The Tale of Applebeck Orchard (38 page)

Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and ginger into a mixing bowl. Stir in the breadcrumbs and suet (or butter). In a small saucepan, warm the treacle until it liquefies, then add the milk. Pour into the dry ingredients, mixing well. Add the chopped ginger and mix again, adding a little more milk if necessary. Turn into a greased 1-quart pudding basin and cover with foil. Steam for 2-2½ hours, or until well risen and firm. Serve hot with custard or cream.

Traditional Cumberland sausages are heavily flavored with pepper, nutmeg, and mace. Each butcher had his own recipe, but all were made in continuous coils up to four feet long. Sausage is most easily made with a meat grinder (hand or electric) with a sausage stuffer attachment. Cumberland sausage, served to this day at the Tower Bank Arms in Near Sawrey, may be accompanied by an onion and apple sauce.

 

SAUSAGE

Add the hot water to the breadcrumbs and set aside. Mix the ground meats, salt, pepper, and spices. Add the bread-crumb /water mixture and mix very well, using your hands. Fry a spoonful of the sausage and taste to adjust the seasoning. Rinse the salt from the sausage casing. Using the sausage stuffer, fill the sausage casings, prick in several places, and refrigerate overnight. Bake in a greased baking dish at 350°F. Turn after 20 minutes, and raise the heat to 375°F. Serve with warm Onion-Apple Sauce.

 

ONION-APPLE SAUCE

Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil until golden brown. Peel, core, and chop apples. Add to the onion. Add water, vinegar, and bay leaf and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until soft. Remove the bay leaf and puree the sauce in a blender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Glossary

Some of the words included in this glossary are dialect forms; others 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).

 

Along of.
On account of, because of, owing to. “Along of the Applebeck ghost.”

Auld.
Old.

Awt.
Something, anything.

Beck.
A small stream.

Betimes.
Sometimes.

Bodder, bodderment, boddering.
Trouble.

Chapel.
One who attends worship in a non-Anglican church.

Character.
Letter of recommendation.

Dusta.
Doest thou, do you?

Goosy.
Foolish.

How.
Hill, as in “Holly How,” the hill where Badger lives.

Mappen.
Maybe, perhaps.

Nae.
No.

Nawt.
Nothing.

Off-comer.
A stranger, someone who comes from far away.

Pattens.
Farm shoes with wooden soles and leather uppers.

Pinny.
Pinafore.

Reet.
Right.

Sae.
So.

Sartin, sartinly.
Certain, certainly.

Seed wigs.
Small, oblong cakes, like tea cakes, flavored with caraway seeds.

Sumbody.
Somebody, someone.

Summat.
Somewhat, something.

Trice.
Very quickly, all at once, “in a trice.”

Trippers, day-trippers.
Tourists, visitors who come for the day.

Tup.
Ram.

Verra or varra.
Very.

Wudna, wudsta.
Would not, would you.