The Bay Horse, Market Weighton: I ate 'baby's heads' at the restaurant which is one of Yorkshire's best kept secrets

On that occasion, I’d found the pub in Harpham offering proper suet pie crusts and now I’ve discovered the Bay Horse in Market Weighton has baby’s head on the menu.

I’ve not just been singing in the shower, I’ve been doing little triangular dances (like Showaddywaddy), such is the cheer in my disposition.

Baby’s heads, for those unconversant with Lancastrian culinary slang, is the correct term for steak and kidney pudding served in a suet pastry.

They’re usually steamed in a bowl so when you turn them out the pastry isn’t crisp, it’s soft and white and shaped like the cranium of a particularly unfortunate newborn. Hence, baby’s head.

At the Bay Horse the traditional filling is augmented by smoked oysters, which was almost enough to put me off ordering.

‘It gives them a subtle, background, oyster flavour’ informs Euan, our waiter for the evening, expecting this news to win me over. ‘Yup’ says I, ‘that’s what I can’t stand.’ For me and oysters usually don’t get on. Overcome by my desire to ingest suet, however, I cave in and order. Results anon.

First up, an apology to you, the diners of the county. For I have entirely failed to report previously on the Bay Horse. I vaguely remember stopping in one time and feeling there was nothing much to write up. I must have been in a bad mood because I return to find out just how wrong I was.

The pub has been sat in the middle of Market Weighton quietly doing its own thing for years now, to a high standard and much to the pleasure of the locals and regular visitors. Or rather, the Walker clan have been.

Matriarch (and head chef) Yvonne, husband Tim, the aforementioned son Euan and occasional contributor daughter Tori have been in place since they gave up the itinerant life of the chain pub landlord in 2016 and have been unobtrusively offering very decent grub ever since they settled on the Bay Horse as their forever pub.

Most people come for the celebrated daily fish specials but we stuck to the main menu and have absolutely no regrets.

The Bay Horse is pretty much split in two. The bar is for - and usually full of - rowdy locals. Just as it should be. The other half, though, is a dining haven. Quiet, comfy and cosy.

Each side need never know the other exists, unless they collide in the lavvy.

We start with sticky beef short ribs and baked stuffed fig. The ribs are Korean-ish in style, served with a barbecue sauce, kimchi salad, cucumber, spring onion and chilli. They are superb. Fat, juicy, dark, tacky and packed with flavour.

My baked stuff fig, meanwhile, comes with avocado, walnuts, honey, parma ham and a red berry dressing. I’m not sure how much the avocado brought to the dish, but the fig itself was fab. If I’m honest, I wanted the ribs, but I thought those and suet would be too much for my poor heart over one meal, so I plumped for the lighter option.

If I had not gone baby’s head (or Steamed Steak, Kidney & Smoked Oyster Suet Pudding as it says on the menu) for mains, I would definitely have plumped for spice braised lamb shoulder.

Too often, pub curries can have a touch of the Vesta boil-in-the-bag about them. Not here. A perfect, but subtly spiced, pea and spinach curry - filled with potato chunks - supported the fall-off-the-bone lamb, and on the side there was a very decent paratha and some mint yogurt.

There is an Indian restaurant across the road from the Bay Horse and I’m willing to bet this dish is as good as anything they produce.

My baby’s head was a proper thick treat. Thick suet, thick gravy and thick chunks of steak. It’s probably been around a decade since I’ve had one and it was a fabulous sight. It really is a handsome, filling, stout, homely dish that never fails to warm the cockles.

I managed to overcome the taste of the oyster (which shellfish lovers will undoubtedly enjoy) until the very last mouthful, when a particularly oystery oyster manhandled my taste buds. I powered through, though, and felt a true sense of victory at the end.

After a barren few years, suet (as the song should go) is bustin out all over.

Puds consisted of a crème brulee (good spoon crack, wonderfully fluffy beneath) and a red berry flan with white chocolate shards, meringue and peach schnapps cream, which was too obviously a dishful of undeniables to be anything other than marvellous.

Prices at the Bay Horse, if I’m honest, are consistent with everywhere else these days - more than you want to pay.

Our starters were £11 and £13, mains were £21 and £27, with puds a more agreeable £5 and £6. You could spend under £100 if you take it easy on the booze, but where’s the fun in that?

I started this piece by apologising to you, the reader, but I end by saying sorry to the Walker family.

I have ignored the Bay Horse at Market Weighton for far too long. It’s bang in the middle of my patch and I should have reported on it before now.

To their credit, they’ve been almost a decade now, quietly getting on with the job of becoming a best-kept secret for many in the Riding.

I’m also sorry for entirely ignoring their excellent fish menu, which is their pride and joy and clearly draws punters from all over.

I promise I’ve had a word with myself and shall hereby be a much more frequent, fish-seeking visitor to Market Weighton.

Welcome 4/5

Food 4/5

Atmosphere 4/5

Prices 4/5

The Bay Horse, 75 Market Place, Market Weighton, YO43 3AN

www.thebayhorsemw.co.uk