Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
22
You could try butter as a substitute for suet. But Mrs H warns that with it melting quicker than suet, the consistency of the pudding may be softer than you’d want. Apparently the better substitute is vegetable shortening such as this (but we’ve no experience of using this product at all) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crisco-All-Vegetable-Shortening-453/dp/B000R30LC2
As for trifle, yes, it’s whipped cream. We always make Mum’s trifle at Christmas. I don’t know if this was a recipe from her family or something she came across in early married life in the late 1940s. But it was an unchanging Christmas treat in my childhood and has been in unchanging Christmas treat throughout nearly 50 years of married life.
In the bottom of the bowl goes trifle sponges (something always available in British supermarkets) but you can always use a plain sponge cakes. Soak them in sweet sherry. Then a layer of fruit - Mum always used tinned peaches, so that’s what we do. That’s covered with a layer of jelly (we always use a red one. I think this may be what Americans call jello?). When that’s set, it’s topped with a thick layer of custard. That needs to cool and set, before being topped with a thick layer of whipped cream. And then decorate the top as you wish - for us, we use half of the tin of peaches in the early stage and the rest goes on topped, with a sprinkling of flaked almonds.
We’ve also happily tried his takes on what we understand to be classically British dishes: one or another game bird, Welsh rarebit, one or another smoked fish, and eccles cake with Lancashire . . .
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
25
In a perhaps interesting bit of culinary displacement, you’ll regularly come across a version of this in Northern France where it’s known as “Le Welsh”. Apparently dates back to the Great War period, when that area along the Channel coast was one bloody big base camp for British forces.
Okay. I’ll jump into the pool with GUINNESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
I started out to make this cake from Delia Smith’s recipe, but found this simpler one that turned out to be stunning. Moist, light texture and rich chocolate flavor. Will become part of our repertory. Husband decided it needed no frosting, and cut into it with only a powdered sugar dust.
Depending on the season, one can use the colors of a special holiday or a flag and it is so varied.
I have used goat cheese Ricotta instead of whipped cream and sometimes Pannacotta …
Fruit: I prefer fresh berries ( strawberries or black berries or rasberries or blue berries )
Savoury: I have used Scottish Smoked Salmon and Cream Fraîche or Caviar and also or Ricotta with tomatoes and basil – and topped with a bamboo type of stick (kebab stick but shorter) or toothpicks of mozzarella di bufala with a basil leaf …
I like to play during the holidays.
Also have done with crab meat and prawns as well …
Barca, I am intrigued by your savory “trifle”. What bread do you sub for sponge?
and, yes. I love to use mixed fresh berries in a sweet trifle. It is a magical dessert, especially when mounted in a tall glass bowl. And wonderfully adaptable in fresh stone fruit season.
My brother-in-law is British. He always makes his mother’s recipe for a cake that he soaks in booze and wraps in cheesecloth about 2 months (?) before Christmas. We’re always comatose after a piece of it.
I had the most memorable spaghetti carbonara in my life at a we-could-walk-to restaurant from our hotel in London.
I do love British cheese and I learned how to make a mean trifle!!!
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
33
I’ve never tried it , Bone, so don’t don’t know about the Worcestershire. I’d presume they’d be using a local cheese from the Nord Pas de Calais. - whichever was a good melter.
By the by, I presume that, traditionally, a rarebit made in Wales would use whatever was the locally produced cheese - a Caerphilly style in the south and, probably, a Cheshire style in the north.
As I had guessed, today i went to my butcher and asked for a half pound of suet. He carved off a deep slice from the top of a roast and wrapped it…no charge.
Nice score @pilgrim! In my experience suet works much better than butter in traditional British Plum Puddings; however, I was under the impression that suet was derived from the fat surrounding the kidneys. Is that a myth, and any hard beef fat is in fact, suet?
In my continuing practice of stuffing boats into nearly anything grin I’ll say my favorite boat show in the world is the Southampton Boat Show. You simply have to love a show that starts their layout with “this is where the Guinness tent goes” and builds the entire rest of the show around that.
Ricotta or cream cheese (i cannot use - lactose intolerance to industrialised cow milk) or crême fraiche. ( I use ecological goat milk Ricotta) …
Take a large tall glass.
put the cheese and then i use SWISS BLACK BREAD OR GERMAN BLACK BREAD
then put any green leaves of lettuce you like ( I use field greens )
then place the smoked salmon
then the cheese - THEN THE BLACK BREAD
then the leaves
then the smoked salmon
Etcetra until you get to the top.
I serve this with a drizzle of Evoo and rye crisp crackers (Wasa) or Eco Rice crackers or Multi Cereal Seeded Crackers or Carr´s Crackers … and a plate of Crudities !! with the remaining cheese as a dip … I have added a dried cayenne (guindilla red dried horn chili pepper) on the cheese for the crudities.
OR SERVE WITH BLUE CHEESE OF CHOICE … ( ROQUEFORT, GORGONZOLA or CABRALES OR PICÓN, FROM ASTURIAS )
If you put the crackers in the glass, they get “humid” and lose their crunch !
The Sweet Trifle:
Pannecotta, or whipped cream or ricotta or cream fraîche …
layer 1 = cheese or sponge
layer 2 = a home made sponge or if employed
layer 3 = berries red
layer 4) cheese
layer 5) the sponge
layer 6) blue or black berries
REPEAT DEPENDING ON THE FLAG COLORS OR HOLIDAY COLORS YOU WISH TO CREATE.
NORMALLY I DO NOT USE SPONGE …
I USE:
CHEESE (PANACOTTA) OR WHIPPED CREAM (CANNOT USE - LACTOSE INTOLERANCE) AND SOMETIMES I PREPARE IT WITH GREEK YOGURT
RED BERRIES (STRAWBERRIES)
PANACOTTA OR GREEK YOGURT
DRIZZLE OF HONEY
BLACK BERRIES
PANCOTTA OR GREEK YOGURT
DRIZZLE HONEY
RASBERRIES
AND SERVE WITH A DRIZZLE OF HONEY ON TOP – what is better than sponge is the Italian christmas tart … that has dried fruit and raisins …
It is late here almost 12am
HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE … I AM QUITE TIRED. WE JUST RETURNED FROM NORTHERN GIRONA.
Oh wow. This quarter covers the "holidays ", and I got nothing. I remember something I found about sugarplums I’d always wanted to try. Are sugarplums British?
Lots of holiday stuff here, @shrinkrap - roasts, sides, sauces, desserts - take your pick!
Check out bread sauce - that’s a family favorite even with (American) Thanksgiving turkey.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
40
Yes. Although not at all common - I had to Google to see that they do exist here. Before today, I’d only come across the Sugar Plum Fairy in Thcaikovsky’s “Nutcracker”
