Cumbrian Tatie Pot

Makes 4 generous servings (serving a crowd?)

1 Tablespoon dried peas
1 Tablespoon lentil
1 Tablespoon pearl barley
1 lb lamb
1 lb beef cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon flour
1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
½ small black pudding (of about ¾ lb)
about1½ lb potatoes
10½ oz beef broth (one can)

Special equipment

a sieve for the pulses
a pudding bowl
foil to cover

Method

Rinse and put the pulses to soak in water as you begin to work.

Debone and trim the lamb as necessary (we use steaks sliced from whole legs of lamb to minimize onsite trimming), and cut into cubes approximately an inch thick. Season the flour with the salt and pepper, turn the beef and lamb cubes therein, and arrange tightly on the bottom of your pudding bowl.

Scatter the chopped onion on top. Cut the black pudding into chunks of 1 cm thickness and tuck them into the onion layer. Drain the pulses in a sieve, rinse them, and spoon over the whole thing.

Peel, then cut the potatoes down their lengths into sixths (or quarters if they're especially small). Put them over the top (round side up, pointed edge down), covering the entire dish in a single layer (you may need more or fewer potatoes depending on the exact surface area of your pan). Pour in the beef broth and enough hot water to come halfway up the potatoes. Maintain this level throughout the entire cooking process, or all your juices will cook away and you'll end up with half as many servings.

Bake for 3 hours at 400° F, and cover for the last hour to protect the potatoes from becoming too brown.

Notes

Based on the recipe of Mrs Burrows, a neighbor of Jane Grigson's, this local variation of the traditional Lancashire Hotpot needs no twiddling. Your house will be scented for days (Really. Just by transporting a single, covered pot of the dish on the 15 minute drive to work made my car reek wonderfully for two days!). Astoundingly, it requires no spices.

Grigson says that tatie pots are “very much a dish of communal eating, at village get-togethers, or at society beanos, rather as baked beans are a standard item on similar occasions in America” and in the certain rivalry to see whose version is best, “Mrs. Burrows gained the distinct impression as a child that this version, made by her mother and grandmother, was usually supreme.” We agree. The potatoes cook to a crisp perfection in the fats that rise to the surface and taste, like, numm, French fries.

Suggestions

In the place of traditional English pudding basins, we use heavy, glazed porcelain mixing bowls (9" wide, 2½ quart capacity, manufactured by Robinson Ransbottom of Roseville, OH). The squeamish need not fear the black pudding. Any dry sausage can be substituted, but the dish will suffer from the lack of sweetness the black pudding seems to impart.

First served: Imbolc 1993
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Last modified: © March 1995