Culture of Yorkshire - Food and Drink

Food and Drink

The cuisine of Yorkshire and that of northern England in general is known for its rich ingredients, especially in sweet dishes. Below is a list of foods which either originated from Yorkshire or are strongly associated with it.

• Yorkshire pudding - far and away the most well known element of Yorkshire food, it is commonly served with roast beef and vegetables to form part of the standard Sunday roast, which itself grew from the county. It is created from batter and in most cases that it is eaten, the dish includes gravy.
• Yorkshire curd tart - a curd tart recipe which has been around since at least the 1750s, unique because of its use of rosewater.
• Parkin - a sweet ginger cake which is different from standard ginger cakes in that it includes oatmeal and treacle as part of the traditional recipe.
• Gingerbread, one unusual form of gingerbread from Yorkshire has a layer of crystallised ginger in the middle, rather than an essence of ginger or ginger shavings.
• Liquorice sweet - the plant was thought to have been brought over to Yorkshire by returning Crusaders or Dominican monks in the 14th century. It became synonymous with Pontefract in Yorkshire as local man, George Dunhill, in the 1760s thought to mix it with sugar, creating what was known locally as "Pomfret cakes", but is now well known as just liquorice. As liquorice requires deep soil to grow Pontefract was largely unique in growing it in the area, although no longer grown in the area, Pontefract has two large confectionery factories as a legacy.
• Wensleydale cheese - a cheese associated with Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, the local pastures give the cheese the unique flavour for which it is renowned
• Ginger beer - a beverage flavoured with ginger, it has existed since the mid-1700s.
• Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle - Rhubarb from the 'Rhubarb Triangle' is a 9-square-mile (23 km2) triangle in West Yorkshire, located between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell famous for producing early forced rhubarb by candlelight. In February 2010, Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb was awarded Protected Designation of Origin status by the European Commission’s Protected Food Name scheme after being recommended by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (Defra).

From the 1700s onwards, Yorkshire, and in particular the city of York, saw the growth of several chocolate factories or companies, forming an important part of the confectionery industry and now with globally known products. These include:

• Rowntree's (York) - invented Kit Kat, Smarties, Aero, Fruit Pastilles, Black Magic and Polo.
• Terry's (York) - invented Terry's Chocolate Orange, York Fruits, Neapolitans and Terry's All Gold.
• Thorntons (Sheffield) - involved in the field of luxury chocolate such as elaborate truffles.

Yorkshire is also a historic centre for the brewing of beer, with breweries such as Tetley's, John Smith's, Sam Smith's, Black Sheep, Theakston, Timothy Taylor, Copper Dragon and many more.