Lob Scouse
by Gareth Hughes

My favorite food has always had something of a mystery associated with it, I grew up on the Northern coast of Wales, in the nineteen fifties. The weather was (and is) almost always cold and chilling. When we were called in for dinner it was always a treat to be fed steaming bowls of stew that my mother and all my peers called; "Lob Scaws". The fact that the name seemed strange never aroused any interest in me. I always presumed it was a Welsh name. I could converse with my peers in Welsh, but I only had a superficial knowledge of the language. As I grew older and expanded my horizons I found out that natives of Liverpool were known as "scousers" which is a similar pronunciation to the Welsh "scaws". I ascribed this to the fact that many children from Liverpool had been moved to Wales during the Blitz of World War II, and I presumed that they had taken this culinary gem home with them.

Many years later, I was sailing in the Caribbean and was invited to dinner with some people from Hamburg, Germany. The meal was something that they described as a dish peculiar to their part of Germany and it was called "Lob Scouse". A fellow dinner guest who was Austrian, insisted that the dish was in fact Austrian. The dishes they made and described were essentially the same as my own humble stew.

Later still, I was sailing on an Italian schooner, we were passage making, and having read every book in English on the boat (including the repair manuals for the head), I was reduced to reading the Swedish cook's Norwegian cookbook. There it was in black and white, a recipe for a humble hearty stew called "Lapskaus". I showed it to Theresa the cook and she explained that Lapskaus was a direct translation of Meat stew in Norwegian.

I now live in New England and what do you know? I was fed a dish called "New England Boiled Dinner", apparently a favorite amongst schoonermen. Once again it fits the parameters of Lob Saws. New England boiled dinner may be the most authentic because it's meat base has to be some kind of preserved meat, usually corned beef.

My conclusion is that this hearty, simple and satisfying meal was probably a popular meal on board trading vessels in the nineteenth century. It easy to imagine sailors congregating around a galley (and possibly the Norwegian cook) as this stew simmers, because like the proverbial New England wood pile, it warms you more than once. It warms you as it is being prepared, the bowl warms your hands and the aroma warms your very soul. It must have been popularized by some long forgotten Norwegian cook, and made it's way to the slate quays of Wales, Liverpool dock, the port of Hamburg and the coast of Maine.

I have actually cooked this meal on a coal stove aboard a schooner at Thanksgiving. The steam from the cooking pot added the turbo' power to the heat from the coal stove, finally making the cabin warm enough to promote amiable conversation and that feeling that the Germans call Gemutlichkeit.

I am fascinated by what language scholars call seagoing English. No, I don't mean the "son of a gun" and "between the devil and the deep blue sea" stuff, but the words garnered from diverse languages that managed to survive the melting pot of diverse tongues that a sailing ship must have been. Lapskaus must have been one of these words.

My mother's recipe call for neck of lamb. This happens to be the cheapest cut of meat in North Wales. On board ship it was probably made with salt beef or pork (ham) or even fish. If made close to meat preserving facilities, I would recommend stewing beef. The other ingredients that are used are all either long lasting root vegetables or grains. The sorts of ingredients that could be stored on board (at least in northern climes) for at least a month.

Lapskaus deserves to take it's rightful place; head and shoulders above Skillagalee and Burgoo. The fact that it is served and enjoyed, to my knowledge all around the North Atlantic, is testament enough to it's popularity and wholesomeness. It is such a folk meal that it is not found in recipe books.

Here then is the recipe, all measures are extremely approximate. The only hard and fast rules for my recipe is that it should contain meat, rutabega, onions and pepper (the spice).

• One pound of stewing beef
• One large onion
• 1/4 Rutabaga (I despise rutabaga, this recipe will not work without it)
• One pound of potatoes
• one pound of carrots
• Two Green Peppers
• Two cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup of barley or lentils
• Salt to taste, and twice as much black pepper as you would think prudent.
• optional ingredients
• Mushrooms
• Cabbage
• Brussels Sprouts
• Beets
• Any vegetable or left over

Cut everything into cubes, sear the meat onions and garlic, add all the barley and three quarters of everything else. Cover with water and simmer for at least one and a half hours. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for an additional half hour. ENJOY.

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