Recipe: The Fantasy Feast on the Moors: A Dinner Inspired by Wuthering Heights
Aiaia Mushroom Wraps with Pistachio Pesto and Tahini
Recipes, a Hosting Guide, and Everything You Need to Step Into the Moorlands of Wuthering Heights
There is a scene early in Wuthering Heights when Mr. Lockwood arrives at the farmhouse in a snowstorm. He is unwelcome. The fire is sullen. The food, when it finally comes, is grudging. And yet the kitchen at Wuthering Heights hums with something no drawing room could replicate: the sense that every meal has been hard-won from the land, carried inside from the cold, cooked over a fire that someone had to stoke before dawn.
Emily Brontë understood kitchens. When the family housekeeper broke her leg, it was Emily who took over the cooking. She was the best bread baker in Haworth, known for kneading dough with a book propped open on the table. She also published her only novel under the name Ellis Bell, paid £50 out of her own pocket, and died the following year at thirty without ever knowing what her book would become.
This week's Fantasy Feast belongs to that world. Every dish on this table could have been made in a farmhouse kitchen in nineteenth-century Yorkshire, from ingredients dug from frozen ground, foraged from hedgerows, or pulled from cold waters. The menu runs from a Scotch and thyme toddy called the Thrushcross Warming Cup through a chestnut and wild mushroom soup, pan-seared cod in brown butter with toasted walnuts, and mashed parsnips buried under whiskey-glazed onions, to a cranberry and apple chutney with honey butter and oat cakes to close.
Below is one recipe from the feast: Heathcliff's Parsnips with Whiskey-Glazed Onions. If there is a dish on this table that belongs to Heathcliff, it is this one. Not polished, not pretty, not trying to impress anyone at Thrushcross Grange. Parsnips were poor man's food in nineteenth-century Yorkshire, dug from frozen ground and roasted over whatever fire was burning. Mashed with enough butter and cream, they become something almost dangerously good, sweet and earthy and velvet-smooth, with a depth that potatoes never quite reach. And then you bury them under this sauce: three onions, slow-cooked until they collapse into something dark and sticky, hit with a measure of whiskey and a long pour of stock, finished with cold butter stirred in until the whole thing goes glossy and rich. It is not subtle. It is not meant to be.
The full menu includes:
Cocktail: Thrushcross Warming Cup
First Course: Catherine’s Chestnut and Wild Mushroom Soup
Main Course: Thrushcross Grange Fish with Brown Butter, Spinach and Walnuts
Side: Heathcliff’s Parsnips with Whiskey-Glazed Onions
Cheese Course: Nelly’s Cranberry and Apple Chutney with Honey Butter and Oat Cakes
Plus a complete hosting blueprint: atmosphere, decorations, table settings, music, dress code, invitations, and party favors; everything you need to step into the world of Wuthering Heights for an evening.
What Is Fantasy Feasts?
Fantasy Feasts is a weekly series by award-winning cookbook author Jody Eddy, featuring 101 step-by-step plans to host the most unforgettable meals from your favorite books, television shows, and movies. Each feast includes a full menu of original recipes, a hosting guide with atmosphere and décor ideas, and the storytelling that connects the food to the world it comes from. From Tolkien to Miyazaki, Jane Eyre to Lewis Carroll, and Dickens to Dune, there's a feast for every reader, viewer, and gatherer.
New feasts publish every Friday on What's Good Here, Jody's weekly newsletter. Subscribe for free to get every feast delivered to your inbox
From the Menu: Heathcliff’s Parsnips with Whiskey-Glazed Onions
If there is a dish on this table that belongs to Heathcliff, it is this one. It’s not polished or conventionally pretty and it’s definitely not trying to impress anyone at Thrushcross Grange. Parsnips were considered poor man’s food in nineteenth-century Yorkshire. They were dug from the frozen ground and roasted over an open-fire. When mashed with enough butter and cream, they become sweet and earthy and velvety-smooth, with a depth of character that potatoes never quite reach. And when cloaked under this rich, glossy, whiskey-laced sauce, the mashed parsnips are transformed into something slightly more refined that Heathcliff would still permit to be served on his table.
Serves 4 Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 50 minutes
For the parsnip mash:
6 medium parsnips, peeled and sliced into even rounds
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp / 55 g unsalted butter
⅓ cup / 80 ml heavy cream (or plant-based cream)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the whiskey-glazed onions:
2 tbsp unsalted butter
3 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
¼ cup / 60 ml Scotch whiskey
1½ cups / 360 ml mushroom stock (or beef stock, if preferred)
¼ cup / 55 g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3 to 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves stripped, plus more for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Method:
Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Spread the parsnip rounds and garlic cloves on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, turning once, until the parsnips are golden and tender and the garlic is soft and fragrant.
While the parsnips roast, start the onions. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-low heat. Add the sliced onions and cook slowly, stirring occasionally, for 25 to 30 minutes until they are deeply caramelized and dark. This step requires a bit of patience but it’s worth it as the onions release their sweetness as they caramelize.
When the onions are ready, increase the heat to medium and pour in the whiskey. Let it bubble and reduce for about a minute, scraping up any sticky bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the mushroom stock and half of the thyme leaves. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until the liquid has reduced by about half.
Lower the heat and begin adding the cold butter cubes one or two at a time, stirring continuously. Wait for each addition to melt and incorporate before adding the next. This is what gives the sauce its glossy, velvety finish. Reduce the sauce down until it is thickened and gleaming. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
When the parsnips are done, squeeze the roasted garlic from its skins and add it to a large bowl with the parsnips, butter and cream. Mash until smooth but still with some texture. Season generously with salt and pepper.
Spoon the parsnip mash into a wide serving bowl. Ladle the whiskey-glazed onions over the top and finish with a scattering of fresh thyme leaves. Serve immediately.
GET THE COMPLETE FANTASY FEAST WITH FIVE RECIPES →
Get the Full Feast
This is just one of five recipes in the complete Feast on the Moors, plus a full hosting guide with everything you need to bring Emily Brontë's world to life: atmosphere, decorations, table settings, music, dress code, invitations, party favours, and four more original recipes including Catherine's Chestnut and Wild Mushroom Soup and a colour-changing Scotch toddy called the Thrushcross Warming Cup.
Fantasy Feasts is a weekly series featuring step-by-step plans to host the most unforgettable meals from your favorite books, television shows, and movies. New feasts every Friday.
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Every Tuesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
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