- Recipes

Egg Flip. The Art of British Cooking, Lady Theodora Fitzgibbon (1965)

This drink is from Cornwall and can also be made with mead. It is a change from brandy flip, and is very good for a cold. This amount serves 6.

1 quart still cider or mead, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 eggs

Heat the cider but do not boil. Beat the eggs with the sugar until they are frothy and pour ½ pint of hot cider over, whisking all the time. Add this to the remaining cider and heat, but on no account boil or it will curdle. Pour in to long glasses and serve hot.

Flummery, 1615 – 1895
Good Things in England, Florence White

As flummery and frumenty are sometimes confused (even by the learned who should know better) it is necessary to introduce this old English dish with a few words of explanation. Gervase Markham writing on `Skill in Oatmeal’, in 1615, says: `lastly from this small oatmeal, by oft steeping it in water and cleansing it and then boyling it to a thick and stiff jelly, is made that excellent dish of meat which is so esteemed of in the west parts of this kingdom, which they call in Cheshire and Lancashire Flamery or flummery…. `Some eat it with honey which is reputed the best sauce; some with wine, either sack, claret, or white; some with strong beer or strong ale, and some with milk’. And Dr Thudichum, one of our greatest authorities on the history, science and practical import of the art of cookery says: `Flummery signifies an acid jelly made originally from the husks of oats; in Scotland is known as Sowans. The name is now applied to any starch jelly made from cereals, wheat flour, rice, ground rice, sago, potatoes etc, the liquid used to develop it being either fruit juice, milk or even cream.

County Recipes of Old England, Helen Edden
Oatmeal Flummery, 1823

To make it put 4ozs of oatmeal in a white pudding basin and pour a quart of cold water over it. Place it on a corner of the kitcheners or the hob of an open fire and stir it occasionally. When it tastes rather sour, boil it up like porridge and serve it either with cream or milk.

Savoury Baked eggs
Good Things in England, Florence White, 1931

For these use the delightful little slip ware pipkins made by Michael Cardew at Winchcombe, Gloucestershire.
1. Butter the inside of each pipkin and put in a spoonful of nicely seasoned mince meat mixed with a little thickened gravy; or skinned tomato and thickened gravy; or shelled shrimps blended with a little white sauce; or some minced ham mixed with a little made tomato sauce; or some flaked finan haddock mixed with a little fresh skinned tomato finely chopped; or some green peas and butter or some asparagus tips and butter or sauce, or any odd left over that is delicious and suitable.
2. Break an egg on top of this without breaking the yolk
3. Put a dab of butter on it and a little chopped parsley
4. Put on the lid of the pipkin and bake until the egg is set about five or seven minutes according to the heat of the oven.

Beetroot Pancakes, 18th century
The Game Cook Book, Clarrissa Dickson Wright and Johnny Scott

These eighteenth century pancakes make an attractive accompaniment to game and can be eaten hot or cold which make them a nice addition to a buffet table.

175g Beetroot cooked
2 table spoons brandy
2 table spoons double cream
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg grated
Oil for frying

Put all the ingredients, except the oil, in a food processor and mash well together to create a pancake mixture. Heat a little butter in a small frying pan. Make pancakes with the mixture but be careful as they burn quite easily. Turn them off after a minute or two, they cook quite quickly.

Raised Game Pie
Geraldine Holt’s Country House Cooking, 1996

This is a magnificent pie for a special occasion. A raised pie can be made in advance and carefully wrapped in greaseproof paper and a cloth and kept in the refrigerator or cold store.

Serves 8 – 10
Jellied Stock: 1 pigs trotter (halved), 1 small onion, 1 carrot chopped, 1 stick of celery chopped, 1 bayleaf, 1 bouquet garni of fresh herbs, salt and pepper.

Filling: 900g game meat, 225g streaky bacon (diced), 115g mushrooms (sliced), 2 tablespoons parsley (chopped), ½ tsp ground mace, 150ml port or red wine.

Hot water crust pastry: 450g plain flour, 2 tsps salt, 150g dripping or lard, 150ml milk, egg yolk to glaze.

Potted Cheese Richard Dolby, Cook at the Thatched House Tavern, St James’s Street, London

This is probably one of the most individual cookery preparations we have, as so much depends on the cook’s palate. Ingredients: Cornish Blue 3lb; best butter ½ 1lb; port a large glass; ground mace nearly half an ounce.

Method: Pound the cheese and butter together in a mortar. Mix in the port wine gradually. Add the mace. Mix well, pot it and pour over clarified butter.

Ham Loaf
Good Things in England, Florence White

Ingredients: Cooked ham, about 1lb (1/4 fat); bread 2oz; milk 1 gill; finely chopped parsley 1 tsp; pepper; a little ground mace; egg 1.

Method: Put ham through mincer. Boil up milk and pour it over the bread to soak it. Mix all up well together. Season with pepper; mix with one well beaten egg; grease a plain mould or basin; press the mixture firmly down and bake in a moderate oven until nicely browned. Do not turn out until cold.

Bacon Rolls Mrs Lester of Eastbourne College in Sussex, 1931

This simple but excellent way of using up cold cooked porridge is exactly the kind that is useful in a collection of English cookery recipes, as it proves English housekeepers and cooks are still economical and clever in spite of the sneers to which they have been subjected recently. Florence White.

Ingredients: Cold cooked porridge; some chopped parsley; some mixed herbs; bread crumbs; pepper; salt; rashers of bacon. The quantities of seasoning depend on the amount of porridge to be used up. Time: about 15 minutes.

Method: Chop the parsley and powder the herbs; mix them with the cold porridge; add enough breadcrumbs to stiffen the porridge; season with salt and pepper; spread on a rasher or bacon; roll them up; fry till the bacon is cooked. Serve very on squares of fried wholemeal bread or toast.

Onions and Cheese (Menallack Farmhouse)
The Devonshire way. Good Things in England, Florence White

This has been sent in from Plymouth. The onions are either boiled or baked, seasoned with salt and pepper, served whole or cut in halves with butter on them and eaten with bread and uncooked cheese. Miss McNaught, who had them at a friend’s house, says they are delicious.

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