Regional Recipes: Panaculty

Panaculty or Pannakalty is a regional dish from the North East of England. The dish is a great way to use up leftover cooked meat.

Are you looking for a cheap and easy dinner recipe that is full of taste and uses up your leftovers? Panculty is perfect for this, just pop everything in a casserole dish and leave to cook. Read on to get the recipe.

Panaculty is a dish known by many names, panacalty, panaculty, panackerty panaggie or panack are some of the variations. It should not be confused with pan haggerty, another regional dish that uses potatoes and cheese.

Read more: Traditional recipes from North East England

The recipe will vary depending on what leftovers are available. It consists of leftover meat or corned beef, onions, stock and seasoning with a layer of potatoes on top. This is placed in a dish and cooked in the oven. Sometimes you will find root vegetables, mainly potatoes, added to the dish, it all depends on what is in the cupboard.

There are many versions of the dish and each family will have their own recipe. Some include sausage and bacon or black pudding, some have several types of vegetables and some even have cheese. However it is made it is a tasty and filling dish and a great way to use up leftovers.

Read more: Pease pudding recipe

How to make Panculty

Historically the North East was an area where men worked hard during the day. The area was full of coal mines, ship yards and steel works, all jobs that were manual. Cheap and filling food was very much a requirement of the times and this meal is ideal. It is a dish that could be slow cooked during the day and enjoyed in the evening as a warming comfort food.

Panaculty Ingredients

• two onions
• 200g corned beef
• left over roast beef, lamb or other meat
• 1 carrot
• 2 large potatoes
• 1 small turnip
• 1 parsnip
• 500 ml beef stock
• 2 tsp cornflour
• salt and pepper to season

Note: You can use any leftover meat or just the corned beef if nothing else is available. Some recipes use sausages or bacon. The only limit is your imagination.

Equipment you need

• Sharp knife
• Measuring jug
• Casserole dish
• Potato peeler
• teaspoon

How to make Panaculty

Panaculty has regional variations, on Teeside it is made in a frying pan and the meat is often left out and served separately. Another way of making it is to make the panaculty in a large pan and serve as a soup. This can be reheated as often as is needed.

To make the panaculty just slice up leftover meat, usually beef or lamb onions and vegetables into a casserole dish. If you do not have much leftover meat use a tin of corned beef as well. This makes a much tastier variant of corned beef hash. Layer the top with sliced up potatoes. Mix the stock with some cornflour and pour over the top. Leave in the oven to cook for an hour and serve when the potatoes are golden brown.

Panaculty recipe

What to serve with panculty

The panaculty is great eaten on it’s own but it is often served with a stottie cake. These are large round bread buns that are specific to the north east region. They make great sandwiches and a cheese savoury sandwich in a stottie cake is a taste sensation.

You can also do more vegetables to eat alongside like peas or broccoli. Panculty is a one dish meal with all the potatoes and vegetables in one dish so it saves washing up.

Can you make panculty in the slow cooker?

I have never tried but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work.

Do you have your own recipe for panaculty? What do you add to it? Let me know below.

Why not pin for later?

If you are interested in regional recipes you may also like to read my recipe for leek pudding which is another simple but filling dish.

For a tasty teatime sweet treat then sly cakes are perfect.