Tradition

#FolkloreThursday : Traditional Leicestershire Food

Katharine Short

For this week’s #FolkloreThursday #food theme we turned to the Leicestershire and Rutland Magazine to see what local traditions there are surrounding mealtimes, cooking and eating.

First we found an account of the hearty fare served to the workers during sheep shearing in the 1870s: large breakfasts of tea, bread and cold boiled bacon, bread and cheese mid-morning, roast beef and Christmas pudding with ale for the midday meal, and a late supper of cold beef, bacon, fruit pies and ale.

Next was an article entitled “Traditional County Cookery”, pondering the way that dishes and food habits vary from county to county. The author notes that locally produced food follows the conditions of the local soil, and that Leicestershire pastures are especially good at rearing beef and of course only the cheesemakers of the Vale of Belvoir know the secret of making Stilton. Differences in food preparation are also mentioned along with a list of traditional Leicestershire recipes:

Leicestershire Curd Tarts

Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

Thurnby Savoury

Kibworth Baked Roll

Lutterworth Tice Tarts.

Another article mentions singing games and folk song, which often developed specific local variants and reflect the rituals of everyday life – courtship, weddings, births, funerals – all of which are interwoven with food and eating traditions. Here is an excerpt from “All the boys in our town” (Welland Valley variant):

Sylvia made a pudding, she made it nice and sweet,

She daredn’t stick the knife in till Stan came down the street.

“Stanley will you have a bit, and don’t say nay,

For next Monday morning is our wedding day.”

“Sweet Nancy” from North Leicester includes the lines:

Pork Pie, mutton chop,

Mother take me to the shop,

If I fall pick me up,

Pork pie, mutton chop.

Source: Leicestershire and Rutland Magazine, December 1948 and June 1949

And, just because we like it, here’s Mrs Purry and Patty in the kitchen, from Louis Wain’s Baby’s Picture Book, 1903.

 

NB- for a reconstruction of Leicestershire Curd Tarts see https://riseofthesourdoughpreacher.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/leicestershire-curd-tarts/

Katharine

Folklore Thursday 18/01/2018

Dr Natalie Hayton

What an amazing theme for #FolkloreThursday this week! Requests for #clothing lore makes for the perfect opportunity to highlight this wonderful poster set produced by the International Wool Secretariat in 1954, titled ‘Costumes of Europe in Wool’.

Each beautifully illustrated poster, while offering somewhat stereotypical representations of European nationalities, is accompanied by explanatory text on the types of wool used (of course) and the costumes, shedding some light on the meanings and traditions behind the garments.

For Norway, we are told that the mountainous regions between villages meant that inhabitants of the  valleys rarely saw each other. This led to communities developing their own distinct traditions and costumes making for a bit of decorative rivalry.

In Austria, we discover that the origin of the phrase ‘a feather in his cap’ is associated with the Tyrol-style hat. Wrestlers in the region would fight wearing their hats and attempt to pin their opponent while plucking the feather from their hat. The acquired feather would then become a symbol of the victorious combat.

In Portugal, a fisherman’s hat is of the utmost importance as his woollen “pyjama-like” garments have no pockets. Prudently, small personal items “such as matches and tobacco” are stored safely in his thick woollen cap away from the water.

Handed down through generations of Flemish families, a mother teaches her daughter the tradition of lace-making in the poster for Belgium.

The collection was used as a fashion and textiles teaching resource and were held in the DMU library before being transferred to the archive.

Let’s get knitting!

Natalie