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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
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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. ;)
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