With the help of Twitter, my recollections and a little bit of research I have put together a collection of Northern Food Words, food related vocabulary from the North of England, Yorkshire and Lancashire mainly, my favourite being Brossen or Brussen meaning full to bursting from over eating….
What are your favourites? or any you heard Mum, Dad, Gran, Grandad say in the past…. possibly just regional food terms like teacake, bap, bun, bread cake, barm please comment below or let me know and I will add them here..
Anything relating to Flat Caps, Greyhounds, Whippets & Ferrets does NOT count (that was for the Southerners! and to avoid any confusion!)
- Apeth – meaning a halfpenny of sweets
- Baggin – packed lunch
- Bait – as in “Bait Box” meaning packed lunch, sandwich box or snack
- Beeroff – off licence
- Bleggin – or I’s off bleggin – to go and forage blackberries
- Brew – pot or cup of tea
- Brossen or Brussen – “oh I’m reet brossen” meaning full to bursting from over eating, term of satisfaction after a good meal
- Buttie – sandwich
- Cake’ole – meaning mouth
- Char – “fancy a cuppa char”, meaning a cup of Tea
- Chip ‘ole/Chippie – fish & chip shop
- Chuddy – chewing gum
- Clem or Clemmed (see Klempt) to starve, starving hungry
- Codole – see Chip hole
- Drinking – “were oft for’t drinking”, meaning going for tea & biscuits
- Dripping – Beef Lard
- Eating irons – knife & fork
- Famished – Hungry
- Fishcake – usually 2 slices of potato with white fish filling, battered from a Chipie
- Gaspin – thirsty
- Gip – to retch or be sick
- Goosegogs: Gooseberries
- Growler – Pork pie
- Guzzle – meaning eat greedily
- Hotpot – as in Lancashire Hotpot does this count or is it just a regional dish?
- Kali – meaning sherbert
- Klempt – “I’m nearly klempt to death” meaning starving, hungry
- Lowence or Looances – a snack while working, especially for farmers.
- Mash – “mash the tea” meaning brew the tea or mashin the tea
- Mucky Dripping – lard with browned meat & fat bits usually from a roasting tin
- Nosh – Food or to Eat
- Parkin – ginger cake with oatmeal
- Pikelet – crumpet
- Pogged Out – meaning full (see brossen)
- Pop – as in fizzy soft drinks
- Potted Meat/Potted Beef – meat pate or sandwich spread
- Put you on – as in “have a buttie to put you on” a snack to keep you going until teatime
- Sarnie – sandwich
- Scran – general term for food
- Scraps – from a fish & chip shop the bits of batter that fall off the fish, “a bag o chips we scraps”
- Skeel – a Milk Pail
- Snap – meaning packed lunch
- Snap Box – Lunch Box
- Spanish – another word for liquorice as in Spanish Liquorice
- Spew – vomit, to be sick
- Spice – meaning sweets
- Spoggs – Sweets
- Sup – “to sup your tea” meaning to drink
- Tatie Scrattin – Potato picking
- Teacake, Bap, Barm, Bun, bread cake, oven bottom cake – all regional variations on a small usually white bread teacake
- Watter – Water
A few Scottish words:-
- Pieces – meaning sandwiches
- Messages – meaning shopping list
Please either comment below or Tweet with the HashTag #NorthernFoodWords to me @cwildman
Yorkshire Dales Food 
Potted Meat butties – used to love these as a kid. Although my ever to do well mother now flatty denies we ever had potted meat growing up. Anyone remember peeling back the white grease proof paper on top of the pot and seeing the white (I assume to be fat) around the edges? We used to avoid this bit as it was poison. Great days!
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Recently had a long “Kel or chat” with a mate about this Scone for a Fishcake thing now I am a Yorkshireman born n bred in the West Riding in the Aire Valley and never did use the word scone but my friend insisted it was used localy? We even went to the local chippy to av a “”gander look” at their price list and partake of some fish n chips, No scone on the list just fishcake and a bit of a confused look from the lass behind the servery when asked for a scone butty? Now this friend was raised in Lancashire “not his fault” and I’m thinking maybe this is a memmory he brought with him over the border?
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Daft Apeth! Often called this by my granny! Sprogs very young children or babies Snickets and ginnels short narrow pathways from one place to another!
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No no no, scone is a Keighley thing. We are rather close to the western boarder but certainly a Yorkshire thing….. In fact it’s the scone/fish cake discussion that had brought me to this very page after ordering a scone over Bradford way to a slightly confused lass who offered me a scollop instead
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Not sure Whether Cumbria counts – but here something they call an apple plate cake is just simply an apple pie – no cake whatsoever in it
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With reference to Brossen, my grandmother after a really good meal used to say….by gum ars proper black brossen! The insertion of black meant she was even more full than brossen.
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Parched Thirsty
Boits. Boots
Coit. Coat
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In Barnsley if someone was Brussen he was a type of bully
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To have a gander means
To have a look
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Kayli isn’t sherbert ,its spanish , or liquorice to southerners !! or art all kayied up theyre ?? 😉
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