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1. Introduction

In the watercolour paintings of George Walker of Killingbeck, Yorkshire women were portrayed working in their homes spinning, winding wool and making oatcakes. Some of the weavers' cottages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries had gardens where vegetables would be grown or a pig kept, and the women of the household would have been responsible for the preparation of much of the food consumed by the family.

2. Oatcakes

The mainstay of the family's diet during this period was oatmeal porridge and oatcakes. The latter was made by stirring oatmeal into a tub of water or buttermilk and allowed to ferment overnight with the addition of added yeast or sourdough. It was then baked on a stone hotplate called a "baxton" and stored dry and crisp on a "creel" suspended from the ceiling above the fireplace.

3. Beef

J.E. Thomas's Housewife's Guide, published in Leeds in 1830, reveals that oatcakes were usually served with broth made from boiled beef or mutton. In later days Yorkshire weavers roasted their beef before the fire for their dinners, the juices dropping on to the Yorkshire pudding resting before the fire in its dripping-tin.

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