The Taste of Britain. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, BRISTOL.
Mothering Bun
DESCRIPTION:
A CIRCULAR BUN 90MM ACROSS, 30-40MM DEEP. WEIGHT: 60G. COLOUR: GOLDEN CRUST, DECORATED WITH WHITE GLACÉ ICING AND A THICK COATING OF HUNDREDS-AND-THOUSANDS (NONPAREILS). FLAVOUR: LIGHT, SLIGHTLY ENRICHED BREAD, WITH SWEET ICING.
HISTORY:
Mothering buns are a speciality of Bristol made on the Saturday immediately preceding Mothering Sunday (Mid-Lent Sunday). This is a day on which the Lenten fast was relaxed to allow consumption of richer foods. In the past, it was also associated with the better-known custom of the Simnel Cake (see below). The buns are small and rather plain, and the cakes large, rich and elaborate, although there is evidence for plainer, yeast-raised simnels in various places.
John Williams, a baker who has taken an interest in Bristol specialities, comments that mothering buns have been made for as long as anyone can remember, and that at the beginning of the twentieth century, they were coated with caraway or aniseed comfits, rather than the hundreds-and-thousands now used. This links them to the tradition of Bath buns which once incorporated caraway comfits, and to the many other bun and wig recipes of 200 years ago which used the same flavouring. All bakers in Bristol make mothering buns, only on the Saturday before Mothering Sunday.
TECHNIQUE:
A plain dough is made using flour, fat and sugar in the proportions 10:1:1. A ferment works for about 30 minutes at 32°C. The fat - usually lard, butter is used in particularly rich buns - is rubbed into the flour, sugar and a little salt and the ferment are added. After fermentation, it is knocked back and kneaded again. It is baked at 220°C for 20 minutes. The tops are given a plain icing, followed immediately by dipping in a dish of hundreds-and-thousands.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, BRISTOL.
Oldbury Tart
DESCRIPTION:
A SMALL CIRCULAR PIE ABOUT 90MM DIAMETER, 20MM DEEP. THE EDGE OF THE PIE IS NIPPED INTO LITTLE POINTS, GIVING A CROWN EFFECT. WEIGHT: APPROXIMATELY 100G.
HISTORY:
These tarts were also known (more accurately perhaps) as pies. They are distinctive in their use of hot-water pastry, usually associated with savoury pies, in combination with sweet filling. See also Cumnock tarts, below. Gooseberries are the common filling, but black currants are also known. A very similar gooseberry pie was made for Mansfield Fair in Nottinghamshire. No other fruit pies using this type of pastry are mentioned by authorities on British food.
Both the Oldbury and Mansfield pies were noted at the end of the last century. The Nottinghamshire affairs involved melted apple jelly being poured into the warm pies to set as it cooled. This is just like adding jellied stock to savoury pork pies. White (1932) records that the pies were still being sold at Mansfield Fair. Surviving recipes for Oldbury tarts are of more recent date, but the use of brown sugar as a sweetener suggests a tradition stretching well into the nineteenth century before white sugar became cheap and easily available (about 1840). Pauline Gazard, one of the few people who now keeps the dish alive, quotes oral traditions to do with the pies. They should be eaten from the hand, and a good pie is full of juice which runs out when bitten. The pastry should be thin, and the decorative edge is important; there should be 21 points to the crown. They are more difficult to make than ordinary pies, which discourages many. This most interesting tradition appears to be declining. They are still available in small numbers at local fetes and fairs in July.
TECHNIQUE:
The proportion of flour to fat is slightly more than double the weight. The fat is butter and lard in equal quantities. The dough is made like any other hot-water paste. To shape the cases the dough is rolled out thinly and cut in circles of 160mm diameter. These are hand-raised by pleating the sides 4 or 5 times. They are filled with small gooseberries and soft brown sugar. A pastry lid is nipped with the case to give the pointed effect; a small hole is cut in the centre. At this stage, the pies are sometimes left to stand overnight, allowing the pastry to firm. They are baked at about 200°C for 25-30 minutes.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
WEST ENGLAND, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
Sally Lunn
DESCRIPTION:
A LOW CIRCULAR LOAF; A USUAL SIZE IS ABOUT 140MM DIAMETER, ABOUT 80MM DEEP. WEIGHT: APPROXIMATELY 200G. COLOUR AND TEXTURE: A DEEP GOLD CRUST ON TOP, FADING TO CREAM UNDERNEATH, WITH A RICH, CREAM, CLOSE-TEXTURED, LIGHT AND MELTING CRUMB.
HISTORY:
This light yeast cake is a speciality of the spa town of Bath. There are several theories as to its origin. An early reference in a Bath guidebook of 1780 is to ‘a spungy hot roll’. In 1798, they were again said to be hot rolls, ‘not long ago in vogue in Bath’. Hot bread was much loved at Bath breakfasts (see Bath buns, above). In 1827 there was an account of how Sally Lunns were named after the girl who cried them for sale (‘about thirty years ago’). She and her recipe were adopted and commercialized (OED).
There is a charming but probably apocryphal legend that a Huguenot refugee called Solange Luyon, a name corrupted to Sally Lunn, first made the cakes famous. A building, dating originally from the fifteenth century, is supposed to be the place where she worked. It still houses a restaurant and shop baking Sally Lunns. Bath historian Trevor Fawcett observes that no documentation has ever been produced to support this story.
A completely different hare was started by Eliza Acton (1845). She described her recipe for a ‘solimemne’ as a ‘rich French breakfast cake or Sally Lunn’. Hartley (1954) produced other uses of the word solimemne, variously spelled, and suggests it is a corruption of the French soleil lune, sun and moon. In fact, solimemne is a misspelling of solilem or solimeme which is the name of an enriched brioche from Alsace. The distinguishing feature of solimemes (Larousse, 1938) is that they are split horizontally soon after baking, soaked with melted butter which is absorbed by the dough, then reassembled. Whether they made the transition from Alsace to Bath is not known, but maybe the Huguenot has a place. An alternative proposal is that Sally Lunns were discovered by a French chef when travelling in the West Country - Carême is suggested - and he exported the idea to his homeland, where the name was completely garbled into solimeme. All this is speculation.
The main characteristics, a light richness derived from a high proportion of eggs and cream or butter in the dough, are consistent through the years. Some recipes are lightly spiced or flavoured with lemon peel. However, Maria Eliza Rundell (1807), herself a resident of Bath, likens a plain but light roll to a Sally Lunn. It is split, whilst still warm, into 2 or 3 horizontal slices and spread with butter or clotted cream, then reassembled for immediate consumption. If more than 24 hours old, the cake is usually toasted before eating.
TECHNIQUE:
The recipe used by the Sally Lunn shop is a trade secret. Other versions are published, for example by David (1978). It calls for flour, cream and eggs in the proportions 2:1:1 and is flavoured with lemon peel.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, BATH (SOMERSET).
Cider (West Country)
DESCRIPTION:
PALE GOLD-YELLOW TO THE EYE; SOME MAY BE CLOUDY, BUT