Which ones have you tried?
As Mr Jingle in Charles Dickens' first novel The Pickwick Papers (1836) famously said: "Kent, sir - everybody knows Kent - apples, cherries, hops and women"!
For centuries Kent has been known as the Garden of England, and with good reason. The county, located at the sunny southeastern tip of the British Isles, has lush fertile farming and grazing land, acres of orchards, and a coastline teeming with sea life. Its location makes Kent a rich source of such a rich variety of produce.
Apart from the above apples, cherries and hops (ignoring Mr Jingle's final highlight!), did you know some of the best-loved British foods also originate in Kent? It should be no surprise that our beautiful county produces a delicious array of well-know culinary delights...
Here's a selection of some of the best of Kent’s traditional foods which, we hope you'll agree, provides a wonderful showcase for the glorious Garden of England.
Gypsy Tart
Probably the most iconic (and possibly the most divisive) of Kent's traditional foods, is the Gypsy Tart. It was supposedly first made in East Kent by a local lady who threw together some ingredients from her pantry for some hungry gypsy children. This creamy rich indulgent tart with a caramel flavour has just three ingredients: a sweet pie crust, evaporated milk, and brown sugar. It has become a nostalgic favourite here in Kent. Ask any local about it, and they'll probably wax lyrical about devouring a slice or two to round off their school dinners!
Gypsy Tart is still made today and can be found throughout Kent in local bakeries as well as on some dessert menus. If you fancy having a go at home, why not try the Gypsy Tart recipe from The Corner House in Canterbury?
Appledore Chicken Pie
Appledore Chicken Pie is another favourite Kentish school dinner dish.
The pretty village of Appledore is located on the edge of the Romney Marshes, and is a former river port that saw multiple invasions from the Danes and the French over the centuries. Thank to its rich history, dishes like Appledore Chicken Pie were born.
The pie is a warming dish mainly enjoyed in the winter months. It contains chicken and hard-boiled eggs in a creamy herbed bacon sauce under a shortcrust lid. There's a traditional recipe for the Appledore Chicken pie in the Take One Cookbook blog.
Huffkins
Every region in the UK has its own variation on the bread roll. In Kent, it's the Huffkin, notable for the indentation in the middle made by the baker’s thumb. Legend says that a baker’s wife was furious with her husband one day and stuck her thumb in every one of his bread rolls before baking to spoil them. She then challenged him to sell the spoiled goods, which he did, and they sold like proverbial hot cakes!
A small amount of lard is used in the slow-rise dough, which results in a fluffy crumb and a golden crust. It's recommended that these rolls are wrapped in a cloth to store, so the crust doesn't harden.
Huffkins continue as a traditional Kent delicacy to this day, and can still be found in some of Kent’s local bakeries and are regarded by many as a delicacy. They're usually enjoyed for breakfast or lunch filled with bacon, although locals will also fill the indentation with a fresh local cherries, a spoonful of jam, and a dollop of whipped cream at tea time. You can find out more about Kentish Huffkins in the Taste Atlas.
Canterbury Tart
Kent is well-known for its apple production with orchards that used to sweep across the county - 25,000 acres in total! Apples are still widely grown in Kent to this day, as visitors to Hawthorn Farm Cottages can attest...
A Canterbury Tart is an open apple tart similar to a French "galette". It has a grated apple and lemon filling, and is decorated with sliced apples on the top. The recipe includes both eating and cooking apples, grown in orchards throughout Kent. The tart is such a crowd-pleaser that even Mary Berry has a recipe for the Kentish classic!
The origin of the name of the pudding is unknown, but some say it could be inspired by the Canterbury Tales, in which Geoffrey Chaucer made the first mention of an apple pie. In Chaucer’s time, Canterbury was a popular destination for religious pilgrims and some of the earliest known recipes for apple pie date back to then. The modern Canterbury apple pie is most likely an adaptation of those early recipes. If you want to follow the medieval traditions, add saffron for a rich golden colour.
Kentish Cherry Batter Pudding
The Kentish cherry batter pudding is similar to the French dessert, cherry "clafoutis". It is made by adding cherries to a thick batter and baking in the oven. The cherry batter pudding originated in Kent because of the abundance of cherries from the tens of thousands of acres of cherry orchards planted on King Henry VIII's order. Today, a much smaller number of cherry orchards exist, but the Kentish cherry batter pudding remains in recipe books across the country.
There's a recipe for traditional Kentish Cherry Batter Pudding on the missfoodwise blog.
Cobnut Cake
According to the Kentish Cobnuts Association, cobnuts are a "cultivated variety of hazelnut" and were extremely popular in Kent with over 7,000 acres of cobnut orchards in 1913. Although significantly fewer orchards remain today, cobnuts are making something of a comeback.
Cobnuts are used in many ways, including roasting them and mixing them with ginger or apples to make delicious crumbly, nutty cakes. Roasting the cobnuts before adding them to dishes brings out their distinctive flavour.
There's a delicious recipe for cobnut and apple loaf cake on the BBC Good Food website.
Kentish Pudding Pie
Originating in Folkestone, the Kentish Pudding Pie is sometimes called a Kent Lent, a Kentish Lenten Pie, or a Folkestone Pudding Pie and it can be found throughout the county.
It's a baked custard tart has a similar texture to a cheesecake, with a "pudding" filling of milk thickened with ground rice and flavoured with lemon, nutmeg or bay leaves, and dotted with raisins or currants - often soaked in sherry or brandy. Historians believe it originated as a meal for the Lent period.
You can find a recipe for Kentish Pudding Pie on the Nostalgic Recipes website.
Kentish Rarebit
Kentish Rarebit is based on the Welsh Rarebit but is made with locally grown apples. This snack was originally enjoyed by fruit pickers in Kent's orchards during the 20th century and is still popular today.
Kentish Rarebit is easily made by mixing cheese and sliced apple, before layering on bread and grilling. It can be made with a Kentish huffkin for a doubly traditional treat.
Biddenden Cakes
The town of Biddenden's sign depicts the twins, Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst, who lived in the village during the early 12th century. The two women were conjoined twins, said to have been joined at the hip and shoulder. When they died at the age of 34, they bequeathed land called the "Bread and Cheese Lands", with the annual income paying for food and drink for the poor, which was distributed every Easter.
Biddenden cakes are simple, hard biscuits made with flour and water in a mould that depicts the sisters. These cakes are still traditionally distributed around Biddenden and the surrounding area during Easter, and also sold to tourists.
Sandwiches
The humble sandwich is thought to have been named after Lord John Montague, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. Lord Montague was rumoured to have been a keen gambler and he ordered waiters to bring him meat between 2 slices of bread, so he could continue playing cards rather than break for meals. His friends would watch and order the “same as Sandwich” and thus the sandwich was born!
Kent Is Also Famous For Its
- Ales: Kent is renowned for its hop growing heritage. Hops have been grown in Kent since they were first introduced from the continent in the 1500s. Throughout the late 1800s and the first half of the 20th century, poor families from London’s East End would flock to Kent for a working holiday, escaping the city smog to pick hops. Although hop-picking is now automated, oast houses (traditionally used for drying) still dot the Kent landscape as do plenty of small breweries.
The Shepherd Neame Brewery, the oldest brewery in England, is located in Faversham and has been on the same site since 1698. Spitfire Premium Kentish Ale is the breweries’ biggest selling cask ale and takes its name from the Kentish hops used to make the beer.
Shepherd Neame produce a number of other ales, many with origins from Kent, these include:
- Whitstable Bay collection: ales named after the nearby town of Whitstable.
- Bishop’s Finger: a beer named after a finger-shaped signpost on the Pilgrim’s Way pointing to Canterbury and to Thomas Beckett’s shrine. This ale has EU Protected Geographical indication, which is the same accreditation that the likes of champagne and feta cheese are given.
- Bear Island: this ale takes its name from the island that once sat in the brewery grounds in Faversham Creek. Many strange cargoes arrived at the island including a bear and its keeper! Bear Island is a nod to the breweries’ great trading past and the imports from the USA. -
Oysters: Whitstable oysters are some of the best in the country and can only be found in the sea beds of Whitstable. This famous fishing town is on Kent’s northern coastline, and is renowned for its oysters. The Whitstable Oyster Company can trace its origins back to oyster farming in Kent in the 1400’s - but oysters were in fact originally discovered by the Romans and regarded as a delicacy by Julius Caesar's soldiers who shipped them back live to Rome!.
At one point, the oyster beds at Whitstable were a source of cheap, local food. Now, they're much more of a delicacy, and there’s even an annual Whitstable Oyster Festival every September to honour the town's historic and cultural connection with oysters with events, costumes, music and lots of food!
One traditional way to enjoy oysters is as part of the "Whitstable Dredgerman’s Breakfast". It's not hard to imagine the dredgermen before heading out dredging the salty seas of Whitstable, tucking into their breakfast of bacon and succulent oysters stuffed between two slices of thick toasted bread!
- Cider: There's a long tradition of cider production in Kent, stretching back to the Romans. A 12th-century plan of the garden at Christ Church monastery, Canterbury, includes a pomerium – an apple garden. The tradition of making cider in Kent has been influenced by many factors, including the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses, and the Normans' introduction of tannic apple varieties. Founded by Mark and Serena Henderson in 2007, the Kent Cider Company based in Faversham uses traditional cider-making methods to produce award-winning ciders.
- Strawberries: Kentish strawberries are famous for being the best in the country (but we would say that, wouldn't we?!) They owe their great taste to the fertile soil and temperate Kentish climate. Local strawberries are so delicious that the Hugh Lowe Farms in Mereworth have been a trusted supplier at the Wimbledon Championships for a quarter of a century!
- Oils: Kent has a history of oil mills, oil seed mills, and companies that produce oils and fats. Kent Foods Limited is a private limited company that supplies edible oils and fats, dairy products, and eggs, and Kentish Oils produces an award-winning range of rapeseed oils made from specially selected seeds grown in Kent, as well as a range of local Kent Crisps.
- Dover Sole: The stretch of the English Channel between Kent and France has long been a fertile fishing ground. Dover sole is one of the flat fish that are plentiful in this area and extremely popular on many a dinner plate! They are often served grilled or fried with a lemon garnish and some locally-grown potatoes.
Plan Your Next Trip to Savour the Tastes of Kent Today
If local cuisine is your thing, then you’ll definitely enjoy tracking down some traditional Kentish foods when you come to visit the area!