Travel around the North East of England through the pages of this book and discover a selection of the delicious traditional food of the area, as well as stories and fascinating facts behind the recipes. Your journey is given added flavour by the delightful historical images from The Francis Frith Collection, showing the people and places of the North East of England in the past.
A Taste of the North-East includes 29 recipes, some traditional, some reflecting local products that the North East of England is famous for, some linked to characters or historical personages or events, some versions adapted to suit modern tastes.
Feeling nostalgic, and hungry? This stunning NEW book release from The Francis Frith Collection, is now available for only £11.2.
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Rediscover 29 traditional locally-inspired dishes. Some recipes are modern interpretations using some of the fine local produce that the North East of England is famous for - we hope that this unique book provides you with a true taste of the North-East!
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A Taste of the North-East is peppered with topic boxes of additional snippets and information about regional dialect, words and phrases, traditional customs and local trivia, to convey a true flavour of the North East of England. Read on for a just a few of the fascinating facts from the book.
More about this book
- ISBN: 1-84589-452-9
- Compiled by Julia Skinner
- Includes a voucher for a FREE mounted print!
- Printed to order and Despatched in 3-5 days
- Add your own inscription! - tell me more...
- 96 pages, Paperback
- Size: 246mm x 189mm (10" x 7")
- In former times, split and dried peas were eaten much more commonly than nowadays, and were a good source of protein. As well as pease pudding, another popular north-eastern dish made with peas is Carlins. This dish used to be served on the fifth Sunday after Lent, known as Passion – or Carling – Sunday, and for this reason Passion Sunday was often also known as "Pea Sunday". The name "Carling" derives from an old name for "mourning", in memory of Christ's Passion. Carling peas are said to have once rescued the people of Newcastle from starvation, although there are differing versions of the tale. One version is set during the Civil War, when Royalist Newcastle was besieged from July to October in 1644 by the Scots, who wanted to capture the town and control the coal supplies for the Parliamentarian cause. Food supplies in the town ran out and the people were starving, but in the nick of time a foreign ship managed to evade the blockade and reach port with its cargo of carling peas. Another tradition dates the event even earlier, to 1327, when Scottish forces under Robert the Bruce besieged Newcastle. However, both traditions agree that the life-saving peas were distributed to the starving people of Newcastle on Passion Sunday, which was why Carlins were eaten on that day in commemoration of the event.
- Once, fishing was the livelihood of many people along the north-east coast. In the years immediately prior to the First World War, Northumberland fishing ports alone were landing in excess of 450,000 cwt of white fish a year: cod, haddock, whiting, ling, halibut, sole, dabfish, plaice, conger eel, coalfish and skate. On top of this were catches of mackerel, crabs, lobsters and periwinkles. The top ports for white fish were North Shields, Blyth and Newbiggin; for crabs it was Beadnell, Craster, Cullercoats, Holy Island and North Sunderland.
- Lindisfarne Mead is produced on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the Northumberland coast. Mead is a potent drink made from honey, and in the past it was believed that drinking mead would increase virility; for this reason, newly-wed couples were advised to drink mead for a whole month after their wedding to increase their chance of a happy marriage, and the word "honeymoon" originates from this ancient custom.
- Durham Mustard - The original creation of dry mustard powder is attributed to a Mrs Clements of Durham. In 1720 Mrs Clements discovered that the strength and taste of mustard could be greatly improved if the mustard seed was ground in a mill and processed in much the same way as flour was made from wheat. Her business producing Durham Mustard became very successful, and was based in Saddler Street in the city.
- The many rivers and their tributaries that flow through Northumberland give rise to some of the wildest and most spectacular scenery in Britain. The Tyne rises from the highest point of the Pennines not far from the source of the River Tees. Berwick-on-Tweed, the most northerly town in England, sits on the mouth of the River Tweed. Other rivers such as the Rede, the Till, the Aln and the Wansbeck snake their way through the landscape. The larger rivers are well used by fishermen angling for sea-trout and salmon. At the Tweedmouth Feast every July a local girl is crowned as the Salmon Queen in a celebration of the salmon fishing industry which has been important to the town for centuries. The origins of the festival date back to the 12th century and the festival of St Boisil, celebrating the salmon run down the River Tweed.
- The world's largest-ever cabbage was grown by William "Tar" Collingwood of Swalwell, County Durham, whose prized cabbage weighed in at 56kg (8 stone 11 lbs) in 1865. The monster cabbage stood 1.27 metres (4ft 2ins) high and measured 6.5 metres (7 yards 5ins) round. Mr Collingwood lived in a house next to the Buck Inn, now the Poacher, and worked at Ridley's steelworks. "The Swalwell Cabbage" was so heavy that it had to be put into a handcart to be carried to the Buck Inn where it was shown, and was so big that Mr Collingwood had to take down the gateposts of his garden to allow the cabbage to be wheeled out.
![[bootitle]](/images/products/books/taste/tastefooter.gif "A Taste of the North-East")
