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RUTLAND
PLUM SHUTTLES
Buns of an oval shape like a weaver's shuttle, carried round on Valentine's day. They have currants and caraway
seeds in them. They are also called Valentine Buns.
SHROPSHIRE
BUCKWHEAT CAKES
Buckwheat meal; a tea cupful brewer's yeast; a pinch salt; a little butter; 3 pints warm water.
Mix the yeast with the warm water and stir in as much buckwheat as will make a good batter, and sprinkle in the
salt. Cover and stand in a warm place to rise, for about 3 hours. When risen and full of bubbles, take a teaspoonful
of batter and fry in a pan with a little butter on both sides till lightly browned. Butter them and serve piled
on a warm plate.
FIDGET PIE
Ingredients : -
1 lb. potatoes; 1 lb. apples; 8 ounces bacon or ham;
8 ounces onions; ½ ( half ) a pint stock; pepper and salt to taste; sugar or golden syrup to taste; short
crust to cover.
Peel and slice the potatoes, apples and onions. Cut the ham or bacon into small pieces. Place a layer of the potatoes
in the bottom of the dish, then the bacon and apples (add a little sugar if they are sour). Repeat until the dish
is quite full. Season each layer with a little salt and pepper and sprinkle with onions. Pour the stock over it
all. Cover the dish with the short crust and bake for about 1 hour 30 minutes in a moderate Oven.
MARKET DRAYTON GINGERBREAD
Market Drayton is noted for its gingerbread. Other well-known gingerbread's are Grantham, Ormskirk, Whitby, Congleton,
Wrexham and London (Parliament cakes) as well as the gingerbread valentines of Bath and gingerbread husbands of
Hampshire.
SHREWSBURY BISCUITS
Ingredients : -
4 ounces butter; 8 ounces flour; a little baking powder;
4 ounces sugar; 1 egg.
Beat the butter to a cream, add sugar, beaten egg and flour. Mix well and roll out on a board to ½ ( half ) an inch thickness. Cut into rounds and prick. Bake in a moderate oven. Sprinkle sugar
over them while still hot.
SHREWSBURY CAKES
Ingredients : -
8 ounces butter; 8 ounces castor sugar; ½ (
half ) a gill cream; ½ ( half ) a lemon; 8 ounces sugar; 8 ounces flour; 1 egg.
Cream butter and sugar, add the egg, then the flour, grated lemon rind and juice and lastly the cream. Turn out on a board and knead well. Leave to stand for half an hour. Roll out thinly, cut into small rounds and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes. Sometimes a little sherry, rosewater, caraway seeds or nutmeg are added.
SIMNEL CAKE
Ingredients : -
4 ounces flour; 3 ounces mixed peel; 4 ounces butter;
12 ounces currants; 3 eggs; 4 ounces castor sugar; 2 ounces ground almonds.
Beat the butter creamy, add the sugar and beaten eggs gradually and mix well. Add the flour and then the remaining
ingredients. Place in a well-greased tin lined with greased paper. Bake for 2-3 hours in a moderate oven. When
cold make some almond paste. Put a layer over the top of the cake and make little balls with the rest. Brush the
cake over with white of egg and dust with sugar, or brush over with water and sugar mixed. Place the balls on the
cake and bake partly in the oven until brown. Decorate with crystallised fruits.
BATH BUNS
Ingredients : -
1 lb. flour; ½ ( half ) an oz yeast ; 4 ounces
butter; 3 ounces castor sugar; 2 ounces crushed lump sugar; 3 eggs; 2 ounces sultanas; 3 ounces candied peel ;
a few caraway seeds; 1 gill milk.
Cream the yeast with a little sugar, add milk, strain into half the flour and mix well. Leave to stand until risen.
Rub butter into other half of the flour and add sultanas, castor sugar, candied peel and yeast mixture. Beat in
the eggs well and leave to rise again. Form into 12 rocky buns, sprinkle with crushed lump sugar and caraway seeds.
Let them prove and bake in a moderate oven for about 15 minutes.
BATH POLONIES
Bath polonies are not unlike the Continental Bologna sausages, but very much smaller. They are more delicate in
flavour and have a thin layer of fat next to the red skin.
CHEESE AND BUTTER CAKES
Cheese and butter cakes were a special dish for St. Catherine's Fair on 25th November.
EASTER CAKE
Ingredients : -
8 ounces flour; 4 ounces butter; 4 ounces currants;
2 tablespoonfuls brandy; 4 ounces castor sugar; 1 egg; ½ ( half ) a teaspoonful cinnamon; ½ ( half
) a teaspoonful mixed spice.
Rub flour and butter, add currants, sugar, cinnamon and spice. Beat the egg, mix with brandy and add to the mixture.
Roll about ½ ( half ) an inch thick on a board, cut into rounds and bake
for 20 minutes in a moderate oven.
ELVERS CAKES
Elvers cakes at Keynsham have been famous since the time of Defoe. Flyers are very small eels. They are wrapped
up in short pastry and baked in the oven.
FRUMENTY
Ingredients : -
1 pint wheat; 1 pint milk; 1 pint water; 2 eggs; sugar
to sweeten; 1 tablespoonful currants; a little nutmeg.
Crack the wheat with a pestle and mortar, place in a stone jar with water and bake in a very slow oven for about
3 hours until the wheat is soft. Add milk, sugar, currants and nutmeg, and stir until the currants are soft. Mix
in the yolks of eggs and stir over the fire for 9 minutes without letting it boil. Serve in a deep dish.
PLOVERS' EGGS
Plovers' eggs are a great April delicacy. They should be semi-hard-boiled by simmering gently for 5 minutes. It
is however, now legally forbidden to take the eggs from the nests. Each nest always has four eggs; only two eggs
should ever be taken from each nest at a time; the hen then lays another and the process is repeated. This has
the indirect result of giving the young plover a better start in life since the last batch of four eggs will hatch
out in May when the weather is milder. Gulls' eggs are very similar to, and are often sold in place of, plovers'
eggs.
ST. CATHERINE CAKES
Cakes made for St. Catherine's Fair, 25th November.
TRUFFLES AND MOREL
These are found near Batheaston.
WALNUTS
The neighbourhood of Bath and the Vale of Pewsey are famous for their walnut trees.
FRUMENTY
See Frumenty under Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.
PORK PIE
See Nottinghamshire .
WHIP SYLLABUB
Ingredients : -
½ ( half ) a gill brandy; ½ ( half )
a gill sweet wine; one and a ½ ( half ) pints cream ; ½ ( half ) a lb. sugar; 1 lemon ( Juice and
grated rind ).
Whisk all the ingredients well, take off the froth as it rises and put on a sieve. Fill some custard dishes with
the nurture and cover with froth.
Ingredients : -
4 eggs (4 yolks, 2 whites); 8 ounces butter; some raspberry
jam; 8 ounces castor sugar; 1 ounces ground almonds; rich pastry to cover.
Grease a pie dish and line with some of the pastry. Spread a layer of jam over the bottom of the dish. Beat the
yolks and whites together. Cream the butter and add sugar, almonds and beaten eggs. Pour over the jam and bake
in a hot oven for a little, then turn down and bake for about 50 minutes.
ALMOND PUDDING
Ingredients : -
4 ounces ground almonds; 1½ ( one and a half
) ounces bread-crumbs; three-quarter of a pint of cream; 2 ounces Castor sugar; 4 eggs; a little rose or orange
water.
Warm the cream and pour over the bread-crumbs, stir in sugar, almonds
and flavouring. Beat up 4 yolks and 2 whites of eggs. Mix well with the other mixture and place in a pie dish.
Put a little butter on the top and bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes.
FOURSES CAKE
Made of yeast bread, lard, spice, currants and sugar. Eaten by harvesters at 4 o'clock with sugar beer.
FRUMENTY (Fermenty or Fromity)
Made of new crushed wheat, soaked in milk and water overnight, baked or boiled with honey and cinnamon. Eaten during
the 12 days at Christmas. Some was placed outside the door for the fairies.
GOD'S KITCHEL CAKE
This is a cake given to children asking for a blessing by the godparents.
SUFFOLK CHEESE
A very hard cheese with which goes the saying that " hunger will
break stone walls and anything except a Suffolk cheese ".
SUFFOLK DUMPLINGS
Dough made with yeast and milk as for bread. Let the dough rise 1 hour in a warm place. Make into balls the size
of an apple. Throw in boiling water and boil for 20 minutes. Test by sticking a fork into the dumplings; if it
comes out clear they are done. Serve immediately with gravy, butter or meat.
SUFFOLK HAMS
The peculiarity of Suffolk hams is that they are sweet.
MAIDS OF HONOUR CAKES
These cakes are said to derive their name from Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour when she lived at Richmond Palace.
The recipe is taken from a cooking manuscript of the period.
Ingredients : -
4 ounces butter; 3 eggs; 1 oz sugar; 2 tablespoons
bread-crumbs; ½ ( half ) a pint milk; 2 ounces ground almonds; 1 grated rind of lemon.
Boil the milk with bread-crumbs, and let the mixture stand for a few minutes then add butter, sugar and flavouring.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time; line some patty pans with puff pastry and place the mixture in them. Bake in a
hot oven until they are golden brown.
PIGEON PIE
(Epsom Grand-Stand Recipe)
Ingredients : -
1½ lbs.( one and a half ) of rump-steak; 2 or 3 pigeons; 3 slices of ham; pepper and salt to taste; 2 oz. of butter; 4 eggs; puff crust.
Mode: Cut the steak into pieces
about 3 inches square, and with it line the bottom of a pie-dish, seasoning it well with pepper and salt.
Clean the pigeons, rub them with pepper and salt inside and out, and put into the body of each rather more than
½ ( half ) ounce of butter. Lay them on the steak, and a piece of ham on each pigeon. Add the yolks of 4
eggs, and half fill the dish with stock; place a border of puff paste round the edge of the dish, put on the cover,
and ornament it in any way that may be preferred.
Clean three of the feet, and place them in a hole made in the crust at the top; this shows what kind of a pie it
is.
Glaze the crust - that is to say, brush it over with the yolk of an egg - and bake it in a well-heated oven for
about 1 hour 15 minutes.
When liked, a seasoning of pounded mace may be added.
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes or less.
Mrs BEETON
ARUNDEL MULLETS
Ingredients : -
Mullet ; 2 onions; a little lemon juice ; salt and pepper to taste ; 2 wine glasses red wine ; a bunch
of sweet herbs ; a little nutmeg ; a few anchovies.
Boil the mullet very gently in salt water for about 15 minutes. Pour away half the water and keep the fish warm.
Add the wine with finely chopped onions and the other ingredients and cook gently until done. Serve the fish in
a shallow dish and pour the sauce over. Shrimp or oyster sauce may be used as well. Mullets are also very good
fried in butter and served with lemon and anchovies.
ASHDOWN PARTRIDGE PUDDING
Ingredients : -
1 brace of partridge (boilers); 4 ounces mushrooms
; a few mixed herbs; salt and pepper to taste; some wet crust; 8 ounces suet; 4 ounces rump steak; a little chopped
parsley; 1 wineglass claret; 1 pint stock; 1½ lbs. ( one and a half ) flour; water to mix.
Line a greased quart pudding basin with the crust, leaving enough to cover the pudding. Place a thin slice of steak
at the bottom. Cut the partridges into neat little joints and season with salt and pepper, mix with mushrooms,
parsley and herbs, and add to the meat. Pour stock and claret over the whole and cover with suet crust, pinch the
edges together, tie a cloth over and boil for 3 hours.
CHIDDINGLY HOT POT
Ingredients : -
1 lb. beef; 8 ounces celery; 8 ounces olives; a little
tarragon vinegar; a little allspice; 1 lb. onions or shallots; 1 lb. potatoes; a little vinegar; a few cloves and
black peppercorns.
Place a layer of chopped onions on the bottom of a large casserole dish with chopped olives and celery. Put thin
slices of beef over them and sprinkle with spices and vinegar. Cut potatoes into thin slices and place over the
meat with some more chopped olives. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up. Pour enough water into the casserole
nearly to cover. Cook in a low oven for about 3 to 4 hours according to quantities used. The vinegar renders any
adding of salt unnecessary.
CLAVERSHAM RISSOLES
These are rissoles made in the usual way, but with the addition of chopped celery, thyme, parsley, marjoram and
bread-crumbs.
COGER CAKES
Ingredients : -
1 lb. very fat salt pork; one and a ½ ( half
) lbs flour; 4 ounces currants; 4 ounces sugar.
Scrape all the fat off the rind of the pork and rub into the flour, adding currants and sugar and make into a dough
with a little water. Rollout on a board 2 inches thick and bake on a greased tin for 30 to 45 minutes.
HASTINGS GURNET (or Gurnard)
Cut off the heads, wash well and dry. Dip in flour and pour melted dripping over them. Cut the skins and grill,
turning them over twice. Serve hot with a little melted butter.
HUCKLE - MY - BUFF
Sussex slang for egg-flip with the addition of beer to the brandy and eggs.
Ingredients : -
1 lb. pork; 1 lb. currants; a little baking powder;
some sausage skins; 1½ lbs. ( one and a half ) flour; 1 lb. lard ; a little allspice.
Cut the meat into small pieces and put on to boil gently for about 1 hour. Mix the flour with the meat, currants
and spice and rub in the lard. Fill sausage skins and tie up in bunches.
Prick the sausages with a fork and drop into boiling water. Boil them for one and a half hours. Take out and hang
up to dry. They will snap when broken in two. Hog's pudding is usually the size of an egg and irregular in shape
and is usually eaten as a savoury either hot or cold.
LAMBS' EARS
Ingredients : -
12 lambs' ears; a handful sorrel; a little grated nutmeg;
pepper and salt; a little butter.
Stew the lambs' ears until tender. Cook some sorrel in a little broth with nutmeg, salt, pepper and butter. Serve
the lambs' ears on the sorrel.
LARDY JOHNS
Ingredients : -
4 ounces flour; 2 teaspoonfuls sugar; a little baking
powder; 2 ounces lard; a few currants
Rub all the ingredients together and make into a stiff dough with a little water. Roll out thinly and cut into
squares. Bake for 10 minutes in a hot oven.
PULBOROUGH EELS
Ingredients : -
a medium-sized eels; 2 hard-boiled eggs; pickled pork
(one - third weight of eels); a little chopped parsley and onion.
Skin and bone the eels and cut into smallish pieces. Line a pudding basin with suet pastry and place the eels on
it together with the parsley, onion, the eggs cut up in 4 pieces and the pork. Fill the basin with stock made from
the trimmings of the eels. Cover with suet crust and boil for 2 to 3 hours.
SOUTHDOWN MUTTON
British breeds of sheep are divided into two classes: mountain and down. The Southdown is the best in the South
of England. flown breeds are all hornless. Mutton is the meat of sheep from 1-5 years old. The best mutton is of
3-4 years old sheep, hung from 2 to 3 weeks in a cool place.
SUSSEX BLANKET PUDDING
Ingredients : -
12 ounces flour; 12 ounces suet; a little pepper and
salt; 8 ounces bread-crumbs; 2 eggs; a little milk.
Mix all the ingredients together and fold in the eggs. Make into a light dough with a littlee milk. Roll out and
spread one of the fillings (see below) over the dough. Roll up in a floured cloth and boil for 2 to 3 hours.
Fillings: 1 Liver and bacon, minced, with parsley and onion; 2. Sausage meat; 3. Any scraps of minced meat.
Sweet fillings: 1 Jam or golden syrup; 2. Mincemeat; 3. Chopped apples, a little butter, and orange marmalade or
quince Jam; 4. Finely chopped peel, currants, raisins and sugar.
SUSSEX HEAVIES
2 breakfast cupfuls flour; 2 ounces lard; 1 ounces
castor sugar; 1 tea cupful milk soured with the juice of ½ ( half ) a lemon; 2 ounces currants.
Rub lard into flour, add sugar and currants and make into a stiff
pastry with soured milk. Roll out on a board to 1 inch thickness, cut into small rounds, brush over with a little
soured milk, place in a moderate oven and bake for 15 minutes.
SUSSEX PLUM DUFF
Ingredients : -
6 ounces flour; 4 ounces currants; 4 ounces demerara
sugar; 3 ounces suet; 4 ounces raisins; a little mixed spice; a little milk. #
Rub the suet into the flour and add the other ingredients. Make a
stiff dough with a little milk. Put the dough in a floured cloth, tie up like a football and drop into boiling
water. Boil for 1 hour and 30 minutes.