By Henry Sutton
Somewhere in that vast block of the once industrial north, between Manchester and Burnley, Liverpool and Preston, a sustaining stew slowly evolved. It incorporated best end and middle neck of lamb, sometimes lambs kidneys as well, onions, stock, a dash of Worcestershire sauce - though that might have come latter - and potatoes, which were laid on the top of the large pot to seal in the flavours and eventually crisp beautifully.
No particular place or person is accredited with creating Lancashire Hotpot, though one of its first key mentions appears in Elizabeth Gaskell’s mid-19th century novel North and South. There are also numerous ideas as to who first benefited from it. Some people believe it was produced for pit workers, who would wrap the pot up in blankets and take it down the mines with them. Other ideas have shepherds taking it to the hills, and even aristocrats taking it along to the races, also and always wrapped in blankets to keep warm.
However, the most likely origin is to be found within the once mighty Lancashire cotton industry. Women would prepare the simple, economical meal early in the morning, place it in the bottom of the range, ready for when everyone returned from work in the mills, in the evening.
To this end, fans of Lancashire Hotpot should first get their taste buds working with a visit to the Queen Street Textile Mill Museum in Burnley. This is the last remaining steam powered mill in Europe, where the 500 horsepower engine can still bring to life over 300 looms. The other key museum in the area is the Helmshore Mills Textile Museum incorporating the late 18th century Higher Mill and Whitaker’s Mill side by side in the beautiful Rossendale Valley. However, the Helmshore museum is currently under refurbishment and is scheduled to reopen later this summer.
Meanwhile, always open, is the restaurant with rooms Northcote Manor, just north of Blackburn. Here chef-patron Nigel Haworth an inspired, locally sourced hotpot, with a special layer of sliced onions, which he serves with pickled red cabbage. His lamb comes from Bowland Forest to the far north west of Lancashire - itself a wonderful place for serious walking, being more moor than wood.
