Adanac Apples are fresh-eating apples. They are medium-sized apples, up to 2 1/2 inches (6 cm) wide. They have yellowish-green skin striped with red flushes, and a greenish-white coarsely-textured flesh. The Adanac Apple tree is winter hardy, and a reliable producer. Cooking Tips For fresh-eating. Storage Hints Adanac Apples do not store well. History Notes…
Canadian Food
Arctic Char
Arctic char is a fish related to salmon that lives in the cold waters around Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Siberia. It is also found in the Lake District of England, in the deeper lakes, probably left behind after the Ice Age. It has silver skin with shades of blue and green and whitish-orange…
Bacon
American-Style Bacon © Denzil Green Bacon is made from cuts of meat from the side, back or belly of a pig. The meat is cured, and sometimes smoked after that. It is almost always sold raw, though now some pre-cooked, highly-packaged options are available. In North America, pieces of bacon are referred to as slices;…
Bakeapple Pie
Bakeapple pie is a Canadian term for a pie made from cloudberries. There are actually no apples in the pie; “bakeapple” is another word for cloudberries. The pie is traditional in the Newfoundland and Labrador regions of Canada. It is most typically made from fresh fruit (in season.) It is a simple pie, with fruit…
Baker’s Flour
Baker’s Flour © Denzil Green Baker’s Flour is Canadian-grade all-purpose flour, re-labelled and re-packaged in very large quantities, such as the 20kg (45 pound) brown bags sold at Costco. Though intended for commercial baking because of the quantity, it is the same as all-purpose flour in Canada. It is sold by Robin Hood Flour of…
Bannock
Bannock is a quick, flat bread. Historically it was either unleavened, or leavened with a natural yeast starter. Now baking powder leavened versions are more common.
Bick’s Pickles
The Bicks family were Jewish refugees who fled Germany before the start of WWII and went on to start a pickle empire in Canada.
Boiled Dinners
A boiled dinner takes tougher cuts of meat, or stewing chickens, and simmers them in a pot of water with vegetables (so really, it ought to be called a “simmered dinner.”)A boiled dinner differs from a stew in two ways. In a stew, all the pieces are cut down into bite-sized pieces that will fit…
Butter Tarts
Butter tarts, as made in Canada, are tarts made with melted butter, brown sugar, egg, walnuts, and white vinegar. The dessert originated in Scotland and was brought to Canada by Scottish settlers.
Canada Day
Canada Day celebrates the day that Canada became a country on 1 July 1867. It is a day for outdoor eating of summer food, whether the eating be at a picnic, on the back deck or while camping.
Canadian Bacon
Canadian Bacon © Denzil Green Canadian Bacon is an American term for a lean cut of cured back bacon. The term is not actually used in Canada. Canadians don’t call anything Canadian Bacon. They have four styles of bacon, according to the Government of Canada in its Standard Classification of Goods (SCG) 2000: Back Bacon,…
Canadian Cheddar Cheese
The best Canadian Cheddar is made from unpasteurized milk and matured for 24 to 27 months. It is not usually available in Canada. The Canadian cheddar available in Canada tastes nowhere near as good as the Canadian cheddar that is exported for consumption outside the country. Cheddar available inside Canada is mostly bland and rubbery,…
Canadian Food
Potatoes on Prince Edward Island © Denzil Green The roots of English-Canadian cooking are British-American. Ethnic food started came to the fore in Canadian food magazines and kitchens in the 1970s. Still, when Canadians talk about “good old-fashioned food”, it’s the pre-1980s dishes and foods that they are referring to. [Note: the broader topic of…
Canola Oil
Canola Oil © Denzil Green Canola Oil is a cooking oil pressed from a special variety of rapeseeds. The oil has a very mild, neutral flavour resulting from the high temperature pressing process it is put through. You can also get Cold Pressed, which has a fuller flavour with a subtle nutty taste, a silkier…
Carrot Pudding
Carrot puddings are steamed puddings, like plum pudding. Their featured ingredients are grated raw carrot and dried fruit. Steamed Carrot Pudding became popular in Canada at Christmases during the First World War as a substitute for Plum Pudding and all its rationed ingredients such as sugar. Many Canadian families, particularly on the West Coast, have…
Catherine Emily Callbeck Dalgairns
Catherine Dalgairns was a Canadian / Scottish woman interested in cookery. She wrote “The Practice of Cookery Adapted to the Business of Every-day Life”, first published in 1829.
Cheddar Cheese
There are entire books and articles dedicated to Cheddar cheese, so loved is it throughout the English-speaking world. It originated in Cheddar, Somerset. An unprotected cheese name There are many varieties of Cheddar, and anyone can make it. Even when England was part of the EU, the name “Cheddar” was not a protected EU designation…
Chowder
Nova Scotian Seafood Chowder © Paula Trites Chowder is a seafood or fish soup thickened with milk, cream or a white sauce. Clam Chowder is the most usual, but there are also Lobster Chowders, Cod Chowders, and Corn Chowders. In the Bahamas, they make a Chowder from conches. Chowders usually include potatoes and onions. Everything…
Coffee Cream
To some people, Coffee Cream means “coffee-flavoured” cream used as a filling for baked goods. But here, we’re talking about what North Americans call Coffee Cream or Table Cream: a cream with somewhere between 18 to 30% fat that is used as a cream in coffee. It doesn’t have a high enough fat content to…
Creamed Corn
Creamed Corn © Denzil Green Creamed Corn is something you love or you hate. Canned varieties don’t have any cream in them — about half the fresh corn kernels are “creamed” or puréed, and the other half are left whole. Recipes to make your own will have you put the corn kernels in an actual…
Crimson Beauty Apples
Crimson Beauty Apples © Denzil Green Crimson Beauty Apples have skin tinged with red streaks when fully ripe. Some people think they occasionally detect a hint of raspberry in the tart flavour. The apples ripen late July, early August. Cooking Tips For cooking, particularly for sauce. Makes a red applesauce. History Notes Crimson Beauty Apples…
Damper Dogs
Damper Dogs are stove-top baked bread made from white bread dough made in Newfoundland. Traditionally, they were made on top of a cast-iron wood or coal stove, on the flat dampers that served as burners for the stove. You’d clean the top of the stove, then heat it. Meanwhile, you would cut off egg-size pieces…
Discovery Apples
Discovery Apples are grown in the south-east of England and in small quantities in British Columbia, Canada. The skin is pale yellowish-green, mostly covered by bright red flushes and occasionally, pale yellow dots. Inside the apple is juicy and moderately sweet with firm, crisp, white flesh, occasionally with pink flushes in it on the side…
Farmer’s Cheese
Farmer’s Cheese can be thought of as a cottage cheese from which most of the moisture has been drained so that the cheese becomes quite dry, and which has then been pressed into a firm loaf shape. There is no rind on the cheese; the cheese’s colour will be pale yellow or orangey. It has…