Lobscouse: A Blog and It's Origin

Lobscouse? What the hell is that? Is it even a word? Well, yes. Yes it is.

When I was a kid my (dearly departed) grandmother had an ongoing joke:

"What's for dinner?" I would ask.

Her reply was almost always "Lobscouse."

We would always laugh it off, and then she'd tell us what we were really having for dinner. And then she'd ALWAYS explain to us that "Lobscouse" was the childhood answer she'd get from her mother when she would ask that very same question.

Lobscouse Queen planting one on Grandpa's cheek, my wedding day 

So, growing up "Lobscouse" wasn't a real thing. I always pictured it as some Hybrid unicorn-lobster that wouldn't fit into the pot, so it never got cooked. That is until today. I decided to Google it and it turned out to be some sort of Meat Stew sailors used to eat in the 1700's. 

Here's a description of Lobscouse from scouser.com, which is a whole website dedicated to the dish.

Scouse was brought to Liverpool by Northern European sailors, it was originally called Labskause. This was finally shortened to Skause and over time the spelling changed to the more Anglicised version we have today, Scouse. 

The people who ate Scouse were all generally sailors and their families and eventually all sailors within Liverpool were referred to as Scousers. Time has now taken its turn and everyone from the region of Liverpool is known as a Scouser.

Scouse holds a place in the heart of most Liverpudlian's as the taste of their hometown and is still regularly eaten today by a great number of families. There are records showing that it was also served to the inmates of the Birkenhead workhouse way back in 1864. The recipe was much simpler then than today's refined version but was predominatly the same staple ingredients - meat, vegatables and potatoes, and hardtack.

So this whole thing makes me think at one point someone in my family was probably a Sailor and was forced to eat this stuff and would then terrorize his little children by telling them that it was going to be for dinner, and that's how this whole thing started. Did I mention it had Hardtack as an ingredient? Hardtack was a simple type of cracker or biscuit, made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. Inexpensive and long-lasting, it was and is used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages and military campaigns.

Alas, Lobscouse will be the title of my blog. It will really have no common theme other than stuff that I see, like, don't like, eat, watch, listen, and anything else I want to cram in there. It'll be like Lobscouse; because really, who knows what went in there?

Reader disclaimer: I've tried to do blogs in the past but i'm easily distracted and can lose interest now and then. However, with the help of my Blackberry (with a newly cracked screen, ugh) I hope to update you better than I have in my previous attempt at blogging. Bottom line: The more you guys are into it, the better I will be at posting.