Scouse is so central to Liverpool that the city's people and their accent took its name. It came from lobscouse, a sailors' stew eaten in the ports of northern Europe, and by the 1790s the Liverpool poorhouse was buying beef, potatoes and onions for scouse. The method is simple and the arguments are not: beef or lamb or both, a stock cube or not, how thick it should be. Most families agree only that it must be served with pickled red cabbage and bread and butter, and that their own version is correct.

The British Grand Prix raced five times at Aintree, on the edge of Liverpool, between 1955 and 1962, and Stirling Moss won the first of them there. This is the dish of that city: cheap, generous, patient and better the next day, the way everything should be when you are feeding a crowd on race weekend.

Quick pickled red cabbage

Ingredients

• 1/2 small red cabbage
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 cup (240 ml) malt vinegar or cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) water
• 1/3 cup (65 g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf

The scouse

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil or beef dripping
• 1 lb (450 g) beef chuck
• 1 lb (450 g) boneless lamb neck or shoulder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 large onions
• 4 medium carrots
• 3 lb (1.4 kg) floury potatoes
• 4 cups (950 ml) beef stock
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme

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