Author Topic: Off topic - Fat Rascals history  (Read 9709 times)

Offline bugbear

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Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« on: Tuesday 12 December 17 11:54 GMT (UK) »
I was recently in York and bought some yummy fat rascals from Bettys.

Very nice.

I then googled it, and found "the controversy". Short version - despite "Fat Rascals" being a long standing Yorkshire thing, Bettys (somehow) got a trademark on the name in the 1980's.

So I wondered what the oldest:

a) reference
b) recipe

that a bunch of genealogists AKA family historians AKA social historians could find was.

I'll start with this reference, from the web:

http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/fatrascals.htm

The origin of the name is obscure, it is known in this context at least since the 1855 'Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood' of 1855 where the definition of 'Spice Cake' is given as; "tea cakes with currants as well as cakes more generally, known as plum cakes for which this quarter is famous. The tea cakes made rich with butter and cream are called fat rascals."


For a recipe, I offer  The Cornish Telegraph - Thursday 10 October 1889, from the BNArchive (attached).

   BugBear
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Offline Bee

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Re: Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 12 December 17 11:58 GMT (UK) »
I'm East Yorkshire born & bred and until very recently had never heard of a "fat rascal"
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Online nanny jan

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Re: Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 12 December 17 12:05 GMT (UK) »

This Londoner (but with connections to Yorkshire) is rather partial to a Fat Rascal..... :)
Howard , Viney , Kingsman, Pain/e, Rainer/ Rayner, Barham, George, Wakeling (Catherine), Vicary (Frederick)   all LDN area/suburbs  Ottley/ MDX,
Henman/ KNT   Gandy/LDN before 1830  Burgess/LDN
Barham/SFK   Rainer/CAN (Toronto) Gillians/CAN  Sturgeon/CAN (Vancouver)
Bailey/LDN Page/KNT   Paling/WA (var)



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Offline bugbear

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Re: Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 12 December 17 12:11 GMT (UK) »
All the recipes I've found on the "modern" 'net appear to be trying to duplicate the Betty's version, which is very much richer than the pre 1960 recipes I've found.

 BugBear
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Online nanny jan

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Re: Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday 12 December 17 12:20 GMT (UK) »
I've just found a recipe for Fat Rascals in " May Byron's Cake Book"  published in 1915!

I am sure the one I bought in Haworth some years ago had a glace cherry on it but perhaps that's a modern "twist".
Howard , Viney , Kingsman, Pain/e, Rainer/ Rayner, Barham, George, Wakeling (Catherine), Vicary (Frederick)   all LDN area/suburbs  Ottley/ MDX,
Henman/ KNT   Gandy/LDN before 1830  Burgess/LDN
Barham/SFK   Rainer/CAN (Toronto) Gillians/CAN  Sturgeon/CAN (Vancouver)
Bailey/LDN Page/KNT   Paling/WA (var)



All census look-ups are crown copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline bugbear

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Re: Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 12 December 17 12:21 GMT (UK) »
This from the BNArchive:  Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Tuesday 18 January 1944
(15 years ago would be 1929). Anyone got this wonderful WI recipe book?

  BugBear
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Offline bugbear

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Re: Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday 12 December 17 12:24 GMT (UK) »
I've just found a recipe for Fat Rascals in " May Byron's Cake Book"  published in 1915!

I am sure the one I bought in Haworth some years ago had a glace cherry on it but perhaps that's a modern "twist".
Could you post the recipe? Where is the book from?

(google says this is the author:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Byron
)

 BugBear
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Online nanny jan

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Re: Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday 12 December 17 12:29 GMT (UK) »
I've had the book for years....tend to pick them up in charity shops, jumble sales etc; have a small shelf full of old recipe books.....one even includes a recipe for......a jam sandwich!!  ::)

Take half a pound of flour, three ounces of butter or good margarine, four ounces of granulated sugar, four ounces of sultanas, about one saltspoonful of mixed spice and one teaspoonful of baking powder. Mix thoroughly, moisten with a little milk and one beaten egg, and bake in small shaped or fluted patty-pans.

That's it....no time or oven temp.

Feeling hungry now....   ;D
Howard , Viney , Kingsman, Pain/e, Rainer/ Rayner, Barham, George, Wakeling (Catherine), Vicary (Frederick)   all LDN area/suburbs  Ottley/ MDX,
Henman/ KNT   Gandy/LDN before 1830  Burgess/LDN
Barham/SFK   Rainer/CAN (Toronto) Gillians/CAN  Sturgeon/CAN (Vancouver)
Bailey/LDN Page/KNT   Paling/WA (var)



All census look-ups are crown copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Online KGarrad

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Re: Off topic - Fat Rascals history
« Reply #8 on: Tuesday 12 December 17 12:49 GMT (UK) »
Found this reference on a Jamie Oliver website:

The origin of the name isn’t as derogatory towards the buyer as it sounds – and the bun has a clever history. Allegedly it was dreamt up in Elizabethan times by thrifty bakers who didn’t want to waste leftover bits of dough at the end of their shift. These dough scraps were souped-up by the addition of spices and candied or dried fruit – the more exotic of which were considered luxury goods in the 1800s.

Several literary mentions of the fat rascal (some referring to the bun, and some probably not) include Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Charles Dickens’ Household Words magazine, and the 1855 “Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases”, which I could have done with a copy of on my visit.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/news-and-features/features/fat-rascals-of-yorkshire/
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