were cultivated in Lancashire from the late 17th century onwards. and by the late 18th century the potato-based lobscouse – by then also known simply as scouse – had become a traditional dish of the region. A 1797 description records that potatoes were "peeled, or rather scraped, raw; chopped, and boiled together with a small quantity of meat cut into very small pieces. The whole of this mixture is then formed into a hash, with pepper, salt, onions, etc., and forms a cheap and nutritive dish". However, an earlier reference from 1785 reads, "LOBS-COUSE, a dish much eaten at sea, composed of salt beef,[ship's] biscuit, and onions, well peppered and stewed together." Liverpool being a seaport would explain how the dish, "much eaten at sea", became a favourite in that city. In the poorest areas of Liverpool, when funds ran too low for the purchase of even the cheapest cuts of meat, "blind scouse" would be made, using only vegetables. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that "scouse" is a shortened form of "lobscouse" a sailors dish from the 18th century. According to The Oxford Companion to Food, lobscouse "almost certainly has its origins in the Baltic ports, especially those of Germany", although it offers no evidence to support this assertion. The claim is repeated in a number of sources, though again, no reason given for this belief. Contrariwise Crowley points out that lobscouse (as "lobs course") is mentioned by Smollett in 1750, while Kluge dates its first appearance in German in 1878, and concludes the usage spread from Britain to northern Europe rather than vice versa. Similar dishes are traditional in countries around the North Sea, such as Norway (lapskaus), Sweden (lapskojs), Finland (lapskoussi), Denmark, (skipperlabskovs), and northern Germany (Labskaus). though these differ from the original lobscouse, and from each other. Swedish Lapskojs and Norwegian Lapskaus is a stew, like scouse, while German Labskaus is a form of hash. However, lobscouse is also different from scouse, being a type of gruel. Nineteenth-century sailors made lobscouse by boiling salted meat, onions, and pepper, with ship's biscuit used to thicken the dish. Origin of name According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), "scouse" is a shortened form of "lobscouse" and has also been written as "lopscourse", "lobscourse", "lobskous", "lobscouce", and "lap's course". Its oldest quote is from 1707, by the satirist Edward Ward: "He has sent the Fellow ... to the