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CUMBERLAND
ALMOND PUDDING
Ingredients : -
2 ounces butter; 2 ass Castor sugar; 2 eggs; 4 ounces
rice flour; 2 tablespoonful ground almonds; raspberry jam.
Line 3 saucers with short pastry and prick with a fork. Spread a thin
layer of raspberry jam over them. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and work in rice flour and almonds. Spread the
mixture over the jam and bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes. Serve hot.
BURNET WINE
Ingredients : -
4 pints burnet heads; 3 lb. sugar; 1 gallon water;
2 lbs. raisins; 1 oz yeast.
Boil the heads for 20 minutes; strain; then add sugar and raisins.
Add yeast dissolved in a little cool, but not cold, wine. Allow to stand for 2 weeks and remove scum as it rises.
Strain into stone jar. When fermented, close down tightly; draw off into bottles after 3 months.
CLIPPING-TIME PUDDING
Ingredients : -
8 ounces rice; 3 ounces sugar; beef marrow bones; 4
ounces currants; 4 ounces stoned raisins; a little cinnamon; 1 pint milk; 1 egg; a little salt.
Blanch the rice in a little salt water, then cool slowly in milk,
then add cinnamon and sugar and boil a while longer, until the rice is tender. Beat the egg and add, with currants
and raisins, and stir well together. Then add the marrow cut in small pieces. Bake for 20 minutes in a moderate
oven.
CUMBERLAND CURRANT PASTIES
Pasties filled with the scraps of the fat of a pig when rendered down, mixed with brown sugar, currants and nutmeg
or cinnamon and a little chopped apple.
CUMBERLAND RUM BUTTER
For fillings of layer cakes or for Christmas puddings.
Ingredients : -
1 lb. Demerara sugar; 8 ounces. butter; 1 bottle rum;
nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.
Beat the butter, then add the sugar and stir well, then add rum, nutmeg
and cinnamon and mix well together to an even, creamy consistency.
CUMBERLAND SAUCE ( For ham and game dishes )
Ingredients
¼ (quarter) pint red wine or port, 4 tablespoons redcurrant jelly, Finely-grated peel and juice of 1 medium sized lemon and orange1 level dessertspoon finely-grated onion 1 level teaspoon made mustard, ¼ (quarter) level teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ (quarter) level teaspoon salt, dash of of pepper
Put all ingredients into pan. Slowly bring just up to boil, stirring occasionally; Remove from heat. Cover and
leave 10 minutes ; Leave unstrained and serve hot or strain and serve cold. Serves 4.
LOBSCOUSE
A sailor's dish, consisting of meat stewed with vegetables and ship's biscuit.
NORTH COUNTRY SWEET PIE
Ingredients : -
8 ounces fat mutton chops; 8 ounces currants; 8 ounces
raisins; 8 ounces sultanas; 6 ounces soft sugar; 1 or 2 wine glasses rum; 2 ounces candied lemon peel; juice of
1 lemon; a little salt, pepper, mace, nutmeg and cinnamon; puff pastry.
Cut the meat in small pieces, put a layer in a greased pie-dish, with fruit and spices, etc., pour the rum on it,
cover with puff pastry. Cook in a hot oven for 35 minutes.
PIKE, JACK or LUCE
Pike is a fish that eats its own, as well as other fish. It tends to be dry, coarse and it has many bones. It should
be well salted overnight before use. This makes the meat tender.
SALMON
Salmon should be very stiff; shiny and red in the gills, the scales bright and silver. Medium-sized salmon has
the best flavour. The "hen" fish is said to be more delicate; it has a small head and thick neck. Salmon
should be well scraped, but little washed.
SAND CAKE
Ingredients : -
2 ounces butter; 4 ounces castor sugar; 4 ounces corn-flour;
1 ounce plain flour; 1 teaspoonful baking powder;
2 eggs; a little lemon essence.
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, corn-flour, plain flour and baking powder. Mix well and bake in a moderate oven
in a well-greased and lined tin.
Ingredients : -
1 lb. spare-rib of pork; short pastry; a little salt
and pepper; a little chopped parsley.
Cut up some spare-rib of pork and place in a deep pie-dish, Season with salt, pepper and chopped parsley. Half
fill with water. Cover with thick crust of short pastry. Make a hole in the top and bake for one and a half hours.
Serve cold with pickled beetroot.
VANILLA JELLY
Ingredients : -
2 tablespoonful sugar; 2 eggs; 1 pint milk; a little
vanilla essence; a ½ ( half ) ounce powdered gelatine.
Warm the milk and add yolks of eggs beaten with sugar and vanilla essence. Stir over gentle heat until creamy;
pour into basin. Dissolve the gelatine in a little water. Add to the milk and pour in the beaten whites of eggs.
Pour into wetted mould and leave to set. Turn out and serve cold.
VENDACE
Vendace is a fresh water herring, or " whitefish " and is found only in two lochs in Dumfries-shire and
in Derwentwater and Lake Bassenthwaite in the Lake District.
BAKEWELL TART
Ingredients : -
2 eggs; 8 ounces sugar; 4 ounces butter; 8 ounces jam;
puff pastry.
Line a patty pan with pastry. Cover with a layer of jam. Melt the butter and stir eggs and sugar into it. Beat
well together. Place a thick layer on the jam covered pastry. Bake until delicately brown in a moderate oven.
CHESTERFIELD RABBIT STEW
This is a rabbit stew, prepared in the usual manner, with a suet crust.
MEDLEY PIE
Line a pie dish with dripping crust about ½ ( half ) an inch thick, fill with layers of bacon or pork cut
in thin slices, follow with apples and onions in slices and a generous proportion of sage, season liberally with
pepper and salt, add ½ ( half ) cup of water. Cover with remainder of dripping crust, the top being pierced
through with a fork to form a pattern and for the escape of the steam; in the centre part brush over with a little
beaten egg yolk and just decorate and raise between thumb and knife the edges of the pie. This Medley Pie was served
with a dish of roasted potatoes and a tiny jug of boiling hot vinegar. Baked in a hot oven for 40 minutes, then
covered lightly with greased paper, the heat reduced, and baked another 40 minutes in a moderate oven .
RED WHORTLEBERRY JELLY
Red whortleberry jelly is served with goose in Derbyshire.
STEAMED BATTER PUDDING
Steamed batter pudding is a speciality of Duffield.
Ingredients : -
3 eggs; 3 tablespoonful flour; 1 pint milk; 1 oz butter;
a little salt.
Mix flour with sufficient milk to moisten it, add more milk very gently, stirring all the time. Melt the butter,
and stir into the mixture; add salt, beat in the eggs and stir well. Pour into a well-greased pudding basin, seal
tightly, place in boiling water and move the basin about for a minute to prevent the flour from dropping to the
bottom. Boil for 1 hour and 35 minutes. Serve with fruit, jam or wine sauce.
BEEF AND EGG PIE
A special delicacy of Exeter. It is prepared much in the same way as a pork pie, with hard-boiled eggs inside.
CIDER
Cider is made from the fermented juice of particularly acid apples. In Devonshire nearly all the inns sell "sweet"
and "rough" draught cider, and some people have it half-and-half.
DEVONSHIRE CREAM
Pour fresh milk (straight from the cow, bottled milk is no good for it) in a large shallow pan. Leave to stand
for at least 6 hours until the cream has risen to the top. Heat the milk very, very slowly ( on no account must
it boil ) for a hour. Do not skim the cream off the milk until it is quite cold, preferably the next day.
DEVON FLATS
Ingredients : -
8 ounces Devonshire cream; 1 lb. flour; 1 egg; 8 ounces,
sugar; a little milk.
Rub the cream into the flour, beat the egg in and add the sugar. Mix well and make into a smooth dough with milk.
Roll out very thinly on a board and cut into rounds. Sprinkle with a little sugar and bake in a hot oven for 10
minutes.
FIGGY CHUTNEY
Figgy chutney is made with any figs that have not ripened by the end of the season at Lynmouth.
PLYMOUTH GIN or OLD TOM
Plymouth-distilled gins are much sweeter than London gins.
JUNKET
Ingredients : -
1 pint of milk ; 1 large teaspoonful essence of rennet;
a little sugar; a little rum or brandy.
The milk should be "blood" warm. Mix sugar, milk, rum and rennet, in that order; stir well, then leave
to set and do not disturb. Use a pretty dish for making the junket or individual small pudding dishes.
LAMB'S FRY
Lamb's fry; a little parsley; 1 small onion; 2 ounces butter; a little lemon juice; a little pepper and salt.
Cut the fry in small pieces and roll in flour seasoned with pepper and salt. Chop the onion and fry until brown.
Add the lamb's fry and cook for 10 minutes until well-browned. Add lemon juice and finely chopped parsley and serve
hot for breakfast.
LAVER PICKLE
Layer is a seaweed found on rocky coasts and is in season from June to March.
Ingredients : -
1 pint Layer; ½ ( half ) pint vinegar; a little
salt; a little sugar; ½ ( half ) pint water; a few peppercorns; mustard seeds.
Wash the layer well to remove the saltiness and put a little hi-carbonate of soda in the water to remove any bitterness.
Place the layer in a jar and pour boiled water and vinegar over it, with peppercorns, mustard seed, a little salt
and sugar. Seal the jar and use when required.
REVEL BUNS
Ingredients : -
1½
lbs.( One and a half lbs.) of flour; 12 ounces Devonshire
cream ; 8 ounces butter; a quarter pint of milk; ½ ( half ) a teaspoonful saffron ; 1 teaspoonful ground
cinnamon ; 6 ounces currants ; 1 lb. sugar ; 1 egg; 1 ounce yeast ; a little salt.
Rub butter into flour, add sugar. Warm a little of the milk and put the saffron in a muslin bag and set in the
milk to extract the flavour. Warm the cream in a cool oven. Place the yeast in a basin and mix with a little sugar
and a little warm water. Add cream to flour, butter and sugar, and mix lightly. Add milk, beaten egg and cinnamon.
Add yeast and saffron milk and currants. Keep the mixture covered in a warm place for 12 hours to rise. Make into
small buns and bake on sycamore leaves in a moderate oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar when cool.
"Revel" is the name given to Village Feasts.
SQUAB PIE
Ingredients : -
1 lb. neck of mutton chops; 2 lb. sour apples ; 1 onion;
short pastry to cover; ground allspice; pepper and salt to taste.
Fill a pie-dish with a layer of chops and slices of peeled and cored apples. Season well and repeat until the dish
is full. Pour in ½ ( half ) a pint gravy or water and cover with pastry. Bake for 2 hours in a moderate oven.
Squab is also the name given to a young pigeon, weighing just under 1 lb.
SALLY LUNNS
Ingredients : -
One and three-quarter pints of milk; 1 oz yeast; 4
ounces butter; 2 lb.. flour; 2 ounces lump sugar; cream.
Make a thick batter with 1 pint of warm milk, yeast, flour and a little sugar. Cover and leave to rise in a warm
place for 2 hours. Add lump sugar dissolved in quarter of a pint of warm milk. Rub butter into a little of the
flour. Mix with the batter and knead lightly; leave to stand for ½
( half ) an
hour. Make into round cakes and place on tins. When they have risen, bake in a hot oven for 30 minutes. Split and
spread with cream.
TIVERTON CHUDLEIGHS
These are the same as Cornish splits (see page 15), but they call them chudleighs in Tiverton.
TORBAY: TURBOT, SOLE and MACKEREL
Torbay sole. The same as lemon sole, which is the Dover sole's poor relation.
Turbot. Caught off the Dogger Bank or Devonshire is the best. It should be very white and firm. It is in season
all the year round.
Mackerel is caught all the year round, but best in April, May and June. Great care should be taken that mackerel
is quite fresh. It goes off quicker than most fish and can cause poisoning.
WIDECOMBE FAIR: SPICED ALE and GINGERBREAD
Ingredients : -
Gingerbread: 5 ounces butter; 6 ounces flour; 1 teaspoonful
ginger; 6 ounces treacle; 6 ounces sugar.
Rub butter into flour and add sugar and ginger. Warm the treacle and mix in well. Drop small pieces on a well-greased
tin and bake in a moderate oven for 30 to 40 minutes.
Spiced Ale: 1 quart ale; 4 cloves; a little mixed spice; 2 apples; ½ ( half ) a teaspoonful nutmeg; 1 teaspoonful
of sugar
Heat the ale very slowly until very hot, but on no account must it boil. Cut up the apples in slices and add all
ingredients. Stir well, strain, and serve hot with a slice of apple floating in the glass or tankard.
BLUE DORSET or VINNEY CHEESE
Blue Dorset is a hard cheese, made from skimmed milk. It is very white in colour with blue veins running through
the cheese horizontally.
CRABS
Crabs are obtainable all the year round, but are best from May to August. The best way to serve them is dressed,
with salad and tomatoes.
DORSET NOBS or KNOBS
Nobs or knobs is the name given to buns in Dorsetshire.
PORTLAND PUDDING
Portland pudding is a rich pudding, made with dried fruit and candied peel.
RED MULLET
Red mullet are one of the best fish in the Channel. They are best between April and October. The liver is a great
delicacy.
ROAST CYGNETS
Cygnets (young swans) used to be served at official banquets as far back as the 14th century. Cygnets are still
eaten once a year at the Vintners' Hall in the City of London, in the traditional manner, covered with a flour
and water paste.
TENCH
Tench belongs to the carp family. It is a freshwater fish and best steamed or grilled, eaten with chopped parsley,
butter and lemon
BUCKWHEAT CAKES
Ingredients : -
1 teaspoonful brewer's yeast; 3 pints warm water; buckwheat
meal; a little butter; a little salt.
Mix the yeast with water in a basin and stir in buckwheat meal to make a good batter, add salt, cover the basin
and let it stand in a warm place to rise. When full of bubbles, pour a spoonful of the batter into a buttered frying
pan and cook as for pancakes. Butter the cakes while hot and serve.
DURHAM POT PIE
This is made in a basin with an ordinary suet crust, a band of which is cut off and used as a lining at the top
of the basin for 2 inch wide. The remainder is rolled out to form a lid, and inside is meat and vegetables, maybe
a rabbit, and instead of onion, Durham prefers a large leek, washed, skinned, and cut into thin slices.
The difference between a Durham pot pie and any other pot pie is that the lining only comes down 2 inches. The
pot pie was boiled for 3 hours 30 minutes
JOHNNY CAKES
There are two divergent stories about Johnny cakes. One is of the journeymen always carrying a particular kind
of bun in their saddlebags. The other one is of the Johnny cake, which was the figure of a little man, painted
gold, who dropped off the kitchen table, turned cartwheels and was never seen again. ( See London Buns )
LANCHESTER SPICE LOAF
Ingredients : -
1 lb. flour; 8 ounces margarine; 8 ounces brown sugar;
2 eggs; 2 ounces peel; 2 ounces almonds; a little baking powder; 8 ounces currants; 8 ounces sultanas; 4 ounces
cherries; a little milk; a little nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger; a little salt.
Mix baking powder, ground almonds and spices with flour. Chop peel
and cherries. Rub margarine into the flour, add sugar and fruit and mix well. Make a well in the centre and drop
in the eggs and milk. Mix well and turn into a greased baking tin. Bake in a moderate oven for about 1 hour 30
minutes.
PIKELETS
Ingredients : -
8 ounces flour; a little salt; buttermilk or sour milk
to mix; 1½ ( one and a half ) ounces sugar; a little bi-carbonate of soda.
Mix flour, sugar and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in enough buttermilk to make a nice batter. Add bi-carbonate
of soda, dissolved in a little water. Beat the batter well and fry on a girdle or frying pan in a little lard until
golden brown on both sides. Spread with butter and serve hot.
POPOVERS
Ingredients : -
1 cup flour; 2 eggs; a little butter; a little milk
to mix; a little salt.
Mix flour and salt. Make into a smooth batter with milk. Beat the eggs well and add. Melt a little butter and add.
Then heat again for a minute or two and place in cup-shaped metal pans. Bake for about 30 minutes in a hot oven
until they start to brown.
STANHOPE FIRELIGHTERS
Ingredients : -
4 ounces oats; 4 ounces margarine; 4 ounces sugar.
Mix all ingredients together and put in a dripping tin. Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven. When done, cut into squares.
STANHOPE NUT AND DATE CAKE
Ingredients : -
14 ounces flour; 8 ounces butter; 8 ozs sugar; 3 eggs;
4 ounces walnuts; 4 ounces dates; 5 ounces rasins; 5 ounces sultanas; a little treacle; a little baking powder;
1 gill milk.
Blanch the walnuts; chop fine with all the other fruit and mix well together. Mix baking powder with flour. Beat
sugar and butter to a cream and beat in the eggs one by one. Add treacle and fruit and lastly flour with milk.
Beat the mixture well and turn into a greased baking tin. Bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes and then turn down
to low. Bake for another 40 minutes to 1 hour.
WHIGS
4 ounces butter; 4 ounces sugar; 2 lbs. flour; ½
( half ) a pint warm cream; quarter of a pint brewer's yeast; 1 grated nutmeg; a little ground mace, cloves, caraway
seeds.
Rub the butter into the flour, add cream and yeast, work into a light dough and leave in a warm place to rise.
Mix in sugar and spices. Roll out very thin and make into large rounds crossed with a knife, so that they can be
cut into quarters. Leave to prove for a little and bake on a sheet in a hot oven for about 15 minutes.
DUNMOW FLITCH
A side of bacon which is the recognized reward for happily married couples who can swear that they have neither
quarreled nor repented their marriage for one year and one day, when
they may claim a flitch at the Flitch ceremony which takes place on Whit-Monday at Dunmow.
EPPING SAUSAGES
Ingredients : -
1 lb. pork; 1 lb. suet; a little sage, thyme savoury,
marjoram, lemon, nutmeg; pepper and salt; 1 egg.
Mince the pork and shred the suet. Mix all the ingredients together. Make into shape of sausages and fry or grill.
OYSTERS
The oysters of Colchester and Pyefleet, are probably the most famous of our native oysters. The Colne Backwater,
the Roach and the Crouch are the estuaries where they are found. It is thought that the Romans first introduced
the oyster to England, since a great many shells have been found among the ruins of Colne, closely resembling the
Colne oyster of to-day.
SAMPHIRE PICKLE
Ingredients : -
1 pint samphire; a few elder buds (or nasturtium seeds);
a few peppercorns; a little salt; a little horseradish; ½ ( half ) a pint of vinegar; ½ ( half )
a pint of cider.
Wash the samphire (a kind of seaweed, ) and elder buds and place in a jar with peppercorns and pour boiling vinegar
and cider (or wine or water) over them with a little salt. Put the jar into a warm oven for a hour to infuse. Seal
and store.
SOUTHEND WHITEBAIT
Whitebait are the " fry " or young of herring and sprat, and are best eaten from March to August. Wash
and dry. Toss lightly in flour and fry in deep fat; drain and when all are done, return to the basket and fry to
crisp in very hot fat. Sprinkle with salt and serve 'with lemon and brown bread and butter.
FRUIT FROM TOLLESHUNT D'ARCY
The fruit of Essex is plentiful and good, and many of our jams are made in the county.
