Live
Isle of Man · News & island lifemanx wire.Isle of Man news, as it happens
Fastyr mie — good afternoonJecrean 14 Jerrey Fouyir 2026Wednesday, 14 October 2026
← Manx Culture

The island kitchen

A taste of
the island.

Manx cooking was built on herring and potatoes. A report of 1807 said they were the food of most islanders. Oatmeal, barley bread and a pot of broth on Sundays filled out the week. Newer favourites include queenies, which won a public vote for a new national dish in 2018. Chips, cheese and gravy came second, and lamb from the native Manx Loaghtan sheep also drew votes. Here are dishes old and new to cook at home.

14 recipes · The story behind every dish · Made for home cooks

A shaggy brown horned sheep stands in front of a whitewashed stone cottage with a thatched roof and red door, beside an old rusty hay rake.
Photo: Zairon, CC BY 4.0

The recipes

What shall we cook?

14 recipes to make your own

Open a recipe for the ingredients, the method and the story behind it. Tick things off as you cook.

The everyday dinner

Spuds and herrin'

Praaseyn as skeddan

Salt herring boiled with potatoes in their jackets and eaten with butter: for generations the everyday food of most Manx homes.

About 45 minutes, plus 12–24 hours' soaking4 servingsTraditional

View recipeRecipe open
A white plate with three pieces of pickled herring, three small potatoes in their skins, sour cream topped with chives and half a boiled egg.
Herring with new potatoes in their skins, served the Swedish way, a cousin of spuds and herrin'. Photo: Fluff, CC BY-SA 3.0

Prep 15 minutes Cook 30 minutes

Ingredients

4 servings

Allergens Fish, milk.

Let’s make it

  1. Soak the herring

    The day before, put the salt herring in a large bowl and cover generously with cold water. Leave in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours, changing the water two or three times. The longer they soak, the milder they will be.

  2. Rinse and clean the fish

    Drain and rinse the herring. If they are whole, cut off the heads, slit open the bellies and rinse out the insides under cold running water.

  3. Start the potatoes

    Put the potatoes in a large, wide pan and cover with cold water. Do not salt the water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes, until a knife meets a little resistance only at the centre.

  4. Lay the herring on top

    Lay the herring on top of the potatoes, adding a splash of boiling water if needed so they are just covered. Put the lid on and keep at a gentle simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, until the fish is opaque and the flesh lifts easily from the backbone.

  5. Melt the butter

    While the fish cooks, melt the butter in a small pan and pour it into a warm jug or cup.

  6. Lift out and drain

    Lift the herring out carefully with a fish slice and keep warm. Drain the potatoes well.

  7. Serve with butter for dipping

    Serve the potatoes in their skins with the herring, a grind of pepper and the melted butter for dipping.

The story

In Manx: Praaseyn as skeddan (Clague, Manx Reminiscences, 1911)

Herring and potatoes once fed most of the island. In 1648 Blundell noted that a servant's meal was two boiled herrings with an oatcake and butter. In 1807 a report to the Workington Agricultural Society went further: the island could not support its population, it said, if herring and potatoes were not the food of most of its people.

Edward Faragher, writing about old Cregneash in 1901, remembered potatoes with salt herring for dinner in winter, and sometimes a supper of potatoes in their jackets with fish and plenty of buttermilk. Charles Roeder described the old way of eating it: mashed potatoes in a long wooden tray, a cup of butter beside it for everyone to dip into, and the herring eaten with the fingers.

Islanders sang about it too. Roeder quoted a Manx song line meaning 'there is nothing like potatoes and herring'. In Manx Reminiscences (1911), Dr John Clague gives the dish in Manx as praaseyn as skeddan, in a list that also includes broth, binjean, and bread and milk.

Island breakfast

Manx kippers

Kippers grilled with butter and eaten with bread: a simple breakfast built on herring kippered in Peel since Victorian times.

About 10 minutes2 breakfastsTraditional

View recipeRecipe open
Two dark, glossy smoked kippers on a white plate beside two floury brown bread rolls.
Kippers with bread rolls. Photo: PookieFugglestein, CC0 1.0

Prep 5 minutes Cook 6 minutes

Ingredients

2 breakfasts

Allergens Fish, milk, wheat (gluten). Check the bread label for other allergens.

Let’s make it

  1. Heat the grill

    Heat the grill to high. Line the grill pan with foil to save on washing up.

  2. Dot with butter

    Lay the kippers on the foil skin side down, flesh side up. Dot the butter over the flesh and add a grind of pepper.

  3. Grill without turning

    Grill about 8cm from the heat for 5 to 6 minutes for whole kippers, or 3 to 4 minutes for fillets, until the butter is sizzling, the edges start to curl and the flesh is piping hot right through. There is no need to turn them.

  4. Butter the bread

    While the kippers cook, butter the bread.

  5. Straight to the plate

    Slide the kippers onto warm plates and spoon over the buttery juices from the foil. Serve straight away with the bread and butter, and lemon if you like.

The story

Herring was everyday food on the island for centuries, but smoked herring came late. In 1648 Blundell was surprised to find that the Manx, who ate herring all year round, had no red herrings and did not know what they were. For a long time the catch was cured white, with salt. Charles Roeder, writing in 1904, concluded that red-herring curing was unknown on the island until late in the 18th century.

Kippers, split and smoked for several hours, came later again. Slow Food UK, which lists the Manx kipper on its Ark of Taste, says kipper production on the island is thought to have started around 1870 on the west coast. Moore's kipper yard in Peel had been working since 1882 and was described as the island's last traditional kipper yard.

Moore's closed in autumn 2023 after about 140 years. When Culture Vannin marked the closure, it noted that kippers were still cured in Peel, at a modern factory near the harbour. At home, a good kipper needs little more than heat, a knob of butter and some bread.

From Manx waters

Queenies with garlic and bacon

Queen scallops fried quickly with bacon and garlic, the pairing cooked to mark queenies winning the 2018 vote for a Manx national dish.

About 20 minutes2 mains, or twice as many startersIsland favourite

View recipeRecipe open
Six small scallops in their half shells, glistening with melted garlic butter, on a white plate.
Small scallops grilled in their shells with garlic butter, much as queenies are often served. Photo: Eximiousincorp, CC BY-SA 4.0

Prep 10 minutes Cook 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 mains, or twice as many starters

Allergens Molluscs, milk. The crusty bread contains wheat (gluten); check the bacon label.

Let’s make it

  1. Dry the queenies

    Tip the queenies onto kitchen paper and pat them dry. Pick off any small, tough side muscles.

  2. Crisp the bacon

    Cut the bacon across into 1cm strips. Put it in a large frying pan with the oil over a medium heat and fry for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring now and then, until the fat has run and the bacon is golden and crisp at the edges.

  3. Lift out the bacon

    Lift the bacon out with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan.

  4. Sear the queenies

    Turn the heat up to high. Add the queenies in a single layer and leave them alone for about 1 minute, until golden underneath, then turn them over. If your pan will not take them all in one layer, cook them in two batches: tip the first batch onto a plate, then return it to the pan once the second batch is turned.

  5. Add butter and garlic

    Turn the heat down to medium. Add the butter and garlic and swirl the pan for 30 to 45 seconds, until the butter foams, the garlic smells sweet and turns pale gold, and the queenies are just opaque all the way through.

  6. Toss with bacon and lemon

    Return the bacon to the pan with the parsley. Squeeze in the lemon juice, add plenty of black pepper and toss once.

  7. Straight to the table

    Serve at once, with crusty bread to mop up the buttery juices.

The story

Queenies are queen scallops, small sweet shellfish fished from beds in Manx waters. From the mid-1800s they were fished as bait for long-line cod fishing. When fish stocks dwindled in the 1960s, Manx boats began to go after the queenies themselves. The first commercial catch came ashore at Peel in 1969, and queenies soon earned a name as a delicacy.

Since 2012, 'Isle of Man Queenies' has been a protected name. It covers queen scallops caught in the Manx territorial sea, landed on the island and shucked there by hand. Fishing stops from March to May, and the season traditionally opens on 1 June.

In 2018 the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture asked islanders to pick the main ingredient for a new national dish. More than 2,500 people voted. Queenies won with over 500 votes, ahead of chips, cheese and gravy with nearly 400. Chef Tony Quirk then cooked queenies with garlic and bacon in a quick stir-fry, live at the Isle of Man Food and Drink Festival. This recipe follows that pairing.

Hollantide Eve supper

Hop-tu-Naa supper

Potatoes, parsnips and fish mashed together with butter: the supper Manx families ate on Hollantide Eve, now kept as Hop-tu-Naa.

About 50 minutes4 bowlsTraditionalHop-tu-Naa, 31 October

View recipeRecipe open
A turnip lantern glowing in the dark, carved with a moon, a star, a witch's hat and the words Hop-tu-naa.
A Hop-tu-Naa turnip lantern carved on the island. Photo: Culture Vannin, CC0 1.0

Prep 20 minutes Cook 30 minutes

Ingredients

4 bowls

Allergens Fish, milk.

Let’s make it

  1. Boil the potatoes and parsnips

    Put the potatoes and parsnips in a large pan, cover with cold water and add 1 tsp salt. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until both are completely tender when pierced with a knife.

  2. Poach the haddock

    Meanwhile, lay the haddock skin side up in a wide frying pan and pour over the milk. Bring to a bare simmer, cover and cook gently for 5 to 6 minutes, until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily.

  3. Flake the fish

    Lift the fish onto a plate and keep the milk. When the fish is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and break the flesh into large flakes, feeling carefully for bones.

  4. Steam-dry the vegetables

    Drain the vegetables well. Return them to the pan over a low heat for a minute, shaking the pan, until the steam stops rising and they look dry and floury.

  5. Make a soft mash

    Add the butter and mash until smooth, then beat in about 100ml of the warm poaching milk to give a soft, creamy mash. Add a little more milk if it seems stiff.

  6. Beat in the fish

    Add the fish and beat it in with a wooden spoon, so it breaks up and is pounded into the mash. Season well with pepper, then taste before adding any salt.

  7. Finish with butter

    Pile into warm bowls, make a hollow in the top of each and drop in a knob of butter to melt.

The story

On Hollantide Eve, now kept as Hop-tu-Naa on 31 October, Manx households ate potatoes, parsnips and fish, beaten together with butter. A. W. Moore called it the usual supper of the night in 1891, and Dr John Clague listed bruised potatoes, fish and parsnips as the food everyone ate that evening. In Moore's day the old date, 11 November, was still kept.

Moore and Clague say only 'fish'. One recipe in the 1908 Manx Cookery Book, headed Bollan ny Houney, names it: salt bollan, or ballan wrasse, soaked overnight, boiled until tender and served with potatoes and parsnips mashed together. Salt bollan is hard to come by now, so this version uses smoked haddock, which is easy to find and brings a cured, salty flavour of its own.

The supper had its own part in the night's customs. The family left the remains of the meal on the table and put out crocks of fresh water for the fairies. That night, boys went round the houses knocking on doors with turnips or cabbages on sticks until they were given herrings, potatoes or similar gifts.

From the oven

Bonnag

The island's plain buttermilk soda loaf, baked in the oven or on a griddle: everyday bread, and the bonnag of the Hop-tu-Naa song.

About 1 hour, plus 20 minutes cooling10 slicesTraditionalHop-tu-Naa

View recipeRecipe open
A round, cross-scored soda loaf with a floury, oat-flecked crust cooling on a wire rack.
A round soda loaf, the same family of quick bread as the bonnag. Photo: michael clarke stuff, CC BY-SA 2.0

Prep 15 minutes Cook 40 minutes

Ingredients

10 slices · 1 loaf at the original quantity

Allergens Wheat (gluten), milk. The barley-flour version in the tips adds barley (gluten).

Let’s make it

  1. Heat the oven

    Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan), gas mark 6, and dust a baking tray with flour.

  2. Sift the dry ingredients

    Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt into a large bowl, then whisk for half a minute so the soda is spread evenly. Pockets of soda taste bitter.

  3. Rub in the fat

    Rub the fat into the flour with your fingertips until no lumps remain and the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

  4. Bring it together

    Make a well in the centre and pour in 350ml of the buttermilk. Mix with a table knife or one cupped hand to a soft, slightly sticky dough, adding more buttermilk a spoonful at a time if dry patches remain. Do not knead: the soda starts working as soon as it is wet.

  5. Shape and cut a cross

    Tip the dough onto a floured surface and pat it gently into a round about 18cm across and 4cm deep. Lift it onto the tray and cut a deep cross into the top with a floured knife.

  6. Bake until golden

    Bake for about 40 minutes, until well risen and golden brown and the base sounds hollow when you tap it.

  7. Cool before slicing

    Cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing. For a softer crust, wrap the loaf in a clean tea towel while it cools. Serve with plenty of butter.

The story

In Manx: Bonnag (Manx Cookery Book, 1908)

Bonnag is the island's plain everyday loaf, and its name is older than today's recipe. The earliest bonnags were probably flat cakes of barley or oats, baked on a griddle or a hot hearth. Dr John Clague described barley cakes baked on the hearth, and wrote that the final cake of a batch, often thicker than the others, was the one called the bonnag. Hall Caine remembered his grandmother setting out a plate of bonnag, 'which was barley bread', for the fairies at night.

The soda loaf came later. Bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar only became popular in the 1860s, so the soda bonnag most people bake now probably dates from the second half of the 19th century. The 1908 Manx Cookery Book gives a bonnag of barley meal and a little flour, made with lard, soda, cream of tartar and buttermilk, and adds that flour bonnags are made the same way. Today's bonnags use white wheat flour.

Bonnag belongs to Hop-tu-Naa too. In the song, the singer meets an old woman who 'was baking bonnags' and is given a bit 'as big as my big toe', dipped in milk. Island speech kept the older, harder loaf in a saying: 'He's like barley bonnag, hard in the cruss', the cruss being the crust.

A sweeter loaf

Fruit bonnag

Bonnag dy Churranyn

Bonnag made sweet with sugar and currants, still mixed with buttermilk and no egg, and listed among real Manx dishes as long ago as 1913.

About 1¼ hours, plus 30 minutes cooling10 slicesTraditional

View recipeRecipe open
A round, golden soda bread dotted with raisins in a glass pie dish, with a wedge cut out.
A soda bread with raisins, close in method to a fruit bonnag. Photo: slgckgc, CC BY 2.0

Prep 15 minutes Cook 50 minutes

Ingredients

10 slices · 1 round loaf at the original quantity

Allergens Wheat (gluten), milk. Dried fruit may contain sulphites.

Let’s make it

  1. Heat the oven

    Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan), gas mark 4, and line a baking tray with baking paper.

  2. Sift the dry ingredients

    Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, salt and spice, if using, into a large bowl and whisk well so the soda is spread evenly.

  3. Rub in butter, add currants

    Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar and currants.

  4. Mix a soft dough

    Make a well in the centre and pour in 300ml of the buttermilk. Mix quickly with a table knife to a soft, sticky dough, adding more buttermilk a spoonful at a time if it looks dry. Do not knead.

  5. Shape and sugar the top

    Turn the dough onto a floured surface and, with floured hands, shape it into a round about 20cm across. Lift it onto the tray, cut a cross about 1cm deep across the top and scatter over the extra tablespoon of sugar.

  6. Bake until deep golden

    Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until risen and deep golden and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean. If the top browns too quickly, cover it loosely with foil for the last 10 to 15 minutes.

  7. Cool before slicing

    Cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Serve buttered.

The story

In Manx: Bonnag dy Churranyn (Currant bonnag; The Manxman, 1913)

Fruit bonnag is the plain soda loaf made sweet, with sugar and currants worked into the buttermilk dough and sometimes a little spice. It has counted as island food for more than a century. In 1913 The Manxman printed a list of real Manx dishes with their Manx names, and currant bonnag, 'Bonnag dy Churranyn', sits there beside barley bread, oaten bread, and potatoes and herring.

It is not an ancient recipe. Dried fruit only became easy to come by in the mid-19th century, and Kelly's Manx dictionary calls the currant a 'French berry', which A Manx Notebook reads as a sign it was still exotic. Writing in 2000, the Notebook judged the classic recipes to be probably no more than about 150 years old. Richer loaves with eggs, treacle and plenty of fruit belong to a relation, the Manx bunloaf.

Bonnag baking is still taken seriously. The World Bonnag Championships are held every year in Dalby, with classes for ladies, gentlemen, children, gluten-free and commercial bakers. In 2017 the champion took home the Buttermilk Trophy, and in 2025 a record 55 bonnags were entered at St James' Church.

The old island bread

Manx oatcakes

Arran corkey

Thin, crisp cakes of oatmeal, fat and water, for centuries the island's staple bread and eaten with butter, cheese and herring.

About 45 minutes20 oatcakesTraditional

View recipeRecipe open
A loose stack of thick, round, golden oatcakes on baking paper.
Oatcakes, baked from oatmeal, fat and water. Photo: Jon Thomson, CC BY 2.0

Prep 20 minutes Cook 25 minutes

Ingredients

20 oatcakes

Allergens Oats (gluten). Milk if made with butter, or with milk in place of the water.

Let’s make it

  1. Heat the oven

    Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan), gas mark 5, and line two baking trays with baking paper.

  2. Melt the fat

    Mix the oatmeal and salt in a bowl. Put the fat in a jug, pour over 100ml of just-boiled water and stir until it melts.

  3. Mix the dough

    Pour the hot liquid into the oatmeal and stir to a firm, slightly sticky dough. Leave it for 2 to 3 minutes so the oatmeal soaks up the water. If it still crumbles, add a little more hot water, a teaspoon at a time.

  4. Roll out while warm

    Scatter oatmeal over the worktop and roll the dough out while it is still warm, to about 3mm thick, pressing any cracked edges together. Work quickly, as the dough crumbles once it cools.

  5. Cut the oatcakes

    Cut into rounds with a 7cm cutter, or cut a large round into eight wedges. Lift them onto the trays with a palette knife and re-roll the trimmings.

  6. Bake until firm

    Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until firm and dry, with pale gold edges just starting to curl.

  7. Cool and crisp

    Cool on a wire rack. They crisp up as they cool.

The story

In Manx: Arran corkey (Oat bread; Clague, 1911)

Oats and barley, not wheat, were the island's usual grains, and oatcakes were long its staple bread. William Blundell, whose history of the island was written between 1648 and 1656, said the island's country people lived on salt butter, herrings and oatcakes 'made almost as thin as a paper leaf'. A hired servant's meal, he wrote, was two boiled herrings, a whole oaten cake and butter, washed down with milk or milk and water.

Oatcakes had a place in island custom too. A. W. Moore recorded that after a birth, until the baby was baptised, a wooden hoop covered with sheepskin and piled with oaten cakes and cheese was kept in the mother's room for visitors to share. Dr John Clague listed arran corkey, oat bread, alongside wheat bread and barley bread.

By the 1890s the old thin cakes were already being missed. Charles Roeder, who collected memories from old people in the island's south, asked after 'the crisp, thin-leaved, tasty bonnags' and where they had gone.

A Shrove Tuesday supper

Manx pancakes

Berreenyn Innyd

Soft buttermilk pancakes for Shrove Tuesday supper, stacked hot with butter, from a Peel recipe in the 1908 Manx Cookery Book.

About 50 minutes10 pancakesTraditionalShrove Tuesday

View recipeRecipe open
Three thick, golden buttermilk pancakes cooking on a round black griddle.
Thick buttermilk pancakes on the griddle, much like the Manx Shrove Tuesday kind. Photo: Lajmmoore, CC BY-SA 4.0

Prep 10 minutes Cook 40 minutes

Ingredients

10 pancakes · serves 4 at the original quantity

Allergens Wheat (gluten), milk.

Let’s make it

  1. Warm a plate

    Put a large plate to warm in a low oven, 100°C (80°C fan), gas mark ¼.

  2. Sift the dry ingredients

    Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.

  3. Whisk the batter

    Pour in about 150ml of the buttermilk and whisk to a thick paste. Add the rest a little at a time, whisking all the while, until the batter is silky and pours easily, a little thicker than single cream. Leave it for 5 minutes, until a few bubbles appear.

  4. Heat and grease the pan

    Heat a 20cm frying pan over a medium heat. Grease it with a little butter or lard and wipe out the excess with kitchen paper.

  5. Cook the first side

    Pour in about 70ml of batter, a small ladleful, and tilt the pan so it spreads to the edges. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the top is set and dotted with holes and the underside is golden brown.

  6. Turn the pancake

    Turn the pancake with a palette knife and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more, until speckled brown underneath.

  7. Butter and stack

    Slide it onto the warm plate and spread thinly with butter. Cook the rest the same way, greasing the pan as needed and stacking each buttered pancake on the last. Keep the stack warm in the oven, loosely covered with foil.

  8. Rest, cut and serve

    Leave the finished stack for a couple of minutes so the butter soaks in, then cut into wedges and serve straight away.

The story

In Manx: Berreenyn Innyd (Manx Cookery Book, 1908)

Shrove Tuesday, Oie Ynnyd or 'Eve of the Fast', had its own menu on the island. A. W. Moore wrote in 1891 that sollaghan moved from its usual place at breakfast to dinner that day, and that supper was meat and pancakes. Dr John Clague's list for the day has broth and chicken at supper, and pancakes.

Moore thought the day was kept much as it was in England. He also gave a Manx saying, which he took as a warning not to count on such fine fare lasting: 'At Shrove-Tuesday supper if thy belly be full; Before Easter-day thou mayest fast for that.'

The island's own cookbook shows how the pancakes were made. The 1908 Manx Cookery Book prints Berreenyn Innyd, from Mrs R. Shimmin of Peel: flour, buttermilk, soda and salt, with no eggs. The pancakes were fried a teacupful at a time and piled on a warm plate, with a little butter rubbed over each one.

Slow Sunday cooking

Manx broth

Broit

A thick broth of beef, mutton, barley and vegetables: the old Manx Sunday dinner, and food for weddings and the harvest supper.

About 3½ hours6 generous bowlsTraditionalMheillea, the harvest supper

View recipeRecipe open
A blue-and-white bowl of barley soup with beef, carrot, potato and parsley, with bread and a spoon beside it.
Beef and barley soup, close to a Manx broth. Photo: Sol Octobris, CC BY-SA 4.0

Prep 30 minutes Cook 2 hours 50 minutes

Ingredients

6 generous bowls

Allergens Barley (gluten), celery. The dumplings in the tips add wheat (gluten).

Let’s make it

  1. Start gently and skim

    Put the lamb and beef in a large pan that holds at least 6 litres and pour in the cold water. Bring slowly to the boil, skimming off the grey froth as it rises, until very little more appears.

  2. Add the barley

    Add the barley, thyme and 1 tsp salt. Turn the heat down, partly cover and simmer very gently for 1¾ hours, stirring now and then, until the beef is nearly tender when pushed with a fork.

  3. In go the vegetables

    Add the carrots, swede, leeks and celery. Simmer for 30 minutes more, stirring from the bottom so the barley does not catch. If the broth gets very thick, add a splash of hot water.

  4. Add the cabbage

    Stir in the cabbage and simmer for 15 minutes, until the cabbage is soft, the barley is plump and the broth has thickened.

  5. Strip the meat

    Lift the meat onto a board. Pull the lamb off the bones and throw away the bones, fat and gristle. Cut all the meat into bite-sized pieces and fish out the thyme stalks.

  6. Finish the pot

    Return the meat to the pan with the parsley and season well with salt and pepper. Bring back to the boil and ladle into warm, deep bowls.

The story

In Manx: Broit (Clague, Manx Reminiscences, 1911; Cregeen's dictionary, 1835)

Broth was a mainstay of the Manx kitchen. Dr John Clague's Manx Reminiscences (1911) describes fowl, beef or mutton simmered with shelled barley and finely chopped turnips, carrots, cabbage, parsley and pot-herbs. An old islander told Charles Roeder that Sundays meant Manx broth, porridge and milk, and potatoes and herrings. Clague also lists broth and chicken for supper on Shrove Tuesday, with pancakes.

It was the food of celebrations too. Wedding guests were served broth in wooden bowls known as piggins, with mussel shells, called sligs, for spoons. The wedding broth in the 1908 Manx Cookery Book combined a fowl, salt mutton and salt pork with groats and barley, and when it was done properly a spoon would stand up in it. Culture Vannin describes broth and herring pie at the Mheillea, the harvest supper for the workers.

The same book's recipe for Manx broth, from Mrs Cain of Douglas, simmers scrag end of mutton and a piece of beef with pearl barley, carrot, turnip, leek and herbs for two hours. Another entry, headed Good Manx Broth, comes from the High Bailiff of Peel. He admits he does not know how to make it, but knows when it is good.

A Good Friday dish

Fatherless pie

Claare dyn jishig

A meatless potato pie under a shortcrust lid, recorded in 1908 as the dish to eat with boiled fish on Good Friday.

About 1½ hours, plus chilling and resting4 generous servingsTraditionalGood Friday

View recipeRecipe open
A pie with a golden, glazed pastry lid in a white rectangular baking dish.
A pie under a golden shortcrust lid (this one is chicken and mushroom). Photo: Daderot, CC0 1.0

Prep 30 minutes Cook 50 minutes

Ingredients

4 generous servings

For the pastry
For the filling

Allergens Wheat (gluten), milk, eggs. Fish if you serve it with boiled fish, as in the last step.

Let’s make it

  1. Make the pastry

    Rub the butter into the flour and salt with your fingertips until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Sprinkle in the water a tablespoon at a time, stirring with a table knife, until the mixture clumps together. Press into a flat disc, wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

  2. Heat the oven

    Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan), gas mark 6. Butter a 1.2 to 1.5-litre pie dish.

  3. Slice the potatoes

    Slice the potatoes thinly, about 3mm thick.

  4. Simmer the slices

    Put the slices in a wide pan with the milk, water and salt. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 5 minutes, turning the slices carefully once or twice so the milk does not catch, until they are just starting to soften at the edges but still hold their shape.

  5. Layer the filling

    Layer the potatoes in the pie dish, dotting each layer with butter and adding a little pepper. Pour over the liquid left in the pan. Pile the top layer slightly higher in the middle so the lid does not sink.

  6. Roll out the pastry

    Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to about 4mm thick and about 5cm larger all round than the dish. Cut a strip from the edge, press it onto the dampened rim of the dish and brush it with water.

  7. Cover and glaze

    Lay the pastry lid over the top, press the edges onto the strip to seal, trim and crimp. Cut a small steam hole in the centre and brush the pastry with beaten egg.

  8. Bake until golden

    Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden and a skewer pushed through the steam hole slides easily into the potatoes. If the pastry browns too fast, cover it loosely with foil.

  9. Rest, then serve

    Leave the pie to rest for 10 minutes so the buttery juices settle, then serve with plainly boiled fish.

The story

In Manx: Claare dyn jishig (Manx Cookery Book, 1908)

Fatherless pie has no meat in it. Thinly cut potato is layered with butter, pepper and salt, moistened with milk and water and baked under a pastry crust. The recipe appears in the 1908 Manx Cookery Book, in Manx and English, as claare dyn jishig. It is credited to Mrs Corkill of Circular Road, Peel, and carries a note that it is to be eaten with boiled fish on Good Friday.

The pie fits what is known of the day. Dr John Clague recorded that on Good Friday the Manx ate flitters, or limpets, for breakfast, and eggs and fish for dinner. A. W. Moore wrote that people also went down to the shore that day to gather shellfish.

Moore records another Good Friday rule: nothing made of iron could be put in the fire. The tongs were set aside for a stick of mountain ash, and because the iron griddle was off limits, a big, thick, three-cornered cake called a soddag was baked on the hearth. The cookery book does not explain the pie's name.

From a native breed

Slow-roast shoulder of Loaghtan lamb

Manx Loaghtan lamb, from the island's native heritage sheep and a protected name since 2008, roasted long and slow; any good lamb shoulder works too.

About 4¾ hours, plus resting6 servingsIsland favourite

View recipeRecipe open
A brown Manx Loaghtan ram with four curling horns looks over nettles between two dry-stone walls.
A four-horned Manx Loaghtan ram at Cregneash. Photo: Travelling Britain, CC BY-SA 4.0

Prep 20 minutes Cook 4 hours 25 minutes

Ingredients

6 servings

For the lamb
For the gravy

Allergens Wheat (gluten). Stock may contain celery; check the label.

Let’s make it

  1. Take the chill off

    Take the lamb out of the fridge an hour before cooking. Heat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan), gas mark 3.

  2. Stud with garlic and rosemary

    With a small, sharp knife, make about 12 short, deep cuts all over the skin side of the lamb. Push a slice of garlic and a few rosemary leaves into each. Rub the meat all over with the oil and season well with the salt and plenty of pepper.

  3. Set up the tin

    Spread the onions, carrots, halved garlic bulb and thyme over the base of a roasting tin. Sit the lamb on top, skin side up, and pour the 300ml stock around it.

  4. Slow-roast under foil

    Cover the tin tightly with foil and roast for 4 hours, checking halfway and adding a splash of water if the tin looks dry. The lamb is ready when the meat yields easily to a fork and pulls away from the bone.

  5. Crisp the skin

    Turn the oven up to 220°C (200°C fan), gas mark 7. Take off the foil and roast for 20 to 25 minutes more, until the skin is browned and crisp at the edges.

  6. Rest the lamb

    Lift the lamb onto a board, cover it loosely with foil and leave it to rest for 20 minutes.

  7. Make the gravy

    For the gravy, tilt the tin and spoon off most of the fat. If your tin cannot go on the hob, scrape the vegetables and juices into a wide saucepan. Squash the soft garlic and onions into the juices, set over a medium heat and stir in the flour. Cook for a minute, then whisk in the hot stock a little at a time, scraping up the sticky bits. Add the redcurrant jelly, if using, and bubble for 3 to 4 minutes, until glossy and lightly thickened.

  8. Pull and serve

    Strain the gravy into a warm jug, adding any juices from the resting lamb, and season to taste. Pull the lamb into chunks with two forks and serve with the gravy.

The story

The Manx Loaghtan is the island's native sheep. It has a brown fleece and usually four horns, sometimes six, and is believed to have been on the island for more than 1,000 years. A Manx Notebook finds no evidence that the Vikings brought it, though the protected-name application allows that they might have. The name comes from the colour of the fleece. The usual explanation is lugh dhoan, mouse-brown, though 'burnt brown' has also been suggested.

In 1794 Basil Quayle wrote that 'the ancient flocks are small and hardy', with 'the meat being particularly good'. Since 2008, 'Isle of Man Manx Loaghtan Lamb' has been a protected name. It covers meat from pure-bred Loaghtans registered with the breed society, born, raised and slaughtered on the island at between 6 and 15 months old. The meat is described as fine-grained, darker and less fatty than that of commercial breeds, with a gamey flavour.

We found no old Manx recipe for Loaghtan lamb itself. In the 1908 Manx Cookery Book, mutton goes into broth. This slow roast is a modern way to cook a heritage breed. The meat is lean, so a long, gentle roast under foil keeps the shoulder moist, and the recipe works just as well with any shoulder of lamb.

The unofficial national dish

Chips, cheese and gravy

Hot chips, grated cheese and a proper beef gravy: the island's unofficial national dish, with its own day every January.

About 1¼ hours4 bowlsIsland favouriteChips, Cheese and Gravy Day (last Monday of January)

View recipeRecipe open
Thick-cut chips covered with melted white cheese and brown gravy on a white plate on a wooden table.
Chips with melted cheese and gravy. Photo: FASTILY, CC BY-SA 4.0

Prep 20 minutes Cook 50 minutes

Ingredients

4 bowls

For the chips
For the gravy
To finish

Allergens Milk, wheat (gluten), fish (anchovies in the Worcestershire sauce). Worcestershire sauce often contains barley (gluten), and stock may contain celery; check the labels.

Let’s make it

  1. Heat the oven and oil

    Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan), gas mark 7. Pour the oil into a large, sturdy roasting tin, or two if needed so the chips will fit in a single layer, and put it in the oven to heat.

  2. Cut the chips

    Peel the potatoes and cut them into chips about 1.5cm thick. Rinse them in a colander under cold water to wash off the surface starch.

  3. Parboil the chips

    Drop the chips into a large pan of boiling salted water. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, until the edges just start to soften but the chips still hold their shape.

  4. Steam-dry and rough up

    Drain well and leave in the colander for 5 minutes to steam dry. Give them a gentle shake to rough up the edges.

  5. Roast until crisp

    Carefully tip the chips into the hot oil, turn them to coat and spread them out in a single layer. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, turning twice, until golden and crisp.

  6. Brown the onion

    Meanwhile, make the gravy. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat and cook the onion for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and a deep golden brown.

  7. Add flour and stock

    Stir in the flour and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until it smells nutty and turns light brown. Whisk in the hot stock a little at a time, then add the tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce.

  8. Simmer and strain

    Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often, until the gravy is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour it through a sieve for a smooth, chip-shop finish, pressing on the onions, and season with pepper and a little salt if needed. Keep it hot.

  9. Pile it up

    Pile the hot chips into bowls and sprinkle with salt. Scatter the cheese over straight away so it starts to melt, then ladle plenty of very hot gravy on top. Serve at once.

The story

Chips, cheese and gravy is served at chippies and other eateries around the island, and Manx Radio calls it the unofficial national dish of the Manx people. It is a modern favourite. It does not appear in the older accounts of Manx food, and no one seems to have recorded when it first reached the island's counters.

The online magazine Gef the Mongoose declared the first Chips, Cheese and Gravy Day, held on Monday 29 January 2018, and chippies around the island marked it with offers. The day is now kept every year on the last Monday of January.

Later in 2018 the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture held a public vote to choose a new national dish, and more than 2,500 people took part. Queenies won with more than 500 votes. Chips, cheese and gravy came second with nearly 400. Other choices included Loaghtan lamb, kippers and bonnag.

From the broth pot

Sollaghan

Sollaghyn

Toasted oatmeal stirred with butter and hot broth: an everyday Manx country breakfast that some families also served on Christmas morning.

About 20 minutes2 bowlsTraditionalChristmas morning

View recipeRecipe open
A close-up of a spoon heaped with dry, chopped oat grains over a bowl of more oats.
Coarse pinhead oatmeal, the kind of meal toasted for sollaghan. Photo: Ragesoss, CC BY-SA 3.0

Prep 5 minutes Cook 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 bowls

Allergens Oats (gluten), milk. Manx broth adds barley (gluten) and celery, and bought stock may contain celery.

Let’s make it

  1. Heat the broth

    Pour the broth into a small pan and bring it to the boil, then turn it down to a bare simmer to keep hot.

  2. Toast the oatmeal

    Heat a heavy, dry frying pan over a medium heat. Add the oatmeal and keep it moving with a wooden spoon for 5 to 7 minutes, until it smells nutty, feels dry and sandy, and turns golden brown with a reddish tinge. Watch it closely towards the end, as it can burn in moments.

  3. Stir in the butter

    Tip the oatmeal into a warm serving bowl. Add the butter, a good pinch of salt and plenty of pepper, and stir until the butter has melted into the meal.

  4. Pour on the broth

    Ladle about 150ml of the hot broth over the oatmeal, taking some of the fat from the top. Stir until the meal swells and clumps together, then leave it to stand for a minute or two.

  5. Loosen and serve

    Add more hot broth, a ladle at a time, stirring between each, until it is loose enough to spoon into bowls. Taste for salt and pepper and serve at once, with any remaining broth poured round.

The story

In Manx: Sollaghyn (Clague, Manx Reminiscences, 1911)

Sollaghan is oatmeal and the liquor from boiled meat. A 1924 vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx dialect defines it as a porridge of parched oatmeal with meat liquor poured over, and records the saying that sollaghan is the thing that will stick to your ribs. It belonged with the broth pot, since the cook skimmed the top of the broth straight onto the toasted meal.

It was ordinary food. A. W. Moore wrote in 1891 that it had been the custom to eat it at dinner on Shrove Tuesday, rather than at breakfast as on other days. Dr John Clague records a similar Shrove Tuesday: sollaghyn for dinner, broth and chicken for supper, and pancakes. He also gives a groats version, Sollaghyn Gharvain, with the groats simmered in meat broth until as thick as porridge.

The 1908 Manx Cookery Book prints several versions, some in Manx with English alongside. Two contributors, Mrs Cashin of Peel and the Rev. R. D. Kermode of Maughold, note that it was served for breakfast on Christmas morning. Another, sent from Purt-ny-Hinshey as an old Manx recipe, calls it a wholesome meal for men.

A Saturday-night treat

Binjean

Milk set with rennet into a soft junket and served cold with cream, sugar and nutmeg, remembered as a Saturday-night treat in Manx homes.

About 10 minutes, plus setting and chilling4 servingsTraditional

View recipeRecipe open
Two small glasses of pale set junket topped with chopped strawberries and crumble on a slate.
Junket, milk set with rennet, the same idea as Manx binjean. Photo: Ewan Munro, CC BY-SA 2.0

Prep 5 minutes Cook 5 minutes

Ingredients

4 servings

For the binjean
To serve

Allergens Milk.

Let’s make it

  1. Warm to blood heat

    Pour the milk into a saucepan, add the sugar and warm over a low heat, stirring, until the milk reaches blood heat, 37°C. It should feel barely warm on the inside of your wrist. Do not let it get hot.

  2. Stir in the rennet

    Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the rennet for no more than a few seconds, then pour the milk straight into a glass serving dish or four small bowls.

  3. Leave to set

    Leave it at room temperature, untouched, for 20 to 30 minutes, until set. When you tilt the dish gently, the binjean should move as one soft mass. Moving it while it sets breaks the curd and lets the whey seep out.

  4. Cover and chill

    Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.

  5. Cream, sugar and nutmeg

    To serve, grate a little nutmeg over the top if you like, pour over the cream and sprinkle with sugar.

The story

In Manx: Binjean (Clague, Manx Reminiscences, 1911)

Binjean is new milk, warmed a little and set with rennet into a soft, trembling curd, much like junket. Manx cooks called the rennet 'steep'. A 1924 vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx dialect, quoting the Rev. T. E. Brown, says the same dish was known as pinjane in the north of the island and baanjane in the south. It also gives Brown's blunt line: 'A man can't live upon pinjane.'

For some families it was a weekend treat. An islander in the south told Charles Roeder that on Saturday nights they took binjean, 'which was terrible good', with cowree to follow. It turned up at celebrations as well: W. H. Gill's song 'A Manx Wedding' lists 'heaps of binjean' among the eating and drinking.

The 1908 Manx Cookery Book gives two versions. One warms a quart of milk in the oven before the rennet goes in. The other, from Canon Kewley of Arbory, sets a pint of new milk in a glass dish. Both are served cold with cream and sugar, and the Canon notes that some think a grating of nutmeg on top an improvement.

Through the year

The Manx food year

  1. Last Monday of January

    Chips, Cheese and Gravy Day

    The online magazine Gef the Mongoose declared the first one in 2018, and chippies marked it with offers. The island now celebrates its unofficial national dish on this day every year.

    Chips, cheese and gravy →Manx Radio: Celebrating chips, cheese and gravy (2018) ↗Manx Radio: Chips, Cheese and Gravy Day celebrated on the Isle of Man (2023) ↗

  2. Shrove Tuesday, February or March

    Oie Ynnyd, Shrove Tuesday

    Sollaghan moved from breakfast to dinner, and supper was meat, or broth and chicken, with pancakes. A Manx saying warned that a full belly at the Shrove Tuesday supper might mean going hungry before Easter.

    Manx pancakes →A. W. Moore, The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man (1891), chapter 6 ↗Dr John Clague, Manx Reminiscences (1911), chapter 12: Food ↗

  3. Good Friday, March or April

    Good Friday on the shore

    No iron went into the fire, and people went to the shore for shellfish: limpets, called flitters, for breakfast, and eggs and fish for dinner. The 1908 Manx Cookery Book adds fatherless pie, a potato pie eaten with boiled fish.

    Fatherless pie →A. W. Moore, The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man (1891), chapter 6 ↗Dr John Clague, Manx Reminiscences (1911), chapter 12: Food ↗The Manx Cookery Book of Favourite Dishes (1908) ↗

  4. June

    The queenie season opens

    The protected-name specification for Isle of Man Queenies describes a closed season from March to May, with the season traditionally opening on 1 June, or later in June when the sea is cold. In 2026 the trawl season in the island's territorial sea was set to open on 15 June.

    Queenies with garlic and bacon →Isle of Man Queenies: protected designation of origin specification ↗Isle of Man Government: Isle of Man queen scallop fishery ↗

  5. 5 July

    The herring season

    The song 'Mannin Veg Veen' marks the start of the herring season on St John the Baptist's Day, which Culture Vannin says now falls on 5 July. In 1807 a report said herring and potatoes were the food of most islanders.

    Spuds and herrin' →Culture Vannin: Singing as you work (2020) ↗J. C. Curwen, Manx Report (Workington Agricultural Society, 1807) ↗

  6. Late summer or early autumn, when the last corn is cutSeptember

    Mheillea, the harvest supper

    When the last of the corn was cut, the farmer usually gave the workers a supper, which A. W. Moore called 'a scene of great joy and merriment'. Culture Vannin describes a spread of broth and herring pie for everyone who had worked the harvest.

    Manx broth →A. W. Moore, The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man (1891), chapter 6 ↗Culture Vannin: Singing for your supper (2020) ↗

  7. 31 October

    Hop-tu-Naa, Hollantide Eve

    The supper was potatoes, parsnips and fish pounded together with butter, and the leftovers stayed on the table, with crocks of fresh water, for the fairies. In Moore's time, boys going from door to door were given herrings and potatoes.

    Hop-tu-Naa supper →A. W. Moore, The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man (1891), chapter 6 ↗Dr John Clague, Manx Reminiscences (1911), chapter 12: Food ↗Culture Vannin: Singing for your supper (2020) ↗

  8. 24 December

    Christmas Eve ale

    After the Oie'l Verrey carol service, many people went to the nearest inn for the traditional hot ale with spice, ginger and pepper. Families who could afford it brewed a special Christmas ale, Jough-y-Nollick.

    A. W. Moore, The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man (1891), chapter 6 ↗

  9. 25 December

    Sollaghan on Christmas morning

    Sollaghan, toasted oatmeal stirred with butter and broth, was an everyday country breakfast. Two contributors to the 1908 Manx Cookery Book note that it was served for breakfast on Christmas morning.

    Sollaghan →The Manx Cookery Book of Favourite Dishes (1908) ↗