The Taste of Britain. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
follow nature closely, carefully combining natural processes where appropriate with the latest and best scientific research, techniques and equipment. They also know that to achieve a healthy environment, plant and animal biodiversity is a vital factor, as are slower-growing traditional, older, native and rare breeds of animals.
As a result, Jody is already producing some of the best-tasting and most nutritious food available. We use Hebridean lambs from Laverstoke Park, an ancient breed of sheep originating from the islands off the west coast of Scotland. The small carcass produces the most delicious lamb, and is very tender and succulent.
Raymond Blanc
CHEF AND PROPRIETOR LE MANOIR AUX ***QUAT’SAISONS, GREAT MILTON
Bedfordshire Clanger
DESCRIPTION:
AN OBLONG, BAKED PASTY MADE WITH A SUET CRUST, FILLED WITH SAVOURY AND SWEET INGREDIENTS AT OPPOSITE ENDS. DIMENSIONS: 12-14CM LONG, 6-8CM WIDE. COLOUR: GOLDEN CRUST. FLAVOUR: A SAVOURY FILLING OF MEAT, USUALLY CURED PORK, AT ONE END AND A SWEET, OFTEN APPLE, AT THE OTHER.
HISTORY:
The Bedfordshire Clanger has undergone much change in the last century. Today it is a baked pasty (with a suet crust) which has 2 fillings rather than one. Savoury meat and something sweet sit at opposite ends of a baked pie. This does not seem to have been the original form. Clangers were once a boiled suet roll, like plum duff or roly-poly. The roll contained a meat filling, and the crust was itself studded with fruit. It became a sort of complete meal in one. Compilations of English country recipes show them to have been plain, substantial food for farm labourers and other manual workers. Suet pastry enclosed a filling which varied with the affluence of the family involved (Ayrton, 1982). The poor used the only meat which was readily available, bacon; richer families used good steak or pork. Similar dishes were made in other parts of central eastern England. Poulson (1977) mentions a bacon clanger, filled with bacon, sage and onion, from the Thames valley; a similar dish was known in Leicestershire as a Quorn bacon roll.
No-one has offered a derivation of clanger. Wright (1896-1905) cites ‘clang’ as a Northamptonshire dialect word meaning ‘to eat voraciously’. The Bedfordshire Clanger may have developed in response to local employment patterns (Mabey, 1978). Many women were employed in the straw-hat industry and the clanger, boiling slowly for hours unattended, was a complete hot meal for those arriving home from work. Clangers are now made because there is a local taste for them. There are even clanger-eating contests at local fairs and festivities. Clangers have now evolved into a baked dish. This reflects the evolution of British cooking methods away from long boiling to dry baking, more convenient once domestic gas or electric cookers were universally available. Old recipes sometimes called for the boiled rolls to be dried in a low oven before consumption.
TECHNIQUE:
Bedfordshire Clangers made for sale are less elaborate than those produced at home. The fillings are prepared first; meat is cut into small dice, onions chopped, apples peeled and sliced. An English suet crust is made: plain flour and chopped suet (2:1), salt and enough water for a coherent dough. The pastry is rolled out and cut to oblongs twice the size of the finished clanger. Small mounds of the savoury and sweet fillings are placed in opposing ends divided by a strip of pastry. The pastry is folded over to enclose the fillings. The edges and the area around the central dividing strip are sealed, and the surface glazed with egg. It is baked at 210°C for 30 minutes.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH ENGLAND, BEDFORDSHIRE.
COMPARE WITH:
Forfar Bridie, Scotland (p. 310); Cornish Pasty, South-West England (p. 20).
Berkshire Pig
DESCRIPTION:
DRESSED CARCASS WEIGHT 36-45KG. BERKSHIRE PIGS HAVE A SHORT, DEEP BODY, ALTHOUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF LONGER ANIMALS HAS BEEN RECENTLY ENCOURAGED. ALTHOUGH THE BREED HAS A BLACK SKIN, THIS BECOMES WHITE IF THE CARCASS IS CORRECTLY PREPARED. WHEN REARED EXTENSIVELY, THE MEAT IS DEEPER PINK THAN NORMAL; IT IS FINELY TEXTURED WITH A SWEET FLAVOUR AND A HIGH PROPORTION OF LEAN TO FAT.
HISTORY:
This breed was developed in the Thames valley in the late 1700s. Early specimens are described as large-boned and tawny, red or white spotted with black. Not many years later, it was made more compact, more lightly boned and faster-maturing by interbreeding with Chinese or east Asian stock. The improved Berkshire was entirely black or white.
Mrs Beeton (1861) listed Berkshires among native British stock and praises it for a fine, delicate skin and a great aptitude to fatten. The British Berkshire Society was founded in the 1880s but the fortunes of the race declined in this century when it proved too slow-maturing and fat in comparison with modern bloodlines. Since the 1970s, there has been renewed interest and numbers are slowly recovering.
TECHNIQUE:
The majority of Berkshires are kept outdoors, grubbing for food on grassland. They are hardy, can withstand cold weather and do not suffer sunburn. Although they can feed themselves adequately by foraging, most breeders supplement with barley or oats as well as vitamins. It is especially important that carcasses of Berkshires are carefully scalded as the black hairs and pigment of the skin, considered unsightly when the meat is presented for sale, can be entirely removed by correct treatment. This is important for the British market as pork is almost always roasted with the skin intact. Berkshire is noted as pork with excellent crackling: an English sine qua non.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH ENGLAND.
Chitterlings
DESCRIPTION:
CHITTERLINGS ARE COOKED ***PIGS’ INTESTINES; THERE ARE SEVERAL METHODS OF PRESENTING THESE FOR SALE. THEY MAY BE MADE INTO PLAITS; OR CUT IN 6-8CM LENGTHS, AND SOLD BY WEIGHT; OR MADE INTO SLABS, THE PIECES HELD TOGETHER IN JELLY. THE 2 LATTER OFTEN INCLUDE PIECES OF PIGS’ MAW (STOMACH) CUT INTO STRIPS AND MIXED WITH THE CHITTERLINGS. COLOUR: VARIABLE, OFF-WHITE THROUGH PALE GREY-PINK TO DEEP PINK; THE JELLIED SLABS ARE CUT INTO SLICES AT RIGHT ANGLES TO THE LENGTH OF THE CHITTERLINGS, GIVING AN ATTRACTIVE MARBLED APPEARANCE. FLAVOUR: BRINED, JELLIED CHITTERLING TASTES SIMILAR TO LEAN BACON.
HISTORY:
The word chitterling is of uncertain derivation but has been used in English since at least the thirteenth century for the small intestines of animals, especially pigs, when used for food. At one time it seems to have also referred to a type of sausage made from them (akin to a French andouillette), but latterly has come to mean simply the intestines, cleaned and prepared.
Their preparation is not elaborate. Since the late twentieth century they are a minority taste, seen as a poverty food and regarded as old-fashioned. It is recognized that they are more popular in some regions than others. Their stronghold is the South and South-West, where pigs have long been reared in huge numbers.
Chitterlings are sold cooked and can be eaten cold with vinegar or mustard; or they can be heated by frying with bacon, or by boiling.
TECHNIQUE:
Pigs’ small intestines are prepared by turning them inside out and cleaning; they are cut into short lengths or plaited. The chitterlings may be soaked in brine overnight if desired. They are cooked in boiling salted water for about 30 minutes. As they give off a pungent smell in the cooking, some butchers now prefer to enclose them in vacuum bags before putting them into the water. After this they are ready for sale. Some manufacturers pressed chitterlings and maw in a mould to cool, the liquor forming a jelly around them.