Not for the faint-hearted

Times are hard but luckily I am a life-long devotee of foraging for food.

Today, something from my favourite book of recipes:  "Good Things in England, traditional and regional recipes contributed by English Men and Women between 1399 and 1932". Edited by Florence White in 1932.

Nettle Haggis a Westmorland recipe.

Ingredients: Nettles, boiling water, salt, oat-meal, pepper, rashers of bacon.

1. Put the nettles in a pint of boiling water and boil for 10 minutes.
2. Strain, reserving the water.
3. Cut off the rind and rusty pieces of the rashers of bacon with a pair of scissors.
4. Fry them.
5. Pour the fat over the strained nettles.
6. Chop them up.
7. Put a half a pint of nettle water in the frying pan, bring to boil and sprinkle in the oatmeal, stirring all the time.
8. Sprinkle in the pepper and boil until it is of the consistency of properly cooked porridge,
9. Then stir in the chopped nettles.
10. Serve very hot with the fried bacon.

Eat your heart out Mary Berry!

If your appetite has been whetted then you can see the book and a more up-market recipe here.