Book of Days Tales

Grace Darling lived in Longstone Lighthouse in the Farne Islands off the Northumbrian coast of northern England, where her father was lighthouse keeper, when, on this date in 1838 Darling, looking from an upstairs window, spotted the wreck and survivors of the Forfarshire on Big Harcar, a nearby low, rocky island. The Forfarshire had foundered on the rocks and broken in half; one of the halves had sunk during the night. The weather was too rough for lifeboats to launch, so Darling and her father, William, rowed a boat across to the wreck, a distance of nearly a mile in ferocious seas, and ultimately rescued eight men and one woman.  Grace Darling subsequently became a national celebrity because of her heroism.

Singing Hinnies are a griddle cake from Northumberland, somewhat like scones.  “Hinnie” is like “lassie” in Geordie dialect (as Grace would have been), and they “sing” when they are placed on a hot griddle.

Ingredients

     450 gm (3 ½ cups) all-purpose flour

     ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

     ½ tsp  cream of tartar

     ½ tsp salt

     110 gm (½ cup) cold butter

    110 gm (½ cup) cold lard

     175 g (1 ¼ cups) dried currants

     milk

     oil or butter for frying

Instructions

Sift the flour, raising powders and salt together into a mixing bowl.

Rub in the cold butter and lard with the dry ingredients to make a mixture like coarse sand.

Add the dried currants and mix.

Add enough milk to make a firm dough, then roll it out about ¼” thick, and cut it into rounds.

Grease a heated griddle (or cast iron skillet) with oil and fry the cakes on both sides until golden.

Serve warm with a piece of butter on top.