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.
 Lancashire hotpot | |
| Course | Main course |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Lancashire, England |
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Lamb or mutton, onions, potatoes |
History and etymology
editIn 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:
Preparation
editThe 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]
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c "hotpot". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "To Viscount Sandon, MP", The Liverpool Telegraph, 9 November 1836, p. 6
- ^ a b c d Shipperbottom, p. 1224
- ^ Gaskell, pp. 359–360
- ^ "hochepot", Dictionnaire de l'Académie française. Retrieved 21 January 2023
- ^ "A Book of Cookrye", "To make a hodgepodge", Early English Books, University of Michigan. Retrieved 21 January 2023
- ^ Beeton, p. 101
- ^ a b Cloake, Felicity. "How to cook the perfect Lancashire hotpot", The Guardian, 31 October 2013
Sources
edit- Beeton, Isabella (1861). The Book of Household Management. London: S.O. Beeton. OCLC 1045333327.
- Gaskell, Elizabeth (1951). North and South. London: John Lehman. OCLC 1897946.
- Shipperbottom, Roy (2014). "hotpot". In Alan Davidson; Tom Jaine (eds.). Oxford Companion to Food (third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-104072-6.
