Introduction To The Bacon Dumpling

What ever you call this legendary local food, this original bacon dumpling recipe will get your mouth watering and stomach grumbling for more.

The historic recipe – passed down through four generations of a Buckinghamshire family – is the perfect meal to make for your lunch any day of week.

But if you make it for this coming Wednesday the 29th July, it is bound to taste even better – because it is Buckinghamshire Day.

This rare recipe has very kindly come from Rosemarie the daughter-in-law of a woman whose grandmother used to be a cook at Ascott House.

Her Mother-in-Law (MIL) was a kind-soul carried the knowledge of how to make one of Buckinghamshire’s tastiest bings, in her head and hands from more than 100 years ago.

Rosemarie told us that her MIL’s Grandmother used to make this classic labourers’ lunchtime snack, when she worked at Ascott House, in the parish of Wing.

For the first time Rosemarie Lee, as a way of honouring her beloved MIL has painstakingly helped put this historic recipe in writing for us all to enjoy from now on.

Rosemarie said, “Some people call it a bacon clanger or a bacon badger but MIL always called it a bacon dumpling so we better stick to that.

“Sometimes people put potatoes in them but that’s a modern twist.”

As MIL and her Grandmother’s would have well-known the bacon dumpling is rooted in Buckinghamshire rural life.

This now classic traditional dish is variously dubbed the gypsy bacon pudding, the bacon badger, roly-poly, or Bedfordshire clanger.

Historically, this ultra hearty suet pudding from the 1600s, was a portable staple lunch for working farm laborers, it tightly wraps savory bacon, diced onions, and herbs inside steamed suet pastry.

Today, the bacon dumpling steadfastly remains a populuar and delicious rustic comfort food.

We hope you all enjoy this recipe and sincerely hope that Rosemarie and her family are super proud the bacon dumpling recipe from Ascott House lives on in the hearts, minds and stomachs of the people of Buckinghamshire.

The 120 Year-Old Bacon Dumpling Recipe

The Bacon Dumpling Method

What We Know About The Recipe

Rosemarie, who left the UK 39 years ago, said it’s not bad living in Canada and that she still sounds like she got off the boat.

Over messenger Rosemarie said her mother-in-law’s recipe was passed down through generations of the females in her family.

“This recipe was handed down from word of mouth through four generations in our family.”

“I have never written it down before.”

“My MIL grew up in Wing, Bucks. Her grandfather was one of the groundsmen at Ascott House.”

She said when her MIL’s Grandmother married her Grandfather, they lived in the bothie above the gatehouse.

“We don’t know what her name was but she was a cook at the house.

“That is the story we were told so it may not be gospel but near enough.”

The house that Rosemarie is referring to is Ascott House, the 17th Jacobean house which is still the summer residence of the de Rothchilds.

The house, originally a modest 17th-century farmhouse, had been transformed by the Rothschild family into a rambling, half-timbered country estate filled with fine art, ceramics, and extensive gardens.

As for MIL herself, Rosemarie said how her MIL was a wonderful woman because she long-term fostered her husband and his brothers.

“MIL took on 3 boys aged 3, 4,and 5. For all brothers she turned out to be the best Mother, and when I married one of them she was also the best Mother-in-Law to me.

“When she died she left me her engagement ring. I wear it next to my mother’s wedding ring.”

Huge thanks go to Rosemarie Lee, as she has beed incedibly kind and supportive and guiding in making sure this recipe will live on in the people of Buckinghamshire’s hearts, minds and of course stomachs for many more years to come.

What Would Life Have Been Like For A Cook At Ascott House?

For staff like MIL’s Grandmother, it was a bustling world of large-scale entertaining, seasonal produce from the estate’s gardens and farms, and the daily rhythms of preparing meals for a wealthy household. 

Life in service at such estates involved long hours in steamy kitchens, managing open hearths or early ranges, and mastering hearty, economical dishes that could feed many.

Traditional Buckinghamshire recipes like the Bacon Dumpling (or Bacon Clanger or Bacon Badger) were perfect for this, using affordable ingredients like suet pastry, local bacon, and onions to create something filling and comforting.

These dishes sustained agricultural workers and estate staff alike, embodying the resourceful cooking of the region. 

We will never know if MIL’s Grandmother was making the bacon dumpling for the servants or the master’s main table where Leopold de Rothschild and his wife, Marie Perugia and their three children would have been sat.

Here at Talk Dialect we like to think: hopefully both.

The Kitchen Was The Heart Of The Servants’ World

Early mornings started with lighting the range and preparing breakfast for the family and large staff. MiL’s Grandmother would have been part of a team of cooks, kitchen maids and scullery girls, overseeing everything from baking fresh bread to preserving seasonal fruits from the estate’s orchards.

Meals for the Rothschild family were often elaborate, multi-course lunches and dinners featuring local produce, game from the estate, and high-quality meats. However, the cook also prepared simpler, hearty food for the servants, where dishes like the bacon dumpling or suet puddings were common.

Life below stairs followed a strict hierarchy. A cook held a respected position, second only to the housekeeper and butler. If MIL was the main cook she would have had her own bedroom and sitting room, and ate with the upper servants. Days were long, often 12 to 16 hours with time off limited to a half-day a week. Uniforms were worn, and standards were high; everything had to be spotless and punctual.

Despite the hard work, there were rewards. Working at Ascott House meant steady employment, good food, and the pride of contributing to a famous estate. The kitchen benefited from the best local Buckinghamshire ingredients, fresh vegetables, dairy, and meats. Cooks like MIL’s Grandmother passed down practical skills and recipes that reflected the region’s resourceful traditions.

This environment shaped this family recipe we still enjoy today. The bacon clanger represents the kind of nourishing, economical cooking that sustained both grand households and working families for hundreds of years in Buckinghamshire.

Dictionary Tip: Search for terms like “Croon” (the local black cherry) or “Bodger’s lunch” (historically bread, local cheese, and a pint of ale taken into the woods by chair-makers) are absolute goldmines for a cultural culinary food hunters..

 

The Story of Why This Food Has So Many Names: Gypsy Bacon Pudding, Bacon Clanger, Bacon Badger, Bacon Roly-Poly

The classic savory bacon pudding — also known as the roly-poly or Bedfordshire clanger — shares a deep, interconnected history with traditional Romani “Gypsy bacon pudding.”

While early boiled suet dumplings emerged in 1600s in England, travelling communities refined the one-pot bacon and onion roll as a practical staple for outdoor life over campfire flames.

As field workers and nomadic families interacted along rural trade routes, this simple technique — wrapping raw bacon and onions directly inside suet pastry — spread widely.

Regional cultures adapted it into their own local variations: Bedfordshire created the portable, dual-filled Clanger, while the South Midlands coined the Bacon Badger.

Before insulated lunchboxes existed, women in working-class, farming families created dense suet puddings to give field workers a high-calorie midday meal.

The thick suet crust was tough enough to be carried into the fields in a pocket or bag and eaten cold, or re-warmed in damp newspaper over coal braziers.

Each variation carries its own origin story and unique name dialect:

1. Gypsy Bacon Pudding

• Word Roots: The word “Gypsy” is an exonym derived from the Middle English Gypcyan, an abbreviation of Egyptian. When Romani people first arrived in Britain in the 15th and 16th centuries, locals misidentified them as coming from Egypt due to their dark features, distinct attire, and foreign language (Romani).
• Word Roots: “Bacon” comes from the Old French bacon, which traces back to the Proto-Germanic *bako (meaning “back” or “ham”).
• Word Roots: “Pudding” comes from the Anglo-Norman/Old French word boudin, which itself stems from the Latin botellus (meaning “small sausage” or “entrails”).

2. Bedfordshire Clanger

• The Origin: Famous across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire. It was designed as a complete “two-course meal” in a casing: savory meat (often liver or bacon and onions) baked into one end, and sweet jam or fruit at the other.
• The Name: Comes from the old regional dialect word “clung” or “clangy,” meaning heavy, dense, or close-textured—a direct reference to the thick, heavy suet dough.

3. Bacon Badger

• The Origin: A variation specific to Buckinghamshire and the South Midlands that focuses strictly on bacon, potatoes, onions, and sage wrapped in suet pastry and boiled in a cloth.
• The Name: Despite the funny mental image, no badgers are involved! The most accepted etymology comes from the 18th and 19th-century term “badger,” which meant a dealer in corn, flour, or meal. It was a nod to the heavy flour-based pastry case.

4. Bacon Roly-Poly

• The Origin: Originally a savory dish (using bacon, onions, and herbs) boiled in a cloth or shirt sleeve, earning it the vintage nickname “shirt-sleeve pudding”. In the mid-to-late 19th century, sweet versions filled with jam took over as the dominant British dessert.
• The Name: A literal description of how it’s made—rolling out the flat dough (roly) and wrapping it up into a cylinder (poly) before cooking.

5. And finally we get to the Bacon Dumpling

• The Name & History: This is the simple descriptive term used across broader English regional cooking — describing any suet pastry containing seasoned bacon that was either boiled in a cloth or steamed over a stew. The word dumpling first appeared in written English around 1600. While dough-wrapped foods existed globally for centuries prior (like Chinese jiaozi or Italian ravioli), the word dumpling originated specifically as English regional slang, likely from Norfolk/East Anglia.

Do you call this food by any other name? Let us know!

Other Famous Foods From Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire’s local produce is a beautiful mix of historic, eccentric culinary heritage and a modern, high-end artisan food scene heavily shaped by the chalky soil of the Chiltern Hills.

If you are looking for specific local products, historic delicacies, and food terms to add to your dictionary project, the county’s pantry offers plenty of material:

1. The Historic Icons

• The Aylesbury Duck: The ultimate piece of Buckinghamshire food heritage. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Aylesbury was the duck-rearing capital of England. These ducks were famous for their pure white feathers, pink bills, and incredibly succulent meat. They were walked all the way to London’s markets on roads coated in tar and sawdust to protect their feet. Today, it remains a point of deep local pride (and the nickname of Aylesbury’s football team).
• Cherry Bumpers & Bumpkins: Historically, South Bucks (especially around Holmer Green and Flackwell Heath) was blanketed in vast cherry orchards. Locals grew a unique, dark sweet cherry known as a “Croon”. A “Cherry Bumper” or “Bumpkin” is a historic Buckinghamshire turnover pastry stuffed with these sugared local black cherries and baked until crisp.
• Cattern Cakes: A traditional spiced, circular pastry or biscuit made with caraway seeds and currants. These were baked by the county’s famous lace-makers to celebrate St. Catherine’s Day (the one day of the year they were allowed off from their intense work).

2. Odd Local Savoury Pies

Bucks has a weird history of stuffing unexpected things into pastry lids:

• Stokenchurch Pie: A hyper-local recipe originating from the village of Stokenchurch. It is a unique, layered pie containing minced leftover meat, hard-boiled eggs, and — incredibly — macaroni pasta.
• The Buckingham Picnic Pie: Unlike a standard heavy pork pie, this historic northern Bucks variant is lighter and sweeter, incorporating chunks of home-cooked ham, Bramley apples, local Cheddar cheese, and English mustard.
• Bacon Badger*: A traditional heavy suet pastry wrapping a filling of thick local bacon, potatoes, onions, and beef suet — designed as a dense, hearty meal for agricultural workers.

3. The Modern Artisan Renaissance

The local chalky slopes and rolling valleys have given rise to premium independent food producers that dominate local farm shops today:

• Chiltern Terroir Wines: Because the chalky limestone terrain of the Chilterns is identical to the Champagne region of France, Buckinghamshire has exploded into a world-class wine producer. Vineyards like Daws Hill (Radnage) and Chiltern Valley (Hambleden) produce highly acclaimed English sparkling wines and blushes.
• The Marlow Cheese Company: A fantastic hyper-local artisan cheesemaker that sources 100% pure Guernsey milk from the Lacey family’s dairy herd in Lane End. They produce award-winning soft, hard, and blue cheeses native to the Thames-side towns.
• Chiltern Cold-Pressed Rapeseed Oil: Grown and bottled near the borders of Tring and Bucks, this has largely replaced olive oil in high-end local restaurants, prized for its bright yellow color and nutty flavor from the local crops.

What do you call this local dish? Vote on our social media poll.

For the variaton on the dish called the Gypsy Bacon Pudding please see our blog called How The Bacon Pudding Was Adapted By The Romani Community