Image: artist, Janet Kruskamp

Grandmothers feature heavily in recollections about Yorkshire traditional cooking, as this article by Bill Cowley, originally published in the Dalesman in 1969.  He remembers growing up in rural North Yorkshire in the 1920s. The family had fallen on lean times, but his grandmother rose to the challenge.

‘My grandmother became adept at making delicious dishes out of the cheapest fare … one was broth – inevitably referred to as a ‘few broth’ – made from neck-end of mutton, simmered for three hours in an iron pan on the open fire, with carrots, leeks, barley, turnip, a touch of marjoram, and perhaps some potatoes as well.’

‘Another of my grandmother’s dishes was ‘Poor man’s goose’. A pound of pig’s fry or calf’s liver was fried, with half a pound of onions, and all put into a dripping tin in the bottom of the side oven. Slices of apple were added, and a little later suet dumplings put on the top to bake too, then all was served with mashed turnip and potato.’

‘An infallible and savoury standby was rabbit pie. Even in the town rabbits were only a shilling or 1/4d each (Granny grumbled because before the Great War they had been 9d.).  Her rabbit pies, like her apple dumplings, were the best I have ever tasted.’

Source: Dalesman, Feb.1969, no.11, p.886