Influences on Lancashire Fayre
INFLUENCIES ON LANCASHIRE FAYRE
The Roman invaders contributed to the long-term improvement of the British and Lancastrian diet by introducing proper vegetables to the area. The list of vegetables introduced to Britain includes garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, cabbages, peas, celery, turnips, radishes, and asparagus.Amongst the many herbs that they introduced to Britain were rosemary, thyme, bay, basil and savoury mint. They also introduced herbs that were used in brewing and for medicinal purposes.
The Romans also brought new farming practices and crops. They introduced more productive grains and bread became a more important part of the British diet. Walnuts and sweet chestnuts were another Roman introduction. They also introduced a wider variety of fruit that was brought into cultivation rather than growing wild. This included apples (as opposed to crab apples), grapes, mulberries and cherries. There was a period when the Romans prohibited the establishment of vineyards outside Italy, in order to safeguard its wine trade, but in the third century the emperor Probus granted permission to Britain, to re-establish them.
Guinea fowl, chickens and rabbits were probably introduced as farmyard animals. The Romans also brought new species of game into Britain including the brown hare and pheasants. Samian bowls, which were popular at the Romano-British dining table, often depicted scenes of dogs hunting hare or deer. Wild boar and oxen were native animals that were also hunted.
The mass of the population would have seen the least change to their diet. They would not have dined on fine Roman cuisine but even they did benefit from the introduction of some of the new vegetables and herbs. They would have added these to the stews and broths that they cooked above the fire, in the traditional Celtic manner.
Roman cuisine also included wildfowl including swans, geese and duck which was sometimes boiled in a broth and served with boiled parsnips. Game was either roasted or boiled in seawater and served with highly flavoured sauces
Accounts from forts at Vindolanda (by Hadrian’s Wall) indicate that Roman soldiers also ate a lot of bacon. Every group of eight soldiers had a frying pan that folded away in their pack and enabled them to have a fry-up even on campaign. They also ate porridge and stews would have included meat and vegetables. Oysters from the Dee and Ribble were popular, so plentiful they were later used as fillers to bulk up dishes beef and oyster pie.
Some natives were re-settled into new Roman towns, Chester, and amongst them was a new class of urban poor. Some of those who lived in town apartments would have been without proper cooking facilities. Instead of cooking for themselves they would have eaten, the ancient equivalent of 'fast food', at Roman taverns and snack bars. This included beer and probably kebabs!
British kings took a liking to Lancastrian Fayre, as Lancashire was their home ground.King Henry IV Of England. and James I, who visited Hoghton (NEAR PRESTON) in 1617. tale has it that at the feast in the banqueting hall given in James' honour the king was so moved by the excellent loin of beef he was served that he took his sword and knighted it "Sir Loin", giving us the term 'sirloin'
In the 18th century, slavery was considered a respectable enterprise and the trade fuelled the growing European economy. The slave ships followed a triangular trading route. They left Lancaster laden with manufactured goods such as mirrors, hats, clothes, hawks bells, beads, iron bars, brass pans and copper and brass bracelets for the East coast of Africa.
Lancaster merchants focused almost exclusively on Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and Windward Coast. There the Captain would sell and barter the goods for slaves. Once the slaves had been purchased they were transported to the colonial plantations and industries in the Caribbean and America where they worked in agriculture, mining, domestic service and various other skilled and unskilled roles.
Lancastrian traders had strong links with South Carolina merchants, and there the Captain would collect exotic products such as rum, sugar, tobacco, cotton, rice and cocoa for transportation back to England. The Lancashire famous cotton trade was built on this trade along with staple industries such as Tate & Lyle (sugar). Docks of Liverpool and Manchester, Canals and Railways, textile and linen mills and factories and the industrial revolution grew in tandem with the trade and imports into Lancashire. Along with factories came the growth of towns and their workforce who had to be housed and fed. Many of the famous Lancashire dishes were ‘working folks’ food, hearty and nourishing but using cuts costing less than others.
The Lancaster traders also brought mahogany and cedar wood back to supply Lancaster’s furniture industry, including the renowned Gillow's cabinet and fine dinning room furniture makers.
Not all of Lancaster's trade was based on the slave trade. There was a flourishing bilateral trade, which involved trading directly with the Americas from Lancaster. This involved a different set of goods being imported to the colonies. in a letter written on November 14, 1778, Jane Earle, writes enthusiastically to her aunt, Mrs. Hardman Earle, describing the capture by a Liverpool privateer of a French East Indiaman, The Carnatic, with its cargo of saltpetre, fine muslin, raw silk, coffee, tea and "a packet of sundry things supposed to be diamonds".
Coastal trade along the west coast of England and with Ireland was also important to the towns. Other trade focused on the Baltic States and the Iberian Peninsula.
The area has a great brewing industry due to the water quality (and some would say demand) but was also the foundation of the Methodist church and the temperance movement.
In later times industrial economy of the northwest has encouraged and welcomed ethnic races from around the world, who obviously brought their culinary skills and recipes with them, introduced and adapted them. Which were then adopted and loved by locals.
At The Chadwick we endeavour to provide the traditional and the more exotic adopted dishes of Lancashire, sourcing where possible local produce and using local suppliers but endearing to the most famous of the Lancashire ingredients value for money, served in pleasant surroundings by efficient and friendly staff.
