This recipe comes courtesy of Lucy B. Morland, my great-grandmother’s first cousin. I’m really going to have to put a family tree up here at some point – I’m beginning to confuse myself!

Dripping - breakfast of champions

Soak two breakfast cups of lentils in warm water for two hours, having previously washed them; drain off the water and place soaked lentils with six onions in a covered pot in the oven, nearly cover with warm water and put in two tablespoons of dripping or lard on the top, or a piece of fat bacon. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake till nice and soft, about two hours in a medium oven, serve in the pot. They need no attention while cooking except to add a little more fat if they get too dry.

We chose this one because we both like lentils and it sounded like a hearty, if a little austere, dish for a blustery evening.

I wasnt sure what lentils to use so I plumped for the green variety in the end. I didn’t bother to soak them because the pack indicated it wasnt necessary. I was all set to use lard but I was surprised to find dripping in the supermarket.

All done!

To be honest, it didnt look very appetising when it went in the oven – I’m not sure about dripping as an ingredient in general but here it looked like a couple of bits of soap floating on a bucket of murky water. Oh well…

After two hours, we took it out and…. it was terrible! The lentils had absorbed most of the oniony water but were more-or-less entirely flavourless. Perhaps if we’d used stock instead, with a few herbs it would have worked. I don’t think the dripping added much either – maybe some nice fatty pancetta would have been preferable. I’m sure the recipe’s got potential. Maybe we’ll have another go at some point.