[Nick]

Does your hometown, or region, have a dish that it introduced to the world, or is famous for? Is there something food-wise that your town is known for?

Here in Yorkshire we're probably most famous for Yorkshire Puddings - can you really have a Sunday roast dinner without them?

Also in the small town where I live we have a famous rhubarb farm, shipping rhubarb all around the world!

What does your town or region bring to the table? Quite literally!!

[NMNeil]

I live in New Mexico, which may give you a hint at our cuisine. 😁

[TC1474]

Beer, biscuit's and bulbs.

Courage brewery (now a Tesco distribution centre)
Suttons Seeds
Huntley & Palmer biscuit's and there famous biscuit tins.

[Drivingforfun]

I've known about them for decades but still meaning to try one...

Bedfordshire Clanger

It's a pasty with a divider about 2/3 of the way across: the big "half" has savoury filling and the small side has something sweet for pudding

The natural question is what do you do with the middle bit of pastry, when one side is covered with cheese and onion and the other side has chocolate cream??

You throw it away ... apparently the pastry in any pasty is mostly just there to hold the filling - in the old days you didn't eat the crust on a pasty, you held it with your hands (which were dirty if you did any proper work) and threw it away when finished

[olduser]

Must be delicate folk in Bedfordshire, the crust provides protection for the contents, that's why its tough pastry not crumbly, can hold gravy (not a lot) and its basically carbohydrate and fat, good fuel, so it's usually eaten.
Usual way of eating, start at savory end, eating crust and all up to centre wall, if you wish lick the wall, now eat the sweet end, crust, wall the lot.

As to clean hands, in the cow shed , there will be water, in the field there may be a ditch, or grass, in the quarry or coal mine, the muck is clean buried for many thousands of years, spit on your finger pads and rub on your work cloths, after all the acid in our stomach is there to kill bugs and it's very effective.

Different parts of the country have different ways of dealing with the midday work break food, each area has it's own fashion (why reinvent the wheel?) but pasties crop up all over
As people travel further to work there is now more of a mixture in work places, and of course, there is less physical work being done so less need for fuel food.

[Nick]

I love the sound of a Bedfordshire Clanger @Drivingforfun - I also like the thought of the strip in the middle with one side savoury and the other sweet - best of both worlds in one bite right?! Where would you buy them from, a bakers, butchers? Something like that?

[Rolebama]

I have to admit I have yet to try a Beds Clanger, but I will get round to it. The only thing around where I used to live was the array of Certificates in the local chippy for being acclaimed as the best chippy in the country for a few years.

[olduser]

One thing I could always be sure of as I moved around the UK, the local chippy was said to be the best in the world (by the locals).

Some produced a very fatty fish and chips, others managed to have much less fat, and there are variations in batter flavour, and variations in the thickness of soggy batter inside.

Some places like, or they get, over cooked fish starting to be dry, I don't remember any undercooked fish.
Oddly, the most favoured chip is not crisp but rather just browning on the outside cooked inside, which is probably the easiest to cook.

But, a good chip shop in full flow is a wonder to behold, and a nice place to be on a cold night, with the windows steamed up, as we shuffle ever closer to our turn, mentally running over our order again to make sure we don't miss anyone.
Of course these days, there will be at least two sign boards listing variations or alternatives, which complicates remembering who wanted what, such that it can be quite a relief to deliver your order, and enjoy the release of tension now you have done it.

That feels very British !

[Nick]

Oh I totally feel that chippy vibe there @olduser - I. love that too. Of course, being from Yorkshire we totally have the best fish and chips in the world, right?! haha
I actually have about 5 chips shops within roughly walking distance from my house - most are decent, a couple of them are excellent. In my dad's youth my grandparents ran a chippy and he's quite picky - really important to have good quality, nice white fish, and a great batter.

What do fish cakes look like where you're from? Just fish like in a patty? Or fish and sliced potato? Or something else? And do you get scallops too? Scraps anyone?

[Rolebama]

@Nick What I remember of Yorkshire chippies is that when we were up there a few years ago, they didn't know what Rock Salmon or Huss was!

[Drivingforfun]

I found out not too long ago, being from a Yorkshire family who reluctantly moved down south, and for generations we have wondered why northern chips were better

its because northern chippies use beef dripping instead of oil

[NMNeil]

I often found that the best chippies were run by Italians and the worst by Chinese.
Not a racist thing just from personal experience.
The Italians would drop the basket of dried chips in the oil, wait a little then pull the basket out of the oil, let it heat up again and give them a second dunking. The Chinese just dropped the basket with still damp chips into the oil once, guaranteeing sogginess.

[olduser]

Originally Posted by Rolebama

@Nick What I remember of Yorkshire chippies is that when we were up there a few years ago, they didn't know what Rock Salmon or Huss was!

Didn't they explain, Cod in batter is what nature intended.

I think other fish types and pies etc, started in the south in a search for novelty and to increase turnover as costs tend to be higher in the south but due to the rise in price of Cod, now most, if not all chippies, offer a wide choice of fish etc.

[Beelzebub]

Originally Posted by olduser

Didn't they explain, Cod in batter is what nature intended.

I think other fish types and pies etc, started in the south in a search for novelty and to increase turnover as costs tend to be higher in the south but due to the rise in price of Cod, now most, if not all chippies, offer a wide choice of fish etc.

Cause and effect??

The popularity of cod is what made it scarce, and hence expensive.

[olduser]

Originally Posted by Drivingforfun

I found out not too long ago, being from a Yorkshire family who reluctantly moved down south, and for generations we have wondered why northern chips were better

its because northern chippies use beef dripping instead of oil

There are a few chippies left who use animal fat but it cannot reach as higher temperature as refined cooking oils, so fat produces a more fatty end product and do's not drain well, whereas, oil drains well so less oil in the finished product.
The other advantage of oil is, used oil has a value, used fat costs to dispose of, and is difficult to get out of the pan.

[olduser]

Originally Posted by NMNeil

I often found that the best chippies were run by Italians and the worst by Chinese.
Not a racist thing just from personal experience.
The Italians would drop the basket of dried chips in the oil, wait a little then pull the basket out of the oil, let it heat up again and give them a second dunking. The Chinese just dropped the basket with still damp chips into the oil once, guaranteeing sogginess.

I have noticed that is as well but it leaves me puzzled as to what they are trying to do.
A chip shop pan is large so that putting cold items in do's not cool the fat much but if the chips are kept in a basket then there is a dramatic local cooling of the hot oil, chips in the centre of the basket will get less cooking.

Chefs do cook chips in two steps, they put them in the hot oil (in a fryer smaller than a chip pan) until starting to show colour, take them out, and spread them out to cool them very nearly cold, then back in the fryer until well coloured and crisp, to get the potato inside the chip just cooked.

The Chinese, putting wet chips in the pan are taking a big risk (flying hot oil), and they will knock the pan temperature down taking longer to fry the chips.

All the chippies I have talked to say customers don't like crisp chips!

[olduser]

Originally Posted by Beelzebub

Cause and effect??

The popularity of cod is what made it scarce, and hence expensive.

As I understand the problem with Cod it's more complex than that.
One factor is minimum net size, our fishermen complained that the continental fisheries were using different net sizes to what they were allowed to use, so the nets were changed.
The old nets allowed juvenile Cod to escape,this allowed them to grow, breed and produce more Cod, now it is very rare to see a fully grown Cod in a catch, it's mostly juveniles that are being caught leaving fewer fish to live on and breed. (Atlantic Cod ranges from 2- 3 ft long fully grown)

Another factor is nutrients.
Cod's (like most fish) food starts as upwellings of nutrition rich water from the deep, these are shifting due to the increase in sea temperature - the fish move with the food.

[Lily]

My local chippy is also the best in the UK and won all the awards 🤣. Something smells fishy here... 🐟

[Drivingforfun]

@olduser

One thing with the chips cooked in fat is they definitely don't reheat well if you buy too many (which always happens)

[Rolebama]

There was a chippy, not exactly local, that hyped the fact they still used beef dripping. It became the chippy to go to for quite a few years. Changed to oil and just became another chippy.

[Drivingforfun]

@Rolebama

There's a chippy in Bedford called Harrowden Fisheries I'd recommend. The owner is very friendly and loves to chat. He says his trick - which he doesn't keep secret - is he changes his oil every day, where most chippies change them weekly or even longer. Writing this, I thought he used dripping and that's why I liked them, but maybe in that industry "oil" is a figure of speech for anything you cook in?

I don't know how local it is for you, it's not particularly local for me but we used it when staying in Bedford while our house was being repaired and still go there now we're back in Biggleswade

[Rolebama]

@Drivingforfun I went to the one just round the corner from Sainsburys a few times, and another turning left at Bennett's at the top of the High St. Both in Biggleswade. Both good.