 Lancashire hotpot | |
| Course | Main course |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Lancashire, England |
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Lamb or mutton, onions, potatoes |
Lancashire hotpot is a stew originating in Lancashire in the North West of England. It consists of lamb or mutton and onion, topped with sliced potatoes and slowly baked in a pot at a low heat.
In the 17th century, the word "hotpot" referred not to a stew but to a hot drink—a mixture of ale and spirits, or sweetened spiced ale. [1] An early use of the term to mean a meat stew was in The Liverpool Telegraph in 1836: "hashes, and fricassees, and second-hand Irish hot-pots" [2] and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) cites the dish as being served in Liverpool in 1842. [1] The Oxford Companion to Food (OCF) cites Elizabeth Gaskell's 1854 novel North and South , depicting hot-pot as the most prized dish among cotton workers in a northern town. [3] [4]
The OED gives the etymology as "hot adj. + pot n.", and cites the analogous French term pot-au-feu . [1] The OCF refers to earlier forms of the term: "hotchpotch" (a mixed dish, typically a meat and vegetable stew) and "hotchpot", from the medieval French hochepot. [3] [n 1] A Book of Cookrye (1591) gives a recipe for hodgepodge, using "neck of mutton or a fat rump of beef", cooked and served in a broth thickened with bread. [6] The term "hotchpotch" for a stew continued into the 19th century: Mrs Beeton (1861) gives a recipe under that name for a beef and onion stew in beer. [7]
Hotpot became associated with Lancashire. In the OCF the food historian Roy Shipperbottom writes:
The recipe usually calls for a mix of mutton (nowadays more frequently lamb) and onions covered with sliced potato, and slowly baked in a pot containing stock or sometimes water. The traditional Lancashire hotpot dish is tall, round and straight-sided, with a lid. [3] [8] Some early recipes add lamb kidneys or oysters to the dish; it is traditionally served with pickled red cabbage. [8]
Scotch broth is a soup originating in Scotland. The principal ingredients are usually barley, stewing or braising cuts of lamb, mutton or beef, root vegetables, and dried pulses. Cabbage and leeks are often added shortly before serving to preserve their texture, colour and flavours. The proportions and ingredients vary according to the recipe or availability. Scotch broth has been sold ready-prepared in tins for many years.
Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in French cuisine hachis Parmentier, is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked, formerly also called Sanders or Saunders. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or lamb. The terms shepherd's pie and cottage pie have been used interchangeably since they came into use in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although some writers insist that a shepherd's pie should contain lamb or mutton, and a cottage pie, beef.
Goulash is a soup or stew of meat and vegetables seasoned with paprika and other spices. Originating in Hungary, goulash is a common meal predominantly eaten in Central Europe but also in other parts of Europe. It is one of the national dishes of Hungary and a symbol of the country.
Irish stew or Stobhach is a stew from Ireland that is traditionally made with root vegetables and lamb or mutton, but also commonly with beef. As in all traditional folk dishes, the exact recipe is not consistent from time to time or place to place. Basic ingredients include lamb, or mutton, as well as potatoes, onions, and parsley. It may sometimes also include carrots. Irish stew is also made with kid. Irish stew is considered a national dish of Ireland.
Irish stew is a celebrated Irish dish, yet its composition is a matter of dispute. Purists maintain that the only acceptable and traditional ingredients are neck mutton chops or kid, potatoes, onions, and water. Others would add such items as carrots, turnips, and pearl barley; but the purists maintain that they spoil the true flavour of the dish. The ingredients are boiled and simmered slowly for up to two hours. Salt can be added before or after the cooking. Mutton was the dominant ingredient because the economic importance of sheep lay in their wool and milk produce, and this ensured that only old or economically non-viable animals ended up in the cooking pot, where they needed hours of slow cooking. Irish stew is the product of a culinary tradition that relied almost exclusively on cooking over an open fire. It seems that Irish stew was recognised as early as about 1800.
Scouse is a type of stew typically made from chunks of meat with potatoes, carrots, and onion. It is particularly associated with the port of Liverpool; hence, the inhabitants of that city are often referred to as "scousers". The word "scouse" comes from lobscouse, a stew commonly eaten by sailors throughout northern Europe in the past, and surviving in different forms there today.
Cawl is a Welsh dish. In modern Welsh, the word is used for any soup or broth; in English, it refers to a traditional Welsh soup, usually called cawl Cymreig in Welsh. Historically, ingredients tended to vary, but the most common recipes are lamb or beef with leeks, potatoes, swedes, carrots and other seasonal vegetables. Cawl is recognised as a national dish of Wales.
Pot-au-feu is a French dish of slowly boiled meat and vegetables, usually served as two courses: first the broth (bouillon) and then the meat (bouilli) and vegetables. The dish is familiar throughout France and has many regional variations. The best-known have beef as the main meat, but pork, chicken, and sausage are also used.
Hodgepodge or hotchpotch describes a confused and/or disorderly mass and/or collection of things; a "mess" or a "jumble".
A collop is a slice of meat, according to one definition in the Oxford English Dictionary. In Elizabethan times, "collops" came to refer specifically to slices of bacon. Shrove Monday, also known as Collop Monday, was traditionally the last day to cook and eat meat before Ash Wednesday, which was a non-meat day in the pre-Lenten season also known as Shrovetide. A traditional breakfast dish was collops of bacon topped with a fried egg.
Lobby or lobbies is a traditional stew or casserole, containing corned beef, potatoes and onion.
Yakhni, yahni (Turkish), or yahniya, jahni (Albanian) is a class of dishes traditionally prepared in a vast area encompassing South Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans.
Kuwaiti cuisine is a fusion of Arabian, Iranian, Indian and Mediterranean cuisines. Kuwaiti cuisine is part of the Eastern Arabian cuisine. A prominent dish in Kuwaiti cuisine is machboos, a rice-based dish usually prepared with basmati rice seasoned with spices, and chicken or mutton.
Hodge-podge or hotch potch is a soup or stew, usually based on diced mutton or other meat, with green and root vegetables. It is familiar in different versions in Britain and North America and is particularly associated with Scotland.
Piti is a soup in the cuisines of the South Caucasus, its bordering nations, and Central Asia, and is prepared in the oven in individual crocks with a glazed interior. It is made with mutton and vegetables, infused with saffron water to add flavour and colour, all covered by a lump of fat, and cooked in a sealed crock. Piti is served in the crock, usually accompanied by an additional plate for "disassembling" the meat and the liquid part with vegetables, which may be eaten separately as the first and second (meat) course meal.
Pichelsteiner is a German stew that contains several kinds of meat and vegetables.
Aloo gosht is a meat curry, and is a popular dish in North Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi cuisine. It consists of potatoes (aloo) cooked with meat (gosht), usually lamb or mutton or beef, in a stew-like shorba gravy. It may be considered a curry, stew, or shorba depending on the way the dish is prepared, the types of spices used and what country or particular region it was made in. The dish can be served and eaten with plain rice or with bread such as roti, paratha or naan.
Hot pot or hotpot, also known as steamboat, is a dish of soup/stock kept simmering in a pot by a heat source on the table, accompanied by an array of raw meats, vegetables and soy-based foods which diners quickly cook by dip-boiling in the broth.
A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef, pork, venison, rabbit, lamb, poultry, sausages, and seafood. While water can be used as the stew-cooking liquid, stock is also common. A small amount of red wine or other alcohol is sometimes added for flavour. Seasonings and flavourings may also be added. Stews are typically cooked at a relatively low temperature, allowing flavours to mingle.
The hochepot is a stew eaten in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, and in Flanders and Hainaut in Belgium. Its origins go back to the Middle Ages and its first known recipes are in the Manuscript of Sion, the oldest treatise of cooking written in French around the 13th century. Although almost the same word is used in both Dutch and French, it has nothing to do with Dutch hutspot which is a dish made from mashed potato.
