The Taste of Britain. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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СКАЧАТЬ old-fashioned screw presses, are used to extract juice by small producers; big horizontal or continuous presses are used for factory operations. The juice may be sterilized with sulphur dioxide and yeast cultures added. Other additions are sugar if the year has been poor, and water by some makers. Fermentation takes place in large vats. The result is generally still, strong and dry. If sweet is required it is usually obtained by adding sugar. Royal cider, where fermentation is stopped by the addition of strong alcohol - which will give a sweeter finish - is not pursued as it used to be in the classic period. Some cider apples have sufficiently well-balanced acid and tannin to produce good cider without further blending. A few makers offer cider produced from single varieties. Otherwise, the apples may be blended before milling or after fermentation. Large companies have turned cider-making into a year-round activity by holding part of the year’s apple juice in a concentrated form until required; they may also use concentrated apple juice from abroad.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      WEST AND SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

      Plymouth Gin

      DESCRIPTION:

      PLYMOUTH GIN IS COLOURLESS AND TRANSPARENT. ITS FLAVOUR IS AROMATIC WITH CITRUS AND CORIANDER OVERTONES. Two STRENGTHS ARE AVAILABLE: 37 AND 57 PER CENT ALCOHOL BY VOLUME.

      HISTORY:

      Gin has been distilled in Plymouth since at least the eighteenth century. Coates, the only company now allowed to use the name Plymouth Gin, began production in 1793 in the building which still houses the distillery. It has continued with little interruption. The 57 per cent spirit was made only for the Royal Navy but a quantity was released to celebrate the bicentenary of the company’s foundation. Coates is now marketed by Hiram Walker Agencies, a subsidiary of Allied Lyons.

      TECHNIQUE:

      A neutral grain alcohol is distilled through a rectifying still to remove odours. This yields a very pure spirit which is 95 per cent alcohol; to this are added the ‘botanicals’: juniper, coriander seed, orange and lemon peel, angelica, orris root and cardamom. Coates’s formula lays greater emphasis on the roots (angelica and orris) than other gins, giving it a distinctive aroma. The mixture is distilled once more in a pot still, checked in a spirit safe, and bottled.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

      Shrub

      DESCRIPTION:

      THIS IS PALE GOLD IN COLOUR; ITS TASTE IS SWEET, WITH CITRUS AND CARAMEL NOTES. IT IS 5.3 PER CENT ALCOHOL BY VOLUME.

      HISTORY:

      The word shrub derives from the Arabic root sharab, meaning a sweetened drink. The word and various drinks and confections associated with it are discussed in detail by Alan Davidson (1993). Since the mid-eighteenth century it has been applied to a sweetened drink of rum and oranges, lemons or other acid fruit such as currants. Athough it was clearly old-fashioned by the late 1800s, it was well enough known for Law’s Grocer’s Manual to give a recipe. The taste for it has survived in the South West of Britain, where its manufacture is associated with Bristol. This town carried on an important trade with both the West Indies and the wine- and brandy-producing areas of France and Spain. Rum or cognac were vital ingredients for the drink. The Bristol company that now produces it, J.R. Phillips, makes several other alcoholic cordials, including lovage, peppermint and aniseed.

      TECHNIQUE:

      The commercial recipe and method are trade secrets, but published recipes state that either brandy or rum can be used as a base. Lemon and orange peel are mixed with the liquor and fresh lemon juice. The mixture is infused for several weeks, it is then sweetened with syrup, strained and bottled.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

      Sparkling Cider

      DESCRIPTION:

      THIS CIDER HAS A STRONG APPLE BOUQUET, WITH THE DRY, SPICY FLAVOUR TYPICAL OF ENGLISH CIDERS. IT IS NORMALLY 5-8 PER CENT ALCOHOL BY VOLUME.

      HISTORY:

      Sparkling cider was made in Herefordshire in the 1600s. It had been made possible by the development of glass bottles strong enough to withstand the secondary fermentation. Their invention is credited to Sir Kenelm Digby, a man with a deep interest in the arts of brewing and fermenting, whose collection of recipes for food and especially meads, metheglins and other drinks was posthumously published as The Closet of … Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt., Opened (1669). This is a charming myth, for he was a charming man, but the more likely explanation is that Lord Scudamore, whose family was foremost in improving varieties of apples suitable for cider, began to bottle and lay down cider in the reign of Charles I (Davies, 1993). Glass strong enough to hold the explosive liquid was developed as a result of hotter-burning coal furnaces being used by the glassworkers when the use of charcoal was curtailed after 1615. By the end of the century, there was such a trade with London in bottled cider (sent down the Thames from Lechlade) that 5 or 6 glasshouses had been built in the area to supply the bottles.

      The tradition suffered in the eighteenth century when cider became the drink of the poor but was revived towards the end of the reign of Queen Victoria. In 1895, Law’s Grocer’s Manual stated that, ‘Champagne cider is, or should be, the best mellow or sweet cider bottled before it has fermented or worked much … it is quite frequently made by charging common cider that is deficient in spirit and sparkle with carbonic acid gas.’ Over the last century, both secondary fermentation and carbon dioxide have been used by various manufacturers to give sparkling ciders. Since the late 1970s, an increasing interest in the art of making fine cider has led several specialists to experiment once more with sparkling ciders made by secondary fermentation. At least 7 makers produce a naturally sparkling cider.

      TECHNIQUE:

      A cider produced by the standard English method is used. After initial fermentation, it is allowed to undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle. A few producers clear the cider by allowing the yeast to settle in the necks of the bottles, freezing them and disgorging it before corking. Others leave the yeast in the bottom of the bottle.

      Much commercially produced cider is sparkling but it is carbonated.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

      Original Urchfont Chilli Mustard

      DESCRIPTION:

      THIS GRAIN MUSTARD IS DARK YELLOW-ORANGE, WITH CRUSHED YELLOW MUSTARD SEEDS VISIBLE AND SPECKS OF RED AND DARK BROWN. ITS TASTE IS ACID, MILD MUSTARD WITH A POWERFUL CHILLI KICK.

      HISTORY:

      Originally, all mustard must have been СКАЧАТЬ