...or recipies of the region (and when I say "region", I'm meaning the Liverpool city region including the Lancashire Plain and, of course, Squirrel Wirrel.

So anyway I'm currently researching for long forgotten, traditional, or only colloqually-known local dishes, sourced from local produce (from sea, air and land) one could identify as being, or having been, quite unique to the city and the region.

Having, up to the age of 22, lived all my life in Liverpool, the only dish I could associate with being of the city is 'scouse'- our stew variant.

You could also think of Cains ales, also the shrimps and mussels of Southport, maybe even Lancashire cheese, but really there's a whole history of locally produced dishes sourced from the fertile land and the livestock, and our waters which has been pretty much lost to the mass majority of Liverpoolians probably since as far back as the Industrial Revolution.
Think not only about the above environmental influences of the local sustainance but also about the ethnic influences which must've impacted upon the city's palette: Irish, Welsh, Chinoise, Jewish, Italian, Scandaviking...

So, if there's anyone out there furnished with some knowlege of missing threads of our food history, please let me know....

Ta.

Bunloaf.

isn't somewhere like Formby good for Asparagus?

Historically, yes. It's the sandy soil near the coast that the stuff thrives upon. The industry had largely disappeared until recently when the National Trust began growing it again on their land there.

Apart from that, only one traditional farm still produces the stuff I believe.

Sausage Dinner the best scouse scran there is.

Chips, sausages x3, peas and gravy.

A modern city such as Liverpool, which grow from a small town to a metropolis in a century won't have the sort of indigenous historic cuisines of old, rural areas. The fact that Liverpool has always been a little disconnected to its hinterland, notably in that the people to came to live in Liverpool much less likely to be from the immediate surrounding area only adds to this.

Still, there's the sweeties (think Everton), to do with Liverpool being the country's main entry point for West Indian and American sugar and the principal refining centre.

I am just imagining this or is there also something particularly Liverpudlian about the sugar butties and conny onny sandwiches of my mum and dad's childhoods?

It's a funny thing but wracking my brain, outside of Scouse ( which in all honesty is very similar to other British/Irish dishes, despite it's Nordic roots) I can't think of many others!

Is Pea wack just a variant on the name of pea and ham soup?

When you look back at the poverty ridden history of the city outside of the rich few, it was more a case of what can we make to survive rather than giving serious consideration to 'creative dishes.'

I remember staying at my Nins years ago, she lived on Windsor St, down the South end and she always had a pan of barley soup on the go. I also remember the arl mangle for the washing on the balcony and she would wrap an old fashioned iron with towels and put it in the bed with us as she had no heating as such.

The worst thing for me though was when she would leave a bottle of sterry milk on the window ledge to go well off before drinking it. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, as she would say!

Sorry Villiers, I've gone way off topic there but I got a bit carried away with the arl memories and come nowhere near coming up with anything useful.

....really interesting posts, thanks.

I'll be pretty amazed, if after a bit of digging in the British Museum, I don't find at least one pre-Industrialisation seafood based dish of Liverpool Bay. There must be something somewhere I'm sure of it.

Watch this space.

Bunloaf.
Altcar/Hightown has an unusual wild plant that grows near to the mouth of the Alt and the Mersey...or is it Liverpool Bay up there? It looks like a spring onion, but smells like garlic. Chop it up finely and add it to your egg omlette.

When you look back at the poverty ridden history of the city outside of the rich few, it was more a case of what can we make to survive rather than giving serious consideration to 'creative dishes.'

The finest cuisine in the world (Italian, in my opinion), is based on peasant dishes with fine local ingredients. Liverpool Bay has always been the doorstep of a region of fine local ingredients.

Official French cuisine is more what you'd associate with those haute-borgouise creations you rightly say we wouldn't have ever been likely to produce, however French regional follows exactly the societal model as Italian, and as I say what a geographically blessed place like Liverpool must surely have once produced also.

Sausage Dinner the best scouse scran there is.

Chips, sausages x3, peas and gravy.

As much as I wish it was, it's not unique to Liverpool is it?

VT, how many years have you lived away from Liverpool and how has it shaped your diet?

I am just imagining this or is there also something particularly Liverpudlian about the sugar butties and conny onny sandwiches of my mum and dad's childhoods?

What's conny onny?

Thanks for the bunloaf suggestion. I don't think I'd ever really heard of it.
If you've got a recipe, that'd be good...?

Liverpool Bay has always been the doorstep of a region of fine local ingredients
Cracking quote VT. Can I use it?:lol:

VT, how many years have you lived away from Liverpool and how has it shaped your diet?

Properly? About 8.

I cook everything now and consequently eat 10 times better than I did in Liverpool mainly because of the local Turkish stores in this part of London selling cheaper-than-supermarket fruit and veg.

Mind you, I made great stuff in Liverpool too, just that the trek down to Bold St veg market and Matta's wasn't something I could be arsed doing every single day.

I didn't know anything about real Turkish cooking before I came down here, so learning that's been a big influence.

... Having, up to the age of 22, lived all my life in Liverpool, the only dish I could associate with being of the city is 'scouse'- our stew variant. ...Salt cod and butter beans, sometimes with bacon fat.
Traditional mariners breakfast; a special treat on Sunday mornings for the family of mariners retired from the sea and working ashore.

Lancashire cheese was always popular in Liverpool in days of yore. And people from central Lancashire tended to be keen on Black Pudding. Liverpool was much more a part of Lancashire in times past.

100+ years ago, "potted shrimp" was popular - tiny cooked shrimp with melted butter poured over them and allowed to set hard. I remember seeing it on Birkenhead market in the 1950s.

I had an ancestor who, in the late nineteenth century, used to live in Hoylake. The story goes that, according to the family legend, when the tide was right they would get up at 3am or 4am, take hand nets to the rockpool and catch shrimp, bring them home, cook them, shell them, pot them in butter and then sell them at the "big houses" and with the money buy bread so they could have something to eat BEFORE going to school. You can bet they left school at an early age (no later than 12 for poor kids).

What's conny onny?



Conny onny V T was Nestles sweetened milk.


Did yer ever get a bit of "Finny Addy" down yer Lad...Ask yer Ninny ??..Lol

Properly? About 8.

I cook everything now and consequently eat 10 times better than I did in Liverpool mainly because of the local Turkish stores in this part of London selling cheaper-than-supermarket fruit and veg.

10 times better than Liverpool? WTF does that mean?
If you're referring to Green Lanes, why pick out the Turks in favour of the Greek shops? Or do they all look the same to you?

Ignorance check. Poor old VT:ohno:

What's conny onny?

Thanks for the bunloaf suggestion. I don't think I'd ever really heard of it.
If you've got a recipe, that'd be good...?

As Ged says, conny onny is (or was) condensed milk. During postwar rationing people would drink lots of it and, because of its sweetness and the scarcity of nicer sweet-tasting alternatives such as marmalade or jam, kids would use it, undissolved, as a sandwich filling. Or so my dad would tell me.

One of the swanky restaurants in town a few years back - I think it was 60 Hope Street - had a dessert that harked back to this and used conny onny in its recipe.

Bunloaf is like a Christmas cake (but maybe not as rich/drier? :?) and without any marzipan or icing on the top. I've had it before.

Altcar/Hightown has an unusual wild plant that grows near to the mouth of the Alt and the Mersey...or is it Liverpool Bay up there? It looks like a spring onion, but smells like garlic. Chop it up finely and add it to your egg omlette.

You're just beyond the mouth of the Mersey there, so it's the Irish Sea/Liverpool Bay. Thanks for the info. I usually have a few of these before coming on the forum. Especially on Friday nights. I don't know if anyone has noticed. Oh, like an onion, not a mush...

Not heard of that one, Ads. I'll look into it. I might ask a ranger when I'm going for a walk down the beach next.

What's finny addy?!

Ok found it, finny addy- "lightly poached haddock."

What did you have with it?

What's addy faddy, faddy addy, finny addy?!


Smoked Haddock..what about a bowl of "Peawack" ?

10 times better than Liverpool? WTF does that mean?
If you're referring to Green Lanes, why pick out the Turks in favour of the Greek shops? Or do they all look the same to you?

Ignorance check. Poor old VT:ohno:

Top bombing Dave, anyway, this is for you:

'Bedfordshire Clanger'- Cornish pasty with one end plugged with fruit for dessert.

What's finny addy?!

Ok found it, finny addy- "lightly poached haddock."

What did you have with it?


My Dad would cook finny addy on its own every Sunday morning.

Was that the same as "yellow fish" we used to have?

I've been to liverpool a few times (usually live in Lima and London, so i dont know how it will shape my perception) but I thought diet consisted of "GREESEY CHEPS". Best chips in the world are from Liverpool.

I've been to liverpool a few times (usually live in Lima and London, so i dont know how it will shape my perception) but I thought diet consisted of "GREESEY CHEPS". Best chips in the world are from Liverpool.

I don't know about that.

When I was a kid there used to be loads of chippies serving, usually Chinese owned, serving anything from greasy, soft chips to the nice crispy ones we used to prefer. Always a huge portion too, which was nice...

Today, I get the impression that on somewhere like Hardman St you're getting more of sort of kebaby places which sell thin ready-cut "fries"...which isn't so nice.

Used to be a great chippy at the top of Seel St. Was it Frank's? I can't remember. Wonder if it's still there? Proper, crispy chips.

Chippy stuff I used to like:

Curried rice and chips
Curried beef, rice and chips
Egg Foo Yung
Chicken Chow Mein
Chips
Chippy sausages
Fish and chips (rarely though, as that whole fish thing was fairly expensive even then)

Was that the same as "yellow fish" we used to have?

Yes I think it was,salt fish ?

I never had it,Hated fish and still do..unless its got plenty of salt and vinegar on.

Anyone remember these ever being eaten?

(and no sordid tales about minging hussies or Wirral-based nocturnal encounters please...)

Top bombing Dave, anyway, this is for you:

'Bedfordshire Clanger'- Cornish pasty with one end plugged with fruit for dessert.
Oh no! Not that "Dave" word again!
They all do that one:rofl::rofl:

Oh no! Not that "Dave" word again!
They all do that one:rofl::rofl:

Reminds me of this..........Dave...:lol:

XM9x5tefjcY

LOL! Cheers Juxt.:lol:
From the funniest comedy series since Fawlty Towershttp://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

As much as I wish it was, it's not unique to Liverpool is it?

Name a none Libpool chippy that serves them.

It's scouser than scouse.