A feast of traditional Yorkshire food

 Like all food, regional diversity in Yorkshire is no exception.

 Of course, everyone knows about Yorkshire puddings, or do they?

A Yorkshire pudding is not some soggy sponge like batter that you eat with your

Sunday roast, but a light, fluffy, crispy cup like dough that is filled with gravy.

A real insult to a Yorkshire person is to serve the Yorkshire pudding with the main course. It should be eaten alone as a starter. The reason for this is pure Yorkshire. Fill ’em up with Yorkshire pudding and they won't want as much main course! Thriftiness is a Yorkshire trait always to be followed!

Of course, if you come from Nottinghamshire, you would eat your Yorkshire pudding with jam as a dessert. But then again, they're really daft from down there!

A variation on the Yorkshire pudding is “toad in the hole”, a large Yorkshire pudding with sausage embedded in the mix. Very filling.

Then there are kippers, another essentially Yorkshire fish delicacy. In my youth, my brother and I would visit Whitby., walk across the bridge to the east side to buy kippers from Nobles, the fishmonger. You know you're in the right area because there were those sheds emitting a lot of smoke, the curing houses. A kipper, for the uninitiated, is a smoked herring. It is gutted, flattened out and hung up to smoke.

We ate ours for breakfast, best poached and sometimes with the poached on top. Delicious.

Another Yorkshire rarity is the pikelet, which in the south they call a crumpet. It is a griddle bread made from flour., water and yeast. Like a pancake but thicker and full of holes. Best toasted and loaded with butter as a breakfast delight.

 Then there is Yorkshire Brack, a moist fruit cake not unlike English Christmas

cake. But with a difference. The dried fruit are first soaked in Yorkshire tea not alcohol before mixing and baking to produce a fruit loaf.

 

 

 

 

What about Yorkshire tea, blended in Harrogate and producing a strong cuppa.

Finally, Yorkshire, like many northern regions, likes afternoon tea.

It is a meal around 4:00 PM served in many hotels and especially tea rooms. Those special afternoon cafes offering cafes offering cakes, pikelets and the final

Yorkshire Delight, the Curd Cheesecake. Sometimes called Yorkshire Curd Tart. Made of fresh curd and including currants and egg, it tops off a fine afternoon tea.

Enjoy.