General Chat

I'm roughly 1/8 Cornish/Devonish -- one grx2 grandmother was definitely Cornwall through and through -- her grandfather was the parish clerk of a tiny parish there. I just haven't sorted out whether the family of her husband (or not), the father (or not) of my gr-grfather, came from Cornwall or Devon. The name Ernest Hill/Monck will be familiar to some.

Anyhow, I was browsing away at FrancisFrith.com, and looked at one of the books on offer: Cornwall County. And hit this page:
http://www.francisfrith.com/shop/books/1-84589-113-9

And rather than try to read the tiny print showing the recipe for Stargazy Pie, I just googled it. And was glad I did it on an empty stomach.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargazy_pie

The picture there says it all, but allow me to quote:

"Stargazy pie (sometimes called starrey gazey pie or other variants) is a Cornish dish made of baked pilchards, along with eggs and potatoes, covered with a pastry crust. Although there are a few variations with different fish being used, the unique feature of stargazy pie is fish heads (and sometimes tails) protruding through the crust, so that they appear to be gazing skyward. This allows the oils released during cooking to flow back into the pie. Originally intended as a fun dish to appeal to children, it is nevertheless often regarded as unappealing."

Noooo, surely not. "Unappealing"??

"Another legend surrounding stargazy pie, along with the other unusual pies of Cornwall, is that they were the reason that the Devil never came to Cornwall. In his book Popular romances of the west of England; or, The drolls, traditions, and superstitions of old Cornwall, a collection of Cornish traditions, Robert Hunt explains that the Devil crossed the River Tamar to Torpoint. The chapter, entitled "The Devil's Coits, etc", reasons that the Devil discovered the Cornish would put anything in a pie and decided to leave before they took a fancy to a 'devilly' pie, returning to Devon."


And here I thought my ancestors were civilized people who ate nice things like Cornish pasties.

Barf. And I think I might say that even if I did eat any kind of fish/seafood, which I don't.


I'm off to make my own pie-ish thing. A big Yorkshire pudding, down at the bottom of which are chopped tomatoes and ham, and some creamed spinach and mushroom. Just because it's so %$#@ cold here right now I feel the need to run the oven at 450 degrees for a while!


So, what disgusting things did anybody else's ancestors eat?

I'll have to dig out the ancient British recipes book I bought at the British Museum on my visit, and see whether there's anything actually edible in it. ;)

Lardy cake from Wales.
It has seaweed in it ! BUT it's good =0)

Tripe and onions.....couldn't stand the smell myself let alone the taste when my dad ate it we all left the house !

Glad to hear it's nice and cool where you are warmed up here in Toronto only minus 12 now not sure whether to put a coat on or not.........for indoors that is !!

Caroline

Well, I've only got two pairs of socks on. Got a couple of lovely high woolly pairs at Zellers over Christmas, with cotton ones underneath just in case.

Then come the flannelette jammies, the double-layer housecoat (one of those dark violet blue starry satin ones with terry inside), the fleece chesterfield blankie ... and a couple of big kittens.

Time to go home and get suited up for the evening and Coronation Street!

Lardy cake from Wales. Yes, but doesn't everything they cook on that island have lard as its primary ingredient?? ;)

I'll give it one thing:

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-make-Lardy-Cake-this-is-not-for-those-on-a-Diet

It doesn't *look* like the main ingredient is garbage!

... but apparently it's laver bread with the seaweed. ;)

The Devil didn't go to Cornwall because the Devil went down to Georgia......remember?

The Devil went down to Georgia,
he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind, 'cause he was way behind,
he was willing to make a deal.

S

Depending on who you talk too ! There is a Lardy bread with Lard in it but the one with seaweed can be Lardy or Lardi or Laver =0) Still taste good in fact all things not good for you taste good !!

As for clothes like I said it's warmed up so only one pair of really thick socks on, thick track pants, T shirt, sweat top, thick sweater and before the evenings out e.g. as soon as I'm off here and watching the TV the flannel blankie will be in use !! So either it's cold here in Canada or we're all too cheap to turn up the heating !

If you're just off to watch Coro street where in Canada are you ???? My Coro street was at 6.30 !! not that I watch it then I taped the sunday one.

Yeah, well, SueMaid, I'd join him in Georgia in a heartbeat at the moment, if it didn't mean having to enter the USofA. ;)


It's cold here in Canada *and* we're cheap -- er, environmentally conscious!

I'm in that part of Canada that has cable teevee. ;) We tape the Newfoundland/New Brunswick airing at 5:30 and watch it sans commercials. Well, actually, no, I forgot, now we tape the 9:30 airing somewhere in parts west, because since BBC Canada dropped the noon showings of East Enders, I have to tape it at 9 pm on Vision, so we tape Corrie after it, so as not to block the tape up with watched Corries, because I don't watch East Enders til Saturday morning, unless Manchester United is playing on a station we get (I put my foot down at the cost of paying for multiple sports channels this year solely for that) or No.1 has downloaded an early game already and I've slept in ...

Yes, it's a complicated household, the Canuck household is. ;)

Tonight there is nada on teevee at all, I believe. A Grey's Anatomy rerun, no ta. Except Graham Norton at 11 -- one of the two or three things left on BBC Canada worth watching. So we'll likely watch another of the Land Girls (season 1) I got him to download after reading about it here the other day, or a Modern Family we missed, or I know, the new guy on CNN who has Ricky Gervais on as we speak!

So I'm off. ;)

I'm so cheap I don't even have cable TV what does that say about me !! NO answer needed thanks.
I'm off too like you say no Greys tonight but I still have last weeks Corrie to catch up on....who am I kidding I'll fall alseep half way through like normal and wake up just as it ends =0)

I would suggest lardy cake (in Gloucester called drips) is different to laver bread. Lardy cake is nice the outside being more like toffee, but we don't eat it these days because of the high fat content. We used to get it in Hampshire too when I was young.

Lardy cake is very different to laver bread. Lardy is a Wiltshire delicacy - or it was until the Health Police decided it was too artery-clogging. When we lived in Gloucester in the 70s, Dad used to stop at Devizes (Wiltshire) en route to my sister in Portsmouth. There was a baker who sold the most divine Lardy cake. I live near Devizes now and haven't had Lardy for yonks, perhaps I will try to track it down on my next visit (although that particular bakery no longer exists).

There's a baker in Bishop's Waltham (Hampshire) that still makes and sells lardy cake!! They tried to stop - but a petition went out and it stayed :o)

I'd also like to state that Stargazey pie is delicious!!! You don't eat the heads!
..as for tripe and onions - whenever I can find tripe, (quite rare in the south) I buy some.

Eels yukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

I believe in Mrs Beaton's cook book there is a recipe for Cavies otherwise known as Guinea Pigs!! Now I would ever eat a Guinea Pig........................................................... Don't eat any shellfish and only some fish.

We have just had a program on the telly when they cooked a stargazy pie. You have to remember that down here in Devon there were a lot of famlies who lived near the coast and plentiful stocks of pilchards coming into the harbours. Very cheap and nourishing (sp)!!

Maggie, I wonder if that is where our Fareham shop (I can remember the shop it was called Soothills) got there lardy cakes from, they were large round ones each cake enough for four people. Here in Gloucester we can still get drips but they are sold in individual squares and the outside is not so toffee like as the Hampshire ones I remember.

Laver is an edible seaweed that has a high mineral salt content, particularly iodine and iron. It is used for making laverbread, a traditional Welsh dish, as well as eaten as a complement to rice in Japan (where it is called nori) and Korea (where it is called kim or gim). Particularly in Korea, it is sometimes roasted with sesame oil and further flavored with salt and sometimes MSG. Laver is common around the west coast of Britain and east coast of Ireland along the Irish Sea as well as along the coasts of Japan and Korea. Laver is unique among seaweeds because it is only one cell thick. It is smooth and fine, often clinging to rocks. The principal variety is purple laver (Porphyra laciniata/Porphyra umbilicalis). This tends to be a brownish colour, but boils down to a dark green pulp when prepared. The high iodine content gives the seaweed a distinctive flavour in common with olives and oysters.

Ulva lactuca, also known as Sea lettuce, is occasionally eaten as green laver, which is regarded as inferior to the purple laver.

Laver is sometimes also known as "slake".

Recipe for Crumbed brains....

Ingredients
4 sets lamb brains
Salt
Lemon juice
1/3 cup plain flour
Pinch of black pepper
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup fine dried breadcrumbs or finely crushed crackers
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Lime or lemon wedges, to serve




My OH can remember his mother cooking a pig's head.....he said it was delicious.



'Scuse me......gotta.........arrghhhh

now I see why you told me not to look on here C!

Eggsactly!!!

Opps my Lardi or whatever it's called started a bit of a stir sorry !
Cows tongue that's another "good" one from old my Nan used to buy it in a tin so it was even worse (if that were possible).

I'm not reading any more of this thread - it's making me a little queasy:-)) You'll be talking about lamb's fry next:-(

S x

My dad used to make pressed tongue

He made a special press that had a base on which he put the cooked tongue, and then there was a plate that could be screwed down on to the top of it.

I forget now how he used to cook the tongue ...... ??? boil it.


We can buy sliced tongue here, and I ocasionally buy some as a different deli meat to have with a salad in summer.



sylvia
xx