Black Country Cuisine 1

Gray Pays and Fatty Baercon Bits:

Take 8oz gray pays. This will not be easy. The only place, as far as I know, that you can get gray pays for sale as human food is Wolverhampton Market. There was an outcry a few years ago when they were reclassified as animal foodstuff, and not fit for human consumption. Such was the outcry that they were reinstated (in Wolverhampton, at least). They look like brown spheres about the size of chickpeas.

Anyway, put the pays in a very large bowl, cover to double the depth with water and stir in about a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda. That is very important. Now you must leave them to soak for at least 24 hours.

After that time, drain and rinse the pays and put in a large saucepan with enough water to cover to the depth of an inch. Bring to the boil. Now you can put it into a slow cooker, or cover and simmer very very gently, or transfer to a large casserole dish and cook on the oven's lowest setting. The cooking time is also at least 24 hours or until softened.

About 3 hours before you want to eat them, chop up some bacon pieces, fat and all, and add to the pan.

Just before eating, mash with a potato masher. They will be thick, sticky and sooo tasty! They taste like nothing you have ever had before. Eat them with crusty bread.

I didn't actually discover them until I went to a friend's pub in Bradley near Bilston. Annie had a large pot of something that smelled delicious on the bar, which she was selling for 50p a cup. They were so good.

There is a delicacy known as "black peas" which I have encountered in Stalybridge Station Buffet, which is very similar, and I wonder if they are in fact the same.

I am reliably informed that, if you can find "pigeon peas" or "gunga peas" in a West Indian store, they are about the same. If you get a tin of them, obviously you need to omit the 24 hour soak, but you will still need to cook them overnight to get them mushy enough.