A: Hi, I’m Andrew 

S: and I’m Steph.

Welcome back and today our chat is about the Norfolk Biffin. A Norfolk apple slow-baked and dried, which is gently pressed flat during the cooking process.

A: And what do Norfolk Biffins have to do with Christmas? Well, The biffins in A
Christmas Carol (December 1843) are probably the best-known, and the most often quoted. In stave three, the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Ebenezer Scrooge on a tour of the seasonal sights of London, including the festive produce on offer in the fruiterers’ shops, “radiant in their glory.” Here’s what Scrooge sees:

“There were pears and apples clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers’ benevolence, to dangle from conspicuous hooks that people’s mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags, and eaten after dinner.“

S: Norfolk Biffins also appear in The Holly Tree Inn’, a Christmas short story or novelette published in an extra ‘number’ of Dickens’ own Household Words magazine. The story’s narrator, a traveller staying at the eponymous Inn in Yorkshire, is told a tale by a fellow named Cobbs, the ‘Boots’ (presumably the inn’s resident boot-cleaner, or general manservant), about his younger days as a retainer to a family of the gentry. In Cobb’s story, two very young children decide to elope from the boy’s grandmother’s house in York so that they can get married at Gretna Green. They arrive by coach at “this identical Holly-Tree Inn“, where Cobbs was then working having left the family’s employ to seek his fortune. The kindly Cobbs then keeps an eye on the children and looks after them until the boy’s parents can arrive to fetch them home.

The relevant biffin scene occurs in the evening, when the girl (Norah, aged seven) is tired and teary and the boy (Harry, aged eight) says:

“‘Cobbs, do you think you could bring a biffin, please?’
‘I ask your pardon sir,’ says Cobbs. “What was it you ?—-‘
‘I think a Norfolk biffin would rouse her, Cobbs. She is very fond of them.’
Boots withdrew in search of the required restorative, and, when he brought it in, the gentleman handed it to the lady, and fed her with a spoon, and took a little himself.”

Do you enjoy a Norfolk Biffin? Let us know via email start@enjoyingnorfolk.co.uk