Samphire © Denzil Green Samphire is a bright green marsh plant that grows on rocks by the sea. It’s a perennial that grows in clumps and bunches up to 60 cm (2 feet) tall. Some people think of it as a pot-herb; some think of it as a vegetable. It does have leaves, but they…
British Food
Sausagemeat
Sausagemeat is spiced, ground pork blended as though for sausages, but not stuffed into casings. Better quality Sausagemeat will generally be about 70 to 80 % meat, plus cereals. Lower quality Sausagemeat will be about 50% meat. Sometimes it is sold with further flavouring such as leeks and herbs. Varieties made from lamb, beef and…
Savoury Pies
Savoury pies are non-sweet, “salty rather than sweet” pies served as meals or snacks, rather than as a dessert. Historically, pies used to be all savoury for the most part: it is sweet pies that are the innovation in food history.
Scottish Food
Scots get tired of their food being summarized as haggis, whisky, deep-fried Mars bars, and shortbread in tartan tins. Yet there is something to it. Haggis is oats and offal, of which the Scots both eat a lot. Scots are very proud of their whisky (which they spell without an “e.) And as for shortbread,…
Seakale
Seakale is one of those unhelpful plant names. This plant is related neither to kale or to Seakale Beet (aka Swiss Chard), though in the wild it does often grow nearish to the sea. Young shoots of Seakale are eaten as a vegetable. They look very similar to Asparagus. Most people consider them the only…
Self-Rising Cake Flour
Self-rising cake flour is cake flour to which baking powder has been added. It is used mostly in British recipes. Substitutes For self-rising cake flour, per cup substitute 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder plus (1 cup of cake flour or 1 cup Canadian all-purpose flour or ⅞ cup American all-purpose or British plain flour)….
Seville Oranges
Seville Oranges are too bitter to be eaten out of hand or raw. Bitter oranges such as Seville are valued for their intense orange flavour which comes through when you balance the bitterness with added sweetness, or extract or distill the taste. Despite the name, Sevilles now are grown in many places other than Seville,…
Shepherd’s Pie
Shepherd’s pie is made with lamb or mutton, either already cooked or not, with some flavouring vegetables such as onion mixed in, then topped with mashed potato and baked. It’s often served with garden peas. If the dish is made with a meat other than lamb or mutton, it is actually a Cottage Pie. Cooking…
Sherbet (Candy)
Tube of Sherbet Candy Powder © Denzil Green In the United Kingdom, the word “Sherbet” means a candy powder that is both sweet and tart at the same time. The powder also fizzes when it comes into contact with water, such as the moisture in your mouth. To make it, you need a dry acid…
Shrewsbury Biscuits
Shrewsbury biscuits are light, hard, crisp cookies. They are made from butter, eggs, flour, spices and rosewater. Some variants add sherry and / or currants. The dough is rolled out thinly, cut into shapes, pricked with a fork, and baked. Shrewsbury biscuits are light brown when cooked. Storage Hints Store Shrewsbury biscuits in an airtight…
Singing Hinnies
Singing Hinnies are a quick bread, risen with a chemical leavener such as baking powder or baking soda. Currants or raisins are mixed into the dough, which is then rolled out, cut into small rounds, and cooked on a griddle. They look something like what North Americans would call an “English Muffin.” Singing Hinnies are…
Single Cream
Single Cream © Denzil Green British Single Cream, with 18% butterfat content, is equivalent to what North Americans call Table Cream or Coffee Cream (if those have 18% fat content as well; some dairy producers will produce a table cream with up to 30% butterfat content.) Single Cream is homogenised to keep the butterfat from…
Sloe Gin
Sloe Gin is a gin based liqueur flavoured with fruit from the blackthorn bush. Traditionally a home-made drink, you can now buy it commercially: there are at least two makers of it (as of 2006), Plymouth and Gordons. It is a sweet, red liqueur that, at home, is made with a bottle of gin sweetened…
Soft Ice Cream
“Soft ice cream” is purposely designed to stay semi-soft so that it can easily be piped out of machines.
Spearmint
Spearmint is the mint that you are most likely to find in stores and growing in people’s gardens (hence its other name, Garden Mint.) Like Peppermint, it is regarded as an English variety of mint.Even though most spearmint grown ends up in toothpaste and chewing gum, it is also popular in cooking, being less overwhelming…
Squash (Drink)
Squash, in the UK, is a liquid drink concentrate to which you add water to make the drink. It comes in many fruit flavours. Ribena, based on blackberry, is a well-known brand known in both Europe and North America. The percentage of actual juice in the concentrate will vary by brand.
St George’s Mushrooms
St George’s Mushrooms grow all throughout Europe in fields (sometimes in Fairy Rings) and especially where there is moss. The creamy-beige coloured, irregularly-shaped caps can be 1 to 4 inches wide (2 to 10 cm), and have gills under them. The stalks, which are often curved, are white, and grow from 1 to 2 ½…
Stand Pies
Stand pies are tall pies with sturdy crusts. They are from an era before pie tins and moulds were invented, so a pie had to be capable of standing up on its own with no support.
Stargazy Pie
Stargazy pie is a fish pie made in Mousehole, West Cornwall, England, near Penzance. The pie has a top crust. The heads of the fish (pilchards) are left on, and the fish placed in the pie so that their heads poke through holes in the crust, as though they are gazing up at the stars….
Steamed Puddings
A steamed pudding is a mixture that is put into a heat-proof bowl, and cooked by steaming. It can be “savoury” (with meat in them) or sweet, for dessert. The steam regulates the heat at which the pudding cooks. The English food writer, Delia Smith, is a big fan of steamed puddings. “A steamed pudding…
Steel-Cut Oats
Steel-Cut (aka Pinhead) Oats © Denzil Green Steel-Cut Oats are oat groats that have been chopped into two or three pieces by a rotating steel blade. Unlike rolled oats, they are not steamed, and so take longer to cook. (Note: Quaker, however, does steam their Steel-Cut Oats for the North American market.) Oatmeal lovers love…
Stottie Bread
Stottie is an English flat white bread, that is soft and round, about 2 ½ cm (1 inch) thick and 8 inches (20 cm) wide. Though made from standard white bread dough, the dough for Stotties doesn’t get a second rise, or a second knead. That gives them a tighter crumb, with a consistency somewhat…
Suet
Suet is a raw, solid, white fat which comes from around the kidneys of cows and sheep. It is used as an ingredient in recipes.
Suffolk Hams
Suffolk Hams are brined first, then cured either in cider (aka “hard cider” in North America), or stout. Added to the curing mix is molasses (or black treacle) and spices, The ham is then lightly smoked over oak chippings, then usually aged for at least a month after smoking. The outside is a blackish-brown. A…