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The original Manchester tart is a variation on an earlier recipe, the Manchester pudding, first recorded by the Victorian cookery writer Mrs Isabella Beeton in her The Book of Household Management (1861).[1] It consists of a shortcrust pastry shell, spread with raspberry jam, covered with a custard filling and topped with flakes of coconut and a Maraschino cherry. Mrs Beeton’s recipe did not use coconut, and some modern variations add a layer of thinly sliced banana under the custard.[1] The somewhat controversial addition of bananas is believed to have originated in nearby Salford, thus such variations are known by some as Salford tarts.[2]
The Manchester tart was a staple of school dinners from the 1950s until the 1980s.[1]