The Taste of Britain. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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СКАЧАТЬ I got my first job on a newspaper it was as cookery writer for the Daily Mail, and I was lucky not to lose it in the first month. I had written a recipe for Oxford Marmalade - you know the one: made with bitter Seville oranges, chunky and dark with treacle - but I had written it by hand and forgotten to cross the ‘t’ in treacle. This meant that ‘2 tbs’ was printed as ‘2 lbs’. Since the rest of the ingredients only amounted to ten oranges and a kilo of sugar, this had disaster potential. And a disaster it was.

      You would not believe the number of people who just accept what they read in newspapers. The Daily Mail switchboard went white-hot with complaints about the black caramel in readers’ saucepans. We had to reimburse readers for a lot of ingredient costs and quite a few saucepans which were damaged beyond repair. So when a woman rang up and suggested we let her know how much extra sugar and how many extra oranges she should add to the mixture to get the proportions right again, I thought, ‘Good, this is how we rescue the situation - we just get everyone to make extra marmalade for next year, plus a few pots for the village fête and so on.’ Until, that is, we worked out that each reader would need to make about eighty jars of marmalade. We reimbursed her like everyone else.

      The day after publication I found what looked like a letter bomb on my desk. Well, I knew I’d got the recipe wrong, but I thought bombing was going a bit far. I could tell it was a bomb because, this being the time of the IRA letter bomb campaign, we’d all had bomb training. If you got a suspicious package, especially one like this, which had something squashy in the middle and what felt like wires sticking out each side, you called the security desk and they sent a copper in a flak jacket who took it away.

      Eventually the copper brought it back. It contained a piece of marmalade toffee with a dental brace, complete with two teeth embedded in it. And a very large orthodontist’s bill.

       Prue Leith

      COOKERY EDITOR, FOOD COLUMNIST AND BROADCASTER,

      AND FOUNDER OF LEITH’S RESTAURANT

      TECHNIQUE:

      A lightly kilned ale malt is used for Thomas Hardy’s Ale. The wort is hopped with English varieties, and a top-fermenting yeast is used for a primary fermentation which lasts for approximately 10 days. After this, the beer is re-yeasted for a secondary fermentation and warm-conditioned for 3-6 months, after which the beer is drawn off the sediment and given a further conditioning in cold store for 1-3 months. Yeast is added several times during this time, as the high sugar and alcohol content affect it significantly. When considered ready to leave the brewery, the beer is re-yeasted again and bottled for distribution. It will improve up to its best in the bottle at 5-7 years and will keep for 25 years.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH ENGLAND, DORSET.

      Elderflower Cordial

      DESCRIPTION:

      A PALE STRAW COLOUR AND TRANSPARENT. IT HAS A STRONG AROMA OF ELDERFLOWER AND MUSCAT AND IS BOTH SWEET AND SHARP TO THE TASTE.

      HISTORY:

      Most British soft drinks are fruit based; this is singular in being made from flowers. Rather aptly, the elder was once considered of value for treating the heart and circulation. Its being used to make a syrup (for it had hitherto flavoured vinegars and wines) was the result of the set of influences mentioned in the entry on elderberry cordial, p. 428.

      TECHNIQUE:

      Elderflowers, gathered when fully open (late May to late June), are steeped with sugar, lemon and citric acid for 5 days, before the cordial is strained and bottled. Commercial producers use methods which are a scaled-up version of this. There are differences in the treatment of the flowers after picking: one producer mills and presses them to produce a juice which is used to flavour the essence; another stores them in a solution of sugar and citric acid. Dried flowers are also used in some cordials.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH ENGLAND AND NATIONWIDE.

      Single-Variety Apple Juice

      DESCRIPTION:

      FRESH PRESSED APPLE JUICE IS OFTEN PALE YELLOW-GREEN AND CLOUDY. SOME IS FILTERED. THE FLAVOUR DEPENDS ON THE VARIETY OF APPLE. MANY HAVE COMPLEX FLORAL, FRUITY, SPICY AND NUTTY OVERTONES. PRODUCTION FROM INDIGENOUS VARIETIES IS AS PARTICULAR TO BRITAIN AS THE APPLES THEMSELVES.

      HISTORY:

      Apples have been pressed for juice, primarily as the first step in cider-making, for centuries. Commercial juice production in England began in the 1930s and by the 1970s had become a large industry. At this time, most so-called juice was made from concentrate mixed with water. The development of single-variety juices has arisen from a growing interest in the different flavours of apples and from a need to diversify into new markets for agricultural produce. Cox’s Orange Pippin and Bramley’s Seedling, favourite long-keeping English apples, are much used (and often blended together when a single-variety juice is not required); other varieties are pressed when available.

      TECHNIQUE:

      All producers begin with milling and pressing the apples as if for cider. The juice may then be left to clear and be filtered before pasteurizing. Both flash-pasteurizing at a high temperature and a lower-temperature, longer method are used. Some add vitamin C as an antioxidant.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH ENGLAND.

      ***

       Also produced in South England

      DOUGH CAKE (P. 38)

      FAGGOT (P. 146)

      HASLET (P. 147)

      HOG’S PUDDING (P. 26)

      WORCESTER PEARMAIN APPLE (P. 165)

       South East England

      Blenheim Orange Apple

      DESCRIPTION:

      A LATE-SEASON APPLE SUITABLE FOR DESSERT AND COOKING. DESCRIBED BY MORGAN & RICHARDS (1993) AS MEDIUM-LARGE (5-8cM DIAMETER); FLAT-ROUND, WITH ROUNDED RIBS, SLIGHTLY CROWNED; HAVING A BROAD DEEP BASIN, WITH A LITTLE RUSSET; THE EYE LARGE AND OPEN, THE SEPALS SEPARATED AT THE BASE; THE CAVITY OF MEDIUM WIDTH AND DEPTH, RUSSET LINED; THE STALK SHORT AND THICK; THE COLOUR IS CHARACTERIZED BY AN ORANGE-RED FLUSH WITH A FEW RED STRIPES OVER GREENISH YELLOW OR GOLD, WITH RUSSET PATCHES AND VEINS; THE FLESH IS PALE CREAM AND SLIGHTLY CRUMBLY; THE FLAVOUR IS DESCRIBED AS ADDICTIVE, PLAIN, FLAVOURED WITH NUTS, QUITE SWEET.

      HISTORY:

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