Ham with Cumberland sauce is a traditional British recipe dating back to Victorian times and there’s a reason for its staying power. It’s really very good. Continue reading
Ham with Cumberland Sauce
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Tag Archives: Historical recipes
Elderflower and Strawberry Syllabub
The hedgerows are frothing with elder blossom and the strawberry beds spilling over with fruit. I can’t think of a better way to bring them together than in this fresh, seasonal interpretation of a centuries-old recipe, an elderflower and strawberry syllabub. Continue reading
Beef Cheeks with Mushroom Stuffing
Stuffed with mushrooms and given a long, slow braise beef (or ox) cheeks become soft, succulent and packed with flavour. A lip-smacking example of nose to tail eating. Continue reading
Allowes – A Tudor Meat Pie
I blame Hollywood. The popular image of medieval and Tudor food is all fat, gouty nobles with meat grease dripping off their chins, waving haunches of venison which of course would be stiff with spices because they didn’t have fridges and the meat was off. In between gargantuan flesh fests they would oppress peasants and maybe ravish a maiden or two before getting their comeuppance from a hero of gentle birth who lived in a treehouse. Continue reading
Mrs Portly’s Time Machine
I
‘m lucky enough to live in an old and rather beautiful home. It’s Tudor, with the oldest part dating back to around 1500, although like most houses of its sort it’s been altered and added to over the centuries. We have witch marks on the beams, elaborate Elizabethan chimneys and parchment-written deeds which, sadly though responsibly, the previous owner donated to the county records office for their preservation.
Living here has increased my interest in historical recipes and I thought it would be good to recreate some in a way that reflects the house and the periods it has lived through. Continue reading
Audley End and Mrs Crocombe
Have you met Avis Crocombe? You really should. In the 1880s she was head cook to Lord and Lady Braybrooke at Audley End, a lovely old house near Saffron Walden in Essex. But 180 years after her birth she’s come roaring back to life as an internet sensation. Continue reading
Medlar Tart
“Take medlars that are rotten, strain them, and set them on a chaffing dish of coals, season them with sugar, cinamon, and ginger, put some yolks of eggs to them, let it boil a little, and lay it in a cut tart. Being baked, scrape on sugar.” The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May, 1660/1665. Continue reading
Minted Lamb Pie with Forcemeat Balls
Mrs Portly’s Great British Pie Week Pig-Out is almost over, which will come as a sad disappointment to my husband but a great relief to the seams on my trousers. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who suggested ideas and if yours haven’t appeared this week, keep an eye out, because I’ll be revisiting the subject.
I’m finishing with a flourish and a rather magnificent Minted Lamb Pie, inspired by a mutton pie from Eliza Acton. Continue reading