The Taste of Britain. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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СКАЧАТЬ Recipes may be inspired by French examples or British originals evolved through trial and error. It is impossible to list them all. British taste generally leans towards young, cream-textured cheeses characterized by a mild goat flavour and slightly acid freshness, although some people do make mould-ripened, soft cheeses, or hard, pressed cheese, or blue cheeses using goat’s milk. Vulscombe is based on the acid curd method, used by cottagers and farmers’ wives during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to make small quantities of fresh soft cheese for immediate consumption.

      TECHNIQUE:

      British goat cheeses are a diverse subject and it is impossible to discuss them all. One which represents the general taste for mild creaminess has been selected. Vulscombe is named for the valley where it is made. The area has a mixed farming economy in which dairy products are important. The cheese derives from the milk of one herd of goats grazing old-established, flower-rich pastures at an altitude of about 250 metres in central Devon. Supplementary hay and silage are fed in winter and a grain-based concentrate is used for lactating animals. Cheese-making begins once 3 milkings have been accumulated. The temperature is raised to 10°C and a cultured starter added. Then it rises to 32°C over some hours and incubation continues until the milk has separated into curds and whey. Straining is through muslin and cheese-cloth for about 36 hours, then the curd is salted and herbs or peppercorns added if appropriate. It is ladled into moulds and pressed lightly for 24 hours.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DEVON.

      Whey Butter

      DESCRIPTION:

      BUTTER MADE FROM THE WHEY. IN COLOUR IT IS PALE GOLD; IN FLAVOUR, IT IS DESCRIBED AS ‘NUTTY’ OR SLIGHTLY CHEESY, THIS DEEPENS WITH AGE.

      HISTORY:

      Whey butter has probably been produced by cheese-makers in Britain for many centuries. Whey is the by-product of cheese-making, a thin liquid separated from the curd in the early stages. Depending on the type of cheese, the whey carries with it a small proportion of butter-fat and, in some areas, this is collected and churned into butter. Val Cheke (1959) states that, in the early medieval period, one of the duties of the dairy maid was to make whey butter and there are many references from later centuries relating to this practice. Maria Rundell (1807) gave details of how to manage cream for whey butter, a process which required the whey to stand a day and a night before it was skimmed, then boiled, poured into a pan of cold water and skimmed again ‘as the cream rises’ - this is not unlike making clotted cream. She remarks, ‘Where new-milk cheese is made daily, whey-butter for common and present use may be made to advantage.’ This statement still holds true today, and it is made in many cheese-making areas.

      TECHNIQUE:

      Ordinary butter produced in Britain is made from cream separated from fresh milk. In contrast to this, the butterfat used for whey butter goes through the initial processes of cheese-making. The exact details of these vary from region to region, but include the steps of adding starter and rennet, and allowing the milk to ripen and curdle with the temperature at about 32°C. Once the curd has set, it is cut and stirred while the temperature is increased by a few degrees. After a certain time, which varies according to the type of cheese being made, the whey is drained off. It is this part of the process which gives the distinctive flavour to the butter. The whey, which has a fat content of about 0.5-1 per cent, is then put through a mechanical separator (centrifuge), yielding up the fat in the form of cream which is then churned by conventional methods, lightly salted (about 1 per cent), and packed for sale.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND.

      Elver

      DESCRIPTION:

      YOUNG EELS ABOUT 4CM LONG, SLENDER AND THREAD-LIKE. COLOUR: TRANSPARENT, PALE AMBER. FLAVOUR: MILDLY FISHY.

      HISTORY:

      Eels were once a staple of fish-day diet. Medieval household accounts devote more entries to them than almost any other species of fish (Woolgar, 1992). Small wonder, therefore, that their fry should be esteemed as delicacies. The River Severn has long been noted for the vast numbers of elvers it attracts. Neufville Taylor (1965) mentions an elver net in a domestic inventory dated 1587 and Daniel Defoe (1724-6) remarked on elver-cakes sold at Bath and Bristol. White (1932) states elvers in large baskets were being cried through the streets of Gloucester even after the First World War. The fish products of the Severn estuary were important regional symbols, whether the salmon, the elvers or the lampreys - the Corporation of Gloucester sent a lamprey pie to the reigning monarch every year until 1836. Elvers are caught from the Somerset Levels up the Severn as far north as Tewkesbury. Villages some way from the bank have memories of elver cookery. FitzGibbon (1972) records instructions for elver pie (made as a sort of pasty) from the village of Keynsham, half way between Bristol and Bath on the River Avon.

      Elvers have remained a popular food in the region, but they are now very expensive, and much of the catch is exported, some going as stock for eel-farms (Green, 1993). Furthermore, a study undertaken by Brian Knights to investigate the declining catch of elvers from the Severn in the 1980s concluded that oceanic cycles had affected numbers.

      There are several local methods for cooking elvers, including flouring and deep frying; and frying in bacon fat then adding eggs to make a type of omelette. Alternatively, they are steamed to make a loaf. There are elver-eating contests in the villages on the lower reaches of the Severn on Easter Monday. During the season, between the spring tides of March and April, fresh elvers can be bought from local markets.

      TECHNIQUE:

      The elvers are caught at night by inhabitants who have rights to particular places on the river where swift-moving water comes close to the bank. They take up station some time before the ‘bore’, a high wave formed by the incoming tide in the Severn estuary as it narrows, and warn each other of its arrival by shouting a message along the river, marking its progress. As the tide begins to ebb, nets are put into the water with their mouth facing downstream to catch the elvers as they swim upstream against the flow; after a few minutes a net is removed and emptied, then dipped again. A suspended light can be used to attract the fish. If the run is poor, the net may be ‘tealed’, pegged in position for some time, in an attempt to maximize the catch.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      WEST ENGLAND, SEVERN ESTUARY AND TRIBUTARIES.

      Smoked Mackerel

      DESCRIPTION:

      SINGLE FILLETS OF SMOKED MACKEREL WITH SKIN. COLOUR: CHESTNUT BROWN ON FLESH SURFACE, CREAM INTERNAL FLESH. FLAVOUR: WOODY-OILY, LIGHTLY SALTY.

      HISTORY

      Similar to the herring, with a high oil content, mackerel flesh spoils rapidly when fresh and the hot-smoking process over oak chips was a method of processing which the curers have developed and which has become as popular as kippers. Mackerel is fished all around the British coasts, and has long been a mainstay of the South West. In the early twentieth century, the catch was preserved by СКАЧАТЬ