Paul broached the subject of parkin the other day. He'd come across the James Martin parkin-and-rhubarb recipe and thought it looked interesting. It'd been many years since I made parkin, and the only recipe I had was so laden with black treacle (and not much else) that it was unpleasantly aniseed-y, and I'd never re-made it.
Doing a quick search for the recipe Paul had seen turned up several related versions by James Martin himself, and that led me to look for a few more to see what (if anything) they had in common - as they all varied a lot from the recipe I had (in Hamlyn's New All-Colour Cookbook). There was some interesting info to be gleaned along the way.
My dad's family came from Lancashire. When I first heard reference to parkin (in the Fivepenny Piece song "Stalybridge Wakes") and asked my dad about it, he told me it was a dark type of gingerbread. Not much more information was forthcoming, so I do wonder if my grannie made it much, if at all; her apple pies, rice pudding and 2-3-4 cakes had already gone into family folklore. According to what I can find online, the Hamlyn's recipe is more like Yorkshire parkin although, according to Effie Perine on Mumsnet (and a few others), the real thing should be made with lard, bicarb and vinegar, and no eggs. Lancashire parkin is paler, with egg and more golden syrup. Having done the research, it seems that James Martin's version is a slightly chewier gingerbread rather than Yorkshire parkin proper.
After all this, I ended up with several recipes, all with varying amounts of varying ingredients. I picked out what sounded good, averaged out amounts of ingredients, and headed to the cooker. It turned out remarkably well (and that's out of the pan; I don't know what it'll be like if it improves with keeping, but I suspect it won't last long enough for me to find out), although it could've done with a bit more ginger. The small amount of black treacle in the recipe is due to me running out. The lack of treacle and thirstiness of rolled oats meant I added a bit more milk. The dark brown sugar means the treacle-y taste comes through, but it's not overly sweet. It's also surprisingly light (at this early stage), which I'm putting down to the bicarb and vinegar.
Ingredients
2 oz lard
3 oz butter
1 oz black treacle (was going to use 3 oz, but didn't have any more!)
6 oz golden syrup
4 oz dark brown soft sugar
6 oz plain flour
6 oz rolled oats (the chunky sort; I used Jordan's but Scott's would do just as well)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1-2 tsp vinegar
6 fluid oz milk
Butter (and, ideally, line) an 8" or 9" square cake tin.
Put oven on to pre-heat, gas mark 3 (325F, 170C, 150C fan-assisted).
Put lard, butter, black treacle and golden syrup into a pan over a low heat. Warm through until the fats have melted, but do not boil.
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, oats and spices. Make a well in the centre.
Pour the syrup mixture into the centre, the put the milk into the pan and put back on the heat (this is just to dissolve the last of the syrup into the milk. Waste not, want not.)
Before stirring, drop the teaspoon of bicarb into the mixture. Then pour in 1 or 2 teaspoons of vinegar and watch it fizz merrily.
Pour in the milk, and stir well. It will be a very loose, battery mixture. Pour into the prepared tin, and bake for one hour. Allow to cool in the pan before turning out.
According to many sources, once cool the parkin should be divided into two, well wrapped into greaseproof paper and stored in an airtight tin for a week before eating. As one commentator remarks, "if you can get it off your teeth in less than 10 minutes, it's too young".
This will definitely get made again, but I'll tweak it with a bit more treacle. If I remember rightly, my sister has our Lancashire grannie's old cookery book; I do wonder if there's a parkin recipe in there. I suspect there is, even if she didn't make it often. It'd be interesting to ring the changes with that, having now made parkin in the Yorkshire style.
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