Lohscouse

Scouse – short for lobscouse and an affectionate description of a Liverpudlian as well as of the dish – is a basic sort of meat stew, usually of neck of lamb (scrag end), potatoes, onions and other root vegetables, thickened these days with pearl barley. Originally the stew was based on mutton and thickened with ship’s biscuits, the hard plain water biscuits which also crop up in a classic Boston chowder and are typical of any cooking in areas with strong seafaring connections.

The word lob in dialect means boil, though nobody seems to know where scouse comes from. We published a recipe from a chef who hailed from Liverpool which suggested the stew be finished in the oven like a Lancashire hot-pot. Thirty people wrote incensed by this revisionist nonsense. Whatever meat you use, and this is very much dependent on what is available, scouse is cooked on top of the stove. As a matter of interest, if you can’t afford the meat you make a vegetable stew in the same way and call it blind-scouse.