jackal10

Salmon sandwiches Must be tinned salmon, mashed with vinegar, salt and pepper, and the odd slice of cucmber if you are posh. Like canned tuna, its a differnt thing from the natural stuff...

I think it would be too dilute. Straight lemon juice might do it. The objective is to delay the browning so the potato crisps before the sugars colour. My guess us the sugar coke will colour quickest, then the cold stored potato, then the ordinary potato then the acid dipped ones, with crispness and keeping in reverse order. I'm fascinated to see how it turns out...

Not quite. The acid retards the Maillard reaction during frying. I don't know why its used warm - I took the method from Talburt and Smiths "Potato Processing", the standard text boook

The short answer is add cooked, chopped ox-tongue in the same amount as the suet. The (very) long answer ... If you want to be really authentic, I give the original sources. I reproduce below some original recipes from books in my library, that should be safely out of copyright. Let us know how you get on. I've translated the old long s to modern ones. A Neat was a cow. Pippins are apples. A coffin was a raised pie crust, usually hot water pastry. From "The Closet of Eminently Learned Sir Kenelm Digby Bt, opened by his Son" 1669. This was originally a sort of notebook, so it is full of additions and corrections. MY LADY OF PORTLAND'S MINCED PYES Take four pounds of Beef, Veal or Neat's Tongues, and eight pounds of Suet; mince the meat and the Suet very small before you put them together. Then mingle them well together and mince it very small and put to it six pounds of Currants washed and picked very clean. Then take the peel of two Limons, and half a score of Pippins, and mince them very small. The take above an Ounce of Nutmeg, a quarter Ounce of Mace, some Cloves and Cinnamon, and put them together, and sweeten them with Rose-water and Sugar. And when you are ready to put them into your Paste take Citron and Orangiadoe, and slice them very thin and lay them upon the meat. If you please put Dates on top of them. And put amongst the meat an Ounce of Caraway seeds. Be sure you have very fine paste. My Lady of Portland told me since, that she finds Neats-tongues to be the best flesh for Pies. Parboil them first. For the proportion of ingredients she likes best is to take equal parts of flesh, of Suet, of currants and of Raisins of the Sun. The other things are in proportion as is said above. You may either put the Raisins in whole, or stone the greatest part and Mince them with the Meat. Keep some whole ones to lay a bed of them at the top of the Pye, when all is in. You will do well to stick the Candid Orange-peel and green Citron peel into the meat. You may put a little Sack or Greek Muscadine into each Pye. A little Amber-Sugar doth well here. A pound of flesh, and a proportionality of all things else is enough for a large family. ANOTHER WAY OF MAKING EXCELLENT MINCED PYES OF MY LADY PORTLAND PArboil Neats-tongues. The Peel and hash them with as much as they weight of Beef-Suet and stoned Raisins and picked Currants. Chop all exceeding small, like Pap. Employ therin at least an hour more than ordinarily is used. The mingle a very little Sugar with them, and a little wine, and thrust in up and down some thin slices of green Candyed Citron-peel, An put this into coffins of fine light well reared crust. Half an hour baking will be enough. If you strew a few Carvi comfits on the top, it will not be amiss. MINCED PYES My Lady Lasson makes her finest minced Pyes of Neats-tongues. But she holdeth the most savoury ones to be of Veal and Mutton in equal parts very small minced. Her finest crust is made by sprinkling the flower (as much as is needed) with cold water, and then working the past with little pieces of raw butter in good quantity. So that she useth neither hot water, nor melted butter in them; and this makes the crust short and light. After all the meat and seasoning, and Plums and Citron peel etc is in the Coffin, she puts a little Ambered-sugar upon it.thus: Grind much two grains of Ambergreece and half a one of Musk, with a little piece of hard loaf sugar. This will serve six or eight pyes, strewed all over the top. Then cover it with a Liddle, and set it in the oven About 120 years later, meat in the pie was going out of fashion. This is from John Farley "The London Art of Cookery" My edition is the eighth of 1796. John Farley was "Principal Cook at the London Tavern", and renowned for his potted and preserved meats. Mince Pie Take a Neat's tongue and boil it two hours; then skin it and chop it as small as possible. Chop very small three pound of beef suet, the same quantity of good baking apples, four pounds of currants, clean washed, well picked and dried before the fire, a pound of jar raisins stoned and chopped small, and a pound of powder sugar. Mix them well together with half an ounce of mace, the same quantity of grated nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same quantity of cinnamon, and a pint of French Brandy. Make a rich puff paste, and as you fill up the pie put in a little candied citron and orange cut into pieces. Put close down in a pot what mincemeat you have to spare and cover it up; but never put any citron or orange to it till you use it. Or you may make your pie in this manner, which is considered by some the best way. Shred three pounds of suet very fine, and chopped as small as possible. Take two pound of raisins stoned , and chopped as fine as possible; two pounds of currant nicely picked, washed and dried at the fire; half a hundred of fine pippins pared, cored and chopped small; half a pound of fine sugar pounded fine; a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same quantity of cloves, and two large nutmegs, all beat fine. Put all together in a great pan, and mix them well with half a pint of brandy and the same quantity of sack. Put it close down into a stone pan, and it will keep good for months. When you make your pies , take a little dish, something bigger than a soup plate, and lay a very thin crust all over it; then lay a thin layer of meat, then a thin layer of citron, cut very thin; then a layer of mincemeat and a layer of orange peel cut thin. Pour over that a little mincemeat, and squeeze in the juice of half a fine Seville Orange or lemon. Then lay on your crust and bake it nicely. These pyes eat very well when cold; and if you make them in little patties mix your meat and your swaetmeats accordingly, If you choose to have meat in your pies, you may take two pounds of the inside of a sirloin of beef boiled, chopped as fine as possible, and mixed with the rest; or you may parboil a neats's tongue and treat it as above directed. Scotland was a little more old-fashioned. "Mistress Margaret Dods" (a pen name from Scott's Waverly Novels, keeper of the Cleikum Inn, St Ronan) in the Cook and Housewife's Manual (my copy is 4th Edition, 1829) gives 814 Mince Pies (We reccomend to every young housekeeper to adopt this favourite preparation in the receipt of her own grandmother. This ought to produce the best Christmas pies) These are made in an endless variety of ways. Indeed every family receipt-book teems with prescriptions. We select what is, after experiment and mature consideration we considered the best formula. Par-roast or bake slightly a couple of pounds of the fine lean of good beef or tongue. Mince this or scrape it. Mince also two pounds of fresh suet, two of apples,pared and cored, three pounds of currants, rubbed, picked and dried, and a pound and a half of good raisins stoned. Let the things be seperately minced till fine, but not so fine as to run together; then mix them with a pound of beat sugar, and add a teaspoonful of salt, a half-ounce of ground ginger, the same weight of allspice and bruised coriander seeds, some beat cloves and two nutmegs grated, the juice and rind two lemons and two Seville oranges, half a pound of candied lemon and orange peel, and quarter of a pound of candied citron, sliced. Mix the seasonings equally with the meat. Keep the minced-meat close pressed in cans in a cool dry place. Put half a pint of brandy, or pineapple rum into a basin with double that quantity of Maderia or Sherry, and half a pint of orange flower water. When to be used cover pans of any size, small saucers, or a small pie dish with puff or plain paste, and moisten the meat, if hard, with a little of the wine and brandy and fill the pies. Put a cover of puff paste over them, or if plain paste, ice it. Pare the edges neatly, and mark the top with a paste-knife. Half an hour in a moderate oven will bake them. Slip them out of the tins, and serve them hot. - OBS Mince-pies may be made cheaper, and yet very good by substitutung gravy for wine; or by using home-made wine (ginger wine is best), by lessening the quantity of expensive fruits and spiceries and taking any bit of lean dressed beef the larder affords or a piece of double tripe boiled, minced fine. 815 - Superlative Mince Pies Rub with salt and mixed spices a fat bullocks tongue. Let it lie for three days, and parboil, and mince or scrape it. Mince seperately three pounds of Zante currants, picked, plumped and dried, a dozen of lemon pippin apples, pared and cored, and a pound of blanched almonds with a few bitter ones. Mix the mince and add half a pound of candied citron and orange peel minced, and an ounce of beat cinnamon and cloves, with the juice and grated rind of of three or four lemons, half an ounce of salt, and the same quantity of allspice, quarter of a pound of fine sugar pounded, and a pint and a half of Maderia, the same quantity of brandy and orange-flower-water. Line the pans with rich puff-paste and serve the pies hot with burnt brandy. OBS The brandy should be burnt at table, as it is used. Edited: typos

Do you lay the cutlery bowl up or bowl down? If so where is the hallmark placed? I assume, of course, that it is solid silver. I was brought up with the cutlery hollow side up, and the hallmark hidden. I understand some people like to show off with the cutlery the other way up, or cutlery with the hallmark in the bowl. Are there seperate soup spoons (round) (Victorian I believe) or is it a tablespoon (tradition) or even a desertspoon doing double duty? Do you lay desert cutlery above the plate, or at side? Naturally with multi-course meals this is not an issue, since the cutlery for more than three courses should never be on the table at any time.

Its in glorious technicolour in the eGCI Autumn and Festive Preserves unit. Click here.

Land of the blessed. A pity so few appreciate it! Waiting with baited breath for the Acme lists.. Do thy have a URL?

Doing it all yourself won't stop this, and if anything make it worse. For example most jam or pickle recipes make 10lbs or so, its not worth doing much less. Somehow you have to store the other 9lbs. Its a great relief to go to the shops and only buy a 1lb jar. Most crops come in gluts; you either have not enough or much too much. Even worse with livestock; chickens lay about an egg a day in season - even 3 or 4 hens lay a lot of eggs for a family. Cows produce gallons a day; when you slaugher and animal you have lots of meat, of which the prime roasts are only about 10%, so you have to find something to do with all that stewing meat. I hope you have big freezers. On the other hand you will know what went into the food, and can cook without compromise. If you want to do this it is much easier if you are in a community or large extended household and can share the gluts

Other side of London (north west). About an hour by tube to Dollis Hill Station. Next to the end of the No 52 bus route, which mighrt be the best way to get there from Kensington.

Corned beef here refers usually to a tinned product, often of South American origin. Doesn't have the saltpetre in it that Salt Beef does, so it is brown, not pink/red. Used in hash, but that is about all.

Nope. Once it is sugar it stays that way.

salt beef (UK) = Corned Beef (US) A traditional Ashkenazi Jewish delight. Beef, salt pickled, then long slow cooked. A bit like pastrami without the smoke. Eaten with Latkes, or best in a sandwich with rye bread, plenty mustard and full sour dill pickles. I second the suggestion for Blooms in Golders Green, , but its not the same as the original east end restaurant in the Mile End Road. Last time I went the waiters were almost polite, and the portions small enough to finish! Cue for Jewish restaurant jokes..

There is surprisingly little out there. I adapted this one from a sloe gin recipe in Dorothy Hartley's Food in England". Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall reccomends using Vodka instead of gin, and gives a recipe in his "The River Cottage Cookbook" You may have seen the TV series. Its traditionally hedgrow stuff - blackberries work well too. I guess there must be professional books, but I've not fond any. The closest are books on food flavoring extractions, such as Merory "food flavourings, composition, extraction and use". Many natural food flavour concentrates start with an alcoholic extraction. There are odd chapters in home brew books, such as Suzanne Beedell "Wine Making and Home Brewing" (mine is Sphere books, 1969) Very old cookery books often have drink recipes, for example from Mrs Rundell "Domestic cookery by a Lady"(1869) Raspberry Brandy Pick fine fruit, put intoi a stone jar and the jar into a kettle of water or on a hot hearth till the juice run; strain and to every pint add half a pound of sugar, give one boil and skim it; when cold put equal quantities of juice and brandy, shake well and bottle. Some people prefer it stronger of brandy. In the previous century "English Housewifery" (Elizabeth Moxon 1790) advises (I quote directly, as I think copyright has expired! The letter s in the middle of a word was written as an f without the bar.) To make Rafberry Brandy: Take a gallon of the beft brandy you can get, and gather your rafberries when they are full ripe and put them whole into your brandy. To every gallon of brandy take three quarts of rafps, Let them ftand clofe and covered for a month, then clear it form the rafps, and put to it a pound of loaf fugar; when the fugar is diffolved and a little fettled bottle it and keep it for ufe. The book goes on to give reciepts for black cherry, lemon, ratafia (apricot kernal) brandy and cowslip cordial. Very old books such as "The Closet of the Eminently learned Sir Kenelm Digby, newly opened by his son (1669) have mead or metheglin (fruit mead) recipes. Cordials were made in the Still room, and you may find A Plain Plantain, a Still Room Book: Madam Susanna Avery, Her Book, May ye 12th Anno Domini 1688. There are still copies of the limited edition published by the Herb Growers Society in 1950 occaisionally available.

I used 40% gin (80 proof). A recent sad trend is for many famous Gins, like Gordons are now sold in lower strengths. If you can get a higher proof gin, like a Plymouth Gin (85 proof) then it will be all the better. However I find 100 proof too strong to drink without dilution. You need a small strongly flavoured cooking plum. Wild plums, like sloes or Bullaces work well.

New Tayyab (see numerous threads) Sabras in Willesden Green, NW10

Mnay thanks, but please don't send tins of pumpkin. It won't get here in time. Its available fresh, and I have some in the garden, so I'll puree a chunk, or leave it out - the filling is basically a spiced custard. The local Waitrose should indeed have tins of pumpkin, but doesn't, and besides its the other side of town (although they do deliver) The Libby's recipe calls for evaporated milk. Will cream plus some sugar substitute, or is it essential? It reminds me a bit of a traditional Norfolk treacle tart - the sort without the breadcrumbs

Dave, I'd love to see your long reply... Tinned pumpkin is practically unobtainable over here "No demand for it, Sir"

I'm suckered into providing desert for a Thanksgiving dinner. It has to be Pumkin pie. There is no recipe in the recipes section (only a cocktail, which is not the same), or doing a search Tricks (other than use tinned pumpkin), hints and tips? Special spice mixtures? Who has the best pumpkin pie recipe? One year I left out the pumpkin, heresy I know, but it seemed an improvement.

The Japenese make wonderful light pickles, which I love to eat, but am woefully ignorant about how to make. Can anyone help? A friend used to make lovely dilled carrots. Take small carrots, or carrot batons and put in a light pickle, like the Cucumber pickle in the unit, maybe diluted with more water to taste, in the refrigerator but only in the pickle for 24 hours. I guess you could do other crudite veg the same way. The carrots were not cooked first. You can also make cauliflower carpaccio - slice the cauliflower very thin, lay out on a plate, then dress with sea salt, vinegar and EVOO

Being in the UK I use King Edward. I guess Burbank Russet is the UK equivalent The worcester suace is not used in enough volume to make the crisps go soggy. Maybe the equivalent of a few shakes in a bag of chips, and then spread out to dry I'd love someone to try the diet coke dip before frying and report...

I like the gamey taste...I hope you have a big freezer. Two points: On a whole animal most of the meat is stewing or sausage or hamburger. It is only really the backstraps that are tender enough for steaks. Well, maybe the legs, but they have lots of tendons. Venison is a very dry meat, with very little fat. You will need to lard or add fatty pork to the hamburger or sausage.

Fantastic! I really look forward to this, having spent time there at Stanford and various computer companies down the bat. Please can you talk about the bread - is Acme Bakery still the best?

This is an example of the same word meaning two different things: In the UK chips mean french fries (as in fish and chips); the thin snack food fried potato things are called crisps, unless of course they are re-formed dehydrated potato starch, in which case they are called Pringles and the like. The snack food industry is a major business, and almost alchemy since it transforms a low cost raw material into something worth over 25 times as much, and comparable in price to gold. Slice, wash, dry, fry fairly slowly at 350F/175F-375F/180C dropping to 320F/160C-345F/178C Choice of variety is important, and late season potatoes, or ones that have been stored cold for some time will have more sugar content, and so darken quicker, and will need to be fried at lower temperatures to crisp before blackening. Some processors hot dip their chips (1 min at 150F) in an acid solution to help overcome this. Dry before frying. Solutions include citric acid, phosphoric acid, calcium chloride, sodium citrate, and sodium bisulfite, with or without citric acid (campden solution). I guess diet Coca Cola might work, since it features citric and phosphoric acids, but avoid the sugar in the real thing. Try straight black pepper as a flavour. Worcester sauce is good too.

Thanks. We are fortunate to have 5 acres of old orchard here, mostly apples, pears and plums, so the damson tree was here when we bought the property. I put in the quince tree a few years ago, and this is the first year it has had anything like a decent crop. Too good even, and I keep trying to find new uses for the Quinces - pickled, in pies, baked, jelly... I've never tried to candy peppers, but I guess it will depend heavily on variety. Some Jalapeno varieties have thicker walls than others, but most hot peppers have thin walls. You would also need a recipe that doesn't keep them in the sugar too long, so traditional glace fruit recipes, like the marron glace recipe would not work. I guess I'd try with red bell peppers, grilled, skinned and sliced, and then boiled in sugar syrup as in the grapefruit recipe but only for 10 minutes, with some hot peppers added for flavour.

Marron Glace are something I always buy. Its hard to make quality ones at home, and the process is time consuming and fiddly. They fall apart and you end up using the bits in chocolates, or chestnut balls, or Mont Blanc recipes, and the whole thing costs more in money, as well as time and frustration than buying in. I also find them too sweet. Peeling chestnuts is a pain, and difficult to keep the nut whole. When I need chestnuts to cook with, or for stuffing I buy the vacuum packed whole ready peeled nuts. Whole fresh nuts are best for roasting by a blazing fire, and eating with salt and loved ones... Since a quick Google doesn't reveal any reasonable recipes online (only ones packed in jars of syrup, which is not the same) here is a recipe adapted form HMSO Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables, that essential book referenced in the last unit. 2lb/1Kg sweet chestnuts 1lb/500g sugar 1 lb/500g glucose or dextrose 1 lb/500g additional sugar to glace vanilla pod Snip the tops off the chestnuts, and scald for 3 minutes then peel, including all the brown inner skin. Put into fresh cold water, and slowly bring to the boil, simmer until tender. Drain carefully The chestnuts need gentle handling, as they fall apart soon as look at them. Make a syrup from 1lb/500g sugar, the glucose, and 1/2 pt/ 300ml water. Bring to the boil, add the chestnuts (carefully), bring back to the boil Remove from the heat and leave, covered, until the next day. Next day bring back to the boil, uncovered, remove from the heat and cover, and leave until the next day The third day add a vanilla pod, or 8 drops of true vanilla essence, bring back to the boil, let get cold, and then take out the chestnuts very carefully and let drain on a wire rack over a tray or newspaper where the sticky drippings don't matter. Many of the chestnuts will have fallen apart, and you can either roll the bits into balls, or stir into good melted chocolate, or pass through a sieve to make Mont Blanc. Next day (day 4) Make a glace syrup with 1lb/500g sugar and 1/4 pt/150ml water, Bring the syrup to a boil, then keep warm. Put some in a cup, and individually dip in the chestnuts, before letting them dry on a rack. If the syrup goes cloudy throw it out and replace it with fresh warm syrup. Put the rack in a warm (100F/30C) dry place until dry, turning the marron occaisionally. Wrap up the marron invidually in something airtight, and store sealed, otherwise they will get damp. If the atmosphere is damp when drying they won't dry and will go mouldy. Good luck. Its a challenge, and not one I think worthwhile, when good marron can be bought.