254 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
254 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
foodanddrink
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recipes
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7851198
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-----
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# Best British Recipes: Traditional food is the clear winner
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## We are hooked on classics, Best British Recipes judge Xanthe Clay tells
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Christopher Middleton .
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![Best British recipes: Xanthe Clay sifts through the hundreds of recipes
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sent in by readers][1]
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Write stuff: Xanthe Clay sifts through the hundreds of recipes sent in by
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readers Photo: CHRISTOPHER JONES
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By Christopher Middleton 11:07AM BST 24 Jun 2010
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[Comments][2]
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Take a large dollop of tradition, mix with fresh produce and favourite family
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memories, add a dash of daringness plus a few ounces of resourcefulness and,
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voila, you have the flavour of the entries for our **[Best British
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Recipes][3]** Competition.
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Already, hundreds of readers have sent us their treasured culinary secrets,
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revealing how to make everything from jugged beef to braised pigs' trotters,
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from raspberry mint shorts to Winston Churchill's favourite fruitcake.
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"Some of the recipes have been beautifully handwritten on Basildon Bond
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notepaper, some have been lovingly bashed out on an old typewriter and others
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have been photocopied from pages so well used you can see the food stains,"
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says Telegraph food writer and chief competition judge **[Xanthe Clay][4]**.
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"So far, our sweet-toothed readers have been the busiest. I'd say we've got 25
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per cent main course recipes and 75 per cent puddings."
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Step forward the Oxfordshire rhubarb shortcake, the Cornish ginger biscuit and
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the Guernsey gache (pronounced "gosh") melee, a sumptuous apple suet slice.
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## Related Articles
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* [Victoria's secret of the perfect sponge][5]
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22 Jun 2010
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* [Chicken dish that's still fit for a queen][6]
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16 Jun 2010
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* [Enjoy an Eton Mess][7]
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08 Jun 2010
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* [Party perfect salmon][8]
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28 May 2010
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* [Perfect roast lamb with rosemary][9]
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21 May 2010
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* [Best British recipes: Bread and Butter Pudding][10]
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07 May 2010
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As well as the huge number of region-specific recipes, what has most surprised
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the BBR team is the overwhelming volume of dishes that don't feature in any
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current cookbook.
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A case in point is the recipe for Sussex churdles - little scone-like pies
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with a lamb's liver, bacon and apple filling. Back in the old days,
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agricultural labourers would pack these in their knapsacks for lunch according
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to food historian Mrs J Seymour, who sent in the recipe. It's an example, like
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Cornish pasties, of pastry cases performing the same job as modern-day
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sandwich slices, in terms of providing a portable outer wrapping.
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Then there's Stuffed Monkey, a thick, doughy cake made with almonds, candied
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peel, melted butter and beaten egg. Like many of the recipes submitted, the
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origins of this quaintly named dish are lost in the distant mists of time. The
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instructions on how to make it were sent to us by Mrs Peggy Walford of
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Chipping Campden, in Gloucestershire, who originally unearthed the recipe in a
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book she borrowed from the library half a century ago.
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And let us not leave out Poor Man's Goose, the existence of which was made
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known to us by Jennifer Bonetta of Northam, in Devon. Said to mirror the
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texture of roast goose, it's an altogether cheaper mixture of liver, onion and
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sage, topped with potatoes and baked in the oven.
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"A lot of the traditional recipes have this theme of making ingredients
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stretch further," says Xanthe. "Liver appears quite frequently as a substitute
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for more expensive cuts of meat. And lots of the recipes come with suggestions
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on how to use up the leftovers: making a pate out of fish scraps, for
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example."
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Mind you, it's not just poor-folk-and-peasant dishes that have been put
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forward. Among the competition entries there are plenty of creations which
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call for decidedly upmarket ingredients and then not just push back the
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frontiers of conventional flavour matching, but trample them into the ground.
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Take the recipe for duck with Pernod and gooseberry as one example, or fruity
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gammon and pear casserole. Plus Exmoor Poacher's Salmon (cooked with anchovy
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essence, cream and Drambuie) and lemon sole served with butter-and-nutmeg-
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spiked clotted cream.
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"Delicious," enthuses Xanthe, who is not only judging the recipes but testing
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them out in her own kitchen. "You get the delicacy and softness of the lemon
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sole combining with the rich, thick, buttery cream."
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As it happens, this particular recipe comes from a Penzance cookbook of the
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1750s and, while not many of the Best of British entries have quite such a
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distant provenance, many have been passed down by relatives who are clearly no
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longer in the first flush of youth.
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There's Aunt Dorrie's Lemon Trifle, Aunt Evelyn's Banbury Cakes and Granny's
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Kidney Soup. Mr Crichton Durie of Holmfirth, in Yorkshire, sent in a fruitcake
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recipe given to him by his late wife. She, in turn, had been given it by an
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elderly aunt, who got it from a woman with whom she used to play bridge, who
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served for a number of years as Sir Winston Churchill's housekeeper and could
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testify that this was his absolute favourite teatime treat.
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But while some of the recipes have been passed down through a whole host of
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different hands, a few have remained someone's personal property for decades.
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Mrs Marjorie Medlicott of Great Witley, in Worcestershire, has been cooking
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braised pigs' trotters for her husband all their married life. Simmered on a
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low heat for two hours together with carrots, onions and pearl barley, the
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trotters are served with potatoes and chopped parsley in a sauce that has been
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thickened with flour and mustard.
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"It's one of my husband's favourite dishes," says Mrs Medlicott. "And if you
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need any proof of how good and wholesome it is, let me tell you that I'm 88
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and he's 86."
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Of course, it is finds like this which make the Best of British competition
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such a joy for our head judge. "Here we all are, somehow thinking that Fergus
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Henderson invented pigs' trotters just the other day, for the fashionable,
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black polo-shirted crowd that go to his **[restaurant][11]** in Clerkenwell
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[St John]," says Xanthe.
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"Yet it turns out all along there's a gentleman who's been eating pigs'
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trotters and swearing by them since the Thirties. It just goes to show how
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rich a culinary history we had in this country, long before TV chefs were even
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invented!"
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**HOW TO ENTER**
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If you'd like to enter the Daily Telegraph/Morrisons Best British Recipes
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competition, just visit our website, at
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[bestbritishrecipes.telegraph.co.uk][12], and submit a recipe. You can send as
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many as you like, as long as they are your own, original recipes. Telegraph
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food expert Xanthe Clay and a panel of judges from the Telegraph and Morrisons
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will select one recipe each week for 16 weeks to win £150 to spend at
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Morrisons supermarkets.
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The weekly winners' recipes will be published on the Best British Recipes home
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page. After August 28, the judges will pick their overall favourite recipe to
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win £5,000 to spend at Morrisons. The overall winner's recipe will also be
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published on the Best British Recipes home page.
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[X][13] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][14]
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* Share: [Share][13] [ ][15] [ ][16]
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[Tweet][17]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/7851198/Best-British-Recipes-
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Traditional-food-is-the-clear-winner.html
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Telegraph
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## [Recipes][18]
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* ### [Lifestyle »][19]
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* ### [Food and Drink »][20]
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External Links
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* ### [Morrisons][21]
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In food-and-drink
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[![Cook along with Xanthe Clay as she prepares tasty meals in just five
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minutes][22] ][23]
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### [Fast and delicious recipes][23]
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[![telegraph wine club][24]][25]
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### [Reader Offers][25]
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[![Le Clos Domaine Sainte Eugnie 2009 IGP HauteriveFrance; Sainsbury?s Brut
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Ros Champagne NV France; Domaine Julien Sunier Beaujolais Villages 2008France
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][26] ][27]
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### [Best wine deals][27]
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[![Cool change: Burgundy vineyards in winter][28]][29]
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### [Telegraph Wine Shop][29]
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[X][13] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][14]
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Share:
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* [ ][13]
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* [ ][15]
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* [ ][16]
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* [Tweet][17]
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* Advertisement
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![][30]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][31] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][32]
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[![wineshop_v2][33]][34]
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sponsored features
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Wine Offers
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Loading
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var puffs_8122053 = new Array();
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