So you love your food … so do we! Like any other British county, Shropshire has some traditional dishes to tempt those taste buds.
You will see from this blog our ancestors had a seriously sweet tooth, as most of these dishes are desserts of some kind.
We’ve got all the ingredients for a serious feast, starting with something savoury … owl soup!
Thankfully not made from a real owl, but a tasty concoction of chicken (or pigeon if you like richer, gamey flavours), carrots, onion, celery, beef stock and even a nip of port!
This is a wholesome tasty soup ideal for an autumn day when it is chilly outside.
And if you love a hearty pie, then how about a fidget pie? This delectable dish is thought to have been around for over four centuries, if not longer, and probably comes from the local term fitchett or fitch, which means polecat. Apparently when this pie is baked, the odour is a bit on the ripe side, and polecats can have their whiffy moments as well!
The ingredients list is impressive, including gammon steak, Bramley apples, potatoes, cider, mustard, honey, butter, double cream, Cheddar cheese, flour and butter (not a dish suitable for anyone on a diet, then!).
So now onto the sweet puddings that Shropshire is famous for.
Choose from aromatic Shropshire pudding, which is great for using up stale bread and is very like a sponge pudding.
This dessert also includes classic strong flavours such as nutmeg, brandy and jam (preferably homemade).
We’ve all heard of gingerbread men, and this particular sweet treat has a history going back to the Crusades.
Locally it was sold on various high streets throughout the 1500s and the recipe went through several transitions. During the early 1800s, the local, traditional gingerbread man was a bit on the tipsy side due to the large amounts of rum included in the proceedings!
The Shropshire town of Market Drayton has a bakery that’s carried on the tradition of making gingerbread to a top secret recipe.
Dentists in Shropshire will also be visited more regularly if local foodies indulge in the Shrewsbury Biscuit that includes robust flavours such as caraway seed, rosewater and even Madeira … Shropshire folk certainly like their alcohol!
You might also come across Shropshire Mint Cakes, which include lush, fresh mint and currants among regular cake ingredients of flour, butter, and caster sugar.
Other puddings with local variations include simnel cake, soul cakes and wine jelly, which looks wonderful when presented in wide-rimmed champagne or cocktail glasses. The additional ingredients include orange juice, lemon juice and … dry sherry.
And you can’t have county food without a county cheese!
Shropshire Blue is sometimes considered to be a local cheese, although it is thought to have its heritage in Scotland and Nottinghamshire.
So while you are relaxing in your Shropshire Getaways home from home you can feast on a whole host of delicious (and local) delectable goodies
To find out more about the above and how to make some of these dishes, visit:
http://shropshirehistory.com/other/food.htm
And don’t forget our county is blessed with a number of food festivalds including the celebrated Ludlow Food Festival, Shrewsbury Food Festival and the Ginger and Spice Festival. Find out more here! https://www.foodfestivalfinder.co.uk/west-midlands/shropshire