Kitabı oku: «The Taste of Britain»

South West England
Dittisham Plum

DESCRIPTION:

A MEDIUM-LARGE RED DESSERT PLUM, OF OVAL-OBLONG SHAPE; IT HAS GOLDEN YELLOW FLESH AND AN EXCELLENT RICH FLAVOUR. THE HARVEST IS VERY SHORT, FROM THE SECOND TO THIRD WEEKS IN AUGUST.

HISTORY:

This is a localized plum variety, grown in and around one village in Devon. It is sometimes known as the Dittisham Small Red and, locally, as the Dittisham Ploughman. It is a chance seedling, appreciated in the locality and propagated by suckers. This process (see Cambridge Gage, p.112) is common to a number of plum varieties in England. The Kea in Cornwall is very like the Dittisham although smaller and with a slightly later season.

A number of myths luxuriate around the supposed origin of this plum: that they were grown from a cargo of fruit or from seedlings dumped by a ship, the villagers planting trees in their gardens; or that the original plum came from Holland or Germany, and that the name ‘ploughman’ is a corruption of the German for plum, Pflaume; or that the nuns of the Priory of Cornworthy, nearby, brought them to the district in centuries past. There is nothing to substantiate any of these beliefs.

Oral tradition is that before motor transport, people from towns as far away as Plymouth came by horse and cart (a journey of several hours) to collect large quantities of plums. The variety was received at the National Fruit Trials in 1949. A liqueur based on these plums is now available locally. The fruit is macerated in grain spirit.

TECHNIQUE:

Dittisham lies at sea level on the estuary of the River Dart, a wide, drowned valley which opens on to the south coast of Devon. The climate is mild and sheltered, protected from the north and west winds by high hills. The soil is slightly acid and shaley. Local people claim that this plum will not flourish anywhere but Dittisham. It is propagated from suckers, and most cottage gardens in the area contain an example. There are also orchards, which generally receive little attention except at fruiting time. Under normal circumstances, the plums flower and fruit without difficulty, but easterly winds during the flowering season may adversely affect the blossoms and, therefore, the crop.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

Bath Cheese

DESCRIPTION:

UNPASTEURIZED, SOFT COW’S MILK CHEESE. DIMENSIONS: 8CM SQUARE, 2CM DEEP.

WEIGHT: 250G. COLOUR: CREAM, WITH WHITE MOULD SURFACE. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE:

MILD, WITH SLIGHT ACID FLAVOUR, MELLOWING WITH AGE, CREAMY TEXTURE.

HISTORY:

Bath cheese is mentioned in several late-Victorian texts. Law’s Grocer’s Manual (c. 1895) said it was ‘a noted kind of soft creamy cheese’. Conditions imposed upon farm cheese-makers during the first half of the twentieth century were unfavourable for the soft, moist category of cheese to which this belongs. It was not made for many years until the current maker revived it in the 1980s.

TECHNIQUE:

Unpasteurized milk from one herd of Friesian cattle is used. Starter is added to milk at about 32°C, then animal rennet, and it is allowed to coagulate. The curd is cut to encourage whey separation to begin, and the curds and whey ladled into moulds placed on rush mats. The cheeses stand overnight. The surface is dry-salted, after which the cheese is left to dry 2 days at about 15°C. It is ripened in cooler conditions for 3-4 weeks. The cheese is made all year but is best in the autumn.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, BATH (SOMERSET).

Baydon Hill Cheese

DESCRIPTION:

AN UNPASTEURIZED COW’S AND SHEEP’S MILK CHEESE. WEIGHT: 2 SIZES, THE LARGER WEIGHS ABOUT 2.3KG; THE SMALLER ABOUT 450G. FORM: THE LARGER IS A TRUCKLE (TALL CYLINDER); THE SMALLER IS A ROUND OR LOAF, AS SUCH CHEESES ARE KNOWN LOCALLY. COLOUR: THAT OF THE COW’S MILK CHEESE IS GOLDEN YELLOW; THE SHEEP’S MILK VERSION IS A PALER, BUTTERY COLOUR; BOTH ARE WAXED WITH NATURAL BEESWAX. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: THE COW’S MILK CHEESE IS MILD AND CREAMY; THE SHEEP’S MILK CHEESE IS DENSER, WITH A SWEET RICH FLAVOUR.

HISTORY:

This is a modern version of a cheese formerly known as Wiltshire. Its history over the past 200 years is fairly well documented. It is related by method to Cheddar and Gloucester cheeses; as with the latter, both a thick and a thin version were known in the past. Val Cheke (1959) estimates that in 1798 5,000 tons of North Wiltshire cheese were made. This was said to be of excellent quality and in part was attributed to the particular method of dairying in Wiltshire which allowed for consistency in temperature and method. At this time, the milk of Longhorn cattle was used; these have long since been replaced by modern dairy breeds. As with Cheddar, there is some evidence for communal cheese-making. Small cheeses, known as Wiltshire loaves, and larger ones, similar to Gloucesters, are both recorded. A sheep’s milk cheese is now made to the same recipe.

The local cheese-making industry declined rapidly after 1914-18 and remained a memory until Jo Hale, a farmer’s wife, began her research in the late 1980s. She located a family recipe for North Wiltshire Cheese and has developed it for both sheep’s and cow’s milk under the name of Baydon Hill, where she lives.

TECHNIQUE:

The milk comes from a flock of British Friesland sheep, pastured in the valley of the River Avon, or from the maker’s herd of cattle, mostly Friesians with a little Guernsey, feeding on semi-permanent ley pasture. It is not pasteurized. The method is the same for both cheeses.

Starter is added, plus annatto, followed shortly afterwards by a vegetarian rennet, and the milk left for the curd to form. It is cut into cubes of roughly 1cm. The temperature is raised slightly and the curd stirred for about 100 minutes until the correct acidity is reached; then it is allowed to settle for a few minutes and the whey is drained off. The curd is cut in blocks and turned up to 5 times; the number of turns varies according to the state of the milk, and fewer turns may be required with the sheep’s milk curd. The curd is milled, salted and put into moulds. It is pressed for about 2 days, the cheeses being turned once. The cheeses are removed from their moulds; the larger ones are larded and bandaged, the smaller ones simply larded. They are stored for 4 months, turned daily for the first 6 weeks and once a week thereafter; then they are washed, dried, waxed and distributed.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST, WILTSHIRE.

Beenleigh Blue Cheese
DESCRIPTION:

THERE ARE 3 CHEESES IN THIS GROUP: DEVON BLUE (COW’S MILK); HARBOURNE BLUE (GOAT’S MILK), AND BEENLEIGH BLUE (SHEEP’S MILK). DIMENSIONS: BEENLEIGH BLUE: 14CM DIAMETER, 12CM DEEP; DEVON BLUE: 16CM DIAMETER, 12CM DEEP; HARBOURNE BLUE: ABOUT 16CM DIAMETER, 12CM DEEP. WEIGHT: 2.5-3KG. COLOUR: BEENLEIGH BLUE:

VERY PALE CREAMY YELLOW, WITH GREEN-BLUE VEINING; DEVON BLUE: VERY PALE CREAM, ALMOST WHITE, WITH PALE GREEN-GREY VEINING; HARBOURNE BLUE: ALMOST WHITE, WITH VERY SLIGHT GREEN TINT, GREY-GREEN VEINING. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: BEENLEIGH BLUE, RICH VELVETY TEXTURE, WELL-BALANCED FLAVOUR NOTES OF BLUE, SALT AND SHEEP, WITH UNDERLYING SWEETNESS; DEVON BLUE, FIRM TEXTURED AND SALTY, CARAMEL-LEATHER FLAVOUR NOTE; HARBOURNE BLUE, FIRM TEXTURE, INITIAL GOAT TANG, DEVELOPING INTO A RICH BLUE FLAVOUR.

HISTORY:

This cheese originated in the late 1970s in Devon. It arose in part from necessity, as the producer sought new markets for sheep’s milk; one answer was to make a blue cheese. The person who developed Beenleigh Blue and its sister cheeses, Robin Congdon, was one of a handful of pioneers in the artisan manufacture of fine cheeses. This tradition, once vibrant in the British Isles, had almost died out during the 1940s under the impact of strict rationing.

Sheep’s milk cheese may once have been made in southern England - indeed, it was the dominant type - but Beenleigh Blue was the first blue sheep’s milk cheese to be made in the area for many years. The milk comes from 2 flocks kept nearby the dairy. Devon Blue, made from milk of a designated herd not far distant, was developed in the mid-1980s; Harbourne Blue is a new addition to the range, made from goat’s milk from a single farm on the edge of Dartmoor.

TECHNIQUE:

Beenleigh Blue: the milk is heat-treated for 30 minutes before cheese-making commences. Starter is added, followed by vegetarian rennet and a culture of penicillium roquefortii; the curd is left for about 45 minutes, the exact time depending on the season, as this affects the quality of the milk. After cutting, the curd is stirred gently, then allowed to settle for about 15 minutes.The curd is broken by hand and packed into moulds, in which it remains for 2 days. The cheese is surface-salted, spiked after a few days, allowed to blue, and then wrapped in foil to stop the rind. The cheese is matured for up to 6 months. The methods for making Devon and Harbourne are very similar, but the first is matured for about 3 months. Season: Beenleigh Blue, made January-July, available September-February; Devon Blue, all year; Harbourne Blue, made all year, but the largest quantities are produced in the spring and early summer.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DEVON.

Cheddar Cheese

DESCRIPTION:

PRESSED COW’S MILK CHEESE. CHEDDAR IS PRODUCED IN MANY DIFFERENT SIZES WEIGHING 500G-30KG. THE TRADITIONAL SHAPE IS A CYLINDER. SMALL ONES ARE KNOWN AS TRUCKLES. CHEDDAR CHEESES WERE BANDAGED AND SMEARED WITH LARD TO PREVENT THE RIND FROM CRACKING AND TO REDUCE EVAPORATION, A PRACTICE WHICH SOME PRODUCERS STILL FOLLOW, ALTHOUGH OTHERS NOW DIP THE CHEESES IN YELLOW WAX. RINDLESS CHEESE, MADE BY THE CHEDDAR METHOD IN BLOCKS OF ABOUT 19KG, is NOW COMMONLY AVAILABLE. COLOUR: GOOD CHEDDAR IS AN EVEN PALE YELLOW. FLAVOUR: DEPENDS ON MATURITY. IN GENERAL IT IS RICH WITH A SHARP NOTE AND A NUTTY AFTERTASTE; SHARPNESS STRENGTHENS WITH AGE. SOME MANUFACTURERS OFFER SMOKED CHEESES OR ADD HERBS.

HISTORY:

The name is taken from the village of Cheddar on the southern edge of the Mendips. Points to note are a long history, the apparently consistent excellence of the cheese, a cooperative system for its production, and the way in which the techniques associated with it have spread around the world, though often abused. The name may mislead, however. Although first-class in the parish of Cheddar itself, this cheese was from the outset made throughout the county and the wider region. The name, it is suggested, was attached to the cheese because the fame of Cheddar Gorge defined the district of origin.

Medieval records demonstrate that cheese-making was already undertaken in the region, but more precise information is not forthcoming until the modern period. In the seventeenth century, the communal pooling of milk to make very large truckles was a matter of remark although few of them can have been as large as the cheese made for Lord Weymouth that ‘was big enough to hold a girl of 13’. All the milk was contributed to a common dairy, or ‘cheddar club’ which meant each cheese could be much larger than those from small, individual herds, so making them fit for long maturing, which accounts for their excellent flavour. This set Cheddar cheese apart from much of the competition. Already, by 1662, they were ‘so few and so dear [that they are] hardly to be met with, save at some great man’s table’ (Rance, 1982). The system was also sufficiently scouted to be hinted at in a play by Aphra Behn in the late seventeenth century. Its high reputation continued. Rance notes that in the early eighteenth century, Cheddar was described as ‘the most noted place in England for making large, fine, rich and pleasant cheese’ and that milk was brought into the common dairy and the quantities noted down in a book kept for the purpose. Profit from selling cheese was given back in proportion to the amount of milk each person contributed. Cooperative cheese-making continued until the First World War. Cheeses were indeed very large, weighing 90-120 pounds (45-60kg); cheeses of up to one and a half hundredweight (about 90kg) were noted in Law’s Grocer’s Manual in the late nineteenth century.

Detailed accounts of the Cheddar method date from an agricultural report of the late eighteenth century, but an exact recipe was not written down (or has not survived) for another 50 years. None the less, the routines associated with the cheese may have spread beyond the region earlier than this implies. Improvements in agriculture in the late nineteenth century benefited the cheese-makers, who made advances in both techniques and equipment, including the invention of the cheese mill and careful work on time, temperature and hygiene. Once perfected, the method became so identified with the cheese that it was known as ‘cheddaring’. This was generously exported around the world by the British, who left a trail of upstart ‘Cheddars’ whenever they colonized an area deemed suitable for production.

The centralization of cheese-making during 1939-45 had significant effects on Cheddar. Firstly, official requirements for cheese to be of a specified moisture content (to enhance keeping qualities) led to the elimination of moister types. Secondly, the number of farms who resumed production after the war was greatly reduced. The introduction of rindless, block cheeses and frequent use of pasteurized milk further reduced the unique characteristics of Cheddar made in South Western England. Proliferation of soi-disant Cheddars blurred the popular concept of the real thing.

Farmhouse cheese-making survives in the area, although some of the operations are semi-industrial in scale. Some makers still use unpasteurized milk to make truckle cheeses. A recent development is the introduction of rennet of vegetable origin, to cope with the increased demand for vegetarian foods.

The designation Cheddar is unprotected, and much inferior cheese is made elsewhere under this name. ‘West Country Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese’ has been awarded Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).

TECHNIQUE:

Cheddar cheese is produced by many manufacturers, large and small, using the basic recipe with slight individual variations. Both pasteurized and unpasteurized milk are used, according to the maker’s preference. The milk is heated to about 21°C and inoculated with starter culture (1-2 per cent, 5-15 minutes ripening); rennet is added and stirred in. After 30-40 minutes, cutting is begun, gently, to give curd pieces the size of wheat grains; once cut, stirring begins as the heat is raised. The curds and whey are thoroughly heated in the vat, and the temperature increased to 40°C over 40-50 minutes; the curd is continuously stirred until the correct firmness is achieved (judging this can only be achieved by experience). Acidity at this point is crucial; once the correct level is achieved, stirring ceases; the curd starts to mat, and the whey is run off. Cutting and turning, or cheddaring, is carried out either in the vat, or on a shallow tray or cooler. The object is to expel as much whey as possible. Firstly a centre portion of curd is removed to create a drainage channel; then the remainder is cut into large blocks which are turned; after 5-10 minutes the blocks are cut into smaller strips which are turned and piled higher; this process of cutting and turning continues for up to 90 minutes until the curd is judged sufficiently cool, well drained and acid. The curd is put through a curd mill to break it up. The curd is turned with a fork to keep it friable and allow salt to be mixed evenly (1kg salt to 45kg curd). The curd is broken into small pieces and put into cloth-lined moulds. The moulds are piled on top of each other to commence pressing, then placed in horizontal gang presses (in which several cheeses are pressed at once); when the whey starts to be expelled, the pressure is increased for 24-48 hours; the cheese is turned out 2-4 hours after the first pressing; the cloth wrung out in warm water and replaced and the cheese returned to the press; the next day the cheese is bathed for 5-10 seconds in warm water and returned to the press with light pressure; later the same day, the cheese is changed into a dry cloth and greased with melted lard which is rubbed thoroughly into the surface of the cheese; then the cheese is pressed for another 24 hours; after removal from the press, another bandage is applied. Ripening is at 8-9°C and a relative humidity of 86°; the cheeses are turned every day and cleaned to remove mould.

The production of block cheddar is similar until the moulding stage is reached. Then it is pressed into blocks. On removal from the press, it is wrapped in film to exclude air, and the cheeses are then strapped under pressure and transferred to the ripening room.

Cheddars sell at various degrees of maturity: mild (6 months after making); mature (9-12 months); extra-mature (over 12 months).

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

Clotted Cream and Clotted-Cream Butter
DESCRIPTION:

CLOTTED CREAM IS THICK, WITH A SOLID, PALE GOLDEN CRUST. IT CONTAINS 55-60 PER CENT BUTTERFAT.

HISTORY:

Clotting cream is really a means of lightly preserving it; when ordinary cream has been transformed into clotted cream it will keep in a cool place for about 2 weeks, as opposed to a few days. The method is probably very ancient and similar products are known in western Asia. Early references to clotted, or clouted, cream can be found in English texts from the sixteenth century onwards. The first mention cited by the Oxford English Dictionary is Boorde’s Dyetary of Helth (1542). A multitude of descriptions and references exist from the seventeenth century and later. Even the earliest references make clear that it was a regional product. Recipes show that the method for making it has remained essentially unchanged for 400 years.

This is a region with a mild climate, rich pasture lands, and a traditional cattle breed yielding milk with a high butterfat content, all factors conducive to the development of specialist dairy produce. Law’s Grocer’s Manual (c. 1895) remarks on ‘the increasing fancy for this delicacy’; that a regular sale for it was springing up in all large towns, and that the best was thought to come from Devon, notably the area around Ilfracombe. The cream was packed in small glazed pots for export to other parts of the country. Although the presumption is that clotted cream comes from Devon, it is equally known and long-established in Cornwall. The Devon connection probably took first place simply because it was the larger county, with wider connections to the country at large.

Once clotted, it was claimed the crust was sometimes solid enough to support a pound weight without breaking. Clotted cream has been used in the cookery of its region of origin (in breads, cakes, pastries, with fish, or as other regions might use cream); it is more generally thought of as a delicacy in its own right.

Clotting cream was also a very good way to turn milk into a flavourous butter. The heat-treatment required to make scalded cream and transforming the result into butter are 2 consecutive steps in preserving and adding value to a local raw material. ‘This cream was stirred by hand, the maid putting her arm into the pot and stirring it until the butter came. In hot weather when the hand was too warm, a bottle was sometimes used’ (Fussell, 1966). The existence of this butter was acknowledged by the author of the General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon (1813) and, a century later, White (1932) writes about a Devonshire farmer’s wife demonstrating making butter by beating clotted cream with her hand. There is a view current that this form of butter-making is now more known in Cornwall than Devon. Small amounts are still produced in the West Country for local consumption. No other region of Britain has developed clotted cream, or butter made from it, as a speciality. Awarded Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).

TECHNIQUE:

Clotted cream requires long slow heating at a moderate temperature. The craft method is as follows: both unpasteurized and pasteurized milk are used. Traditionalists prefer the excellent flavour of unpasteurized milk from Channel Island cattle which has a high butterfat content. The cream is separated from the milk and kept overnight; it may be ripened if desired. The cream, contained in enamel pans, is placed in a bain-marie and heated gently for about 2 hours. This process is crucial; the time and temperature must be correct; only experience will teach the right combination. The temperature of the bain-marie is maintained at below boiling, about 82°C. Once the correct golden, honeycomb crust has formed, the pans are removed from the heat. Industrial methods work on the same principle, but heating takes place either in an oven or in steam cabinets.

Before the advent of milk separators, cream would be clotted on the whole milk. First, the cream would be allowed to rise naturally on the pan of milk saved from one of the day’s milkings. If the morning milk, it would be left until late in the afternoon; if the evening’s, then left overnight. The pan was placed carefully over the fire and it was scalded, as described above. In small farmhouses, the pan would be placed over the kitchen hearth; in larger households, the dairy might have a special stove constructed from a stone slab pierced with holes big enough to accommodate the pans safely. A charcoal brazier could be placed beneath each pan. These pans were of brass or of earthenware. Once the cream was scalded and had clotted, it was skimmed off the milk and stored in flat dishes. Brears (1998) provides illustrations.

Clotted-cream butter is made on a small scale by craft producers. Instead of stirring the cream by hand, as was done in the past, an electric whisk is now used. The cream is whipped until crumbly and worked by hand to squeeze out as much moisture as possible. It is washed in cold water, then beaten with a boiled cloth on a wooden platter. It is pressed by hand into a mould to make round pats.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DEVON AND CORNWALL.

Cornish Yarg Cheese
DESCRIPTION:

PRESSED COW’S MILK CHEESE, WITH NETTLE LEAVES AS A WRAPPING, MADE IN 2 SIZES, 15CM DIAMETER AND 25CM; BOTH ROUGHLY 7CM HIGH. WEIGHT: 1KG AND 3KG. FORM: A TRUCKLE AND A FLAT WHEEL. COLOUR: ALMOST WHITE CURD, WITH A POWDERY GREY RIND THAT SHOWS A PATTERN DERIVED FROM THE NETTLE LEAVES IN WHICH IT IS WRAPPED. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: A YOUNG YARG CHEESE HAS A FRESH, LEMONY FLAVOUR AND A MOIST, CRUMBLY CURD; IT SOFTENS AS IT MATURES, DEVELOPING A DEEPER FLAVOUR.

HISTORY:

The use of leaves of common plants such as nettles as substrata for draining cheeses, or wrappings for the finished product, has a long history, though now unusual. ‘Nettle Cheese’ was mentioned in the seventeenth century by Gervase Markham, who considered that a new milk cheese ripened on nettles was ‘the finest of all summer cheeses which can be eaten’.

Although Cornwall was never famous for cheese in the way of counties to the east, some was made. A recipe ‘to make our good Cornish cheese’ was published in Farmhouse Fare, a collection of recipes from farmers’ wives all over the country. The details suggest that modern Cornish Yarg is not dissimilar. It was developed in the 1970s by Alan and Jennie Gray (‘Yarg’ is simply ‘Gray’ spelt backwards). It has been awarded a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).

TECHNIQUE:

Milk from designated herds of local Friesian cattle is used; the milk is pasteurized. Starter is added, and the milk left for about an hour, before renneting with vegetarian rennet. It is then left for another hour. The curd is cut by hand, drained gradually and the mass stirred, recut and turned until considered dry enough. It is milled through a peg mill into pieces of about 50mm then filled into moulds. It is left under medium pressure for about 18 hours, after which it is unmoulded. Brining is for 6 hours. The cheeses are wrapped in nettle leaves; these encourage the growth of penicillium moulds essential for ripening. The cheeses are stacked in controlled humidity and temperature for 3 weeks, turned daily.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, CORNWALL.

Curworthy Cheese
DESCRIPTION:

PRESSED, PASTEURIZED AND UNPASTEURIZED COW’S MILK CHEESE. THERE ARE 3 CHEESES IN THIS GROUP, CURWORTHY, DEVON OKE (THE LARGEST) AND BELSTONE. DIMENSIONS: 10CM DIAMETER, 4.5CM DEEP (450G, CURWORTHY ONLY); 12CM DIAMETER, 5CM DEEP (1.1KG, CURWORTHY AND BELSTONE); 15CM DIAMETER, 6CM DEEP (2.3KG, CURWORTHY AND BELSTONE); 16CM DIAMETER, 10CM DEEP (4.7KG, DEVON OKE). COLOUR: BUTTERY YELLOW, DARKER TOWARDS THE EDGES, WITH A FEW SMALL HOLES. TEXTURE AND FLAVOUR: SMOOTH, SWEET, WITH OVERTONES OF DRIED GRASS AND SHARP AFTERNOTE.

HISTORY:

The Curworthy recipe was devised in the early 1980s using old instructions for ‘quick’ cheeses from the South West combined with local expertise. Sources included Gervase Markham’s Country Contentments (1620), Baxter’s Library of Agriculture (1846) and Dorothy Hartley’s recipe for slipcoat or slipcote (1954). Slipcoat is a term which was used quite widely in England until the beginning of the last century meaning either a cheese which burst its coat and was eaten young because it would never mature properly (usually referring to a Stilton), or a creamy, light-textured cheese to be eaten young, made with only a light, brief pressing -a category to which Curworthy belongs. The initial development was carried out by the Farmer’s Weekly (the main trade journal for the farming community), Wanda and David Morton (farm managers working for the magazine) and the staff of the local Agricultural Development and Advisory Service. Curworthy is an emergent product; it began initially as an experiment in diversification. Having proved successful, the farm and recipe were acquired by the current makers in 1987 and output has increased steadily.

TECHNIQUE:

The same method is employed for all 3 cheeses. Animal rennet is used for Curworthy and Devon Oke, both of which can be of pasteurized or unpasteurized milk; Belstone is always made from unpasteurized, using vegetable rennet. Milk from a designated herd of Friesian cattle is used. The milk is pasteurized if required and then brought to the temperature necessary for cheese-making; starter and rennet are added. The curd is cut 2 ways, stirred and scalded to about 38°C, then drained and piled at one end of the vat, before being filled into the mould. It is pressed for about 2.5 hours, after which the cheese is removed and brined. Maturing varies with size, but is a minimum of 6 weeks for the smallest Curworthy and up to 6 months for Devon Oke.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, OKEHAMPTON (DEVON).

‘Bachelor’s fare: bread and cheese, and kisses.’

JONATHAN SWIFT

Dorset Blue Vinney Cheese
DESCRIPTION:

BLUE MOULD, HARD, SKIMMED COW’S MILK CHEESE, MADE IN CYLINDERS OF 1.35-2.3KG AND 6KG. COLOUR: CREAM OR YELLOW, WITH FINE BLUE-GREEN VEINS. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: STRONG, SHARP BLUE FLAVOUR; HARD TEXTURE.

HISTORY:

The word vinney derives from an archaic word vinew, which meant mould. It was in general use until the sixteenth century but was subsequently confined to South West dialect. Here, it was associated with a blue-mould cheese made in Dorset. This was certainly known in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a cheese made by the wives of dairymen, using milk left after the cream had been removed for sale or conversion into butter. Thus it was always a very low-fat, rather hard cheese (Rance, 1982). Numerous recipes survive. The growth of blue mould in the cheese was regarded as the defining characteristic, and was encouraged by various methods, including placing the cheeses in barns or harness rooms to mature.

In the twentieth century, several factors adversely affected production: the secure market for whole, fresh milk provided by the Milk Marketing Board; the invention of efficient mechanical devices for separating milk and cream, which left no residual fat, producing a very hard cheese; and limits on cheese-makers imposed by the Ministry of Food during 1939-45. Until the 1970s, output remained low and the cheese was hard to find. A true Blue Vinney is once again available commercially.

TECHNIQUE:

The milk from morning milking is skimmed by hand. Skimmed-milk powder is added to adjust the fat content, to make a cheese suitable for modern taste. Starter culture, rennet from vegetable sources and penicillin mould are added. The curd is cut into 2cm cubes and left overnight. Next day, the curd is drained, cut into blocks, milled, salted and packed into moulds. These remain in a warm dairy for 5 days. The cheeses are unmoulded, spread with a paste of flour and blue mould, and ripened for 10 weeks to 5 months, with spiking after 1 month to encourage the spread of mould through the cheese. Dorset Blue has been awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DORSET.

Double Gloucester Cheese
DESCRIPTION:

HARD, PRESSED, UNPASTEURIZED AND PASTEURIZED COW’S MILK CHEESE. DOUBLE GLOUCESTER IS MADE IN A FLAT WHEEL ABOUT 30CM DIAMETER, 12CM HIGH, WEIGHING ABOUT 11KG. COLOUR: PALE ORANGE TO DEEP RED-ORANGE. SOME CHEESES HAVE ANNATTO ADDED TO THE CURD. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: MELLOW, ROUND FLAVOUR AND CLOSE CREAMY TEXTURE.

HISTORY:

Two cheeses are associated with Gloucestershire: Double Gloucester, and the less common, lower fat Single (see below). Despite a common heritage, they are separate. The differences of method are subtle and the origin of the terms double and single obscure. They evolved in the late eighteenth century, when the traditional method for making ‘best’ cheese developed into one calling for the whole milk of 2 milkings, or the cream from an evening milking plus the whole milk from a morning milking (Rance, 1982). Double may refer to this use of 2 lots of milk. Alternatively, the terms may have meant nothing more than double being twice as thick as single (Black, 1989).

Gloucestershire, which includes both the Cotswolds and the low-lying land in the valley of the River Severn, has certainly produced cheese for a long time. Rance (1982) states that a regional cheese was exported in the eighth century AD. It is impossible to know what this was like. Fourteenth-century records show a Cotswold manor making cow’s and sheep’s milk cheeses and sending them to the nuns who owned the farm, in Caen in Normandy. If Gloucester cheese did incorporate sheep’s milk, no trace of this habit has been found beyond this isolated record.

Evidence for cheese-making throughout the county during the early modern period can be seen in the tall farmhouses which contain a cheese-room on the third storey; domestic inventories also mention much cheese-making equipment. One area, the Vale of Berkeley, in the south, became very important. Possibly the local Gloucester breed of cattle, whose milk is particularly good for cheese-making, contributed to the excellence of their cheese.

At first, Gloucester was a coloured cheese made from the full-cream milk of a single milking. These were known as ‘best’ until Double Gloucester was recognized as a separate type at the end of the eighteenth century. The cheeses continued to have a high reputation, although disease reduced the population of Gloucester cattle and they were replaced by ‘improved’ breeds from the Midlands. Cheese production became factory-centred in the twentieth century. A little farmhouse cheese survived and renewed interest in old breeds led to the revival of Gloucester cattle and the use of their milk in cheese from the 1970s onwards.

Several folk customs are associated with cheeses in this region. One is the ‘cheese rolling’ on Whit Monday at Cooper’s Hill, between Gloucester and Cheltenham. Four cheeses are rolled down the hill and chased by an assembled crowd. A similar merriment was recorded at Randwick.

TECHNIQUE:

Current practice is to make Double Gloucester from the whole milk of 2 milkings. It is heated to 28°C and starter is added. Annatto is mixed through the milk and then rennet is added and the milk left 45-60 minutes. The curd is cut into cubes of about 3mm and stirred for 20-40 minutes whilst the heat is raised to about 37°C. Stirring continues until the correct acidity is reached. The curd is allowed to settle and the whey drained off slowly. It is cut into fairly large blocks, piled and turned every 15 minutes as the acidity develops. Milling is through a fine curd mill; then salt is added (about 750g for each 45kg), stirred in thoroughly and allowed to dissolve. The curd is placed in moulds lined with cheese-cloth. Pressing continues for 2 days; the cheese is removed and turned once during this time, and increasing pressure is used on the second day. The cheese is ripened at 8°C and turned daily; then matured for 3-8 months.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

WEST ENGLAND, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

Single Gloucester Cheese
DESCRIPTION:

PRESSED, COW’S MILK CHEESE, ORIGINALLY MADE IN A WHEEL 6.5CM THICK, ABOUT 40CM DIAMETER, WEIGHING ABOUT 7KG. Now MADE IN VARYING WEIGHTS, 900G-3.5KG. COLOUR: PALE LEMON. FLAVOUR: MILD, SWEET-SHARP, WITH CREAMY FINISH.

HISTORY:

Single Gloucester became distinct from the closely related Double Gloucester (see the entry above) at the end of the eighteenth century. Patrick Rance (1982) said that they were praised by William Marshall in 1796, who considered them equal to ‘whole-milk cheeses from counties with poorer soil and less admirable cattle,’ even though they were made partially from skimmed milk. Single Gloucester evolved as a lower-fat cheese, smaller in size. Unlike Double, it was not coloured. The making of Double Gloucester flourished in the Vale of Berkeley, whilst the Single was made on farms in the north and east of the county. They were more seasonal, some only made during the spring, and they were only matured for 2 months. They have never been as widely marketed as Double Gloucester and for much of the twentieth century only small amounts were made. Interest was renewed in the 1970s and it is now on sale again. Awarded Protected Designation of Origin.

TECHNIQUE:

This cheese uses a mixture of whole and skimmed milk. It is heated to 19°C and starter added, followed by a vegetarian rennet. The curd is left to set for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. The curd is cut, stirred to break it up further, and the heat is raised to 34°C. The curd is drained, cut into relatively small squares and turned. It is recut and turned at least twice more to make very small pieces. It is then sliced and milled through a Cheshire mill, and salt is added. It is filled into cheese-cloth-lined moulds. Pressing is for 48 hours, during which the cheese is removed, turned and put back in the cloth, then given a final pressing for 2 hours without the cloth. Maturing: 3-12 weeks.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

WEST ENGLAND, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, DEVON.

Sharpham Cheese
DESCRIPTION:

MOULD-RIPENED, SOFT, UNPASTEURIZED COW’S MILK CHEESE IN 3 SIZES. WEIGHT: 250G; 500G; OR 1KG. FORM: THE SMALLEST CHEESE IS SQUARE; THE LARGER ROUND. COLOUR: WHITE MOULD CRUST WITH STRIPES FROM STRAW MAT; DEEP RICH YELLOW-CREAM. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: SHARP AND CHALKY WHEN YOUNG, RIPENING TO A SOFT CREAMY TEXTURE WITH MILD MUSHROOM FLAVOUR.

HISTORY:

Sharpham cheese belongs to the new cheeses which have arisen during the last 40 years as the artisan side of the industry began to revive from the damage inflicted by rationing during and after World War II. Several craftsmen have become well established in Devon, a county traditionally famous for dairy produce - in the early eighteenth century, the traveller Celia Fiennes noted that the dairy market in Exeter occupied 3 streets.

Experiments were carried on for some years at Sharpham House, near Totnes, before the present recipe was evolved. The particular type of milk used - from Jersey cattle - has a high butterfat content. Much background research was undertaken in France and, eventually, a Coulommiers type (widely taught in Britain and popular with small cheese-makers throughout the last century) proved successful. Sharpham has been sold since the early 1980s.

TECHNIQUE:

Milk from the Sharpham Estate Jersey herd is first flash-heated and cooled. Starter is added, and the milk ripened, vegetable rennet and a penicillin strain are added. The curd is cut by hand and separated from the whey; some of the whey is scooped off after a few minutes and the curd cut again; then it is hand-ladled into moulds and drained. The cheeses are turned, drained further and salted. Maturing is at a relatively warm temperature for about a week; then they are left for the mould to develop. They are wrapped and transferred to cooler temperatures to finish ripening.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, TOTNES (DEVON).

Vulscombe Cheese
DESCRIPTION:

SOFT GOAT’S CHEESE, IN ROUNDS 6CM DIAMETER, 4CM DEEP. WEIGHT: ABOUT 180G. COLOUR: WHITE. FLAVOUR: CREAMY, DENSE, SLIGHT LEMON TANG, VERY MILD GOAT FLAVOUR. VARIANTS ARE FLAVOURED WITH HERBS AND GARLIC, OR WITH CRUSHED BLACK PEPPERCORNS.

HISTORY:

This is one of many goat’s milk cheeses which have become so important in British artisan manufacture during the last 40 years. Before, with the exception of a few families who kept milking-goats as a hobby or to provide milk for children allergic to that of cows, not many paid attention to making goat’s cheese and none reached the market place. During the 1960s and 1970s, interest in self-sufficiency and small-holding led to the greater popularity of goat’s milk products. This was given extra momentum by changes in agriculture and the necessity for diversification in the 1980s. There are now many well-established makers of goat’s cheese, spread throughout Britain, with concentrations in Kent and Sussex, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and the Scottish Borders. Though receiving little support from government and small in volume, this is a dynamic and creative sector. Recipes may be inspired by French examples or British originals evolved through trial and error. It is impossible to list them all. British taste generally leans towards young, cream-textured cheeses characterized by a mild goat flavour and slightly acid freshness, although some people do make mould-ripened, soft cheeses, or hard, pressed cheese, or blue cheeses using goat’s milk. Vulscombe is based on the acid curd method, used by cottagers and farmers’ wives during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to make small quantities of fresh soft cheese for immediate consumption.

TECHNIQUE:

British goat cheeses are a diverse subject and it is impossible to discuss them all. One which represents the general taste for mild creaminess has been selected. Vulscombe is named for the valley where it is made. The area has a mixed farming economy in which dairy products are important. The cheese derives from the milk of one herd of goats grazing old-established, flower-rich pastures at an altitude of about 250 metres in central Devon. Supplementary hay and silage are fed in winter and a grain-based concentrate is used for lactating animals. Cheese-making begins once 3 milkings have been accumulated. The temperature is raised to 10°C and a cultured starter added. Then it rises to 32°C over some hours and incubation continues until the milk has separated into curds and whey. Straining is through muslin and cheese-cloth for about 36 hours, then the curd is salted and herbs or peppercorns added if appropriate. It is ladled into moulds and pressed lightly for 24 hours.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DEVON.

Whey Butter
DESCRIPTION:

BUTTER MADE FROM THE WHEY. IN COLOUR IT IS PALE GOLD; IN FLAVOUR, IT IS DESCRIBED AS ‘NUTTY’ OR SLIGHTLY CHEESY, THIS DEEPENS WITH AGE.

HISTORY:

Whey butter has probably been produced by cheese-makers in Britain for many centuries. Whey is the by-product of cheese-making, a thin liquid separated from the curd in the early stages. Depending on the type of cheese, the whey carries with it a small proportion of butter-fat and, in some areas, this is collected and churned into butter. Val Cheke (1959) states that, in the early medieval period, one of the duties of the dairy maid was to make whey butter and there are many references from later centuries relating to this practice. Maria Rundell (1807) gave details of how to manage cream for whey butter, a process which required the whey to stand a day and a night before it was skimmed, then boiled, poured into a pan of cold water and skimmed again ‘as the cream rises’ - this is not unlike making clotted cream. She remarks, ‘Where new-milk cheese is made daily, whey-butter for common and present use may be made to advantage.’ This statement still holds true today, and it is made in many cheese-making areas.

TECHNIQUE:

Ordinary butter produced in Britain is made from cream separated from fresh milk. In contrast to this, the butterfat used for whey butter goes through the initial processes of cheese-making. The exact details of these vary from region to region, but include the steps of adding starter and rennet, and allowing the milk to ripen and curdle with the temperature at about 32°C. Once the curd has set, it is cut and stirred while the temperature is increased by a few degrees. After a certain time, which varies according to the type of cheese being made, the whey is drained off. It is this part of the process which gives the distinctive flavour to the butter. The whey, which has a fat content of about 0.5-1 per cent, is then put through a mechanical separator (centrifuge), yielding up the fat in the form of cream which is then churned by conventional methods, lightly salted (about 1 per cent), and packed for sale.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

Elver
DESCRIPTION:

YOUNG EELS ABOUT 4CM LONG, SLENDER AND THREAD-LIKE. COLOUR: TRANSPARENT, PALE AMBER. FLAVOUR: MILDLY FISHY.

HISTORY:

Eels were once a staple of fish-day diet. Medieval household accounts devote more entries to them than almost any other species of fish (Woolgar, 1992). Small wonder, therefore, that their fry should be esteemed as delicacies. The River Severn has long been noted for the vast numbers of elvers it attracts. Neufville Taylor (1965) mentions an elver net in a domestic inventory dated 1587 and Daniel Defoe (1724-6) remarked on elver-cakes sold at Bath and Bristol. White (1932) states elvers in large baskets were being cried through the streets of Gloucester even after the First World War. The fish products of the Severn estuary were important regional symbols, whether the salmon, the elvers or the lampreys - the Corporation of Gloucester sent a lamprey pie to the reigning monarch every year until 1836. Elvers are caught from the Somerset Levels up the Severn as far north as Tewkesbury. Villages some way from the bank have memories of elver cookery. FitzGibbon (1972) records instructions for elver pie (made as a sort of pasty) from the village of Keynsham, half way between Bristol and Bath on the River Avon.

Elvers have remained a popular food in the region, but they are now very expensive, and much of the catch is exported, some going as stock for eel-farms (Green, 1993). Furthermore, a study undertaken by Brian Knights to investigate the declining catch of elvers from the Severn in the 1980s concluded that oceanic cycles had affected numbers.

There are several local methods for cooking elvers, including flouring and deep frying; and frying in bacon fat then adding eggs to make a type of omelette. Alternatively, they are steamed to make a loaf. There are elver-eating contests in the villages on the lower reaches of the Severn on Easter Monday. During the season, between the spring tides of March and April, fresh elvers can be bought from local markets.

TECHNIQUE:

The elvers are caught at night by inhabitants who have rights to particular places on the river where swift-moving water comes close to the bank. They take up station some time before the ‘bore’, a high wave formed by the incoming tide in the Severn estuary as it narrows, and warn each other of its arrival by shouting a message along the river, marking its progress. As the tide begins to ebb, nets are put into the water with their mouth facing downstream to catch the elvers as they swim upstream against the flow; after a few minutes a net is removed and emptied, then dipped again. A suspended light can be used to attract the fish. If the run is poor, the net may be ‘tealed’, pegged in position for some time, in an attempt to maximize the catch.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

WEST ENGLAND, SEVERN ESTUARY AND TRIBUTARIES.

Smoked Mackerel
DESCRIPTION:

SINGLE FILLETS OF SMOKED MACKEREL WITH SKIN. COLOUR: CHESTNUT BROWN ON FLESH SURFACE, CREAM INTERNAL FLESH. FLAVOUR: WOODY-OILY, LIGHTLY SALTY.

HISTORY

Similar to the herring, with a high oil content, mackerel flesh spoils rapidly when fresh and the hot-smoking process over oak chips was a method of processing which the curers have developed and which has become as popular as kippers. Mackerel is fished all around the British coasts, and has long been a mainstay of the South West. In the early twentieth century, the catch was preserved by canning (in Cornwall) or salting (in parts of Scotland). When the herring fishery declined in the 1970s, processors turned their attention to mackerel as an alternative. Particularly good catches were made off the Cornish coast and a substantial smoking industry developed, using both whole fish and fillets.

When the Scottish herring fisheries were closed in 1977 to conserve stocks, attitudes there (where mackerel had hitherto been regarded as inferior) changed and catches began to increase; smoking was also taken up as a means of using the catch.

TECHNIQUE:

Made with fish caught mostly during December-February when they have an oil content of about 23 per cent. They are filleted to remove head and bone. Single fillets with the skin on are cured in a brine, placed on stainless-steel trays and cold-smoked for an hour then hot-smoked for 2 hours. Flavourings (pepper, herbs and spices) are sprinkled over before they are smoked.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND; ALSO SCOTLAND; EAST ANGLIA.

Bath Chaps
DESCRIPTION:

WEIGHT: 400-600G, DEPENDING ON THE AGE AND BREED OF PIG. COLOUR: BATH CHAP HAS THE APPEARANCE OF A CONE CUT IN HALF VERTICALLY; THE CURVED UPPER SURFACE IS COVERED WITH LIGHT BROWN OR ORANGE BREAD CRUMBS; WHEN CUT, THE CHAP IS STREAKED IN LAYERS OF PINK LEAN AND WHITE FAT. FLAVOUR: SIMILAR TO ENGLISH COOKED HAMS OF THE YORK TYPE.

HISTORY

A Bath chap is the cheek of a pig, boned, brined and cooked. Why this delicacy should be associated with the town of Bath is not clear, except that it lies in an area which has been a centre of bacon curing.

Pig’s cheeks have probably been cured and dried for as long as any other part of the animal. The word chap is simply a variant on chop which, in the sixteenth century, meant the jaws and cheeks of an animal. These are probably what Mrs Raffald (1769) intended when she gave a recipe ‘To salt chops’ with salt, saltpetre, bay salt and brown sugar. This called for the meat to be dried afterwards; it would be expected to keep for several months. A century later, Mrs Beeton gave a method for drying and smoking pig’s cheeks, observing that A pig’s cheek, or Bath chap, will take about 2 hours after the water boils.’ Law’s Grocer’s Manual (c. 1895) notes both upper and lower jaws were used, the lower, which was meatier and contained the tongue, selling at about twice the price of the upper. Several manufacturers are recorded, including Hilliers of Stroud and the Wiltshire Bacon Company (founded at the end of the nineteenth century). However, today, only 2 producers have been located.

I am passionate about the use of local food and the high quality of produce to be found in Devon is one of the main reasons I chose to move here to start my latest venture. I have spent a lot of my time driving around the county, sourcing suppliers, going to farmers markets, visiting smallholders, speaking to day-boat fishermen and building up a network of people who are as passionate and mad about food as we are here at the New Angel. I love anticipating what produce is going to be brought into the restaurant on any given day. Take asparagus for example: because the season only lasts for six weeks, there is always an air of anticipation around their delivery. Devon asparagus is excellent and dishes containing my favourite vegetable always fly out of the door. Likewise, it’s great when Anthony Buscombe and his brother come straight in from their boat to the restaurant with a big box of freshly caught crab - 80 per cent of all of Britain’s crab comes from the Dartmouth and Salcombe coast, and it’s the best there is. The delicate, sweet meat needs only a little butter and spice, and I’m very lucky to be able to source such quality from my own doorstep. I regard this county as a centre of excellence for locally produced food. No other area can match Devon’s variety of produce, and that is why I believe it is so important to promote and support local food producers, suppliers and small farming businesses.

John Burton Race

CHEF AND PROPRIETOR, THE NEW ANGEL, DARTMOUTH

Bath chaps are eaten at main meals, usually with mustard. They are sold already cooked.

TECHNIQUE:

Bath chaps are no longer dried, merely lightly brined. They are cut from the pig’s heads, cleaned, and boned. They are brined for a short time, after which they are cooked. Subsequently, they are pressed in a mould to give the cone shape; when cold and set, the chaps are removed from their moulds and dusted with crumbs.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

WILTSHIRE AND SOMERSET; SOUTH ENGLAND

Bradenham Ham (Fortnum Black Ham)
DESCRIPTION:

AN UNSMOKED CURED HAM FOR COOKING. WEIGHT: ABOUT 14KG. COLOUR: THE SKIN IS BLACK, THE FAT BROWN-TINTED. FLAVOUR: DELICATE, SWEET, MILD.

HISTORY:

The Bradenham Ham Company of Wiltshire produced hams according to a recipe dated 1781 (Simon, 1960). The recipe is thought to be named for the last Lord Bradenham. It emanated from Bradenham in Buckinghamshire. The secret is in the immersion in molasses and spices, resulting in a sweet-tasting meat. Recipes for treacle-cured hams appeared in domestic cookery books at this time, and the developing West India trade provided molasses a-plenty. The hams were hung and matured for a longer period than other, less exclusive products. In the novel A Rebours (1884), the decadent hero visits an English restaurant in Paris, passing at the entrance a counter displaying ‘hams the mellow brown of old violins’.

The curing method and the trademark of a flying horse were the exclusive property of the Bradenham Ham Co. which was awarded a Royal Warrant in 1888. In 1897 the Wiltshire Bacon Company took over Bradenham Ham but continued to produce at Chippenham in Wiltshire. When that company closed in its turn, production was moved to Yorkshire. Similar recipes are used by other curers; Brunham, made in Wiltshire, is one example.

TECHNIQUE:

The legs, cut from bacon pigs, must carry a specified level of fat otherwise they become dry; they are long-cut, giving a rounded shape. Curing begins in dry salt with saltpetre and sugar but, after an unspecified time, the hams are removed and placed in a marinade of molasses and spices, after which they are hung to mature. The process from fresh meat to fully matured ham takes 5-6 months.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, WILTSHIRE.

Brawn
DESCRIPTION:

SMALL PIECES OF BRINED PORK, USUALLY FROM THE HEAD AND SHOULDER, SET IN A JELLY. IN APPEARANCE, IT IS A TRANSLUCENT, PALE GOLD-BROWN WITH PIECES OF PALE MEAT AND SOMETIMES CHOPPED HERBS; THE MEAT IS BRINED AND FINELY SHREDDED FOR SOME VERSIONS, GIVING AN OPAQUE, PINK APPEARANCE; IN THE NORTH-EAST, BRAWN IS COLOURED A BRIGHT ORANGE-RED. BRAWN SHOULD BE HIGHLY FLAVOURED; SAGE AND BLACK PEPPER ARE FAVOURITE SEASONINGS.

HISTORY:

One element of the history of brawn is constant right down to the present day and this is not the composition of the dish itself but the habit of serving it with mustard. ‘Furst set forth the mustard and brawne of boore ye wild swyne,’ instructed the Boke of Nurture in 1460.

‘Good bread and good drinke,

a good fier in the hall,

brawne, pudding and souse,

and good mustard withall’

was Thomas Tusser’s (1573) prescription for a husbandman’s Christmas. Later recipes for brawn sauce made of mustard, sugar and vinegar abound (e.g. Dallas, 1877).

Brawn originally meant muscle or meat of any description; by the fifteenth century the word was particularly, although not exclusively, associated with the flesh of wild boar. The Tudor physician Thomas Cogan stated that the flesh of wild swine was better for you than any tame animal and that brawn, which is the flesh ‘of a boare long fedde in the stie,’ was difficult of digestion. He counselled that it should be eaten at the start of a meal - advice that seems to have been followed, even if unconsciously, unto the present day (O’Hara May, 1977). Because the word applied exclusively to flesh or muscle meat, it followed that brawn developed the restricted meaning of the boned flesh, fat and skin, as opposed to the whole joint, bone-in. The way such a floppy joint was best dealt with was that it would be collared. It would be rolled up tight, wrapped in cloth and tied round [collared] with tape or string before boiling. Collaring was normally done to sides of pig, rather than hams. In the sixteenth-century accounts of the Star Chamber brawn appears almost monotonously as collars or rounds. Martha Bradley (1756) has instructions on choosing brawn. Her definition of the word was meat that came from an uncastrated boar (not necessarily wild). The best was from a young animal: old boar was too tough and the rind too thick, meat from a sow too soft. Her namesake, Richard Bradley, writing 20 years earlier (1736), disagreed. His brawn was the collared flitches of ‘an old boar, for the older he is, the more horny will the brawn be’. He thought brawn rather insipid; horny was probably a good thing.

A collar was a convenient package that could be cooked and sliced. The method was also a way of preserving unwieldy and quick-spoiling food, in other words, pickling. Collared meats (and fish) were usually brined and spiced, boiled, pressed and sliced. Brawn came to mean almost exclusively pork cooked in this manner. If the meat was pressed and cooled in its liquor, it would indeed begin to look like the jellied brawn we have today.

Whereas at the outset brawn applied to most parts of the pig apart from the valuable hams, by the 1800s, in the southern part of England, it had come to mean a dish based on pigs’ heads, collared. This appears under the tide ‘Tonbridge Brawn’ in Eliza Acton (1845). As the head was the boniest (and least vendible) part of the animal, it was a natural candidate for collaring and repackaging, leaving the rest for bacon, ham or roasting joints. A dish that was also common in Georgian recipe books was ‘mock brawn’: a flank of pork rolled around morsels from calves’ feet and pig’s head, cooked, pressed and cooled. Gradually, as brawn was relegated to a dish of the poor and country people who killed their own pigs, the dish was simplified into a highly seasoned, moulded, meat jelly containing small pieces of pork

Pork cheese, once commonly termed head cheese, is a similar dish made from finely minced meat rather than chopped scraps. In some regions, especially the North, brawn-type dishes are made from beef.

Brawn is still widely made, and is a profitable by-product of pork butchery. It is a component of salad lunches and still eaten with mustard or strong condiments. Although it may be found in many parts of the country, it is most often sold in the South West, where a number of relics of a once important industry survive, such as Bath chaps, chitterlings and the like.

TECHNIQUE:

The meat for brawn, usually pigs’ heads, is cleaned thoroughly and brined for a few hours. It is boiled with seasonings, bones and feet until very well cooked. The mixture is strained, the meat picked off the bones and placed in moulds, the stock reduced and poured over, and the whole allowed to set. Where a colour is given to the brawn, suppliers would once have offered ‘Indian Red’ colouring agent.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

Cornish Pasty
DESCRIPTION:

A BAKED PASTY WITH MANY DIFFERENT FILLINGS WHICH ARE INVARIABLY RAW WHEN THE PASTY IS MADE UP. THE SHAPE IS A POINTED OVAL, WITH A SEAM OF CRIMPED PASTRY RUNNING THE LENGTH OF THE PASTY ABOUT ONE-THIRD OF THE WAY IN FROM THE EDGE. INDIVIDUAL VERSIONS VARY IN THEIR FORMS; INDUSTRIALLY PRODUCED ONES ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE SEMI-CIRCULAR. A MEAN SIZE MIGHT BE 20CM LONG, 10CM WIDE, AND 4CM DEEP, WEIGHING 330G COLOUR: GOLDEN PASTRY (EGG-WASHED). FLAVOUR: BEEF AND POTATO PREDOMINATE.

HISTORY:

A bit of pastry is everything to a Cornish household. I can remember the sense of shock when I visited my up-country in-laws for the first time and neither they nor their five daughters had a rolling pin’ (Merrick, 1990).

Pasty is an old English word for a pie of venison or other meat baked without a dish (OED). Samuel Pepys consumed great numbers of them, as his diary relates. However, the use of the word declined in a large part of England and the only region where it survives is that stronghold of pastry, the South West, especially Cornwall. Here, the form settled into a fixed type: a pie that was food for the working man and his family. Spicer (1948), collecting regional recipes in the 1940s, remarked that pasties were originally baked on an iron plate set on the hearth, covered with an iron bowl, with ashes and embers heaped around. The Cornish were part of the English highland tradition which used a bakestone and pot-oven rather than the masonry or brick oven of champion country. Under the dialect name fuggan, references to pasties can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century (Wright, 1896-1905), defined as ‘an old Cornish dish… which is a pasty of very thick crust filled with potatoes’.

Tradition states that such food was the portable midday meal of miners and farm labourers, and that the Cornish will put anything in a pasty - meat, fish, bacon, cheese, vegetables, eggs or, in times of dearth, wild herbs. Potatoes, onions, leeks and turnips are allowed, but carrots are not customary; nor is minced, as opposed to chopped, meat. Fishermen, ideal beneficiaries of the convenience of the pasty, in fact eschew it. It is thought bad luck to bring one on a boat (Merrick, 1990). Pasties were often made too large to consume at a single sitting, and their ingredients were varied according to individual preference. Cooks would therefore mark each pasty with the initials of each intended recipient so that they could take up the relic they left off, and avoid a nasty surprise at the first bite.

The pasty’s success has been contagious since World War II. There are manufacturers everywhere. This may lead to variations, for example Priddy Oggie, sometimes quoted as a long-standing regional dish, is a pork-filled pasty with a cheese pastry which was invented in the late 1960s in Somerset.

TECHNIQUE:

A shortcrust pastry is usual, although some makers prefer something very like puff. This is rolled and cut to a circle 20cm across. A mixture of roughly equal quantities of raw, chopped beef steak and thinly sliced, raw potato, plus half as much chopped onion and turnip is well seasoned with salt and pepper. The filling is placed on one side of the pastry, the edge brushed with egg and excess pastry folded over to enclose it. The edge is crimped to seal, the outside egg-washed. It is baked at 200°C for 20 minutes, then 180°C for 40 more.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

COMPARE WITH:

Forfar Bridie, Scotland (p. 310); Bedforshire Clanger, South England (p. 67)

Devon Cattle
DESCRIPTION:

DRESSED CARCASS WEIGHT FOR STEERS AGED 500 DAYS IS 190-300KG; FOR HEIFERS, 160-300KG. THE DEVON IS A FAIRLY LONG ANIMAL. THE FLESH IS FINELY GRAINED, WELL-MARBLED AND TENDER, WITH AN EXCELLENT FLAVOUR.

HISTORY:

These cattle, which gain two alternative names, Red Devon or Ruby Red, from their dark, red-brown pelts, are traditional to Exmoor - hence a third, North Devons. Even in the Domesday Book (1086), the density of cattle recorded in north-west Devon was exceptional. This may hint, perhaps, at the emergence of a distinctive breed, although the first known mention of red cattle in the West Country was in correspondence of the late sixteenth century.In the eighteenth century, detailed descriptions of Devon cattle were given by several agriculturists. By this time the breed was improved to produce a stronger animal for heavy draught work. The foundations for these changes were laid by the Quartly family, who had acquired a farm on Exmoor. Comment thereafter stresses both the docility of the cattle and the quality of the beef. The Breed Society was formed in the late nineteenth century.

There is another Devon breed, the South Devon, which is recognized as distinct; it is a dual-purpose cow which provides excellent rich milk and good beef. Although coming from the same original strain, it is a heavier beast than the Ruby Red. It is touched upon in the entry for Channel Island milk, below, p.52.

TECHNIQUE:

The Red Devon cattle of Exmoor, where the breed was developed, are on the small side; this is because they were expected to fatten on sparse moorland pasture which is susceptible to trampling into mud (the rainfall is very high) and responds well to the lightness of the Red Devons’ feet. Exmoor is now an Environmentally Sensitive Area. Breeders on the lower, lusher pastures of Somerset selected for larger cattle.

Recently, new blood from the French Saler breed (known sometimes as French Devons) has been used to improve conformation, particularly the quantity of fat carried on the brisket and at the top of the tail. The two strains have been interbred in the past, the Devon contributing genes to the Salers in the 1800s.

Animals destined for beef are slaughtered from the age of 18 months. Some butchers prefer an older animal, of about 3 years. Older cattle were favoured for beef production in Britain in the past, but in previous centuries they worked as draught animals for some years prior to slaughter. At present, the returns for keeping cattle at pasture longer than absolutely necessary are low. Devons are cross-bred with various dairy cattle including Friesians, whose offspring are known as black steers or heifers.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DEVON.

Devonshire Ham
DESCRIPTION:

A SMOKED OR UNSMOKED CURED HAM FOR COOKING. WEIGHT: 3.5-5.5KG. FORM: HAMS MADE IN DEVON WERE LONG-CUT; THE CURRENT MAKER TRIMS THE BROAD ENDS OF THE HAMS FOLLOWING A NATURAL CURVE IN THE MEAT, AND REMOVES THE SKIN, EXCEPT AT THE KNUCKLE END WHERE IT IS CUT INTO A ZIG-ZAG PATTERN IN A STYLE KNOWN AS FLORENTINE. COLOUR: WHITE FAT, DEEP ROSE LEAN. FLAVOUR: A SUCCULENT TEXTURE AND CLEAN, PURE HAM FLAVOUR, WITH A LIGHT, FRAGRANT OAK SMOKE.

HISTORY:

Devonshire hams have been known for well over 150 years, and there is evidence that a particular ham cure existed in the area for a century before that. White (1932) quotes a Devon recipe for salting hams from the 1700s. Mrs Beeton (1861) gives a recipe for bacon or hams the Devonshire way, which shows the cure to have begun with dry-salting for 2 days, followed by brining in a pickle based on salt and sugar in proportions roughly 2:1. The hams were smoked for keeping and the pickle boiled and fortified with more salt and some black treacle before re-use. Anne Petch, the most prominent maker of hams currently working in this area, remarks that sugar or treacle in the cure helped to act as preservative and flavouring before saltpetre was available in a reliable form; it also counteracted the effects on flavour and texture which large quantities of salt had on the ham. Law’s Grocer’s Manual (c.1895) mentions that ‘Devonshire long cut hams - smoked or pale dried, and produced in the district round Plymouth - are also highly popular.’ By the 1930s, the Devonshire cure, whilst remaining a brine cure, had lost much of its sweetness. A recipe collected from a farmer’s wife between the world wars requires only a little treacle added to a salt and water brine.

TECHNIQUE:

Devonshire’s rural economy places emphasis on dairy products, apple orchards, and pig-rearing. The climate is damp and mild and, consequently, the local ham cure is brine-based. The hams now made in Devon are by a producer who uses English breeds of pig, and oversees the entire process from raising the animal to marketing. The animals are farmed extensively, on open pasture, finished with a mixed grain feed of barley and wheat, and slaughtered at 6-7 months. After cutting from the carcass, the hams are trimmed, then brined for 12 days in a 60 per cent brine. They are smoked, if required, in cold smoke from oak, plus a little beech. The hams are aged for 3-4 weeks. They may be dispatched raw, boiled plain, or cooked with cider and spices, a local method.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DEVON.

Dorset Horn Sheep
DESCRIPTION:

DRESSED CARCASS WEIGHT ABOUT 18-19KG.

HISTORY:

The Dorset Horn is indeed a Dorset sheep. This sparsely populated area, dominated by rolling chalk hills, has a long connection with the beast. The breed may have evolved from the now-rare Portland, a relic of the old tan-faced primitives once widely known in Britain and centred in the South West (Hall & Clutton-Brock, 1989). Further details are mysterious, although the influence of Merino blood is postulated. For a long time, the Dorset has been favoured for its extended breeding season. This was exploited to provide out-of-season lamb. In the mid-1700s, a manual of husbandry described the production of ‘Dorset House Lambs’ in Essex during late autumn for the London Christmas market. Such meat was associated with status; William Kitchiner (1817) remarked, ‘House lamb is … prized merely because it is unseasonable and expensive,’ and Mrs Beeton (1861) commented on the system of intensive rearing pursued ‘to please the appetite of luxury’. A flock book was established in 1892 and the breed has continued to be valued. The intensive rearing system was abandoned before the First World War, but the Dorset Horn and the relatively new Polled Dorset are still used to provide young, new-season’s lamb.

TECHNIQUE:

Lambing time can be adjusted to the demands of the market. The ewes breed from a young age and are excellent milkers. On mixed farms where lamb is just one part of the business, farmers tend to concentrate on producing meat for Christmas and New Year and then through to Easter. The lambs are born between mid-September and November; the flocks may be housed at lambing for ease of management and protection from predators. Shelter is otherwise unnecessary. Soon after lambing, the flocks are turned out to graze on the flush of autumn grass which follows hay- and silage-making. Sheep farmers who keep Dorset Horns produce 3 crops of lambs every 2 years.

‘Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.’ WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, TWELFTH NIGHT

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig
DESCRIPTION:

USUALLY SLAUGHTERED TO YIELD A PORKER OF 50-55KG AFTER DRESSING; IT IS A DUAL-PURPOSE ANIMAL WHICH CAN, IF DESIRED, BE GROWN TO REACH BACON WEIGHT. IT IS CHARACTERIZED BY LARGE, IRREGULAR BLACK SPOTS ON THE SKIN WHICH LEAVE MARKS AFTER THE BRISTLES HAVE BEEN REMOVED; OTHERWISE, THE MEAT IS DEEP PINK, WELL-MARBLED, WITH WHITE FAT AND A PALE SKIN. FLESH IS TENDER, SUCCULENT, WITH AN EXCELLENT FLAVOUR. HERE IS PIG WHICH MAKES EXCELLENT CRACKLING.

HISTORY:

The breed developed in response to farming conditions of the 1800s which required a hardy animal that could flourish on a varied diet. The Severn Valley in which the race evolved is a cheese and cider region and excess whey and windfall apples formed part of its diet, as well as household and garden waste. It is sometimes referred to as an orchard pig, because of where it prospered. Gloucestershire Old Spots were first noted in the early twentieth century, when the Breed Society was formed. It was then talked of as an ancient breed and the word ‘Old’ has always been part of the name, implying a long history. A Gloucester pig was noted in the 1850s but was described as white with large wattles. It is possible the breed arose from these Gloucesters crossed with Saddle-backs or unimproved Berkshires, black animals whose genes may have contributed the spots.

A drive towards home production of bacon by the British government in the 1930s led to a decline in numbers of Old Spots. It is slower maturing than improved animals and the spots were disliked. A trend towards leaner meat also worked against its use for pork. Breeders have eliminated all but a token spot. In the 1970s, renewed interest in rare breeds led to conservation of breeding stocks and reintroduction of old strains to modern farming and the food chain. This has been quite successful with Gloucestershire Old Spots.

TECHNIQUE:

The breed has a strong following in the Severn valley and environs. It is popular with hobby farmers who keep a few animals. The blotched skin is currently thought less of a problem and the spots have been bred back in. The pigs now resemble those known earlier last century. It is still used to forage apple and pear orchards by some farmers; whey, generated by West-Country cheese-making, is also available. These are supplemented with grain-based rations; the pigs may also be turned out to feed on residues of arable crops or on specially grown forage crops. It is still renowned as hardy, requiring minimal accommodation. The sows are good mothers. The breed is slow to mature, reaching a weight for slaughter as pork at 18-22 weeks.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

Gloucester Sausage
DESCRIPTION:

UNCOOKED, FRESH PORK SAUSAGE, WEIGHING 75-100G - LARGER THAN OTHER FRESH SAUSAGES; PALE PINK; SHORT LINKS; GOOD, RICH FLAVOUR, WITH HERBS.

HISTORY:

Many Gloucester butchers include ‘Gloster sausages’ in their display. No early references have been located, but oral tradition is that they have been made for as long as anyone can remember. One factor in their excellence is the distinctive pig, Gloucestershire Old Spots. This produces fine fresh pork, hence also sausages. In a letter dated 1766, the Georgian man of fashion, Gilly Williams, wrote to his friend George Selwyn anticipating a meeting near the city. ‘We shall eat Gloucester chine together,’ he mused. Here, at least, there is a conjunction of Gloucester and pork that goes back a while.

TECHNIQUE:

Gloucestershire Old Spots are raised extensively on grain, dairy by-products and windfall apples, resulting in succulent, well-flavoured meat with good marbling, excellent for sausage making. The Gloucester recipe is not exceptional, using minced lean and fat pork, plus cereal (in the form of rusk) and a seasoning of herbs, salt and pepper. They are filled into natural casings.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

WEST ENGLAND, GLOUCESTER.

Hog’s Pudding
DESCRIPTION:

A COOKED PORK AND CEREAL SAUSAGE; ABOUT 3 CM DIAMETER AND OF VARYING LENGTHS. COLOUR: A GREYISH-WHITE OR MOTTLED PINK AND WHITE; IN SOME TYPES THE CEREAL CAN BE SEEN AS WHOLE GRAINS. FLAVOUR: A BLAND COMBINATION OF PORK AND CEREAL, OVERLAID BY THE SPICES FAVOURED BY THE MAKER; SOME CONTAIN DRIED FRUIT.

HISTORY:

The first specific reference to hog’s pudding in the Oxford English Dictionary is from the early eighteenth century. However, the word hog (used in English to mean a bacon pig since at least the fourteenth century), combined with recipes including spices and currants in a savoury dish, suggests the tradition is far older, with roots in medieval practice. White puddings of cereal, spices and dried fruit were known in the 1500s, and were probably made throughout southern England. Much later, Flora Thompson (1939) describes how the country dwellers of Oxfordshire used the various parts of a pig when it was killed in the winter months - hog’s puddings bulked large.

Recipes varied; often they would have formerly included lights and spleen. Others emphasize the cereal content: a quotation from Hampshire (Wright, 1896-1905) describes it as ‘the entrail of a pig stuffed with pudding composed of flour, currants and spice’. A late Victorian recipe from Sussex describes hog’s puddings as small ball-like sausages, stuffed with pork, flour, spices and currants (White, 1932). Modern puddings have evolved from these heavily cereal-based, sweetish products. Although some containing fruit are still made, other examples are closer to a sausage, with groats (hulled, crushed cereal grains), lean pork and savoury spices, especially black pepper. In the past, they were used for any meal but now tend to be served at breakfast. The customary method of reheating was in simmering water, but they can be baked, fried or grilled.

TECHNIQUE:

Groats are soaked and cooked until soft, then mixed with minced pork, dried fruit and seasonings. This is filled into wide casings and tied in rings which are blanched in simmering water, just enough to cook the sausage through.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH ENGLAND, ESPECIALLY SOUTH WEST.

Mendip Wallflsh
DESCRIPTION:

‘WALLFISH’ IS A SOMERSET NAME FOR SNAILS. THE GARDEN SNAIL IS THE COMMONEST VARIETY; IT HAS A BROWNISH-OCHRE SHELL, ABOUT 3.5CM DIAMETER.

HISTORY:

The use of snails as food is generally regarded by the British as curious and outlandish - more specifically, French. Evidence for their consumption in the past is patchy. Recipes used snails medicinally, to ease chest ailments. They are often found in early books of household remedies. A handful of culinary recipes were given by John Nott (1726). Roy Groves, who developed methods for the indoor farming of snails during the 1980s, states there is some oral evidence for snail eating in areas such as the North-East of England, where glass-blowing was an occupation. Snails reputedly have a beneficial effect on the respiratory system. Oral tradition also states that ‘wallfish’ are part of the diet in the West Country, particularly in the area around the Mendips. Here, for about 50 years, the Miner’s Arms (a pub and restaurant) at Priddy, has served snails as a house speciality.

Both the Roman snail (Helix pomatia) and the smaller garden snail (Helix aspersa) are found wild in Britain. Law’s Grocer’s Manual (c. 1895) remarked that both species were collected in England for the Paris market. Recent initiatives in agricultural diversification have also led to the foundation of a snail-farming industry with several producers of Helix aspersa in the Somerset area. Another species which is farmed is the African land snail.

TECHNIQUE:

Snails are collected from the wild in Somerset, but rarely reach the market, being consumed at home or sold to restaurants. The snails are collected in the autumn, and a proportion are frozen for use throughout the winter at the Miner’s Arms. Snail farming is carried out at several locations, including at least one where the snails are reared outdoors in poly-tunnels. These enclose forage crops such as stubble turnips, to provide cover and help retain moisture. The snails take approximately a year to become fully grown. During winter they hibernate, when they are kept in boxes in barns, safe from predators. They are collected as required and sold alive.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, SOMERSET.

Wiltshire Bacon
DESCRIPTION:

SMOKED OR UNSMOKED CURED PORK FOR COOKING; A SIDE WEIGHS 29-31KG; THIS REPRESENTS HALF A PIG, TRIMMED AND CURED. COLOUR: DEEP ROSE-PINK LEAN, WHITE FAT.

FLAVOUR: A MILD CURE.
HISTORY:

A reference dated 1794 which mentions the ‘old’ Wiltshire bacon, implies the area had been long known for this product (OED). The trade was based on both pigs native to the region and imported ones from Ireland which were driven across the county on their way to London markets. Mrs Beeton (1861) states the Wiltshire cure used dry salt and coarse sugar, the flitches lying in the pickle for a month before being hung to dry. One of the largest bacon curing companies in Britain, Harris of Calne, was started by a local butcher who took advantage of the herds of pigs passing his doorstep. In the mid-nineteenth century, the company began to use ice to chill the premises in the summer, an innovation allowing production the year round and the amount of salt in the cure to be reduced, making for sweeter, milder bacon. About this time a switch from dry to brine curing took place, to give the modem form of the cure, now practised in many areas outside its place of origin.

The bacon was sold after drying (when it was called green bacon in the South, and pale dried bacon in the north of England). If smoking took place, it was carried out by the wholesaler or retailer to suit their market. The south of the country showed a preference for smoked bacon. Large quantities of bacon are now imported into Britain. Until their Calne factory closed, Harris still produced Wiltshire bacon in its home region, but now there are only 2 commercial curers left in the area.

It should be noted that some bacon experts, for instance William Hogan (1978), use the term Wiltshire to refer to a cut as well as the cure. In this case it indicates half a pig, with the ham left on and the ribs intact but the blade bone removed.

TECHNIQUE:

A local manufacturer uses pigs reared on his own farm, fed on home-grown wheat and whey from the cheese industry in neighbouring Somerset. After cutting, the sides are immersed in a salt, saltpetre and water brine for 4-5 days. They are then stacked and drained for 14 days. The bacon may be smoked over hardwood sawdust. It is dispatched whole, in smaller joints, or sliced into rashers.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, WILTSHIRE.

COMPARE WITH:

Suffolk Sweet-Cured Bacon, East Anglia (p. 128); Ayrshire Bacon, Scotland (p. 306); Welsh Bacon, Wales (p. 190).

Apple Cake
DESCRIPTION:

APPLE CAKE, SOMETIMES CALLED APPLE PUDDING, AND OFTEN GIVEN A COUNTY PREFIX DEPENDING ON THE PLACE OF ITS MAKING, IS USUALLY OBLONG OR SQUARE, BAKED IN A TRAY. ITS FLAVOUR PLAYS ON SWEET—ACID BALANCE, WHICH DEPENDS ON VARIETY OF APPLE USED: COOKING APPLES GIVE A MOISTER CAKE WITH AN ACID NOTE, DESSERT APPLES SWEETER AND MORE AROMATIC.

HISTORY:

Several modern recipes are found. They vary in concept; one from Cornwall is similar to a French tarte Tatin; one from Cambridgeshire appears related to German Streusel. However, a distinctively English version does exist in the South West, especially Dorset, Devon and Somerset. Here, raw apples are added to a plain cake at the outset, as if they were raisins or currants in a fruit cake. Apples have always been added to various cakes and puddings in apple country, but little documentary evidence survives. An example is a farmhouse recipe from Somerset (Webb, c. 1930). One from Dorset, ‘one of the most famous of all English tea cakes’, is in Spicer (1949). A modern collection asserts that Dorset apple cake is distinguished from others by being baked in separate tins before being sandwiched with butter (Raffael, 1997).

While popular in domestic circles and often made for sale in cafes, it can also be found in many craft bakeries in the region.

TECHNIQUE:

Apple cakes from the South West have minor variations in detail, such as addition of dried fruit and candied peel in a recipe from Dorset. They call for apples, flour, butter and caster sugar in the proportions 4:2:1:1. Chemical leavening is used. The apples (sour cooking apples are generally required, although some prefer eating apples because they are drier) are peeled, cored and sliced into segments. The butter is rubbed into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. The sugar is stirred in, followed by sliced raw apple, and dried fruit and spices if required; the mixture is bound with egg and milk. It is scaled off into greased tins. The surface is levelled and sprinkled with granulated sugar. Baking takes 1 hour at 180°C.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

Bath Bun
DESCRIPTION:

A CIRCULAR BUN WITH NIB SUGAR ON THE TOP AND A HIGHLY GLAZED SURFACE; DIAMETER 60-70MM, DEPTH 50MM. WEIGHT: ABOUT 75G. COLOUR: GOLDEN BROWN WITH SHINY GLAZE, SPRINKLED WITH CURRANTS AND SUGAR. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: LIGHTLY SPICED AND SWEETENED, CLOSE TEXTURED, WITH LUMP SUGAR UNDERNEATH.

HISTORY:

Bath has long been an important pleasure and health resort. Bath buns are one of several distinctive foods which became famous as the town grew during the eighteenth century. The Bath cook and author Martha Bradley (1756) gave a recipe for a Bath seed cake which appears different to other seed cakes in its use of wine and rose water. This instruction came, in fact, from Bradley’s lengthy quotation of an earlier household manuscript, possibly dating from the seventeenth century. Elizabeth Raffald (1769) tells how to cook ‘Bath Cakes’, which are caraway (seed) cakes shaped into buns. The light, yeast-leavened rolls were enriched with cream and butter, but no eggs. Some caraway comfits were worked into the dough and more were strewn over the top. This recipe is repeated in Farley (1783) - a work largely derivative of Raffald - and Henderson (c. 1790), a work largely derivative of Farley. When Henderson was re-edited by J.C. Schnebbelie (1804) the tide of the recipe was transformed to ‘Bath Cakes or Buns’. While Raffald sent her cakes in ‘hot for breakfast’, Farley, Henderson and Schnebbelie suggested they be eaten at either breakfast or tea. A cookery book produced in the Midlands in 1807 calls them Bath buns (Simon, 1960). The proportions are very similar to those in Raffald, except some of the cream is replaced by egg. It, too, deploys caraway, a defining ingredient in these early recipes.

That Bath buns were not universal in the city during the Georgian era may be inferred from the letters of a visitor who never stinted his descriptions of food and drink. John Penrose wrote in 1766 (Penrose, 1983): ‘…with our Tea Cambridge-Cakes buttered. We have had these too ourselves. They are round thick Cakes, a penny apiece, hardly an Ounce weight; look like Dow [dough], all white and soft: these we toast a little by the fire, just to warm them through, and then butter them; they eat exceedingly well.’ Were his Cambridge cakes the forerunners of Bath buns? Jane Austen refers to ‘disordering her stomach with Bath bunns’ in a letter of 1801 (Austen, 1995).

Meg Dods (1826) included recipes for both Bath cake and Bath buns in her description of English specialities. She likened the dough to the French brioche (it included eggs and butter) and suggested caraway seeds for the cake and caraway comfits (sugar-coated) for the buns. Neither cake nor buns were described in the Victorian cookery bibles of Eliza Acton and Isabella Beeton, although the buns occur in Mrs Marshall (1887), retaining their spicing with caraway. The nineteenth century, however, does seem to be the period when Bath buns underwent considerable change and normalization, losing for the most part their distinctive caraway flavour and gaining the now-accepted adornment of nib sugar as well as candied peel or grated citrus zest and dried fruit.

The defining moment appears to have been the Great Exhibition of 1851. The catering contractors served Bath buns in their tens of thousands (David, 1977). This led to the development of a ‘Cheap Bath or London bun’ described by Kirkland (1907) which was little more than a bun with eggs, orange peel, sultanas and a final ornament of nib sugar. The fat used was lard.

The general move away from caraway is confirmed by Dallas (1877), who suggests a plain brioche dough for Bath buns and Skuse (1892), who advises lemon zest.

In the town of Bath, buns made from a recipe adapted from one dated 1679 are still available. It was used by James Cobb, who founded his bakery in 1866. It does not deploy caraway, except in a residual addition of a pinch of mixed ground spice. The firm of Cobb’s continued to trade until the late 1980s, when the business and recipe were acquired by Mountstevens Ltd, who continue to make the buns and have several shops in Bath itself. Beyond the town, it is largely the ‘cheap or London’ variety that is produced.

The sun is shining at Stroud Farmers Market. It is shining on four fruit and vegetable stalls, three of them organic, piled high with broad beans; tufted carrots; young beetroot complete with emerald tops; red-skinned potatoes, white-skinned potatoes, yellow potatoes, potatoes blotched pink and white, with their names scrawled on bits of cardboard - Pink Fir Apple, Desiree, Pentland Javelin, Charlotte, Duke of York; shaggy, multifarious salad leaves; onions and shallots; crisp cabbages. It is shining on boxes of white cherries, Merton Glory, blushed down one side, and others of gooseberries as green as opals. It is shining on seven meat stalls, among them offering Gloucester Old Spot and Tamworth pork, Gloucester Long Horn and Hereford beef, Cotswold lamb, tree-range chickens from Chepstow and Aylesbury ducklings, and game - rabbit as well as fallow and muntjack venison from the countryside about. It shines on two bread stalls, two cake stalls, two stalls selling apple juice, perry and cider; another with fresh trout, trout pâté and watercress; and on three cheese stalls, one of which has sheeps’ milk cheeses coated in ash stacked up like so many small square turrets.

I lurch away up, laden with a couple of chickens from Chepstow, belly pork from Minchinhampton, green back rashers from Dursley, a kilo of carrots from Highrove, kale tops from Wotten, a bag of cherries, a large lump of extra mature Double Gloucester and a Dublin loaf from the WI stall. Second helpings anybody?

Matthew Fort

COOKERY WRITER AND BROADCASTER

TECHNIQUE:

The recipe used by Cobb’s was quoted by Grigson (1984). Strong white flour, eggs, butter and crushed lump sugar are used, roughly in the proportions 3:2:1:1, and to the following method. A ferment of yeast, sugar and water is allowed to work for 10 minutes and then eggs and a little flour are added; this is covered and left for about an hour. The ferment is kneaded with the remaining flour, butter, crushed lump sugar, and a little additional granulated sugar, plus small quantities of lemon juice and mixed spice. It is left to rise, then knocked back and shaped and proved. The buns are baked for 20 minutes at 220°C, glazed with sugar syrup and sprinkled with crushed sugar lumps.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, BATH (SOMERSET).

Bath Oliver
DESCRIPTION:

A ROUND BISCUIT, 75MM DIAMETER, 3MM THICK. WEIGHT: 10G. COLOUR: PALE CREAM. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: NEUTRAL, SLIGHTLY SALTY; VERY CRISP. A CHOCOLATE-COATED VERSION IS MADE, KNOWN AS A CHOCOLATE OLIVER, 40MM DIAMETER, WITH A THICK COATING OF BITTER CHOCOLATE.

HISTORY:

Bath Olivers are named for William Oliver, a doctor who was born in Penzance in 1695. He lived most of his life in Bath and was the city’s most important practitioner during the time of its greatest expansion. The accepted account is that Dr Oliver created a recipe for thin, palatable, easily digested biscuits, to be eaten by those who came to Bath to take the waters and recover from excessively rich diets. The story continues that Dr Oliver set up his coachman as a baker; providing some premises, 10 bags of flour, £100 and the recipe. This recipe passed by a sort of apostolic succession from Atkins, the original coachman, to Norris, to Carter, to Munday, to Ashman, until it finally came into the possession of Cater, Stoffell & Fortt, who had a shop in Bath until the mid-1960s. The biscuits were always known as Dr Oliver’s, then, when in the hands of Fortt, as Original Bath Olivers. Olivers or Bath Olivers were quite possibly a similar biscuit, but not produced by those with the sacred recipe. Nor did they have the distinctive packaging and stamp of the good doctor’s head. Although today they come in paper packets with the familiar livery, for many decades they were sold in tall tins.

Although there is this apparently cogent account of an early origin for the biscuits, the earliest reference so far discovered to Olivers is given by Maria Rundell (1807), herself a resident of the city; she gives a recipe which shows them to have been a plain yeast-leavened biscuit. Similar recipes, for example one for ‘Bath biscuits’ in The Family Cookery Book (1812) can be found from the same period.

Law’s Grocer’s Manual (c. 1895) commented that there were several makers of Bath Olivers, and John Kirkland (1907) noted the biscuits were a speciality ‘still made in great quantities in Bath, and in which some of the leading houses take great pride’. He observes that there was considerable diversity in the recipes and methods of manufacture, and that the biscuits should be very thin and rich, made with butter only. These statements confirm the biscuits were not as exclusive as legend instructs and cast some doubt on the notion that they were an early version of a health food.

The modern biscuits, still manufactured under the name of Fortt’s Original Bath Olivers, but no longer owned by Cater, Stoffell & Fortt, are probably rather different to those known at the beginning of the last century. Various sources agree that they required great care, and possessed distinctive characteristics: they wanted a well-leavened dough, thorough kneading, and were dried in a warm cupboard for 30 minutes, then baked in a slack (cool) oven (Simon, 1960); a special bowed rolling pin was used, so that the biscuits were thinner in the middle than at the edge; there was a singular method for docking (pricking) the dough which required 2 biscuits placed faces together, pricked, and pulled apart again; they should burn a little in the middle during baking ‘which is correct for a good Oliver’ (Law, c. 1895).

The chocolate-coated version has been made since at least the 1960s.

TECHNIQUE:

The recipe used for Fortt’s Bath Olivers is a trade secret; the ingredient list shows the biscuits are still yeast-leavened and contain butter; other ingredients are wheat flour, milk, animal fat, salt, malt extract, hops, and an antioxidant (E320). A commercial recipe for craft bakers calls for flour and butter in the ratio 4:1. The flour and butter are rubbed together and made into a stiff dough with milk in which a little sugar and yeast have been dissolved; a little salt is added. They rise for 90 minutes; the dough is kneaded with a brake until smooth; it is rested before being rolled to a thickness of about 3mm and cut into rounds of the appropriate size; these are docked and allowed to rest. They are baked at 190°C until gold and crisp.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH ENGLAND, FORMERLY BATH (SOMERSET).

Blueberry Pie (Double-Crust Fruit Pie)
DESCRIPTION:

DOUBLE-CRUST PIES MADE WITH SHORT-CRUST PASTRY AND A FRUIT FILLING ARE DISTINCTIVELY BRITISH. DIMENSIONS, FLAVOUR AND APPEARANCE WILL DEPEND ENTIRELY ON THE MAKER: WHETHER LARGE OR INDIVIDUAL PIES, COOKED ON A PLATE OR IN A DEEP DISH, IN FOIL CASINGS, AND SO ON. A WIDE RANGE OF FRUITS MAY BE USED AS FILLING: THE COMMONEST ARE APPLE, ALONE OR COMBINED WITH SPICES, DRIED FRUIT OR BLACKBERRIES; OTHERS, ESPECIALLY RHUBARB, GOOSEBERRIES, PLUMS AND CHERRIES, ARE USED. IN THE NORTH, THIS IS SOMETIMES MADE IN A THINNER VERSION CALLED A ‘PLATE PIE’, OR IT MAY BE MADE RELATIVELY DEEP AND A THIRD LAYER OF PASTRY ADDED BETWEEN 2 FRUIT LAYERS IN THE FILLING.

HISTORY:

Pies have long been a favourite dish in Britain. The word has been in the language since at least the start of the fourteenth century. There are many recipes and almost any edible item seems at one time or another, to have been put between 2 layers of pastry and baked in the oven. Sweet fruit pies have been known since at least the seventeenth century, when Murrell (1638) gave recipes for ‘tarts’ of pippins (apples) flavoured with spices, orange zest and rose water; tarts of gooseberries or cherries are also cited. These were similar to modern pies, requiring a double crust, with sugar scattered over the surface before baking.

Fillings varied according to availability of fruit. Apple was probably the most popular, cherries were used in Kent and Buckinghamshire (Mabey, 1978). The blueberry pies now available in Dorset come within this genus of dishes, although their fruit filling is of a more recent tradition, imported in fact from North America (Davidson, 1991). The bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is a bush that grows on acid soils in northern Europe. In Scotland it is known as whinberry (because it grows amidst whin, or gorse) or blaeberry and in Ireland, and in North-East England it is also known as blaeberry (blae means blue). Whortleberries are closely related.

Florence White (1932) records bilberry pies in Yorkshire. Bilberries were available for anyone who cared to pick them in many heathland areas along the south coast, in Wales, the Pennines and in Scotland. Gathering bilberries from the wild is time-consuming and the preserve of enthusiasts; recently, interest in using them as a local speciality in hotels has been rekindled in mid-Wales.

TECHNIQUE:

Short-crust pastry is prepared from flour and fat in the ratio 2:1. Lard is the preferred fat, making a crisp pastry. A mixture of lard and butter is sometimes used to give more flavour whilst retaining the shortness. Fruit is prepared; a portion of pastry is rolled 5mm thick and used to line the pie dish; the fruit, sugar and any other flavourings are placed in this; another disc of pastry is used to cover the top, and the edges are sealed. The top may be sugared or decorated. Pies are baked at 220°C for 10-15 minutes, then at 180°C for 30 minutes.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DORSET, THOUGH DOUBLE-CRUST PIE MADE WITH FRUIT OTHER THAN BLUEBERRIES IS PRODUCED NATIONWIDE.

Colston Bun
DESCRIPTION:

A ROUND BUN RING MARKED INTO 8 WEDGES; 140MM DIAMETER, 30-40MM DEEP. WEIGHT: ABOUT 250-300G. COLOUR: GOLDEN BROWN, WITH A GLAZED SURFACE, CREAM INTERIOR.

FLAVOUR: SWEET, WITH LEMON AND SPICE.
HISTORY:

The Colston bun is a popular teabread in Bristol. It is said to have gained its name from Edward Colston (1636-1721), a merchant who made a fortune trading with the West Indies. He founded an almshouse and a school, now a charitable trust administered by the Society of Merchant Venturers. The connection between Colston and the bun is through this trust. Each November, to commemorate the grant of the Charter to the Merchant Venturers, a service is held in the Cathedral attended by the pupils of Colston School. After the service, they are given a small currant bun (called the ha’penny starver), a Colston bun, and a 10 pence piece (the modern British coin based on the old silver florin). Of the 2 buns, it is said the smaller is for the child to consume immediately, and the larger to be taken home to share among the family.

The marked divisions on the top of the bun suggests a connection with the old-fashioned enriched breads known as wigs or whigs (see Hawkshead wigs p. 232), which were also marked in sections. Variant names are Colston ring or ring bun. The ha’penny starver was made with the same dough. They are made today by most craft bakers in the city.

TECHNIQUE:

The recipe calls for flour and butter in the proportions 8:1. The yeast is set to work with sugar and flour in a little warm milk for about 30 minutes; in the meantime, the butter is rubbed into the flour, together with a little sweet spice (cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg), plus grated lemon rind and a little dried fruit and candied peel; then the yeast mixture is stirred in, plus enough warm milk to produce a coherent dough. After rising, shaping, proving and marking, the buns are baked at 220°C for 20-25 minutes. They are glazed with sugar syrup whilst still warm.

REGION OF PRODUCTION:

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, BRISTOL.

Cornish Fairing
DESCRIPTION:

A ROUGHLY CIRCULAR BISCUIT, 50MM DIAMETER, 7MM THICK. WEIGHT: 20G. COLOUR: DARK BROWN WITH AN IRREGULAR, ROUGH SURFACE. FLAVOUR: SWEET, DISTINCTLY SPICY.

HISTORY:

A Cornish fairing is a ginger biscuit of a type long associated with fairs in the South West. Some speculate that the name fairing means a ring-shaped biscuit sold at a fair, but most authorities agree that it actually means objects (not necessarily edible) which could be bought at fairs and were popular as gifts. As we come home with a goldfish in a bowl and candy-floss, so our forebears returned with a little packet of goodies. Florence White (1932) quotes information from Cornwall that ‘a proper and complete fairing’ included gingerbread biscuits, lamb’s tails (caraway dragées), candied angelica, almond comfits and macaroons. Early in the nineteenth century, the poet Keats mentioned the ‘gingerbread wives’ of Barnstaple (Devon). Recipes for Barnstaple Fair gingerbread are still to be found, even if the sweetmeat itself is no longer available. Almost every fair and festivity in Britain probably had some edible keepsake: in Nottingham it was the cock-on-a-stick, in Bath the gingerbread Valentines, and so on. In more cases than not, the memento was spiced bread, cake or biscuit-the consequence of the medieval love affair with spices. Just the same process can be seen across the water in continental Europe.

The history of the specific biscuits now called Cornish fairing is largely unrecorded. All that is known is that they have been made for many years by a baker’s firm called Furniss, which was founded in 1886 in Truro.