Kitabı oku: «The Taste of Britain», sayfa 5
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.