The Taste of Britain. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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      Lardy Cake, South England (p. 73)

      Easter Biscuit

      DESCRIPTION:

      A CIRCULAR BISCUIT WITH A FLUTED EDGE, 50-90MM DIAMETER, 5MM THICK; WEIGHT: 12-20G. COLOUR: PALE GOLD IRREGULARLY FLECKED WITH CURRANTS. FLAVOUR: SWEET, LIGHTLY SPICED. SHORT TEXTURE.

      HISTORY:

      In the past, the British made many special foods for Easter, including various breads and biscuits and things like tansy puddings. In the twenty-first century, only hot cross buns and simnel cakes are well-known, but a few others survive. One is the Easter biscuit, known also as Easter cake, in South Western England. Old recipes show them to belong to the same type as Shrewsbury cakes (p. 176), based on a rich shortbread mixed with currants and flavoured with spices and peel. Harris and Borella (c. 1900) say there were many varieties, that they were rather large, cut with a fluted cutter and sugared on top. They give 2 recipes. Firstly, ‘the usual’, made with butter or margarine and flavoured with oil of lemon; and a ‘recommended’ one, for which butter and Vostizza currants are specified and lemon zest used to flavour. They comment on a method used by an old-fashioned pastry cook’s shop in London where the biscuit was pressed out with the thumbs to give an irregularly shaped biscuit with an uneven surface. The appearance was ugly, but the butter and flavouring of orange and lemon zest made them very good. These recipes are similar to 2 collected by Florence White in the 1930s. One, called a Sedgemoor Easter cake, came from Somerset. According to Bristol baker John Williams, Easter biscuits are still very popular in the city of Bristol and throughout much of the South West; he regards the flavouring of oil of cassia (a form of cinnamon) as the defining characteristic.

      TECHNIQUE:

      Easter biscuits are a shortbread type. A commercial recipe (c. 1925-30) calls for flour, butter, sugar and currants roughly in the proportions 4:2:2:1. They are mixed with eggs and baking powder, nutmeg and oil of cassia. They are baked at 195-205°C until lightly browned. Other recorded recipes may include mixed sweet spice, cinnamon and brandy (Sedgemoor) or lemon zest (London).

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, BRISTOL.

      Mothering Bun

      DESCRIPTION:

      A CIRCULAR BUN 90MM ACROSS, 30-40MM DEEP. WEIGHT: 60G. COLOUR: GOLDEN CRUST, DECORATED WITH WHITE GLACÉ ICING AND A THICK COATING OF HUNDREDS-AND-THOUSANDS (NONPAREILS). FLAVOUR: LIGHT, SLIGHTLY ENRICHED BREAD, WITH SWEET ICING.

      HISTORY:

      Mothering buns are a speciality of Bristol made on the Saturday immediately preceding Mothering Sunday (Mid-Lent Sunday). This is a day on which the Lenten fast was relaxed to allow consumption of richer foods. In the past, it was also associated with the better-known custom of the Simnel Cake (see below). The buns are small and rather plain, and the cakes large, rich and elaborate, although there is evidence for plainer, yeast-raised simnels in various places.

      John Williams, a baker who has taken an interest in Bristol specialities, comments that mothering buns have been made for as long as anyone can remember, and that at the beginning of the twentieth century, they were coated with caraway or aniseed comfits, rather than the hundreds-and-thousands now used. This links them to the tradition of Bath buns which once incorporated caraway comfits, and to the many other bun and wig recipes of 200 years ago which used the same flavouring. All bakers in Bristol make mothering buns, only on the Saturday before Mothering Sunday.

      TECHNIQUE:

      A plain dough is made using flour, fat and sugar in the proportions 10:1:1. A ferment works for about 30 minutes at 32°C. The fat - usually lard, butter is used in particularly rich buns - is rubbed into the flour, sugar and a little salt and the ferment are added. After fermentation, it is knocked back and kneaded again. It is baked at 220°C for 20 minutes. The tops are given a plain icing, followed immediately by dipping in a dish of hundreds-and-thousands.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, BRISTOL.

      Oldbury Tart

      DESCRIPTION:

      A SMALL CIRCULAR PIE ABOUT 90MM DIAMETER, 20MM DEEP. THE EDGE OF THE PIE IS NIPPED INTO LITTLE POINTS, GIVING A CROWN EFFECT. WEIGHT: APPROXIMATELY 100G.

      HISTORY:

      These tarts were also known (more accurately perhaps) as pies. They are distinctive in their use of hot-water pastry, usually associated with savoury pies, in combination with sweet filling. See also Cumnock tarts, below. Gooseberries are the common filling, but black currants are also known. A very similar gooseberry pie was made for Mansfield Fair in Nottinghamshire. No other fruit pies using this type of pastry are mentioned by authorities on British food.

      Both the Oldbury and Mansfield pies were noted at the end of the last century. The Nottinghamshire affairs involved melted apple jelly being poured into the warm pies to set as it cooled. This is just like adding jellied stock to savoury pork pies. White (1932) records that the pies were still being sold at Mansfield Fair. Surviving recipes for Oldbury tarts are of more recent date, but the use of brown sugar as a sweetener suggests a tradition stretching well into the nineteenth century before white sugar became cheap and easily available (about 1840). Pauline Gazard, one of the few people who now keeps the dish alive, quotes oral traditions to do with the pies. They should be eaten from the hand, and a good pie is full of juice which runs out when bitten. The pastry should be thin, and the decorative edge is important; there should be 21 points to the crown. They are more difficult to make than ordinary pies, which discourages many. This most interesting tradition appears to be declining. They are still available in small numbers at local fetes and fairs in July.

      TECHNIQUE:

      The proportion of flour to fat is slightly more than double the weight. The fat is butter and lard in equal quantities. The dough is made like any other hot-water paste. To shape the cases the dough is rolled out thinly and cut in circles of 160mm diameter. These are hand-raised by pleating the sides 4 or 5 times. They are filled with small gooseberries and soft brown sugar. A pastry lid is nipped with the case to give the pointed effect; a small hole is cut in the centre. At this stage, the pies are sometimes left to stand overnight, allowing the pastry to firm. They are baked at about 200°C for 25-30 minutes.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      WEST ENGLAND, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

      Sally Lunn

      DESCRIPTION:

      A LOW CIRCULAR LOAF; A USUAL SIZE IS ABOUT 140MM DIAMETER, ABOUT 80MM DEEP. WEIGHT: APPROXIMATELY 200G. COLOUR AND TEXTURE: A DEEP GOLD CRUST ON TOP, FADING TO CREAM UNDERNEATH, WITH A RICH, CREAM, CLOSE-TEXTURED, LIGHT AND MELTING CRUMB.

      HISTORY:

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