Parkin (cake)
Place of origin | England |
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Region or state | Northern England |
Main ingredients | Flour, oatmeal, molasses, ginger, lard or butter |
Parkin is a gingerbread cake traditionally made with
Etymology
The origin of the word parkin is unknown. The first published dated reference to parkin was collected from 1728 from the
When Arthur, to make their hearts merry
Brought ales and parkin and perry.[5]
The tharf cake is of ancient Teutonic origin, as tharf or theorf meant 'unleavened, un-fermented, solid tough or sodden' in Old English. John Wycliffe in his translation of the Bible in 1389 (Mark Ch.14.v. 1) calls unleavened bread a "tharf loove" [a][6]
History
Parkin is virtually unknown in the south of England[
In Northern Europe honey was used as a medicine, for festive cakes and making mead; before 1750 sweetness was not a characteristic of everyday food. Honey cakes had a special festive significance. They were baked to be hard, but after storage for a couple of weeks they regained their moisture becoming soft and even sticky. Molasses has
Though parkin and tharf cake appear to be synonymous, all parkins generally were sweet tharf cakes.[6]
Tharf cake
Parkin and tharf cake were used interchangeably in Lancashire and South Yorkshire until 1900. Over the 500 years the recipe and taste of these cakes have changed considerably. It was the food of the poor.[citation needed] Ovens were rare in the houses of the poor, and they generally had no access to public bakers before the 1820s, so the cakes were cooked on griddles or bakestones on an open fire.[11] The best parkin was made with fresh oatmeal, which fixes the date around the first week in November.
Festivities
In southern Lancashire and West Yorkshire, parkin is linked to the
The Celtic festival of
Ingredients
The principal ingredients of a Yorkshire Parkin are oatmeal, flour, black treacle (similar to molasses), fat (traditionally lard, but modern recipes use butter, margarine or rapeseed oil), and ginger. Oatmeal and golden syrup are generally considered distinctive features of Lancashire parkin, whilst Yorkshire Parkin is baked using treacle and soft brown sugar.
The flour used in parkin in England is self-raising, containing a small amount of chemical
One of the key features of parkin is that it retains its texture well. It is baked to be hard, but after storing in a sealed tin or box for several days, it becomes soft again, the texture that is intended.
-
Lancashire Parkin straight from the oven
-
More treacle or brown sugar gives parkin a dark colour
See also
References
Notes
Footnotes
- ISBN 0-7862-8517-6.
- ^ Bates, Margaret (1964). Talking about Cakes. Penguin Books, p.88.
- ^ Lepard, Dan (3 November 2007). "100-Year-Old Parkin". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
- ^ Stead 1991, p. 170.
- ^ Quoted in Carr, W (1828). The dialect of Craven. London.
- ^ a b Stead 1991, p. 161.
- ^ Stead 1991.
- ^ a b Stead 1991, p. 157.
- ^ Stead 1991, p. 159.
- ^ a b Stead 1991, p. 160.
- ^ Stead 1991, p. 172.
- ^ a b c Stead 1991, p. 162.
Bibliography
- Concise Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. parkin
- Stead, Jennifer; Wilson, C Anne; Brears, Peter; Hunter, Lynette; Pollard, Helen (1991). "6". In C. Anne Wilson (ed.). Traditional Food East and West of the Pennines. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-0118-X.
- BBC good food, Discussion of Parkin Day
- Cloake, Felicity (2 November 2017). "How to make the perfect parkin". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 November 2017.