When it comes to local recipes, there’s always debates around who’s is right. Spain has Paella, France has regional stews and the North East of England has Panacalty. The recipe differs from town to town, with ingredients varying depending on who you ask.
There’s even debate on how it’s spelled, with people arguing between panacalty, panaculty, panackerty ‘”panaggie'” or panack. It also often confused with another local recipe for Pan Haggerty, which uses very similar ingredients.
But within the different recipes, there are elements that remain consistent throughout and that’s what we’re working with. Potatoes, onions, corned beef, and bacon are some of the most commonly used Panacalty ingredients and that’s what we’re sticking with.
This recipe is super easy and involved layering thinly slice potatoes and whatever other ingredients you want to include. This is a traditional North East dish and the reason recipes vary so much is it was traditionally made with whatever was in the cupboard!
In mining communities and times of war, the dish was a great way to utilize whatever vegetables and meat you had lying around. It’s a proper winter warmer and easy to see why it’s so popular across the region.
Panacalty Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg Thinly sliced potatoes
- 2 White onions
- 180 g Smoked bacon lardons
- 680 g Corned Beef (2 tins)
- 225 ml Beef gravy
- 225 ml Beef stock
- 1 Beef stock cube
Instructions
- Layer a third of the sliced potatoes, overlapping slightly, to cover your dish.
- Add a third of the onions, bacon and corned beef.
- Repeat 2 more times, creating 3 layers in total.
- Mix together the beef stock and gravy and pour over the top.
- Crush the beef stock cubs and sprinkle over the top to help brown the potatoes. Add salt and pepper to season.
- Cover and cook for 50 minutes at 180°C. Uncover and cook under grill for 10 additional minutes watching it carefully.
Should/could you brown off the onions first?
You can brown the onions if you like, however, we found it was fine without.
Should I Parboil the potato slices first?
You can if you like! It will bring the oven cook time down 🙂
leave the potatoes sliced in boiling water for a half an hour before popping them on top.
in Bishop Auckland, my Mothers Panacalty also had seasonal root veg and pulses. This ensured a daylong internal source of energy keeping the body warm on those days back in the 60’s when snow fell up to six feet. Oh…we also had the boiling mixture topped off with cheese and herb suet dumplings!!!!
I remember my Dad using Black Pudding and Sausage in our Panackelty – thinking we may have been posh!!!! I am a private Chef now and just moved to North Yorkshire to reinvestigate northern food for a cookbook…
The beauty about this dish is that you just layer everything into the dish at the same time. No need to faff about parboiling potatoes or browning off the onions. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar into the gravy before you pour it in This really does enhance the wonderful flavour.