The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood

by ALBERT, SUSAN WITTIG

  Rollinson, William. Life and Tradition in the Lake District. Dalesman Books, Clapham, Lancashire, UK, 1981.

  Taylor, Judy. Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman, revised edition. Frederick Warne, London, 1996.

  Taylor, Judy, Joyce Whalley, et al. Beatrix Potter, 1866-1943: The Artist and Her World. Frederick Warne with the National Trust, published by the Penguin Group, London and New York, 1987.

  Recipes from the Land between the Lakes

  Mrs. Jennings’s Bubble and Squeak

  Ridley Rattail has a preference for this traditional dish, which he finds occasionally in Mrs. Jennings’s pantry (but only occasionally, for the Jenningses leave nothing left over). The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that “bubble and squeak” is named for the sounds that are produced as the dish is cooked. Or as one satirical diner put it:

  What Mortals Bubble call and Squeak

  When midst the Frying-pan in accents savage

  The Beef so surly quarrels with the Cabbage.

  —John Wolcot, 1738-1819

  2 tablespoons butter

  1 onion, finely chopped

  1 pound potatoes, cooked and mashed

  1/2 pound cabbage, cooked and finely chopped

  2 teaspoons parsley, minced

  Heat the butter in a large frying pan. Add the onion and cook until soft and transparent. Add the potatoes, cabbage, and parsley. Mix well. Cook over medium heat, turning occasionally, for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with bacon and eggs for breakfast or as part of a supper dish.

  Sarah Barwick’s Sticky Buns

  These are the buns that have made Sarah Barwick famous throughout the Land between the Lakes.

  1 tablespoon dry yeast

  1/4 cup warm water

  1 cup milk, scalded

  1/4 cup sugar

  1/4 cup butter

  1 teaspoon salt

  3 1/2 cup flour

  1 egg

  1/2 cup butter, melted

  1/2 cup brown sugar

  2 teaspoons cinnamon

  1/2 cup currants

  TOPPING

  1 cup brown sugar

  1/2 cup butter

  2 tablespoons light corn syrup

  To make buns: Soften the yeast in warm water. Combine the milk, sugar, butter, and salt; cool. Add 1 1/2 cups flour and beat well; beat in the egg and yeast/water mixture. Gradually add the remaining flour to form soft dough, beating well between additions. Place in a greased bowl, turn to grease surface; cover and let rise in a warm place until double, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Turn out on a lightly floured board and divide in half. Form half into a ball and let rest while rolling the other half into 8×12-inch rectangle. Brush with 1/4 cup melted butter; sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 cup currants. Roll lengthwise and seal edge; cut roll in 1-inch slices. Repeat with the second ball of dough.

  To make topping: In a saucepan, mix the brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup; heat slowly, stirring often. Divide into two 8×8×2-inch pans. Place rolls, cut side down, over mixture. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double, 35-40 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool 2-3 minutes; invert on a plate; remove the pan. Yield: 2 dozen sticky buns.

  Mrs. Beeton’s Tipsy Cake

  This famous cake is based on a trifle, which has a long history of appearances on the English table. Mrs. Beeton’s version, reprinted here, was the “definitive” one, Mrs. Beeton being the leading Victorian authority on all things domestic.

  #1487

  Ingredients: 1 moulded sponge- or Savoy-cake, sufficient sweet wine or sherry to soak it, 6 tablespoonfuls of brandy, 2 oz. of sweet almonds, 1 pint of rich custard.

  MODE: Procure a cake that is three or four days old—either sponge, Savoy, or rice answering for the purpose of a tipsy cake. Cut the bottom of the cake level, to make it stand firm in the dish; make a small hole in the centre, and pour in and over the cake sufficient sweet wine or sherry, mixed with the above proportion of brandy, to soak it nicely. When the cake is well soaked, blanch and cut the almonds into strips, stick them all over the cake, and pour round it a good custard. The cakes are sometimes crumbled and soaked, and a whipped cream heaped over them, the same as for trifles.

  TIME. About 2 hours to soak the cake. Average cost, 4s. 6d.

  Pease Porridge

  Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge cold, Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old. Some like it hot, some like it cold, Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

  —Traditional nursery rhyme

  When food was cooked in an open fireplace instead of on a kitchen range, a large pot always hung over the fire, filled with a thick soup of peas and other vegetables. In the morning, before the fire was lit, any porridge left from the previous meal was eaten cold, for breakfast. During the day, more peas and vegetables were added and the porridge was eaten hot. It would be no surprise to learn that some of the ingredients were actually nine days old. Pease porridge is traditionally served with sausage or boiled bacon or spread on thick slices of bread-and-butter.

  1 pound split peas

  water

  salt and pepper

  1 medium onion, quartered

  bay leaf, 2 sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs thyme

  2 tablespoons butter

  2 eggs

  Cover the soaked peas with water in a large pan. Add the salt, pepper, and onions. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 2 1/2 hours, adding more water if necessary. In the last 15 minutes, add herbs. Remove and discard the herbs and onion. Serve this thick soup with slices of hot bread.

  Mrs. Beeton (recipe #1323) turns pease porridge into pease pudding with the addition of 2 tablespoons butter and 2 eggs. Excess water is drained, the peas are put through a colander with a wooden spoon, the eggs and butter are beaten in, and the pudding is steamed for an hour in a greased heatproof pudding basin. It is then inverted onto a platter and served hot, sliced.

  Cumbrian Bacon and Onion Roly-Poly Pudding

  “Anna Maria,” said the old man rat (whose name was Samuel Whiskers)—“Anna Maria, make me a kitten dumpling roly-poly pudding for my dinner.”

  —Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding

  You certainly wouldn’t want to make a kitten roly-poly, but a Cumbrian bacon and onion roly-poly would do very well.

  FILLING

  1/2 pound bacon, diced finely

  1 medium onion, chopped finely

  1 small clove of garlic, very finely crushed

  1 teaspoon dried thyme

  1 teaspoon dried sage

  freshly ground pepper

  DOUGH

  2 cups flour

  4 teaspoons baking powder

  1 teaspoon salt

  2 tablespoons lard

  1 cup water

  For steaming: Prepare a large oven-proof lidded pan, such as a turkey roaster or fish kettle. Set a rack or trivet in the pan, of a height that will hold the pudding above the boiling water. You’ll also need baking parchment and aluminum foil.

  To make the filling: Mix the diced bacon, onion, garlic, herbs, and pepper. Set aside.

  To make the dough: Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Rub in the lard and gradually add just enough water to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. On a floured board, roll out an 8×10-inch rectangle 1/4-inch thick. (You may need to make two smaller roly-polies if your pan won’t accommodate this length.) Distribute the filling over the surface, leaving a quarter-inch border across the top and both ends. With a pastry brush and water, wet this border. Roll up tightly along the longest side, starting with the edge nearest you. Smooth the long edge where it joins the body of the roll and pinch the ends lightly to seal in the filling. Loosely roll in several layers of baking parchment, leaving room for the dough to expand, and then in two layers of foil, leaving an expansion pleat. Fold up the ends of the foil and secure, to prevent water penetrating during steaming.

  To steam: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Fill
the steaming pan to an inch below the rack or trivet with boiling water from a teakettle. Place the wrapped roly-poly on the rack and cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid. Bring the water back to a boil and boil hard for 10 minutes. Check to see if you need to add more boiling water, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Set the pan, water and all, in the oven, and oven-steam for 2 1/2 hours. Transfer the pudding to a warm plate, open the foil and parchment, and slice. Traditionally served with potatoes and a green vegetable. Serves 4-6.

  Glossary

  About the Cumbrian dialect, writer Hall Caine remarks (in the preface to his 1895 novel, A Cumbrian Romance): “I have chosen to give a broad outline of Cumbrian dialect, such as bears no more exact relation to the actual speech than a sketch bears to a finished picture. It is right as far as it goes.”

  For the Cottage Tales, I have borrowed Caine’s approach to dialect representation, and attempted only a very broad sketch—right as far as it goes, although it doesn’t go very far. Some of the words included in this glossary are not dialect forms, but are sufficiently uncommon that a definition may be helpful. My main source for dialect is William Rollinson’s The Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore. For other definitions, I have consulted the Oxford English Dictionary (second edition, Oxford University Press, London, 1989).

  Beck A small stream (Old Norse bekkr).

  Brow The projecting edge of a cliff, standing out over a precipice.

  Dray A cart with low sides built to haul heavy loads, driven by a drayman.

  Dwelf A fairy resident of the Land between the Lakes, half elf, half dwarf. Known to be a shape-shifter.

  Fell A mountain or a high hill (Icelandic, Danish, Swedish fjell).

  Folly A small pleasure-house in a garden.

  Gae lot A great many.

  Glisky Bright, sparkling.

  Go An unexpected turn of events. A rum go.

  Ha’p’orth Halfpennyworth. The amount that can be bought for a halfpenny, very little.

  Hast tha Have you? Hast tha a bit o’bread?

  Heafed Herdwick sheep instinctively recognize their native pastures, or heafs; that is, they are heafed to their home meadows.

  Hobthrush A hobgoblin or spirit that can do useful work but is just as likely to make mischief.

  How Hill.

  Joiner Carpenter.

  Lumbered To be burdened or encumbered with something.

  Mappen Perhaps, likely. Mappen t’weather’ll be good.

  Nae, nay No (said emphatically).

  Nobbut Nothing but.

  Ower-kessen’d Overcast, cloudy.

  Pater familias Latin for “father of the family,” and used by the Romans to designate the eldest or ranking male in the household.

  Reet, reetly Right, proper; rightly, properly.

  Rum Good, fine, excellent, great.

  Sett The system of underground burrows and chambers where a badger colony lives.

  Tatie pot A favorite Lake District dish made of mutton, potatoes, carrots, onions, and black pudding (a traditional sausage made of pig’s blood, beef suet, oatmeal, and onions). For a recipe, see The Tale of Hill Top Farm.

  Thick Excessively disagreeable, too much to tolerate.

  Verge The grassy roadside.

  Verra Very.

  Wax Anger, irritation, pique.

  Wudstha Would you?

  1 For more on Beatrix Potter’s life, see the Historical Notes in The Tale of Hill Top Farm and The Tale of Holly How.