On the Menu

On the Menu

In Cumbria, which encompasses the Lake District, food is more than fuel for hiking. The area has earned a reputation for good country food using Herdwick lamb, beef, and game, as well as fish from the freshwater streams and lakes, such as salmon, Windermere char, and Borrowdale and Ullswater trout. Sold in one long strip, the thick pork-and-herb Cumberland sausage is another specialty. Local breads, cakes, pastries, and scones are scrumptious. Brown sugar, molasses, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and rum—favorite ingredients in traditional cakes—were imported from the West Indies in exchange for wool and are integral to the cakes' flavor. Lyth Valley damsons (a kind of plum) have a nutty taste used in everything from beverages and desserts to cheese. Grasmere gingerbread is baked from a secret recipe, and Kendal mint cake (a candy marketed as survival food) has a home in many hikers' backpacks.