The Lost Foods of England

By Glyn Hughes

The complete 'Lost Foods of England' - English food as it once was. The foods we've lost and forgot,with more than one thousand original receipts to make them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780244691042

Book preview

The Lost Foods of England

The Lost Foods of England

English food as it once was.

The foods we've lost and forgot,

with more than one thousand original, genuine receipts to make them

by

Glyn Hughes

To

John and Tim, who taught me how to eat

Victoria, who taught me how to live

and

Patsy and Alan for the beef

This Edition Copyright © 2018 Glyn Hughes, all rights reserved

This eBook ISBN  978-0-244-69104-2

Also available in print: ISBN  978-0-244-02963-0

Foods of England

Denver House, Winster, Derbyshire, England DE4 2DH

www.foodsofengland.co.uk

Introduction

Food, people say, 'isn't what it once was'. But then again, nothing is what it once was. Things change. In the case of food, though, there's some truth in the complaint. It has, to an extent, become a thing we have done to us rather than joining with our neighbours to do things for ourselves.

I've spent twenty years collecting England's food history. Using the British Library's astonishing collection, cookbooks going back to the 1300s and from snippets and notes from correspondents all over the world, the Foods of England Project now brings together in this book the Original Receipts (yes 'receipt', 'recipe' is French) for over a thousand forgotten dishes from the English pasta of fourteenth century, through strange Victorian ways with offal to lost classics like fag pie, viper soup and Robert Walpole's Dumplings. Here is your chance to re-invent them for today.

None of which would have been possible without a whole brigade of contributors. I am especially grateful to Alex Bray, Tony Woolrich, Kathryn Marsh, Benjamin Archer, Jan Chesterman, Trish Johnston, Pam Forbes, Lilian Webster, Bevan Ridehalgh, and Jane Murray, without whom this collection would be lacking a great deal of its richness. Cheers!

Glyn Hughes

Winster.

Derbyshire, England

www.foodsofengland.co.uk

The Roast Beef Of Old England

As of the time I'm writing (July 2017) it appears that the Traditional Roast Beef for which England was once famous is no longer offered by any eating house anywhere. I'm happy to be corrected.

Roasting is something which is done in front of an open fire. Baking, on the other hand, is something done in an enclosed space, an oven. Roasting requires very considerable skill and constant attention, but gives meat a crisp juiciness and flavour which is absolutely unrivalled. Baking of meats became the norm after England started using coal as a domestic fuel in the early 19th century. Coal contains smelly sulphur compounds, quite unlike the bitter-sweet fragrance of wood and people started using metal ovens next to the fire instead of putting the meat in front of it. So, with no exception I know of, what we get now is baked beef. It is reliable and fairly easy to do. It can be more then quite good, but, strictly and traditionally roast beef it is not.

First, a few historical whets...

It is clear that roast beef has been considered the English dish for a long time. Such is mentioned in Shakespeare, and Andrew Boorde, the physician, traveller, writer, spy and Carthusian monk, in his 'Compendyous Regyment or Dyetary of Health' of 1542 says; Beef is a good meate for an Englysshe man, so be it the beest be yonge, & that it be not know-flesche; yf it be moderatly powdered [i.e. salted] that the groose blode by salt may be exhaustyd, it doth make an Englysshe man stronge.

The song The Roast Beef of Old England was written by Henry Fielding for his play The Grub-Street Opera, of 1731 and is still occasionally played at military dinners. When mighty Roast Beef was the Englishman's food, It ennobled our brains and enriched our blood. Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good Oh! the Roast Beef of old England, And old English Roast Beef!

It perhaps takes someone just outside of England to really appreciate what others have. Morgan O'Doherty, writing in the Scottish Blackwood's Magazine, and reported in the 'Dublin Evening Mail' - (Wednesday 07 July 1824); Whatever country one is, one should choose the dishes of the country. Every really national dish is good -at least, I never yet met with one that did not gratify appetite. The Turkish pilaws are most excellent but the so-called French cookery of Pera is execrable. In a like manner roast beef with Yorkshire pudding is always a prime feast in England while John Bull's Fricandeux, Soufflés &c., are decidedly anathema. What a horror, again, is a Bifstick the Palais Royal!

So, how do you do Roast Beef? As is going to be pretty usual from now on, we'll defer to the great Eliza Acton (1799-1859) whose vast 'Modern Cookery for Private Families' was a best-seller throughout the first half of the 19th Century, until it was somewhat eclipsed by Mrs Beeton. Lauded by D. Smith, Elizabeth David and pretty much everyone, Eliza Acton is always right. This is how she tells us to roast meat. Pay attention;

Roasting, which is quite the favourite mode of dressing meat in this country, and one in which the English are thought to excel, requires unremitting attention on the part of the cook rather than any great exertion of skill. Large kitchens are usually fitted with a smoke- jack, by means of which several spits if needful can be kept turning at the same time; but in in small establishments, a roaster which allows of some economy in point of fuel is more commonly used. That shown in the print is of very advantageous construction in this respect, as a joint may be cooked in it with a comparatively small fire, the heat being strongly reflected from the screen upon the meat: in consequence of this, it should never be placed very close to the grate, as the surface of the joint would then become dry and hard. A more convenient form of roaster, with a spit placed horizontally, and turned by means of a wheel and chain, of which the movement is regulated by a spring contained in a box at the top, is of the same economical order as the one above; but eaters of very delicate taste urge, as an objection to this apparatus, as well as to that shown above, that the meat cooked in either, derives from the tin by which it is closely surrounded, the flavour of baked meat. The bottle-jack, with a common roasting-screen containing shelves for warming plates and dishes, and other purposes, is not liable to the same objection. To roast well with it (or with a smoke-jack), make up a fire proportioned in width and height to the joint which is to be roasted, and which it should surpass in dimensions every way, by two or three inches. Place some moderate-sized lumps of coal on the top; let it be free from smoke and ashes in front; and so compactly arranged that it will neither require to be disturbed, nor supplied with fresh fuel, for some considerable time after the meat is laid down. Spit or suspend the joint, and place it very far from the fire at first; keep it constantly basted, and when it is two parts done, move it nearer to the fire that it may be properly browned; but guard carefully against its being burned. A few minutes before it is taken from the spit, sprinkle a little fine salt over it, baste it thoroughly with its own dripping, or with butter, and dredge it with flour: as soon as the froth is well risen, dish, and serve the meat. Or, to avoid the necessity of the frothing which is often greatly objected to on account of the raw taste retained by the flour, dredge the roast liberally soon after it is first laid to the fire; the flour will then form a savoury incrustation upon it, and assist to prevent the escape of its juices. When meat or poultry is wrapped in buttered paper it must not be floured until this is removed, which should be fifteen or twenty minutes before either is served. Baron Liebeg, whom we have already so often quoted, says, that roasting should be conducted on the same principle as boiling; and that sufficient heat should be applied to the surface of the meat at once, to contract the pores and prevent the escape of its juices; and that the remainder of the process should be slow. When a joint is first laid to the fire, therefore, it should be placed for twenty minutes or half an hour sufficiently near to effect this, without any part, and the fat especially, being allowed to acquire more than the slightest colour, and then drawn back and finished by the directions at the end of this section. The speedy application of very hot basting-fat to every part of the meat, would probably be attended with the same result as subjecting it to the full action of the fire. It is certain that roasts which are constantly and carefully basted are always very superior to those which are neglected in this respect.

Remember always to draw back the dripping-pan when the fire has to be stirred, or when fresh coals are thrown on, that the cinders and ashes may not fall into it. When meat is very lean, a slice of butter, or a small quantity of clarified dripping, should be melted in the pan to baste it with at most; though the use of the latter should be scrupulously avoided for poultry, or any delicate meats, as the flavour it imparts is to many persons peculiarly objectionable. Let the spit be kept bright and dean, and wipe it before the meat is put on; balance the joint well upon it, that it may turn steadily, and if needful secure it with screw-skewers. A cradle spit, which b so constructed that it contains the meat in a sort of framework, instead of passing through it, may be often very advantageously used instead of an ordinary one, as the perforation of the meat by this last must always occasion some escape of the juices; and it is, moreover, particularly to be objected to in roasting joints or poultry which have been boned and filled with forcemeat. The cradle spit is much better suited to these, as well as to a sucking pig, sturgeon, salmon, and other large fish; but it is not very commonly to be found in our kitchens, many of which exhibit a singular scantiness of the conveniences which assist the labours of the cook. For heavy and substantial joints, a quarter of an hour is generally allowed for every pound of meat; and with a sound fire and frequent basting, will be found sufficient when the process is conducted in the usual manner; but by the 'slow method' we shall designate it, almost double the time will be required. Fork, veal, and lamb, should always be well roasted; but many eaters prefer mutton and beef rather under-dressed, though some persons have a strong objection to the sight even of any meat that is not thoroughly cooked. Joints which are thin in proportion to their weight, require less of the fire than thick and solid ones. Ribs of beef, for example, will be sooner ready to serve than an equal weight of the rump, round, or sirloin; and the neck or shoulder of mutton, or spare rib of pork, than the leg. When to preserve the succulence of the meat is more an object than to economise fuel, beef and mutton should be laid at twice the usual distance from the fire, after the surface has been thoroughly heated, as directed by Liebig, and allowed to remain so until they are perfectly heated through; the roasting, so managed, will of course be slow; and from three hours and a half to four hours will be necessary to cook by this method a leg of mutton of ordinary size, for which two hours would amply suffice in a common way; but the flesh will be remarkably tender, and the flow of gravy from it most abundant. It should not be drawn near the fire until within the last half or three quarters of an hour, and should then be placed only so close as to brown it properly. No kind of roast indeed should at any time be allowed to take colour too quickly; it should be heated gradually, and kept at least at a moderate distance from the fire until it is nearly done, or the outside will be dry and hard, if not burned while the inside will be only half cooked.

And here's the opinion from Isabella Beeton's 'Book of Household Management' (1861) and her 'Dictionary of Every-day Cookery' (1865)

551. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROASTING MEAT AND BAKING IT, may be generally described as consisting in the fact, that, in baking it, the fumes caused by the operation are not carried off in the same way as occurs in roasting. Much, however, of this disadvantage is obviated by the improved construction of modern ovens, and of especially those in connection with the Leamington kitchener, of which we give an engraving here, and a full description of which will be seen at paragraph No. 65, with the prices at which they can be purchased of Messrs. R. and J. Slack, of the Strand. With meat baked in the generality of ovens, however, which do not possess ventilators on the principle of this kitchener, there is undoubtedly a peculiar taste, which does not at all equal the flavour developed by roasting meat. The chemistry of baking may be said to be the same as that described in roasting.

ROASTING. 577. OF THE VARIOUS METHODS OF PREPARING MEAT, ROASTING is that which most effectually preserves its nutritive qualities. Meat is roasted by being exposed to the direct influence of the fire. This is done by placing the meat before an open grate, and keeping it in motion to prevent the scorching on any particular part. When meat is properly roasted, the outer layer of its albumen is coagulated, and thus presents a barrier to the exit of the juice. In roasting meat,the heat must be strongest at first, and it should then be much reduced. To have a good juicy roast, therefore, the fire must be red and vigorous at the very commencement of the operation. In the most careful roasting, some of the juice is squeezed out of the meat: this evaporates on the surface of the meat, and gives it a dark brown colour, a rich lustre, and a strong aromatic taste. Besides these effects on the albumen and the expelled juice, roasting converts the cellular tissue of the meat into gelatine, and melts the fat out of the fat-cells.

578. IF A SPIT is used to support the meat before the fire, it should be kept quite bright. Sand and water ought to be used to scour it with, for brickdust and oil may give a disagreeable taste to the meat. When well scoured, it must be wiped quite dry with a clean cloth; and, in spitting the meat, the prime parts should be left untouched, so as to avoid any great escape of its juices.

579. KITCHENS IN LARGE ESTABLISHMENTS are usually fitted with what are termed smoke-jacks. By means of these, several spits, if required, may be turned at the same time. This not being, of course, necessary in smaller establishments, a roasting apparatus, more economical in its consumption of coal, is more frequently in use.

580. THE BOTTLE-JACK, of which we here give an illustration, with the wheel and hook, and showing the precise manner of using it, is now commonly used in many kitchens. This consists of a spring inclosed in a brass cylinder, and requires winding up before it is used, and sometimes, also, during the operation of roasting. The joint is fixed to an iron hook, which is suspended by a chain connected with a wheel, and which, in its turn, is connected with the bottle- jack. Beneath it stands the dripping-pan, which we have also engraved, together with the basting-ladle, the use of which latter should not be spared; as there can be no good roast without good basting. Spare the rod, and spoil the child, might easily be paraphrased into Spare the basting, and spoil the meat. If the joint is small and light, and so turns unsteadily, this may be remedied by fixing to the wheel one of the kitchen weights. Sometimes this jack is fixed inside a screen; but there is this objection to this apparatus, - that the meat cooked in it resembles the flavour of baked meat. This is derived from its being so completely surrounded with the tin, that no sufficient current of air gets to it. It will be found preferable to make use of a common meat-screen, such as is shown in the woodcut. This contains shelves for warming plates and dishes; and with this, the reflection not being so powerful, and more air being admitted to the joint, the roast may be very excellently cooked.

581. IN STIRRING THE FIRE, or putting fresh coals on it, the dripping-pan should always be drawn back, so that there may be no danger of the coal, cinders,or ashes falling down into it.

582. UNDER EACH PARTICULAR RECIPE there is stated the time required for roasting each joint; but, as a general rule, it may be here given, that for every pound of meat, in ordinary-sized joints, a quarter of an hour may be allotted.

583. WHITE MEATS, AND THE MEAT OF YOUNG ANIMALS, require to be very well roasted, both to be pleasant to the palate and easy of digestion. Thus veal, pork,and lamb, should be thoroughly done to the centre.

584. MUTTON AND BEEF, on the other hand, do not, generally speaking, require to be so thoroughly done, and they should be dressed to the point, that, in carving them, the gravy should just run, but not too freely. Of course in this, as in most other dishes, the tastes of individuals vary; and there are many who cannot partake, with satisfaction, of any joint unless it is what others would call overdressed.

Now that you know how to roast, trusting that you have your Improved Spring Jack to hand, we can move on to actual receipts.

ROAST RIBS OF BEEF.

657. INGREDIENTS. - Beef, a little salt.

Mode. - -The fore-rib is considered the primest roasting piece, but the middle-rib is considered the most economical. Let the meat be well hung (should the weather permit), and cut off the thin ends of the bones, which should be salted for a few days, and then boiled. Put the meat down to a nice clear fire, put some clean dripping into the pan, dredge the joint with a little flour, and keep continually basting the whole time. Sprinkle some fine salt over it (this must never be done until the joint is dished, as it draws the juices from the meat); pour the dripping from the pan, put in a little boiling: water slightly salted, and strain the gravy over the meat. Garnish with tufts of scraped horseradish, and send horseradish sauce to table with it (see No. 447). A Yorkshire pudding (see Puddings) sometimes accompanies this dish, and, if lightly made and well cooked, will be found a very agreeable addition.

Time. - 10 lbs. of beef, 2-½ hours; 14 to 16 lbs., from 3-½ to 4 hours.

Average cost, 8-½d. per lb.

Sufficient. - A joint of 10 lbs. sufficient for 8 or 9 persons.

Seasonable at any time.

MEMORANDA IN ROASTING. - The management of the fire is a point of primary importance in roasting. A radiant fire throughout the operation is absolutely necessary to insure a good result. When the article to be dressed is thin and delicate, the fire may be small; but when the joint is large, the fire must fill the grate. Meat must never be put down before a hollow or exhausted fire, which may soon want recruiting; on the other hand, if the heat of the fire becomes too fierce, the meat must be removed to a considerable distance till it is somewhat abated. Some cooks always fail in their roasts, though they succeed in nearly everything else. A French writer on the culinary art says that anybody can learn how to cook, but one must be born a roaster. According to Liebig, beef or mutton cannot be said to be sufficiently roasted until it has acquired, throughout the whole mass, a temperature of 158°; but poultry may be well cooked when the inner parts hare attained a temperature of from 130° to 140°. This depends on the greater amount of blood which beef and mutton contain, the colouring matter of blood not being coagulable under 158°.

ROAST RIBS OF BEEF, Boned and Rolled (a very Convenient Joint for a Small Family).

658. INGREDIENTS. - 1 or 2 ribs of beef.

Mode. - Choose a fine rib of beef, and have it cut according to the weight you require, either wide or narrow. Bone and roll the meat round, secure it with wooden skewers, and, if necessary, bind it round with a piece of tape. Spit the beef firmly, or, if a bottle-jack is used, put the joint on the hook, and place it near a nice clear fire. Let it remain so till the outside of the meat is set, when draw it to a distance, and keep continually basting until the meat is done, which can be ascertained by the steam from it drawing towards the fire. As this joint is solid, rather more than ¼ hour must be allowed for each lb. Remove the skewers, put in a plated or silver one, and send the joint to table with gravy in the dish, and garnish with tufts of horseradish. Horseradish sauce, No. 447, is a great improvement to roast beef.

Time. - For 10 lbs. of the rolled ribs, 3 hours (as the joint is very solid, we have allowed an extra½ hour); for 6 lbs., 1-½ hour.

Average cost, 8-½d. per lb.

Sufficient. - A joint of 10 lbs. for 6 or 8 persons.

Seasonable all the year.

Note. - When the weight exceeds 10 lbs., we would not advise the above method of boning and rolling; only in the case of 1 or 2 ribs, when the joint cannot stand upright in the dish, and would look awkward. The bones should be put in with a few vegetables and herbs, and made into stock.

ROAST SIRLOIN OF BEEF.

659. INGREDIENTS. - Beef, a little salt.

Mode. - As a joint cannot be well roasted without a good fire, see that it is well made up about ¾ hour before it is required, so that when the joint is put down, it is clear and bright. Choose a nice sirloin, the weight of which should not exceed 16 lbs., as the outside would be too much done, whilst the inside would not be done enough. Spit it or hook it on to the jack firmly, dredge it slightly with flour, and place it near the fire at first, as directed in the preceding recipe. Then draw it to a distance, and keep continually basting until the meat is done. Sprinkle a small quantity of salt over it, empty the dripping-pan of all the dripping, pour in some boiling water slightly salted, stir it about, and strain over the meat. Garnish with tufts of horseradish, and send horseradish sauce and Yorkshire pudding to table with it. For carving, see p. 317.

Time. - A sirloin of 10 lbs., 2-½ hours; 14 to 16 lbs., about 4 or 4-½ hours.

Average cost, 8-½d. per lb.

Sufficient. - A joint of 10 lbs. for 8 or 9 persons.

Seasonable at any time. The rump, round, and other pieces of beef are roasted in the same manner, allowing for solid joints; ¼ hour to every lb. Note. - -The above is the usual method of roasting meat; but to have it in perfection and the juices kept in, the meat should at first be laid close to the fire, and when the outside is set and firm, drawn away to a good distance, and then left to roast very slowly; where economy is studied, this plan would not answer, as the meat requires to be at the fire double the time of the ordinary way of cooking; consequently, double the quantity of fuel would be consumed.

Yorkshire puddings were, of course, originally a dish by themselves and only seem to be noted as an accompaniment to roast beef from the beginning of the 19th Century, for instance...

Original Receipt in The cook and housewife's manual, by Margaret Dods, 1826

ROAST BEEF is garnished with plenty of horseradish finely scraped and laid round the dish in light heaps and served with Yorkshire pudding or potato pudding.* The inside or English side as it is commonly called in the northern division of the island is by some esteemed the most delicate. To this the carver must attend and also to the equitable distribution of the fat.

*Dr Redgill who relished a joke after the serious business of dinner was despatched, holding it as a maxim that a moderate laugh aided digestion, was wont to say that Yorkshire pudding was the true Squire of Sir Loin and horse-radish his brisk fiery Page, without which attendants he looked despoiled of his dignity and bearing.

THE ENGLISH TABLE

What is odd is how the roast beef dinner-on-a-plate of sliced meat, portioned-out veg and Yorkshires have come to been seen as English when the traditional Old English Service is very much not to have a set meal, but to allow each diner to choose, individually, what items they want from the selection placed before them.

The idea of a ready-plated-up meal, the 'meat and two veg', is very definitely from the Russian style of service. This Service à la russe is said to have been introduced to France in the early 19th Century by the Russian Ambassador Alexander Kurakin. As many French restaurateurs and cooks moved to England - including the hugely influential Louis Eustache Ude, Alexis Soyer and Marie-Antoine Carême - the new plated service came to supplant the Old English way. Which is a pity.

Traditional French Service has each course brought from the kitchen one at a time, and placed in platters on the table for the diners to help themselves, or be served by the waiter.

Old English Table Service is the practice of giving each diner an empty plate, and placing every dish on the table, sweet and savoury at the same time, for the diners to help themselves. Where the service is so large that the table simply can't accommodate it, there would be 'removes' where some of the dishes were replaced, so that a grand banquet might be described as having so-many 'removes'.

What is now called modern 'English Service' or 'English Silver Service' is a variation of French Service, but made English by a adding a sufficient number of assorted eating implements to confuse and frighten the non-posh.

The old method is described in cookery books from around 1650, and given with a great deal of detail at the end of Moxon 1764. As late as 1844 'Punch' could joke that Three removes are better than a dessert. It is only rarely used now, but partly survives in the English practice of delivering vegetables in a separate dish from meats, for the diners to help themselves and is still customarily followed to some extent at the Christmas Feast.

The Lost Foods Of England

Glyn Hughes

Whets

A 'whet' is something that stimulates the appetite, an appetizer. Whets might be drinks, or titbits such as: Farts, Devils on Horseback, Whitstable Angels, Chewitts, Frians, Peascods

Chewitts

Chewitts are very tiny pies, known from late medieval times (c1390) up to the early 17th Century. Possibly similar to the modern Whist Pie of Lancashire.

Original Receipt in 'The Forme of Cury' by the Chief Master-Cook of King Richard II, c1390 (Cury 1390)

CHEWETES ON FLESHE DAY

Take there meat of Pork and carve it all to pieces. and hens therewith and do it in a pan and fry it & make a coffin [casing] as to a pie small & do therein. & do thereupon yolks of eggs, hard, powder of ginger and salt, cover it & fry it in grease. Otherwise bake it well and serve it forth.

CHEWETES ON FYSSH DAY

Take turbot, haddock, codling and hake and seethe it. Grind it small and do thereto dates, ground, raisins, pine-nuts, good powder and salt. Make a coffin as before said, close this therein, and fry it in oil. Otherwise stew it in ginger with sugar, or in wine, or bake it, & serve forth.

Original Receipt from 'A Noble boke off cookry ffor a prynce houssolde or eny other estately houssolde' (Noble Boke 1480);

To mak chewettes of beef tak beef and cutt it smalle and do ther to pouder of guinger clowes and other good poudurs grapes vergius saffron and salt and toile them welle to gedure put chekins chopped in coffins and yolks of eggs brok smale and bak them and serue them.

Original Receipt from 'A New Booke of Cookerie' by John Murrell (Murrell 1615)

A delicate Chewit

Parboyle a piece of a Legge of veal, and being cold, mince it with Beefe Suit, and Marrow, and an Apple or a couple of Wardens: when you haue minst it fine, put to a few parboyld Currins, sixe Dates minst, a piece of a preserued Orenge-pill minst, Marrow cut in little square pieces. Season all this with Pepper, Salt, Nutmeg, and a little Sugar: then put it into your Coffins, and so bake it. Before you close your Pye, sprinckle on a little Rosewater, and when they are baked shave on a little Sugar, and so serve it to the Table.

Original Receipt in 'The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin' 1594 by Thomas Dawson, (Huswife 1594)

To make Oyster Chewets.

TAKE a peck of Oisters, & wash them clean. Then shel them, and wash them in a colender faire and clean, then seeth them in faire water a litle, and when they bee sodden, strain the water from them, and cut them smal as pie meat, season them with a little pepper, a peniworth of Cloues and Mace, a peniworth of Sinamon and Ginger, a peniworth of Sugar, a litle Saffron and salt: then take a handfull of Corrans, sixe Dates minced small, and mingle them altogether. Then make your paste with a quantitie of fine flower, ten yolkes of Egges, a quantitie of Butter, with a litle Saffron and boyled water, then raise vp your Chewets, and put in the bottom of your Chewets a litle Butter, and cast vpon them Prunes, Dates, and Corrans, so close them and bake them: let not your Ouen be too hot, for they would haue but litle baking. Then drawe them, and put in euerie of them two spoonfuls of Uergious and butter, and so serue them in, etc.

Farts

(or Fertes, Fartes) A tiny spherical titbit (OED). A Whet, or Subtelty. Early references are to spheres of light sweetened pastry, a later receipt (Huswife 1594) is of minced mutton and fruit.

The name is not a mis-reading of 'tarts', but is known from several sources, including AW 1591. The designation 'Portingale' means 'Portuguese-style'.

Customs records show that in the autumn of 1480 Martin Rodkyns imported 4,000 farts from Portugal, and that 'Fertes with other subtilties' were served with hippocras at Archbishop Warham's enthronement feast in 1504.

Original Receipt in 'A book of cookrye. Very necessary for all such as delight therin', gathered by AW (AW 1591);

To make Farts of Portingale.

Take a quart of life Hony, and set it upon the fire and when it seetheth scum it clean, and then put in a certaine of fine Biskets well serced, and some pouder of Cloves, some Ginger, and powder of sinamon, Annis seeds and some Sugar, and let all these be well stirred upon the fire, til it be as thicke as you thinke needfull, and for the paste for them take Flower as finelye dressed as may be, and a good peece of sweet Butter, and woorke all these same well togither, and not knead it.

Original Receipt in 'The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin' 1594 by Thomas Dawson, (Huswife 1594)

How to make Farts of Portingale.

TAKE a peece of a leg of Mutton, mince it smal and season it with cloues, mace pepper and salt, and dates minced with currans: then roll it into round rolles, and so into little balles, and so boyle them in a little beefe broth and so serue them foorth.

Anchovy Whet

Little toasts with anchovies and cheese. The 'Salamander' mentioned here is a metal plate on a stick, heated red-hot in the fire and held over things you wanted grilling, in the days before someone invented the gas grill.

Original Receipt in 'The Experienced English Housekeeper' by Elizabeth Raffald (Raffald 1769)

To make a nice Whet before Dinner

CUT some slices of bread half an inch thick fry them in butter but not too hard, then split some anchovies take out the bones and lay half an anchovy on each piece of bread; have ready some Cheshire cheese grated and some chopped parsley mixed together, lay it pretty thick over the bread and anchovy, baste it with butter, and brown it with a salamander, it must be done on the dish in which you send it to table.

Frians

Tiny pasties, made from a sheet of very thin paste of the bignesse of your hand, edges damped and folded over fillings such as bone marrow with ginger or peel with fruit, the whole fried. Similar to samosas (Huswife 1594) See also: Peasecod.

Original Receipt in 'The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin' 1594 by Thomas Dawson, (Huswife 1594)

To make Frians.

TAKE three handfull of flower, seuen yolkes of Egges, and half a dish of Butter, make your paste therewith and make two Chewets therof, as you would make two Tarts, and when it is driuen verie fine with your rolling pin, then cut them in peeces of the bignesse of your hand. Then take a quartern of sugar, and one ounce and foure spoonfuls of Synamon, and halfe a spoonfull of Ginger, and mingle them altogether, then take lumps of marrow, of the quantitie of your finger, and put it on your peeces of paste afore rehearsed, and put vpon it two spoonfuls of your Sugar and spices: then take a litle water and wet your paste therewith: then make them euen as you would make a pastie of Venison: then pricke them with a pin, and frie them as þe frie frittons, when they be fried, cast a litle sugar on them, and so serue them in.

To make frians in Lent

TAKE Ualsome Eeles and see they be fat, and cut the fish from the bone, and mince it smal, and a Warden or two with it. Then season it with Pepper, salt, Cloues, mace, and Saffron: then put to it Corrans, Dates and Prunes, smal minced, and when your fruit is altogether then poure on a litle Uergious and cut it in little peeces, and so bake it & put a peece of Butter in the midst of the peeces to make it moist, so close it, and bake it.

Peasecods

An old word for pea-pods, known at least since Langland 1390, used for a form of very tiny pasty in the shape of a pea-pod with fillings such as spiced apple or dried fruits with bone-marrow, fried. Differing from Frians only in shape (Huswife 1594, etc)

Original Receipt in 'The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin' 1594 by Thomas Dawson, (Huswife 1594)

To make Pescods.

MAke your past with fine flower, and yolks of Egs, make it short and drive it thinne. Then take Dates, Corrans & marrowe, and cut them lyke Dice, and season them with salt because of the marrow a litle: then put in Synamon, Sugar and Ginger, make your past as you doe for the Frians in Butter or suet, & serue them in.

To make Pescods another.

TAKE Apples, and mince them small, take Figs, Dates, Corrans, great Raisons, Sinamon, Ginger, and Sugar, mince them, and put them all together, and make them in litle flat peeces, and frie them in Butter and Oyle.

Kickshaws

A term used from the 16th to 19th Centuries to indicate any 'fancy' accompaniment dish.

Shakespeare's Henry IV has; A joynt of Mutton, and any pretty little tinie Kick-shawes.

Original Receipt in 'The Queene-Like Closet' (1672) by Hannah Woolley (1672)

184. To make Kickshaws, to bake or fry in what shape you please. Take some Puff-paste and roul it thin, if you have Moulds work it upon them with preserved Pippins, and so close them, and fry or bake them, but when you have closed them you must dip them in the yolks of Eggs, and that will keep all in; fill some with Goosberries, Rasberries, Curd, Marrow, Sweet-breads, Lambs Stones, Kidney of Veal, or any other thing what you like best, either of them being seasoned before you put them in according to your mind, and when they are baked or fryed, strew Sugar on them, and serve them in.

Soups

Nettle Soup

Nettle soup is presumably very ancient, but I can find it listed by name only since the early 19th century. Like lots of everyday lower-class dishes, receipts showing how to make it are almost unknown. It is worth trying, the taste is decidedly green, but with a hint of woodland.

Original Receipt from ''The Household Encyclopedia' 1859

NETTLE SOUP or Kail: Have water on the fire with a little clarified dripping, butter, the stock of roast beef, bones, or any other stock, cut up young nettles, put them into it and mix one or two handsful of oatmeal perfectly into it. Let it simmer on the side of the fire

The Wells Journal - Thursday 12 November 1908 - tells us that; A REMEDY FOR ANAEMIA Dr. Mjalman Agner calls attention to a remedy for anaemia which is exceedingly popular in Sweden i.e., nettle. He himself was cured of anaemia when he was seventeen by taking nettle soup. One his patients, a girl of 20, had tried all remedies recommended in anaemia, including the preparations of irdh, but without apparent benefit. He ordered her then nettle soup, first every second day; then, when she improved, twice a week. The patient was completely cured. The common or stinging nettle (urtica dioica) and the dwarf nettle (urtica urens) possess the same virtues, but the first is used almost exclusively. The best time for collection is the spring; the best parts to use are the roots and stalks with only half-developed leaves. It may be used as an infusion-a handful to two quarts of water, two or three glasses thereof, to be taken during the day, but it is much pleasanter to use in the form of a freshly prepared soup from the fresh herb.

Brewis Soup

(or Bruys) A simple soup or broth of sodden bread scraps, seasoned with whatever is available. There is also a thicker sauce form of a brewis.

RD Blackmore's 1869 novel 'Lorna Doone' has She can't stir a pot of brewis.

Oldham Brewis is a form of Brewis of lost composition, but known from local tradition and a number of recorded sayings. Peter Richard Wilkinson's 1998 A thesaurus of traditional English metaphors records both 'Warm and wet like Oldham Brewis' and 'Scarce as drops of fat on an Oldham Brewis' and Northall's English Folk Rhymes of 1892 has: In Oldham brewis wet and warm, and Rochdale puddings there's no harm.

Original Receipt from A New System Of Domestic Cookery By 'A Lady' (Mrs. Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell) (1807)

RESPECTING THE POOR

A very good meal may be bestowed in a thing called Brewis, which is thus made: cut a very thick upper crust of bread and put it into the pot, Have salt beef boiling and near ready; it will attract some of the fat, and, when swelled out, will be no unpalatable dish to those who rarely taste meat.

English Pottage

Although 'pottage' just means soup or stew, 'English Pottage' has come to mean a clear dark meat-stock soup, though the Digby 1669 receipt includes oatmeal

Original Receipt in 'The Closet Of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight, Opened ' (Digby 1669)

PLAIN SAVOURY ENGLISH POTAGE

Make it of Beef, Mutton and Veal; at last adding a Capon, or Pigeons. Put in at first a quartered Onion or two, some Oat-meal, or French barley, some bottome of a Venison-pasty-crust, twenty whole grains of Pepper: four or five Cloves at last, and a little bundle of sweet-herbs, store of Marigold-flowers. You may put in Parsley or other herbs.

Or make it with Beef, Mutton and Veal, putting in some Oat-meal, and good pot-herbs, as Parsley, Sorrel, Violet-leaves, etc. And a very little Thyme and Sweet-marjoram, scarce to be tasted: and some Marigold leaves, at last. You may begin to boil it overnight, and let it stand warm all night; then make an end of boiling it next morning. It is well to put into the pot, at first, twenty or thirty corns of whole Pepper.

Viper Soup

If I'm not sure how to classify snails, then I'm definitely not sure where to put snakes.

If there was just one old reference to snake soup, then I would just put it down as an isolated local oddity and it would find no place in The Lost Foods of England. But skinned, chopped snakes, boiled with herbs are known from several 18th Century sources and snake also occurs in a Wedding Cake receipt from 1660.

I have not tried these receipts.

Original Receipt in 'The Country Housewife and Lady's Director' by Prof. R Bradley, 1728 (Bradley 1728)

Viper-Soup. From Mr. Ganeau.

Take Vipers, alive, and skin them, and cut off their Heads; then cut them in pieces, about two Inches in length, and boil them, with their Hearts, in about a Gallon of Water to eight Vipers, if they are pretty large. Put into the Liquor a little Pepper and Salt, and a Quart of White Wine to a Gallon of Liquor; then put in some Spice, to your mind, and chop the following Herbs, and put into it: Take some Chervill, some white Beet-Cards or Leaves, some Hearts of Cabbage-Lettuce, a Shallot, some Spinach-Leaves, and some Succory. Boil these, and let them be tender; then serve it up hot, with a French Roll in the middle, and garnish with the raspings of Bread sifted, and slices of Lemon.

Original Receipt from 'The lady's assistant for regulating and supplying her table' by Charlotte Mason (Mason 1777)

Viper Broth.

Take a large fowl, draw it, take out all the fat and the breast-bone, fill the body with parsley, a handful of pimpernel, and a head of endive; put these into three pints of Water, with a little salt and pepper; stew it on a slow fire, and let it instill till there is only a quart left; then kill a viper, skin it and take out the entrails, cut the flesh into small pieces, put it with the broth, with the heart and liver cut across, two blades of mace, and a bit of cinnamon; cover it up and let it boil till it is reduced to a pint; by this time the flesh of the viper will be consumed then, strain it off and press it very hard. It will serve twice.

Peas Pottage

Boiled and pulped peas, reheated with butter, parsley, chives and seasoning. Pease Pottage is also a small village in West Sussex.

Original Receipt in 'The Accomplisht Cook' by Robert May, 1660 (Robert May 1660);

Pease Pottage.

Take green pease being shelled and cleansed, put them in a pipkin of fair boiling water; when they be boil'd and tender, take and strain some of them, and thicken the rest, put to them a bundle of sweet herbs, or sweet herbs chopped, salt, and butter; being through boil'd dish them, and serve them in a deep clean dish with salt and sippets about them.

The Queen's Pottage

Poultry broth with mushroom and almonds, thickened with breadcrumb, topped with poultry mince and grilled. Decorated with Pomegranates, Pistaches, and Cocks-combs

Original Receipt from 'The Cook's and Confectioners Dictionary by John Nott (Nott 1723)

216 The Queen's Potage

Beat Almonds and boil them in good Broth a few Crums of Bread the inside of a Lemon and a Bunch of sweet Herbs, stir them often strain them then soak Bread in the best Broth which is to be thus made, bone a Capon or Partridge, pound the Bones in a Mortar then boil them in strong Broth with Mushrooms, then strain them thro a Linen-cloth, with this Broth soak your Bread, as it soaks sprinkle it with the Almond broth. Then put a little minced Meat to it either of Partridge or Capon, and still as it is soaking put in more Almond broth until it be full, then hold a red hot Iron over it, garnish the Dish with Pomegranates Pistaches and Cocks combs

Beeton's Asparagus Soup

There is nothinbg exactly lost about asparagus soup. But today's version is invariably a creamed soup, while the Victorian version here uses broth from beef and bacon with ale, pounded beet leaves, spinach, cabbage lettuce, mint, sorrel and chopped asparagus-tops.

Original Receipt in 'The Book of Household Management', 1861, edited by Isabella Beeton (Mrs.B)

ASPARAGUS SOUP.

I: 113. INGREDIENTS: 5 lbs. of lean beef, 3 slices of bacon,½ pint of pale ale, a few leaves of white beet, spinach, 1 cabbage lettuce, a little mint, sorrel, and marjoram, a pint of asparagus-tops cut small, the crust of 1 French roll, seasoning to taste, 2 quarts of water.

Mode: Put the beef, cut in pieces and rolled in flour, into a stewpan, with the bacon at the bottom; cover it close, and set it on a slow fire, stirring it now and then till the gravy is drawn. Put in the water and ale, and season to taste with pepper and salt, and let it stew gently for 2 hours; then strain the liquor, and take off the fat, and add the white beet, spinach, cabbage lettuce, and mint, sorrel, and sweet marjoram, pounded. Let these boil up in the liquor, then put in the asparagus-tops cut small, and allow them to boil till all is tender. Serve hot, with the French roll in the dish.

Time: Altogether 3 hours. Average cost: per quart, 1s. 9d.

Seasonable: from May to August.

Sufficient: for 8 persons.

II: 114. INGREDIENTS: 1-½ pint of split peas, a teacupful of gravy, 4 young onions, 1 lettuce cut small, ½ a head of celery, ½ a pint of asparagus cut small, ½ a pint of cream, 3 quarts of water: colour the soup with spinach juice.

Mode: Boil the peas, and rub them through a sieve; add the gravy, and then stew by themselves the celery, onions, lettuce, and asparagus, with the water. After this, stew altogether, and add the colouring and cream, and serve.

Time: Peas 2-½ hours, vegetables 1 hour; altogether 4 hours. Average cost: per quart, 1s.

Bacon Broth

Very heavy soup, almost a stew, made with chunks of bacon, commonly with pearl barley, carrots and vegetables.

Although Bacon Broth is repeatedly mentioned in texts from the 16th Century onwards, we can find no ancient receipt for it. Perhaps it was so commonplace a dish as not to need written instructions.

'Picturesque sketches of London: past and present' (1852) by Thomas Miller has; Even in the time of Elizabeth, according to old Tusser, a supper of bacon broth was not to be despised, and a breakfast off the same substance cold, with the addition of a piece of cabbage in its cold state, and a lump of barley-bread, formed the chief diet of the English farmer, washed down, no doubt, by a draught of beer. ['Tusser' will be Thomas Tusser, author of 'Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie' of 1557]

Brilla Soup

Gobbets of beef, carrots, turnips and celery in broth with thyme (Mrs.B)

Original Receipt in 'The Book of Household Management', 1861, edited by Isabella Beeton (Mrs.B)

BRILLA SOUP.

166. INGREDIENTS: 4 lbs. of shin of beef, 3 carrots, 2 turnips, a large sprig of thyme, 2 onions, 1 head of celery, salt and pepper to taste, 4 quarts water.

Mode: Take the beef, cut off all the meat from the bone, in nice square pieces, and boil the bone for 4 hours. Strain the liquor, let it cool, and take off the fat; then put the pieces of meat in the cold liquor; cut small the carrots, turnips, and celery; chop the onions, add them with the thyme and seasoning, and simmer till the meat is tender. If not brown enough, colour it with browning.

Time: 6 hours. Average cost: 5d. per quart.

Seasonable: all the year.

Sufficient: for 10 persons.

Brown Windsor Soup

Nothing, absolutely nothing, has caused more controversy around the Foods of England Project than the origins of Brown Windsor Soup. The truly bizarre fact appears to be that an extraordinarily large number of people will out-and-out declare that they remember being served this soup - nobody ever seems to remember making it - in places and times when that was simply and demonstrably impossible. If I ever get time, there's a psychology paper in this. Definition: Brown Windsor Soup; A dark meat-based brown soup, of various reputed compositions. Often served with Sherry or Madeira added.

Pick up pretty much any recent book on English food and you'll be told that Brown Windsor was The Victorian favourite, possibly the dominant English soup until WW2. You'll be told that it was always served at Windsor Castle, that it was the Queen-Empress's preferred starter, that it was a staple of boarding-houses and always turned up in railway dining cars. It is described as the very soup reputed to have built the British Empire. and we're told that it regularly appeared on state banquet menus. You'll learn, too, that it was thick and stodgy and that everybody hated it. All of which is very odd as we can't find any reference to it anywhere, scour though we have the cookery books, newspapers and literature of Victorian and Edwardian times. It isn't on menus, even railway ones, nor in magazines. It isn't in any novels, it isn't in encyclopedias and the National Archive have nothing on it. It isn't mentioned in any cookbooks, it isn't in Mrs Beeton, or Eliza Acton, and 'Punch ' doesn't even make fun of it. In fact this 'Victorian and Edwardian staple' doesn't turn up anywhere before the 1940's.

Brown Windsor Soap, however, is well attested since the 1830's. Could it possibly be that the name was applied to commonplace hotel brown gravy soups as a joke, perhaps parodying the well-known rice-based White Windsor Soup?

Certainly, BWS is repeatedly presented as The joke soup, even appearing on the menu at Fawlty Towers. The 1994 TV version of 'Hercule Poirot's Christmas' has the Belgian detective lamenting to a hotel waiter that his soup does not look very delicieux, to be told Well, sir, it IS brown Windsor, though the episode isn't in Agatha Christie's original 1930's book.

The British Food Trust seem to think it is one of those soups that for years has had a terrible reputation (the others being..?). The 'Independent' on Food says it is Occasionally heard of, but never seen it. Marguerite Patten in her 'Century of British Cooking' is pretty sure it was a very indifferent dish, but admits she can find no record of it. Even the charmingly eccentric windsorsoup.co.uk, can't find anything about it from before 1993. The britishfoodhistory blog goes all the way and declares that the Royal House of Windsor took their name from the soup, which, they tell us was served up by every housewife at the time. Some people, including Norman Tebbit, Clarissa Dickson Wright, Peter Hitchen and a remarkable number of contributors to 'The Daily Mail' even seem to remember it being served, though they can never quite remember where. Or when. In fact, if Google Books is to be trusted, and it probably is, then there are about 1,400 references to BWS in books and magazines, and not one single one of them before 1961.

Then there's the Railways. 'A Taste of Empire' by Cecilia Leong-Salobir (2011) says Brown Windsor was a soup omnipresent on the train menus of British Railways and an extraordinary number of people seem to definitely remember it being served on trains, which is very odd, as soup is pretty much never served on trains, for fairly obvious reasons. An extensive investigation carried out by the National Railway Museum for Foods of England in 2013 found not one single reference to BWS in hundreds of archived menus and dining-car leaflets from the 19th Century up to the days of British Rail, nor anything at all in their library on railway catering. The nearest thing was a 'Potage Windsor' served at the Southern Railway hotel in Sidmouth to celebrate the marriage of Princess Elizabeth to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, no mention of soup colour.

It may not be in real old cookbooks, but it is prominent in such recent founts of wisdom as 'The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook' and the equally Unofficial 'Downton Abbey Cookbook' as well as John Pearson's' Authorised Biography of James Bond' and Helen Rappaport's 2003 (presumably unauthorised) Biography of Queen Victoria.

There are two or three references to 'Windsor Soup' or 'Potage Windsor' or even 'Potage Windsor - Brown' in adverts from the 1920's, but what we're concerned with here is Brown Windsor Soup, by that name. It seems that BWS, if it ever existed (which seems unlikely) has acquired mythic status as a testament to horrid English cooking, damp hotels and the sort of Imperial foisting-on which we're glad to have put behind us. All of which is very odd, as it isn't easy to understand how a simple soup could be in any way horrid, or even if it was, why people supposedly kept on serving it.

It rather looks as if BWS did indeed begin life as a joke, and a very recent one, too. It is mentioned in passing in a couple of 1940's novels, as a metaphor for horrible soup, and, with thanks to the sleuthing of John Leiska and Rory O'Donnell, first seems to appear in any sound recorded form where Alec Guinness, in his best Alec Guinness sneery-voice, says I can thoroughly recommend the Brown Windsor Soup in the 1953 Ealing Comedy 'The Captain's Paradise', and a plate of brown Windsor down the back of his neck and he'll soon shift in a restaurant sketch which included such memorable dishes as what sounds like a bunghole of biscuit tripe in the BBC radio comedy 'Hancocks Half Hour' on 15th Feb 1955.

But it was the recurring theme of Brown Windsor Soup in Spike Milligan's scripts for the BBC Radio comedy The Goon Show which really seems to have made it famous as the Horrid Soup. It started on 25th October 1956: SEAGOON: Very well then. If the Scots want to make it a war on nutrition, we have an English dish in our armoury twice as deficient in calories as porridge and twice as deadly BLOODNOK: Seagoon, you're not going to fire... SEAGOON: Yes, brown Windsor soup MIN BANNISTER: I'm pouring brown Windsor soup into these naughty cannon balls, buddy GREENSLADE: With the quality of the earplugs still unproven, the British were forced to step up their barrages of brown Windsor soup

And they didn't stop there. The Goons carried on and on with BWS jokes for years, always as a synonym for silly Englishness. They had; I successfully changed all the Chinese back into Englishmen by giving them injections of Brown Windsor Soup. as well as Hoist a small Union Jack and unveil a bust of Queen Victoria. Now I'll just make a rough 'Englishman lost on the mountainside Menu'. Brown Windsor soup, meat, two veg, cabinet pudding.

Foods of England therefore officially concludes that Brown Windsor Soup was invented around about 1950 for comedic, not culinary, purposes, and all other histories of it are complete fantasy.

Now, generally speaking, we're terribly fussy at Foods of England about always having the genuine

Original Receipt for everything. But in this case, here's the nearest you're going to get...

The official Foods of England Receipt

Brown Windsor Soup 'Victoria'

This works extremely well. The beef is assumed to be quintessentially English, while the pepper, fruit and vinegar give it an Olde flavour. The Madeira makes it seem Victorian and the method of service adds an elegant (but cheap) surprise.

Serves 4

1 pint brown beef gravy

1 teaspoon malt vinegar

2 peppercorns, crushed

1 oz dark dried fruit (figs, dates, tamarind)

Small glass of Madeira, warm

Splinge everything, bar the drink, up in one of those machines until smooth. Re-heat and serve with an inadeqate sprinkle of parsley and, separately, a small glass of hot Madeira to be added to the soup by the diner. If the gravy is good, it will be very delicieux anyway, but doing it this way allows the joke to be continued, in that the diner can pretend that they must needs add alcohol to make it palatable.

Chesterfield Soup

Calf's tail soup with vegetables and sherry or Madeira. White 1932 adds mushrooms.

Original Receipt from 'The family save-all' of 1861.

Soup from Calves tails, commonly called Chesterfield Soup.

Take three gallons of stock gravy, a little whole pepper and allspice, a few sprays of basil and knotted marjoram, some salt and catchup, three onions, two carrots, and a little celery cut small; it should boil two or three hours, until the vegetables are done to shreds; in the mean time a Roux should be prepared thus:- Place half a pound of butter in a confectionery pan, when it is melted, add two pounds of flour, which having thoroughly mixed with the butter, gradually thin by adding some of the stock which has boiled for two hours; when it can be added to the other ingredients, and allowed to boil for half an hour, being kept well stirred to prevent burning. It should then be strained through a hair sieve into an earthen or tin pan. It will require twelve Calved Tails for the above quantity of Soup; they should be separated at the joints, placed in a stew-pan, with two gallons of water, and allowed to boil until thoroughly cooked, when, having removed the scum from time to time, they can be added, liquor and all, to the soup; when, having allowed it to simmer for a few minutes, it can be served with a wineglass of sherry or Madeira, in the tureen.

Cockle Soup

Cockle soup is now usually cockles in a creamed base, commonly with celery, onions, parsley, and very often with mushroom. There is a tradition that the soup should be made with either seawater or the depurating water in which the fresh cockles have been soaked, but this is not now recommended.

The very large number of literary references from the 18th Century onwards suggest that this soup was formerly much more popular. Charles Dicken's magazine Household Words of 1882 has; who does not know cockle soup?.

Original Receipt