Yorkshire Food

Traditional grub!

This blog post was written based on research during the ‘Interpreting Kiplin for 400’ project, a National Lottery Heritage Fund project with thanks to National Lottery players. This post is part of a collection of posts on various themes being published during December 2024.

Although most food found in Yorkshire is common to other regions of the British Isles, there are variations, often featuring oats rather than wheat as oats often grew better locally.

One of these is Parkin, a type of gingerbread made with oats and black treacle and flavoured with ginger. They were traditionally cooked on a griddle or hot stones over an open fire. It is related to the medieval tharf cake, an unsweetened oat cake cooked on a griddle.

Another is Dock Pudding, sometimes called Herb Pudding, which used to be very popular in Yorkshire. It had fallen out of fashion by the 20th century when it was considered a famine food . It is made with oatmeal, sweet dock (Common Bistort or Bistorta officinalis, not the hedgerow dock) and nettles which are made into a porridge and then fried. It was traditionally made in spring and was often the first green to be had after eating mainly pickled and salted foods over the winter.

Havercake was an oat flatbread that was once the staple food in the Pennines where oats were the only cereal that would grow well. The name derives from the old Norse for oats (hafre) which were mixed with either water or skimmed milk and cooked on a hot bakestone. Fresh Havercakes were eaten with butter, treacle or honey. Dried Havercakes could be kept for months and these were served with cheese or dipped in milk. Inns used to serve Havercakes which patrons dipped into their beer. Many towns and villages had commercial Havercake bakeries and Havermen were a common sight travelling around the Dales selling their wares. Havercakes were still popular up to the middle of the 20th century.

Curd Tart is a type of baked cheesecake, not a custard tart, and has origins back to the mid 1600’s. It was originally made with colostrum from cows and was flavoured with allspice or rosewater. It is now made with sweetened curd cheese flavoured with currants, nutmeg and allspice. Both Curd Tarts and Parkin can still be found in traditional bakeries in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Pudding is of course the best known Yorkshire food and is often to be found with a Sunday roast. Traditionally however, it was served as a starter with gravy, rather than as part of the main meal, intended to fill one up before the more expensive meat was served. It was originally called Batter Pudding as the wheat flour, egg and milk batter was placed under the roasting meat and the hot fat dripping into the mixture cooked it.

Wensleydale cheese, made famous by Wallace and Gromit, was first made by French Cistercian monks who arrived in 1150AD. Originally a soft cheese made with ewe’s milk, it is primarily now a creamy, crumbly cow’s milk cheese, although many different styles are also made; although few of these travel far out of Yorkshire.

(Published Dec 2024)

Find out more about the ‘Interpreting Kiplin 400’ Project during our Open Days on 13th, 14th and 15th December 2024. BOOK HERE