List of Kentish Recipes

List of Kentish Recipes

Angels on Horseback

Apple Muffins

Appledore Chicken Pie

Biddenden Cakes

Blackberry & Apple Bread & Butter Pudding

Cabbage & Hazelnut Rolls

Canterbury Pudding

Cherry Batter Pudding (version I)

Cherry Batter Pudding (version II)

Chocolate & Raspberry (or Cherry) Brownies

Kentish Apple Cake

Flead Cakes

Ginger Cobnut Cake (version I)

Ginger Cobnut Cake (version II)
Good Tea-Cakes

Gypsy Tart (with Apple Slices!)

Hodge Podge

Joe Grey Stew

Kent Lent Pie/ Kent Pudding Pie/Folkestone Pudding Pie

Kent Oast Cakes

Kent Twice Laid

Kentish Cherry Batter pudding
Hopscotch

Kentish Cobnut cake

Kentish Huffkins (version I)

Kentish Huffkins (version II)

Kentish Pigeons In A Pot With Plums

Kentish Pudding

Kentish Rarebit

Kentish Strawberry Shortcake

Kentish Well Pudding (Kentish Puddle Pudding)

Lamb Barley Casserole

Lamb With Cherries

Lamb's Tail Pie

Maidstone Biscuits

Oast cakes

Pokerounce

Squab Pie

Tunbridge Wells Wafers or Romary 
Tunbridge Biscuits -  Wafer, Currant, Lemon, Ginger & Seed
Tunbridge Water Cakes

Wafers

Whitstable Dredgerman's Breakfast

We know of, but have yet to find recipes for:
Damson & Cobnut Mincemeat
Watercress & Cobnut Soup

Chocolate & Raspberry (or Cherry) Brownies

Chocolate & Raspberry (or Cherry) Brownies

6 oz (175g) unsalted butter melted with

6 oz ( 175g) chocolate broken into pieces in a bowl over hot water. Cool, add pinch of salt and 8oz (225g) golden caster sugar.

3 large eggs. - gradually beaten in

4 oz (115g) plain flour – add and beat well.

6oz (175g) raspberries/pitted cherries - stir in carefully and pour into the tin.

Line a 8” square baking tin with baking parchment.

Bake 25-30 mins 180C/Gas 4, until the top is pale brown but the middle is still dense and gooey. 

Leave to cool in the tin before cutting into squares. Cool completely before removing from the tin.

Kentish Strawberry Shortcake

Kentish Strawberry Shortcake

225g plain flour

200g butter

115g caster sugar

115g ground rice

Rub butter into flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add caster sugar and ground rice

Knead mixture gently together until it forms a ball.

Roll out to ¼in thick. Cut into rounds with a 2in biscuit cutter.  Chill the rounds in fridge till firm.

Bake in a cool oven at 160°C for 10-15 min

For the filling

1 punnet of strawberries

½ pint of double or whipping cream

 

Whip cream till thick (add 1 tsp icing sugar and a few drops of vanilla essence if you like a sweeter cream)

When the shortbread rounds are cool, sandwich together with a layer of cream and sliced strawberries

Dust over the tops with icing sugar

Melt a little plain chocolate and drizzle over the top .

Serve with extra strawberries

Kentish Cobnut Cake

Kentish Cobnut Cake

450g/1lb self-raising flour

225g/8oz butter, melted, plus extra butter for greasing

1 tbsp ground ginger

225g/8oz light soft brown sugar

6 free-range eggs, beaten

110g/4fl oz double cream

150g/5oz cobnuts, shells removed, finely chopped

For the apple compôte

50g/2oz butter

4 apples, peeled, cores removed, finely chopped

2-3 tbsp caster sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

200ml/7fl oz double cream, lightly whipped, to serve

For the cobnut cake, preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 2. Grease a 1kg/2lb 2oz loaf tin with butter. In a bowl, mix together the flour and melted butter until well combined. Add the ground ginger, sugar and beaten eggs and beat until well combined. Add the cream and mix until the mixture forms a smooth, thick batter. Stir in the chopped cobnuts until well combined. 

Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, gently spreading the batter into all the corners and shaking the tin to make sure the mixture has settled. Transfer the loaf tin to the oven and bake for 1-1¼ hours, or until the cake has risen and is golden-brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Set the cake aside to cool slightly in the tin.

Meanwhile, for the apple compôte, heat the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. When the butter is foaming, add the apples, caster sugar and ground cinnamon and cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the apples have broken down slightly and the mixture has thickened

 To serve, cut the cake into six to eight slices (it is best served still warm). Serve each slice with a dollop of whipped cream and a spoonful of warm apple compôte.

Kentish Apple Cake

Kentish Apple Cake

225g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
2tsp ground mixed spice or cinnamon
255g light brown soft sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
200ml sunflower oil
310g apples, cored and diced (roughly 3 apples)
100g sultanas
Demerara sugar

Sieve the flour, salt and spices into a bowl and then stir in the sugar.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the eggs and the oil.

Mix until completely smooth and then add the apple and sultanas. Spoon into a lightly greased 30x20cm tin and sprinkle with sugar

Bake at 180’C (Gas Mark 4) for 25-30 minutes until risen and golden.

Tunbridge Biscuits - Wafer, Currant, Lemon, Ginger & Seed

We haven't yet tried these recipes. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Tunbridge [unable to establish whether this is Tonbridge or Tunbridge Wells] seems to be a specialist centre for biscuits. They not only differ in ingredients but also in shape and thickness.

Tunbridge Wafer Biscuits

Said to be similar to Tunbridge Water Cakes and are derived from them.
 

8 lbs of flour

2½ pints of cream

4 eggs

2 lbs of very fine loaf sugar

4 oz of ginger

Mix in the usual way; roll the dough very thin on an even board or marble slab; dock the surface over with a captains biscuit docker cut them into round cakes about the size of Shrewsburies; put them on very clean dry tins slightly dusted with flour and bake them in a moderately cold oven. When baked they may be put in piles whilst hot and pressed to make them flat and even.

Currant Tunbridge Biscuits

 
8 lbs. of flour

2 lbs. of butter

3 lbs. of sugar

1½lb. of currants

1½lb. of ground almonds

8 eggs

½ pint of milk

¼oz. of volatile salt.

Mix.
Roll the dough into sheets nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness, dust with loaf sugar, pass the rolling-pin over the surface again, and cut it into biscuits with an oval cutter, the same size as for lemon biscuits.

Place on buttered tins about half an inch asunder, and bake in a moderately quick heat. 

Lemon Tunbridge Biscuits

 
As the last; or use 8 lbs. of flour, 1 1/2 lb. of butter, 1 1/2 lb. of sugar, 6 eggs, 1 pint of milk, 1/4 oz. of volatile salt. (the recipe seems to forget to list lemons as an ingredient)

 

Ginger Tunbridge Biscuits
 

As the last, using 2 1/2 lbs. of sugar, 4 oz. of ground ginger, and 10 eggs, with sufficient milk to make a dough.

Seed Tunbridge Biscuits

 
6 lbs. of flour, 2 1/4 lbs. of powdered sugar, 1 1/4 lb. of butter, 6 eggs, a dram of volatile salt, and sufficient milk to make the whole into a dough about the consistence of walnut dough, with a few caraway seeds.

Roll the dough into sheets about a quarter of an inch in thickness, dust the surface with finely powdered loaf sugar during the rolling; cut into cakes with an eighth cake cutter (sic), and dock them with a diamond carved docker. Place on buttered tins about a quarter of an inch asunder, and bake in a moderately heated oven; let them be of light brown on the surface and bottom when done.

Tunbridge Water Cakes

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Tunbridge Water Cakes

 
1 1/4 lb of flour

½ lb of sugar

6 oz of butter

Mix with milk or water and a little orange flower water.

Rub the butter in with the flour; add the sugar and make the whole into a paste; roll it out very thin; cut it out with a plain round or scalloped cutter about the same size as for Shrewsburies; place them on clean tins or buttered paper and bake them of a pale delicate colour in a cool oven.

Good Tea-Cakes & Tunbridge Cakes

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Good Tea-Cakes

 
Rub four ounces of butter into eight ounces of flour, and mix with this six ounces of cleaned currants, the same of beat sugar, and three beat eggs. 

Make this into a paste, and roll it out about a half-inch thick, and stamp out the cakes of any size you please with a wine-glass, ale-glass, or small tumbler, by running a paste-cutter round the glass. 

[No cooking info given!]

Dust the top with sugar.

Tunbridge Cakes

 
Make tea cakes as above, of any size you please, and strew caraway-comfits over the top.

Tunbridge Wells Wafers, or Romary

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.



Tunbridge Wells Wafers or Romary

150g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
55g treacle (This old recipe could require black treacle or golden syrup, as the term ‘treacle’ has in the past been used for both substances. Black treacle biscuits would be more of an acquired taste and golden syrup more of a crowd-pleaser.)
55g butter
55g caster sugar or soft brown sugar

Preheat oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2 (the recipe says a ‘very moderate oven’)
Prepare two baking sheets by lining with greaseproof paper.
In a medium sized saucepan melt the butter, treacle and sugar. Don’t allow the mixture to become too hot - as soon as the ingredients have blended remove from the heat.
Sift the flour, baking powder and ginger into a bowl. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the warmed mixture, stirring to combine after every spoonful and mix to a paste. It is easier to handle the paste if it is used while still warm.
Divide into three portions. On a floured surface roll out each portion as thinly as possible and cut to shape.
Bake for about 10 minutes.
Allow to cool for a few minutes only, before transferring to a wire rack.

Squab Pie ( Description only)

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Squab Pie

 

(Kent) A squab is a young pigeon so perhaps this recipe has different origins.

Take two pounds of the best end of the neck of mutton, cut it into small pieces, flavour with salt and pepper, and put a layer of it at the bottom of a pie-dish, next add a layer of sliced apples and onions, with about a dessertspoonful of brown sugar, then another layer of mutton. Cover with a good pie-crust, and bake as an ordinary meat pie.

Hodge Podge (Description only)

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.


Hodge Podge

(Kent, 1809)

Take a quantity of shelled green peas, with onions, carrots, and turnips, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Put them into a pot with a lid, with a quantity of water corresponding to the quantity of soup wanted, containing a few mutton or lamb chops. Let the mess boil slowly, or simmer for five or six hours.

Angels on Horseback

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Angels on Horseback

A well known recipe but it's said to have originated in Kent; Whitstable is a logical assumption.

8 oysters
8 rashers bacon
4 slices buttered toast

Remove oysters from shells.

Wrap each oyster in a rasher of bacon.

Place on a skewer and grill until bacon is cooked.

Serve on hot buttered toast.

Biddenden Cakes (Description only)

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Biddenden Cakes

 

Hard cakes ( more like biscuits) distributed annually as part of the 'Biddenden Dole', each one bearing the image of two females, said to be the conjoined sisters Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst, who, in the 12th Century, left a gift of land, called the Bread and Cheese Lands, to provide aid to the poor.

The cakes, baked from flour and water, are so hard as to be almost inedible but make good souvenirs as they bear the very curious effigy

Wafers (Description only)

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Wafers

 

Another speciality, which probably originated in France and the word may have come from the French 'gofer' meaning to flute or crisp. They have been made in Kent since the twelfth century.

To make them you need extra-fine flour, which is mixed to a batter with sugar, butter and milk, perhaps flavoured with nutmeg or rosewater. The batter is cooked in special round, or square, wafer irons [could these be Waffle Irons?], which had long handles so that they could be held over the fire.

Flead Cakes

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Flead Cakes

 

These were made after pig killing. The flead is the inner membrane full of bits of lard and rather like Lardy Cake. The flead is incorporated in flaky pastry to make a savoury mixture, or with sugar and spices for a sweet cake. It is not easy to get flead nowadays and so it is difficult to find this dish.

1 lb. Flour

1 egg

a little salt

1 lb. of flear or leaf ( "flead " in Kent )

½ ( half ) a pint of cold water to mix.

Mix flour and salt.

Separate a little of the flead and add to the flour. Mix into a dough with water, knead and roll out on a board. Put some flead over the dough, fold over and roll out again.

Repeat this until flead is used up.

Roll out to one inch thickness and cut into small circles or whatever shape desired.

Brush over with egg, bake in a hot oven until golden brown and eat hot.

Whitstable Dredgerman's Breakfast ( Description only)

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Whitstable Dredgerman's Breakfast

Whitstable does not consider itself a seaside town; it has no promenades nor pier. It was once an industrious fishing port. In the 19^th Century, oysters were netted in huge quantities to satisfy London markets In need of a hearty warm up prior to embarking out on the high seas, fishermen would congregate within seafront cafes for their daily fill:

Whitstable Dredgerman's Breakfast is essentially a toasted sandwich laden with freshly caught oysters and streaky bacon, dripping through with fat to soak the bread. A simple, yet filling starter prior to braving the winds off the North Sea Coast, it was washed down with strong black tea to aid digestion.

Lamb's Tail Pie ( Description only)

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Lamb's Tail Pie

Thought to be another Romney Marsh recipe, Lamb's Tail Pie dates back to the 1700's when breeding cattle were first introduced onto the Romney Marshes. Such was the ratio of salt in the grasses, farmers discovered their lamb meat to be far more tender than of cattle grazing elsewhere, promptly starting a demand for this finer texture and the evolution of everyday lamb stew into Lamb's Tail Pie.

Traditionally, lamb's tails were docked at birth, therefore the pie was an annual delicacy, only made during lambing season. After boiling, the tails would be skinned and slow-cooked with root vegetables, such as onion, potato and carrots for up to three hours. Encased within a shortcrust pastry, the mixture was topped with peas and sliced hard-boiled eggs, with a pinch of parsley or mint to season, then baked until a delicious golden brown.

Lamb's Tail Pie is fairly uncommon on the menus of Kent today, however, may still be found on occasion at old Kentish pubs, paired with local ales.

Appledore Chicken Pie

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Appledore Chicken Pie

The inland village of Appledore is situated on the edge of the Romney Marshes. In the 13^th Century it was on the coast, where the River Rother reached the sea.

Serves 4

200g diced dark & white chicken

25g seasoned flour

5g mixed herbs

50g back bacon

2g pepper

250ml water

2 hard boiled eggs

Shortcrust pastry

200g plain flour

50g wholemeal flour

125g margarine

ice cold water to mix

Toss chicken in seasoned flour and herbs and put in pie dish.

Add sufficient water to come to the surface of the meat.

Cover with a lid and cook in the oven at Reg 8, 450°F or 230°C for 45 minutes.

Skim and check seasoning.

Add the chopped bacon and sliced hard boiled eggs.

Make the pastry and roll to cover the filling in the pie dish.

Brush with egg wash or milk. Cut steam vents.

Bake in the oven at Regulo 8, 450°F or 230°C for approximately 30 minutes until pastry is golden

brown and crisp

Lamb Barley Casserole

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Lamb Barley Casserole

Hardy sheep are able to withstand the cold easterly winds that blow across the Romney Marshes and because they graze on the salty marshes their meat has an extra fine flavour.

Serves 4 - 6

475g boned leg or shoulder of lamb, trimmed of fat and diced

40g seasoned wholemeal flour

1 rindless streaky bacon rashers, chopped

10g butter

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

1 medium carrot, sliced

50g turnip or swede, peeled and diced

1 celery stick , diced

25g pearl barley

5g mixed chopped fresh herbs,

such as rosemary or parsley

300ml lamb stock

chopped fresh parsley to garnish

Toss the lamb in the seasoned flour.

Dry fry the bacon in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add the butter and the lamb and fry until browned all over.

Remove the lamb and the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the onions, carrots, turnip or swede and celery to the casserole and fry for 5-10 minutes, until beginning

to brown.

Return the lamb to the casserole, add the pearl barley and herbs and pour in the stock.

Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until the lamb is tender.

Serve hot, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Joe Grey Stew

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Joe Grey Stew

This is a traditional Gypsy stew usually made from sausages and bacon but it can be adapted to use up whatever you have in the fridge.

Serves 4

6 sausages cut into bite sized pieces

6 rashers of bacon chopped

1.5 lt water

4 large tomatoes quartered

4 large potatoes, peeled and sliced

1 onion, peeled & chopped

3 stock cubes

Fry the sausages, bacon and onion in a pan until well browned.

Cover with water, and add the sliced potatoes.

Simmer.

After about 10 minutes, add the tomatoes and sprinkle the stock cubes all over.

Let it simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Served as a runny stew, with crusty bread.

Kent Twice Laid

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Kent Twice Laid

An interestingly named egg savoury snack from Kent. Similar to modern fish cakes, this was once a way of using up leftover fish.

Serves 4

300g white fish

300ml milk

350g mashed potatoes

2 eggs, hard boiled

1 egg for dipping

100g fresh wholemeal

breadcrumbs

pinch of ground black pepper

Poach the fish in milk. When the fish is cooked, using a slotted spoon remove it from the pan (reserve the milk for later). Carefully remove and discard any bones or skin from the white fish fillets.

In a bowl flake the fish and mix in the mashed potatoes. Add a little of the reserved milk to the mixture to help it bind together.

Shell the hard boiled eggs and chop. Gently stir into fish mixture.

Add pepper to taste and divide the mixture into 8 balls.

Dip into the beaten egg, roll in breadcrumbs and oven bake until crisp and golden.

Kentish Well Pudding (Kentish Puddle Pudding)

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Kentish Well Pudding (Kentish Puddle Pudding)

 

The very similar Sussex and Kentish puddings are distinguished by the addition of either a whole lemon or dried fruit to the butter centre, respectively. 

This recipe is from Eliza Acton's "Modern Cookery for Private Families", 1845.

"Make into a smooth paste, with cold water, one pound of flour, six ounces of finely-minced beef-suet, three quarters of a pound of currants, and a small pinch of salt, thoroughly mixed together. 

Form into a ball six ounces of good butter, and enclose it securely in about a third of the paste (rolled to half an inch thickness), in the same way that apple-dumpling is made; roll out the remainder of the paste, and place the poprtion containing the butter in the centre of it, with the part where the edge was drawn together turned downwards: gather the outer crust round it, and having well moistened the edge, close it with great care. 

Tie the pudding tightly in a well-floured cloth, and boil it for two hours and a half. It must be dished with caution that it may not break, and a small bit must be cut directly from the top, as in a meat pudding."

Hopscotch

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Hopscotch

This is a traditional Kentish recipe for hop tips (which legends say the Romans brought to Kent 2000 years ago). It's interesting to realize that hopscotch started out as a recipe rather than a children's game. 

Hop plants abound in the hedgerows of Kent but if you can't get growing hop tips this recipe works equally well with young nettle tops.

2 generous handfuls of hop tips (or nettle tops)

2 generous handfuls of young dandelion leaves (young leaves are less bitter)

240g smoked streaky bacon

220g button mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, chopped

butter for frying

salt and black pepper, to taste

nutmeg, to taste

2 tbsp lemon juice

Thoroughly wash the leaves then drain in a colander.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan over low heat and use to cook the onion gently for about 6 minutes before stirring-in the hops and dandelion leaves.

Stir to coat in butter then cover and and allow to steam gently for about five minutes, or until just wilted.

Add the lemon juice and season with salt, black pepper and nutmeg then transfer to a warmed serving dish, cover and set aside to keep warm.

Fry the bacon in a pan for a few minutes then add the mushrooms and cook for about 6 minutes, or until soft. Transfer the greens to a warmed plate, arrange the bacon and mushrooms on top then serve.

Kentish Cherry Batter Pudding - version II

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Kentish Cherry Batter Pudding  - version II

 
125g stoned Kentish cherries
1 duck egg (a large hen’s egg will work just as well)
30g caster sugar
20g plain flour, sifted
50ml double cream
50ml milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
grated zest of half a lemon

sieved icing sugar, for dredging
more cream for serving

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl (using an electric whisk, if possible, for best results), until pale and creamy.

Tip in the flour, whisk again, and then stir in the cream, milk, vanilla extract (and lemon zest, if using). Leave the mixture to rest briefly.

Lightly grease a small baking dish with melted butter. Arrange the cherries in the dish, and then pour over the batter. Bake for about 25 minutes, until it’s firm all the way through, and lightly golden on top.

Remove from the oven. Dredge with icing sugar to finish, and serve with lashings of cool cream. Serve hot or warm.

Kentish Cherry Batter Pudding - version I

We haven't yet tried this recipe. But we'd love to hear about it if you do.

Kentish Cherry Batter Pudding - version I

 

A recipe that was apparently brought to England by the Normans (although they failed to conquer Kent hence the county motto 'Invicta'). Akin to many puddings, it is made with ground cereals (wheat flour and corn flour), sunflower oil, eggs, milk, and of course, cherries and apple juice. Cherries are a traditional ingredient for many Kentish desserts. Use the very best of the crop for this luscious pudding:

4oz (113 grams) plain flour
1 medium egg
Half a pint (236 grams) of milk
Pinch of salt
12oz (340 grams) fresh cherries, stoned
6oz (177 grams) apple juice
2oz (56 grams) sugar
2 teaspoons of cornflour or arrowroot
A little sunflower oil

Mix up a batter by beating the egg into the flour and salt and gradually adding the milk.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 7, 425 deg F, 220 deg C.
Oil some Yorkshire pudding tins and preheat in the oven.
When the oil is smoky, pour the batter into the tin. (Either a four ring large tin, or a twelve ring smaller tin).
Cook for about 30 mins until well risen and puffy.
Bring the apple juice to the boil in a pan, then add the cherries and the sugar.
Mix the cornflour with a little cold water and add to the pan stirring thoroughly. Cook for five minutes.
Serve the batter puddings with a big dollop of the fruit inside and with a little cream.