Panaculty

Panaculty is a dish originating from the North of England. The recipe varies a little from region to region but the basic ingredients and method are very similar.

Recipe

This recipe is an approximation of a recipe for this dish as the variations come from modification of the main ingredients. To make Panaculty, you will need:-

* 1 tin Corned Beef, cubed
* A couple of medium potatoes
* 1 or 2 onions
* 2 beef stock cubes

Peel, wash and slice the potatoes about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch thick.Peel, wash and dice the onions.

Place the potatoes into a heavy pan on the cooker. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for around 15 minutes. In a separate pan, very gently fry the onions until soft but not brown. Add the onions to the potatoes, crumble in the stock cubes and stir well until the cubes are dissolved. Dice the Corned Beef into cubes and add to the mix. Simmer slowly until potatoes are fully cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The dish is a hearty stew/soup type dish which works best served with bread. This again is quite regional (and perhaps quite a personal taste too) as some prefer old, almost stale, plain bread with the dish whilst others prefer soft bread, buttered.

Panaculty is often recalled fondly by Northerners in the United Kingdom and is not a popular dish in the South. A variation known as Panaggy is made in some parts of the north, which uses much the same ingredients (with the addition of bacon) but is made into a kind of cottage pie. It is also sometimes confused with a similar sounding dish more localised to the Tyneside area of North East England called Pan Haggerty. This is an altogether different dish made in a frying pan using thin layers of potato, onion and cheese.

A version of Panaculty from Durham seems to be a mixture of the two. In an oven proof dish, layer potatoes, onions, fatty bacon pieces, potatoes, onions, corned beef, and top with potatoes. Pour over chicken stock to just below top layer. Cook in a medium oven for a couple of hours until bubbly and golden. Fantastic. Note: the chicken stock gives a lighter colour (and taste) than the photos here, and there is no need to add salt, but pepper on the potato layers helps.