs.

Incomparable Magiritsa from Greece

All countries have their rustic festive recipes. Here in Greece one of my favourites is the Easter soup Magiritsa, made with diced lambs’ offal, onions, dill and rice, sadly seen less and less nowadays. This piece is just an introduction to the old dishes we might think of reviving. My next piece will sing the praises of Ox-eye soup, stewed pipistrelle bat and sautéed sea-gull breast (I jest!).

Let us not forget that today is Yorkshire Day. The Yorkshireman is simply a Scotsman without the generosity but once a year he loosens his purse-strings and eats Wilfra Cake, a type of apple tart, in honour of the 7^th century St Wilfrid. May I wish them a great feast!

St Wilfrid's Procession in Ripon

                              

SMD

01.08.18

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2018