Yorkshire Words Of The Week

Arthur Quarmby (Country Week, November 19) appears to suggest that “leet geen” was applicable only to women.

My understanding of “leet geen” is that it applied almost exclusively to men.

Its meaning being that the attention a man showed to any woman (in return for her favours) would be of little substance – light.

If the man was particularly “leet geen” then he would be described as being as “leet as a ‘ay seed” (light as a hay seed).

As the wind blows the hay seed from point to point in a random fashion, each point of contact with the ground equates to a “conquest” by the man.

From: Dorothy E Penso, Lastingham Terrace, York.

The comments from Mrs M Bamford and Angela M Holdsworth regarding “savoury Yorkshire pudding” are interesting and illustrate the local variations in this dish.

My grandmother’s version, which was passed down to her daughters and then to me, was called Season Pudding.

It was eaten when the Sunday roast was pork or, very occasionally, chicken. When I was young it was served as a first course with gravy.

I suppose it served the same purpose as Yorkshire pudding, filling hungry stomachs so that small portions of expensive meat would suffice.

I still use the same recipe using a large onion, chopped, a good handful of sage from the garden, chopped, bread pulled into small pieces (not bread crumbs), one or two eggs depending on the size of the pudding, and milk.

All the ingredients should be mixed together and left to stand so that the bread soaks up the liquid before it is cooked in the oven until the outside is crisp and the inside soft.

Sometimes during the war and the ensuing years it was made without precious egg and a little milk was “stretched” with water.

When our children and grandchildren eat with us, the season pudding is usually the most popular item on most plates.

From: David Hebb, Marklew Avenue, Grimsby.

Regarding your correspondents’ comments on the washday “posser”, my mother used the copper bell shaped head version, known to us as a “posher” which was just the noise it made when in use.

However the three-legged stool version with a T-Bar handle was always known as the “Dolly Pegs”.