Ainsley Harriott is an English TV celebrity chef and a best-selling cookbook author. He has also been known for his comedic and singing talents. He is the son of a famous jazz pianist.
English Food
Alderman’s Pudding
Alderman’s Pudding is a version of Bakewell Pudding, made without the brandy and the chopped peel (or fruit.)
Alexis Benoit Soyer: Chef and Food Writer
Alexis Benoit Soyer was a famous French chef and food author whose career actually mostly took place in England.
Antony Worrall Thompson
Antony Worrall Thompson is an English celebrity cook. He has published many books, has owned and run several restaurants and been on food programmes on TV.
Bakewell Puddings
Bakewell puddings are actually pies with a soft, creamy filling with a soft brown crust on top. They are made in Derbyshire, England. You make a deep-yellow coloured puff pastry from a fat such as butter or half butter and hard lard with twice as much flour, a dash of salt, and enough water to…
Banbury Cakes
Banbury Cakes are small puff pastries with a mincemeat-type filling inside them.
Bath Buns
Bath Buns are large buns made from a yeast-risen yellowish dough formed into balls, brushed with beaten egg yolk and baked. The dough has candied peel with currants or raisins in it, which poke out of the bun in many places. The top is sprinkled with crushed lump sugar. Some versions of Bath Buns can…
Bath Chaps
A Bath Chap is a particular cut of pork chop made in Wiltshire and Somerset in southern England. It is a 14 to 21 oz (400 to 600g) piece of pork, whose shape is somewhat like a cone cut in half through the top. It is cut from the lower portion of a cheek of…
Bath Olivers
Bath Olivers are bland flavoured, thin, crisp, ivory-coloured biscuits with tiny holes poked in them. They are made from fat (butter, oil and beef fat), flour, milk and yeast, and sold in a white paper cylinder. They are good with cheese. Bath Olivers are relatively expensive, about twice the price of water biscuits. History Notes…
Battenberg Cake
Battenberg Cake © Denzil Green Battenberg Cake is an oblong shaped sponge cake, covered with marzipan. When cut cross-wise, as it is meant to be, the slices show themselves to be composed of 4 squares of cake, checkered yellow and pink. Both colours of cake taste the same. The cake is a combination of sweet…
Beef Brawn
Beef brown is like pork brawn, except cow parts are used instead of pig parts. It can be made from the head of a calf or a cow. It is often made instead of pork brawn in Scotland and the northern parts of England.
Belgian Buns
Belgian buns are large, soft, round buns formed from a swirled strip of bread-like dough with raisins, white icing and a red candied cherry. No one is certain where they originated but one thing is certain: it does not appear to have been Belgium.
Blaunche Escrepes
Blaunche Escrepes means literally “white pancakes” (think “blanches crepes” if you have any French.) They were made in England in the 1200s from white wheat flour. They were often used to accompany “Poume d’oranges” (pork meatballs.) Cooking Tips A batter is made of the flour and beaten, fluffy egg white, with some white wine to…
Bloaters
A bloater is basically a kipper that hasn’t been cleaned inside, It is a cold-smoked herring that is not gutted at all, but rather left completely whole, with the head and tail still on. They have a mild, gamy, smoky taste, and pale, soft, tender flesh. They are much milder than red herrings. To make…
Bradenham Ham
Bradenham Ham originated in Wiltshire, England. The ham is first dry-cured in salt, then placed in a liquid cure of molasses, coriander, juniper berries, and other ingredients. After curing, it is aged for 6 months, then smoked. The outside skin of the ham becomes black and shiny. The meat inside is sweet and mild. Several…
Branston Pickle
Branston Pickle is a relish of diced, crunchy mixed pickled vegetables in a thick, dark sweet and sour sauce.
Buffalo Blue Cheese
Buffalo Blue Cheese is an English blue cheese made in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. It is soft, spreadable and creamy with a mild taste. The white part of Buffalo Blue Cheese is very white because the milk used is water buffalo milk. from water buffalo that have been imported to the region. The “blue” part is…
Bustards
Bustards are very large birds. They have longer bodies than turkeys, weigh up to 30 pounds (13 1/2 kilos) and have a wing span up to 7 feet (2 metres.) Despite the impressive wing span, they are not great flyers and can only fly for short periods. To compensate, they evolved into good runners and…
Buxlow Paigle
Buxlow Paigle is currently (2004) the only cheese made in Suffolk, England. The cheese is made by Margaret Reeve, using milk from the herd of Friesian cows kept by her husband Will at Church Farm in Friston, near Aldeburgh. Will Reeve runs an “automatic dairy”: the cows go to a machine and get themselves milked…
Byland Blue Cheese
Byland Blue Cheese is firm, but creamy and crumbly blue cheese with greenish-blue veins. It has a somewhat sharp, spicy taste. It is made in wheels 3 1/3 pounds (1.5 kg) big, and sold in pieces wrapped in foil. Byland is made by Shepherds Purse Cheeses in Thirsk, Yorkshire. Cooking Tips Byland Blue Cheese crumbles…
Canterbury Blue Cheese
Canterbury is a soft, creamy blue cheese with clumps of blue mould in it. It is made in a 5 1/2 pound (2.5 kg) wheel, and washed with brine while maturing, then wrapped in foil for sale, Canterbury Blue Cheese has a grey, gritty rind that is edible. Storage Hints Use Canterbury Blue Cheese within…
Capricorn Goat’s Cheese
Capricorn is a soft English goat’s milk cheese with a mild, nutty taste. It is made by the Lubborn Creamery at Manor Farm near Chard, Somerset with goat’s milk from neighbouring farms. 20 US quarts (20 litres) of milk is needed to make 2 1/4 pounds (1 kg) of the cheese. Vegetarian rennet is added…
Carlings
Carlings are fried dried brown field peas. The type of field pea is the pea known botanically as “(Pisum sativum var. arvense” of which there were apparently several differently coloured cultivars such as black, grey, maple (dark brown) in different areas, with the maple one apparently being the predominant surviving cultivar today. [1]Balic, Adam. Grey,…
Charles Elmé Francatelli: Victorian Celebrity Chef
Charles Elmé Francatelli was a Victorian celebrity chef. He wrote several important cookbooks, and held three of the most prestigious cooking positions in England.