Tasty tales of our favourite food Chew what?
According local legend, cheddar cheese was first made by accident more than 800 years ago when a milkmaid left a pail of the milk in the caves of Cheddar Gorge.
She returned later to find that it had turned into the favourite foodstuff we love today.
BIT OF BEEF: Myth has it that King James I enjoyed his steak at Hoghton Hall, Lancs, in 1617 so much that he knighted it, saying: “Arise Sir Loin.” Killjoy historians have since suggested the name actually came from the French word“surloynge”. HUNGRY DRAGON: Parkin is a traditional gingerbread cake made in Yorkshire. Legend has it that the people of the county’s coast town, Filey, were being terrorised by a hungry dragon. They managed to defeat it by feeding the beast so many of the sticky cakes that they were able to push it into the sea.
LOAD OF BALLS?
It’s said the sausagebased dish toad-in-thehole was invented in Alnmouth, Northumberland after natterjack toads infested a golf course. When a player sank a putt one of the critters came out of the hole, dislodging his ball. A local chef knocked up the dish to mark the event.
MILLIONS of peckish Brits will be tucking into a pastry treat over the next few days to celebrate Cornish Pasty Week.
An old tale says the Devil didn’t dare cross the River Tamar from Devon into Cornwall because he was worried he might find himself made into one of the county’s traditional bakes.
And it’s not the only legend associated with some of the nation’s most beloved grub, as
reveals…
SWEET ACCIDENT: A story goes that confectioner Joseph Wiper invented Kendal mint cake by accident when he was trying to make some mints but left the boiled solution overnight. It turned cloudy and solidified, but the concoction proved a hit.
GINGERLY SUGGESTED: Some say Queen Elizabeth I was the brains behind the gingerbread man as we know it today when she had some of the traditional biscuity treats made into human shapes as gifts for courtiers.
FIT FOR A QUEEN: Back in the same era, Mary Queen of Scots loved shortbread.
A popular tale says her French chefs gave rise to the so-called petticoat tails design of the snack, coming from the phrase “petits gautelles” or
small cakes.
BANGER-ED ABROAD: According to one tradition, our beloved Cumberland sausage may have been brought to England’s north-west by German miners who came to dig coal in the region back in the 16th Century.
BAD S-TART: Today Bakewell tart is a delicacy, but legend has it that it came about in the 19th Century when the landlady at the Derbyshire town’s White Horse Inn left instructions for a strawberry tart to be made. Instead of the egg mixture being stirred into the pastry, it went on top of the jam.