Lancashire hotpot
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Lancashire hotpot is a stew originating in Lancashire in North West England. It consists of lamb or mutton and onion, topped with sliced potatoes and slowly baked in a pot at a low heat.
History and etymology
In the 17th century, the word "hotpot" referred not to a stew but to a hot drink—a mixture of ale and spirits, or sweetened spiced ale.<ref name=oed>Template:Cite OED</ref> An early use of the term to mean a meat stew was in The Liverpool Telegraph in 1836: "hashes, and fricassees, and second-hand Irish hot-pots"<ref>"To Viscount Sandon, MP", The Liverpool Telegraph, 9 November 1836, p. 6</ref> and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) cites the dish as being served in Liverpool in 1842.<ref name=oed/> The Oxford Companion to Food (OCF) cites Elizabeth Gaskell's 1854 novel North and South, depicting hot-pot as the most prized dish among cotton workers in a northern town.<ref name=rs/><ref>Gaskell, pp. 359–360</ref>
The OED gives the etymology as "hot adj. + pot n.", and cites the analogous French term pot-au-feu.<ref name=oed/> The OCF refers to earlier forms of the term: "hotchpotch" (a mixed dish, typically a meat and vegetable stew) and "hotchpot", from the medieval French hochepot.<ref name=rs>Shipperbottom, p. 1224</ref>Template:Refn A Book of Cookrye (1591) gives a recipe for hodgepodge, using "neck of mutton or a fat rump of beef", cooked and served in a broth thickened with bread.<ref>"A Book of Cookrye", "To make a hodgepodge", Early English Books, University of Michigan. Retrieved 21 January 2023</ref> The term "hotchpotch" for a stew continued into the 19th century: Mrs Beeton (1861) gives a recipe under that name for a beef and onion stew in beer.<ref>Beeton, p. 101</ref>
Hotpot became associated with Lancashire. In the OCF the food historian Roy Shipperbottom writes: Template:Blockindent
Preparation
The recipe usually calls for a mix of mutton (nowadays more frequently lamb<ref name=berry1>Template:Cite news</ref>) and onions covered with sliced potato, and slowly baked in a pot containing stock or sometimes water.<ref name=fc/><ref name=berry2>Template:Cite web</ref> Some early recipes add lamb kidneys or oysters to the dish.<ref name=fc/>
The traditional Lancashire hotpot dish is tall, round, and straight-sided, with a lid.<ref name=rs/><ref name=fc>Template:Cite web</ref> Regardless of the baking dish, the lid should fit tightly.<ref name=berry1 />
Lancashire hotpot is traditionally served with pickled red cabbage.<ref name=fc/>