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Sandra Lawrence
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FORGOTTEN DISHES
Article Posted: Thursday August 30th
Article last updated on: Thursday August 30th
Copyright 1999. Whatever happened to so many of our English dishes, prevalent in the past, and
now forgotten in their true sense? Flummeries, Junkets, Tansys - all lovingly
decorated, spicy flavoursome food which was colourful, and rich with enthusiasm
for the natural ingredients that made them so good. For years, the reputation of English food has been put down as simplistic. Perhaps
we have only ourselves to blame - as a country we are not terribly good at blowing
the preverbial trumpet. We have a food heritage so rich and strong, and it should
be shouted out and told, kept and passed on. England has always been good at
developing its own dishes from ones that have arrived on our doorsteps due to
invasion of the hostile or even friendly kind! The Romans not only gave us straight roads and the odd bath, but apples and
pears, chicken eggs and omelettes. Through the spice trade we developed a taste for
flavour, and this wasnt just to mask the smell of rotting meat - it was because we
liked it! We loved colour and the inspired medieval cook made dishes coloured
with saffron, marigold and bright green herbs. Feast days and banquets were a
fabulous excuse for orgies of food and wine. Platters of food were presented with
ceremony, brought to the table and set down amongst many fine dishes. Manners
were, unbelievably, excellent. The Medieval banquet was smothered with etiquette and we still use many of
these manners today. For example the breaking of bread and not the biting of it,
was because the bread was used as a plate and once eaten from, was passed down
to the servants to eat. There are some rules laid down in my favourite book, (Food
in England by Dorothy Hartley) which, when translated, tell us the many things not
allowed when dining out at the castle. They include - Not blowing on the food to
cool it, eating quietly, not starting to eat until your host does, and not talking with
your mouth full! It all sounds frighteningly familiar! Some fabulous, but gruesome
dishes were served at these feasts, one of them was the repeated stuffing of birds.
They would take a large bird such as a goose and place inside a capon, then a
chicken,duck, pheasant and so on, rather like a russian doll. Herbs would be added
for flavour and the final tiny bird would quite often have a suprise in it. I can only
imagine how it would have tasted! Peacocks and swans were roasted, and had their
feathers and skin pulled off to the neck - then the body was spit roasted, being
careful not to scorch the feathers. When cooked,the feathers and skin were
replaced over the cooked meat, and decorated with care. Nowadays the phrase
------------------------------------------------------------------------ cross contamination springs to mind! Throughout the ages of English cookery, we have shown energized, adventurous
ideas, beautiful garnishes and decorations. I think some of my favourite dishes and
ideas come from the Elizabethans. It seems to me they had no limits, and they had
so much pleasure in what they did. Colour was still important to them, and for
grand suppers,gold leaf was used to gild pies and gingerbreads. Perhaps this is
where the saying To take the gilt off the gingerbread came from. It means - to
appropiate all the fun or profit and leave the dull base behind, or to rob something
of its attraction. This is unfortunately what happened, as later on science got in the
way, and restricted the artistic nature of cooking for years. Everything got just a
little tight lipped and civilised. Of course Oliver Cromwell didnt help, he stopped
any sort of excess! New ingredients were being brought over to Elizabethan
England all the time. New fruits arrived into the kitchens, some with a little
suspicion. The melon came from France and the tomato from Mexico. Then, of course, the famous Potato! The Sweet potato arrived first from North
America. This took over from our beloved Parsnip, which had sustained us for
centuries over the winter. Parsnip Pie was a dish made in February to say goodbye
to the last of the winter parsnips and to the Winter, and herald the spring by
decorating it with Primroses. The parsnip was generally served with honey for
sweetness, something we left behind, but which the pilgrims took to the Americas
and the natives still use today - Pumpkin Pie! Twenty years later the Virginia Potato sailed over, this one was from South
America. The Food of England over the years has been developed and fed by so
many influences, indeed it still is today. We have always been happy to experiment,
take on ideas developed abroad and try new adventurous foods. We may have been
a little wary at first, but we soon incorporated them into our own style and tastes.
Kedgeree is a fabulous example - originally Khichri and a dish of rice and lentil, the
English in India made up their own version and served it up as the great Victorian
breakfast. The Victorians knew how to entertain, and brought about a new
decadence to the end of the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution made a lot of people rich and wealthy. Women living in
the town with their husbands had more leisure time and had to fill up their days.
So what did they do? They invented lunch. I think they can claim to be the first
ladies who lunched! However I think the Industrial Revolution changed a great deal
more; it moved the country people into the towns and I believe the handing down
of the recipes and the country ways began to disappear. This century has seen so
------------------------------------------------------------------------ many tremendous changes, the second world war with its rationing of food put the
final nail into the food heritage coffin. As we go towards the next millennium, and
even though we now have tasty food from all over the globe available to us, we
musnt forget what we have achieved ourselves over hundreds of years. We should
all be proud of all that is English Food. Im giving you three examples of what is
wonderful about English food, a taster of some forgotten dishes that should be
back on our tables tonight! HONEYED SAFFRON AND APPLE DOUCET This is a very early dish, one that I have adapted from Henry IVs coronation in
1399. It was originally called Honey and Saffron Doucet or Quiche. It was served as
part of the third course at his Westminster coronation banquet. Doucet literally
means something sweet, and is an egg custard. The mixture could have meat in it,
and almond milk with eggs. My Honeyed Saffron and Apple Doucet is a suprisingly
light pudding and I make it in the late summer, when all the apples start to fall off
the trees. Try to use an English Apple, I found some unusual varities at Waterperry
Garden Centre, Waterperry in Oxforshire, and it made the pudding seem that little
more special. HONEYED APPLE AND SAFFRON DOUCET SERVES 8 A 9 inch quiche dish or flan tin 8oz (225g) self-raising flour 4oz (100g) butter half
a teaspoon of ground cloves 2 tablespoons milk to mix 4 sweet English desert
apples 10floz (300ml) double cream 5floz (150ml) milk a pinch of saffron strands 3
medium eggs plus 1 yolk 2 tablspoons honey Garnish - frosted petals and leaves
from 1 rose - not sprayed by pesticides 1 egg white 4 tablespoons caster sugar
Preheat your oven to 180c Mk4 350f. First of all make the pastry. Sieve the flour
into a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and add. Now rub the butter gently
into the flour with your fingertips. When the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, add
the ground cloves. Now take your milk and add gradually until it forms a firm
dough. It may not need all the milk. It should be not too wet and not too dry. Now
roll out onto a floured surface into a circle and line your flan dish/tin. Cover with
some greaseproof paper. It is easier to line with the paper if you crush it up and
then unfold it first. Pour on some baking beans. While the pastry is in the oven,
heat the milk and double cream in a saucepan with the saffron. Heat until it just
reaches boiling point, and then switch off the heat to let the saffron infuse its
colour and flavour. This takes about 10 minutes. Now, in another bowl, beat the
------------------------------------------------------------------------ eggs, yolk and honey together with a whisk, just enough to loosen the eggs. pour
over the infused cream and milk and beat together. Peel and core the apples and
slice into eigths. Place in the pastry, not in any uniform way, and then pour over
the liquid. Make sure you get all the saffron threads on, as they keep giving flavour
and colour during cooking and they look very pretty on top. Bake for 30 - 35
minutes. When cooked, cool to a luke warm as I think this is the best temperature
to serve it at. To decorate: Break teh egg white up with a fork to loosen it. Take
your rosebud and peel off the petals and leaves. Dip each one individually into the
egg white and then the sugar. Shake and leave on a clean plate, in a cool place to
harden. Not the fridge. For about 12 hours. When you place the petals and leaves
on top of the Doucet, you want to give the impression that it is an open rose with
leaves intact. Saffron used to be grown in abundance in England, and places were named after
it - Saffron Walden in Essex. Around 1700, Saffron was used to help consumptive
coughs. It was infused with water, wine and sugar. Almond milk is made by
simmering almonds in syrup, water or wine and was used a lot by medieval cooks,
especially on days of fasting when dairy products were forbidden. STEAMED BACON CLANGER WITH OXFORD SAUCE This is a dish that can
be found in different regions of England. Each region calls it a different name, but
the main ingredients are nearly always the same. It was cheap dish, using up the
bacon scraps from the butcher, and filled and nourished the people who ate it.
Although it was a meal derived from poverty, I think it should be crowned for its
flavour and the warming feeling it gives you as it sits in your tummy! My version
has a few more ingredients than the original, and it is served with an anonymous
recipe called Oxford Sauce from 1845, which is piquant and cuts the richness of
the clanger very well. STEAMED BACON CLANGER WITH OXFORD SAUCE SERVES 6-8 1lb
self-raising flour 8oz shredded suet cold water to mix 5 heaped tablespoons of
chopped fresh parsley salt and pepper Filling: 8oz (225g) unsmoked streaky back
bacon 8oz (225g) cooked ham trimmings 8oz (225g) unsmoked back bacon 3
onions - sliced 6 cloves garlic - sliced 2oz ( 50g) butter 1 large heaped tablespoon
of fresh chopped sage a small amount of beef stock 2 tablespoons drippping or
sunflower oil 1 tsp soft brown sugar Fresh sage to garnish Melt the butter and add
the onions and garlic. Cook slowly over a gentle heat for 15 minutes until a caramel
brown and sweet. Add the sugar to help it on its way. Remove the onions and
garlic and then melt the dripping or oil in the same frying pan. Frizzle the back
bacon until golden brown. Replace the onions and garlic and then add the chopped
------------------------------------------------------------------------ ham and sage.Season with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Turn on to a
plate and cool. Now make the suet pastry, as it must be made just before using. At
this stage, put some water into a steamer and heat it up. If you dont have a
steamer, fill a large saucepan with a third full of water and pop a colander in. Make
sure you can fit the lid on with the colander in it! So, for the pastry, sieve the
flour into a bowl and then add the chopped parsley and season with salt and
pepper. Now add the suet and enough cold water to mix to a firm dough. Not too
wet and not too dry. Knead briefly to get it into a ball and then flour a surface adn
roll out. Roll into a large rectangle about half an inch thick, then place on top of a
larger rectangle of greasproof paper, which in turn is on top of a large rectangle or
foil. Lay all of streaky bacon across the pastry, close together and with the length
of the pastry. Top the streaky with the onion mixture and dribble a little of the
stock over the top to keep it moist. Roll up and seal the ends. Then roll up the
paper and foil, very loosely, to give it room to expand, and then seal the ends. Coil
the clanger up in the steamer and steam for 1 and a half to 2 hours, making sure it
doesnt boil dry. Serve with the... OXFORD SAUCE 2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar 1 tsp of
English mustard pinch of salt pinch of pepper 6-8 tablespoons sunflower oil 4
tablespoons vinegar - Balsamic isnt English, but it gives a rich colour tothe sauce,
however red wine vinegar is fine. Heat all the ingredients together in a saucepan
and adjust to your taste. To serve: Unwrap the clanger and slice at intervals across,
but not all the way through. Pour over the Oxford sauce leaving a little for the side.
Garnish with lots of fresh sage. In Bishops Stortford its called Pork Plugger. Leicestershire its Quorn Bacon Roll.
In Luton its called Bedfordshire Clanger, and it contained meat at one end and jam
at the other (like a cornish pasty) and was used by the women working all day in
the local hat making industry. LEMON AND ROSEMARY SYLLABUB The word bub is sixteen century slang for bubbling drink, and Sille is the region of
France where Champagne is made. It was generally a confection of cream, wine,
lemon and spices, mixing these gave a Sille Bub. The early syllabubs were
sometimes called Hatted Kit and these were made by milking the cow directly
onto your wine, cider or beer. The height it was milked from caused a froth and
gave a light warming drink. You can still make it this way, even if you dont have a
cow in your back garden. Heat some milk up to blood heat, let it cool slightly and
then pour it from a height onto you sweetened wine. Then sup! Syllabubs like this
------------------------------------------------------------------------ were served with different spirits and wines and quite often had clotted cream
served on top. Wonderful. Someone then discovered that it you reduced the
proportion of wine and sugar to cream, it would not seperated and this was called
the everlasting syllabub and is the one who know of today. I top my trifles with
this syllabub, and they started this in the 18th century. LEMON AND ROSEMARY SYLLABUB 2 lemons 4floz (125ml) of sweet white
wine 2 tablespoons of brandy 1 sprig of rosemary 1oz (25g) icing sugar 1
tablespoon runny honey 10floz (600ml) double cream freshly grated nutmeg 2 egg
whites two yellow roses The petals of sprigs of rosemary Put your wine, brandy,
rosemary into a bowl. Now grate off the lemon rind from both lemons and add.
Leave to steep overnight. The next day, remove the rosemary and if you want to,
strain out the lemon rind. I prefer it in. Add the sugar and honey to it all and
dissolve. Pour in the cream slowly whisking all the time. Let it reach the point of
soft peaks. Do not over whip as you want the consistency of custard. In a seperate
bowl, whisk up you egg whites and then gently fold into you cream. Add some
nutmeg to taste adn then spoon into wine glasses until ready to eat. There were many regional varities of syllabub - in London they used port and
nutmeg, in Staffordhsire cider and brandy and in the Farmhouse Syllabub, beer and
cider was used to made the curd with the milk and the top was scattered with
currants. It is rumoured that King Charles II, had a special herd of cows kept in St
James Park for the special honour of making the his syllabubs. A cow was brought
with great ceremony into the banqueting hall and milked directly onto the spirit
and wine to produce a drink whenever he was thristy. Our thanks to Lotte Duncan who stars in BBC's
Ready Steady Cook and stars again with our
editor Tony le Ray-Cook on BBC Radio's monthly
Food and Wine programme from Oxford.
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