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The long-forgotten tradition of serving Yorkshire pudding as a starter with a drop of raspberry vinegar is being revived by some of the county’s best chefs, restaurants and Womersley Fruit and Herb Vinegars. They’re calling on chefs across Yorkshire to give the iconic Pudding pride of place on a specially created Starter menu on Yorkshire Day Sunday 1st August.

Andrew Pern from The Star at Harome, James McKenzie from The Pipe and Glass and Tim Bilton , from The Butchers Arms at Hepworth along with many other chefs and restaurants, will be kicking off their Yorkshire Day Sunday lunch with a proper pudding and a splash of Womersley’s handmade Raspberry Vinegar – before the main course – in celebration of this historical combination that has fallen by the culinary wayside.

“We’re asking all Yorkshire dining pubs, restaurants and farm shops to serve up a proper roast on Sunday August 1st with a starter of Yorkshire pudding and red berry vinegar,” says chef Bilton, who remembers eating the delicious concoction as a little boy. “Many people in Yorkshire and the North of England regard serving the puds as ‘part’ of a main course as a thing only southerners do! We’re committed to reaffirming its place as superior starter.”

Long thought of as simply an accompaniment to roast beef, Yorkshire’s most famous food was traditionally served as separate course (poor families ate them as a ‘filler’ – sometimes with mint sauce – before their meager main course), and ‘Yorkshires’ were often served as a dessert, splashed with milk and a liberal dollop of treacle or jam. But most Yorkshiremen (and women!) remember eating them as a starter with raspberry vinegar.

“We’ve been handmaking our Raspberry Vinegar in Yorkshire for more than 30 years and its sumptuous flavour is totally at home cosying up to a batter pudding,” says Womersley’s managing director Rupert Parsons. “Let’s revive this great British tradition and put the ‘pudding’ back into our Yorkshire puddings!”

Top Row from the left – Andrew Pern, James McKenzie, Natalie Talents
Bottom Row from the left – Stephanie Moon, Rupert Parsons, Tim Bilton, Wendy Preston, Andrew Loftus, Andy Annat