How To Cook: The Victorian Way With Mrs Crocombe E-Book

Annie Gray

• Herausgeber: September Publishing
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

A sumptuous cookery book and the definitive guide to the life, times and tastes of the world's favourite Victorian cook Mrs Crocombe. As seen on English Heritage's The Victorian Way YouTube series. Mrs Crocombe is the star of English Heritage's wildly popular YouTube series, The Victorian Way. In delightful contrast to the high-octane hijinks of many YouTube celebrities, The Victorian Way offers viewers a gentle glimpse into a simpler time - an age when tea was sipped from porcelain, not from plastic cups; when mince pies were meaty and nothing was wasted; when puddings were in their pomp and no kitchen was complete without a cupboard full of copper pots and pans. Avis Crocombe really did exist. She was head cook at Audley End House in Essex from about 1878 to 1884. Although only a little is known about her life, her handwritten cookery book was passed down through her family for generations and rediscovered by a distant relative in 2009. It's a remarkable read, and from the familiar (ginger beer, custard and Christmas cake) to the fantastical (roast swan, preserved lettuce and fried tongue sandwiches), her recipes give us a wonderful window into a world of flavour from 140 years ago. How to Cook the Victorian Way is the definitive guide to the life, times and tastes of the world's favourite Victorian cook. The beautifully photographed book features fully tested and modernised recipes along with a transcription of Avis's original manuscript, plus insights into daily life at Audley End by Dr Annie Gray and Dr Andrew Hann, and a foreword by the face of Mrs Crocombe, Kathy Hipperson. It showcases the best recipes from Mrs Crocombe's own book, alongside others of the time, brought together so that every reader can put on their own Victorian meal. It's a moreish smorgasbord of social history an absolute must for fans, foodies and anyone with an appetite for the past. Please note this is a fixed-format ebook with colour images and may not be well-suited for older e-readers.

Leseprobe

HOW TO COOK

THE VICTORIAN WAY

with

MRS CROCOMBE

HOW TO COOK

THE VICTORIAN WAY

with

MRS CROCOMBE

Annie Gray and Andrew Hann

EDITOR

Katherine Davey

CONSULTANT

EDITOR

Rebecca Seal

DESIGNER

Andrew Barron @ thextension

PRINCIPAL

PHOTOGRAPHY

Abi Bansal

HISTORICAL

DEVELOPMENT

CHEFS

Miranda Godfrey and Ian Sutton

FOOD

STYLIST

Sophie Wright

PICTURE

CREDITS

Portrait photographs on pages 146, 151 and 200 are courtesy of www.EliotsofPortEliot.com.

Photograph top right page 73 is courtesy of the collection of Stan and Sarah Casbolt.

All other photographs are copyright of Historic England.

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

First published in 2020 by English Heritage

Copyright © English Heritage, 100 Wood Street, London

EC

2

V

7

AN

Text copyright © Annie Gray and Andrew Hann

The right of Annie Gray and Andrew Hann to be identified as the authors of this work has

been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by photocopying,

recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright holders.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed in England by Page Bros, Norwich

ISBN

978-1-910907-42-9

END

PAPERS

Copies of the end papers in Avis Crocombe’s manuscript.

TITLE

PAGE

The opening pages of Avis Crocombe’s manuscript.

PAGE

2

Audley End kitchen.

FACING

PAGE

Kathy Hipperson as Avis Crocombe in the kitchen.

Contents

Mrs Crocombe:

My Great Great Aunt

8

Introduction

10

Bringing Mrs Crocombe to Life

12

1

Audley End House

15

2

Cooking with Mrs Crocombe

23

Measurements and Ingredients

24

recipes

The Braybrookes’ Table:

Soup

29

The Braybrookes’ Table:

Fish

37

The Braybrookes’ Table:

Meat

45

3

Mrs Crocombe’s Domain

69

The Kitchen

70

The Service Yard

72

The Servants

73

The Dairy, Laundry and Beyond

74

recipes

The Braybrookes’ Table:

Vegetables

77

The Braybrookes’ Table:

Sweets

83

The Braybrookes’ Table:

Dessert and Savouries

125

4

Victorian Food and Kitchens

141

Life in the Kitchen

141

The Daily Meal Pattern

144

How Dinner was Served

147

Other Meals

148

The Nursery, the Sickroom and the Poor

151

recipes

The Braybrookes’ Table:

Other Family Meals

157

The Braybrookes’ Table:

Cakes and Biscuits

173

5

Mrs Crocombe and the Staff

195

Bringing the Servants to Life

195

Avis Crocombe

197

recipes

The Service Wing:

Servants’ Dishes

205

The Service Wing:

The Housekeeper’s Room

221

The Service Wing:

The Dairy

233

6

Mrs Crocombe’s Manuscript

237

Bibliography and General Reading

268

Acknowledgements

269

Index

270

8

|

How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe

To think I was going to throw this book in the bin. The original

handwritten

receipt

book

had

first

come

to

my

attention

in 1981, but the story really started with Avis Crocombe in the late

19th century.

Avis was cook to Lord and Lady Braybrooke at Audley End in the

1880s. She kept a notebook of recipes, which she had probably

brought with her from her previous position of cook–housekeeper in

Norfolk. In 1884 Avis married Benjamin Stride, a butler, whom she

must have met in London when she was with the Braybrookes at their

town house on Hanover Square. On her marriage she left service to

become a lodging-house keeper in Marylebone in north London,

taking her receipt book with her. Benjamin died in 1893 and Avis

in 1927.

My grandfather, Daniel Stride, was one of Benjamin’s nephews. In

the early 1890s he joined the Metropolitan Police Force, and it’s likely

that as the only family member living in London, Daniel saw to the

affairs of his uncle and step-aunt after their deaths, and so came into

the possession of Avis’ receipt book. When my grandfather died in

1949 he was living with his daughter, my aunt Elsie, in London. His

possessions were left with her, including the book, which then went

with Elsie when she married and moved to Staffordshire.

In 1981 my aunt Elsie moved into a care home. As the only young

member of the family, I helped sort out her things and so acquired

various family mementos, including the book, which I put away in a

tea chest in the attic. It stayed there until 2009, when, clearing out

the attic, my wife and I came across it again. We were on the point of

putting it in the rubbish when, looking at the opening page with its

Mrs Crocombe:

My Great Great Aunt

by

Bob Stride

Mrs Crocombe: My Great Great Aunt |

9

pencil notes, written perhaps by my grandfather, we thought again.

The notes told us that the book had been kept by Avis, who had

worked at Langley Park in Norfolk and Audley End in Essex. We

decided to contact Audley End to ask if they would be interested to

see it. It was a surprise a few days later when there was a call from

English Heritage to say that they would be very interested indeed.

Which is how we came to bring the book with us to Audley End

when we visited that August. The most amazing thing was that just

the previous year, the service wing had been completely refurbished

with displays set to depict life at Audley in the 1880s, and English

Heritage, knowing from its records that Avis had been cook at that

time, had historical interpreters – among them Kathy Hipperson –

already playing Avis and her colleagues during live events at the house.

Giving the manuscript to Audley End meant that the historical

actors could prepare recipes Avis actually wrote in her book, rather

than more general dishes from the Victorian era, as they had been

doing. Since then the receipt book has featured in newspapers

and magazines, as well as the BBC programme

Britain’s Hidden

Heritage

, while the numbers following the cooking videos on

YouTube have escalated.

And now a book! – it’s overwhelming.

Bob Stride and

Kathy Hipperson

with the

manuscript

at Audley End

in 2009.

Welcome to the world of Avis Crocombe. This book wouldn’t exist

without the many millions of YouTube fans who watch and comment

on English Heritage’s

The Victorian Way

videos and whose enthusiasm

really has shaped it.

I am a food historian, specialising in the years between 1650 and

1950, and I led the live interpretation team in the service wing at

Audley End House from its launch in 2008 until 2013, also appearing in

character as the first kitchen maid. I remain an adviser on the videos.

Avis Crocombe’s original manuscript recipe book is a wonderful

thing to work from: a slightly worn hardback, full of brief lists of

ingredients and hastily copied out recipes from the course of her career,

including her time as cook in the 1880s to Charles Neville, 5th Lord

Braybrooke, and his wife, Florence, of Audley End House. It is a working

cook’s book, never intended for publication, and there are repetitions

as well as omissions. Avis was probably filling in the gaps left by the

printed books she had access to, as well as noting down anything

particularly good and her employers’ favourites. It is a rare historical

treasure to work from, but isn’t a fully formed recipe book (there are

very few vegetable dishes – though this is unsurprising, given most

Victorian vegetables were simply boiled and served with a buttery

sauce – no fish dishes, and few for meat). However, someone must

have very much liked ginger beer, for she wrote down three versions of

that, along with three orange marmalades and three types of short-

bread. Her book is one of sweet treats and endless biscuits.

Victorian food could be fantastic – I am a huge fan of Victorian

cookery and share with Queen Victoria a love of ten-year-old mutton.

We’d be selling it short if this book did not include recipes from the

10

|

How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe

Introduction

by

Annie Gray

Introduction |

11

wider world of Victorian cuisine, from beyond Avis’ collection, that she

would almost certainly have cooked. This is, therefore, a collection of

Victorian recipes, lightly modernised for the 21st-century kitchen

(most people today probably don’t have a roasting spit).

It was an era of immense culinary innovation, when many of the

dishes now regarded as part of the classic British repertoire were

developed. The costumed team at Audley End were cooking Victorian

recipes before Avis’ manuscript was donated by Bob Stride, and the

YouTube videos which emerged from their work also cover a broader

range of dishes than Avis had collected. From the kitchen garden at

Audley End, Avis would have had access to an enormous variety of fresh

produce, and the wider estate provided both farmed meat and game.

The Victorians regularly cooked with ingredients which have virtually

disappeared today, and were ferocious fruit and vegetable breeders.

The recipes here remain resolutely Victorian in character, but I’d

encourage you to experiment freely – after all, that’s exactly what Avis

would have done. Many are taken from her manuscript (we’ve selected

the best ... so you are spared the candied lettuce). Others are from

books we know she had access to, or favourites of Kathy and the team

in the kitchens of Audley End. A few were once based on a Victorian

source but, through ten years of regular cooking at Audley, have

evolved into distinct recipes of their own. We’ve included all the

dishes featured on YouTube: enough to build a Victorian meal.

If that’s not sufficient Avis, then at the back you will find a full

transcription of her original book, with commentary (look out for the

roasted swan). You’ll also find a full bibliography, so you can immerse

yourselves in Avis Crocombe’s world even more.

Mrs Crocombe’s

recipe book, which

she kept over the

course of her career.

12

|

How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe

I have been portraying Mrs Crocombe at Audley End House, where

she lived and worked in the 1880s, since 2008. I am a historical

interpreter and what I love about my job is that it gives visitors to

Audley End the chance to see an extraordinary project – one wholly

focused on recreating the kitchens, clothing and methods of one

particular servant from history.

‘Historical interpreter’ is the term given to those who dress up in

historically accurate costumes, play a specific character from history,

and perform in the first person to educate and bring history to life for

a modern audience. It is usually easier to portray kings and queens, or

characters whose lives can be researched in detail, but it is more

difficult with lower-status characters, as less was

written about them. Avis Crocombe is a prime

example: a servant in Queen Victoria’s time when

servants were barely noticed, let alone recorded

beyond the census. When Mrs Crocombe’s great,

great, step-nephew, Mr Stride, donated her hand-

written recipe book it added an exciting layer to this

unique experience for the visitor. And for me, seeing

her handwriting for the first time, on pages she had

touched, in a notebook she must have treasured, is

something I will never forget.

What makes the interpretation at Audley End so

wonderful is that I get to work in surroundings so

appropriate to Mrs Crocombe, thanks to the pains-

taking restoration of the kitchens by English Heritage.

I wear clothing created by Past Pleasures Ltd based

Bringing Mrs Crocombe to Life

by

Kathy Hipperson

Bringing Mrs Crocombe to Life |

13

on their detailed research of original items of costume, and I prepare

recipes lovingly researched by Dr Annie Gray. In 2015 the first of the

videos of Mrs Crocombe at work was posted onto English Heritage’s

YouTube channel, taking her and her recipes to a wider audience.

Mrs Crocombe was unusual for her time, in that she was a female

head cook working for a baron, when members of the aristocracy

would usually have had a male cook. Bringing her to life has had a

huge impact on my life. Not having been particularly interested in

cooking before, or indeed in Victorian kitchens, I find that the project

gives me a real appreciation of a working Victorian, a greater

understanding of the science of cooking and the confidence to

attempt recipes in front of an audience. (Although perhaps not sheep’s

brain croquettes, ever again!)

I hope this recipe book will bring as much joy to those who cook

from it as I get from telling Mrs Crocombe’s story.

FACING

PAGE

&

ABOVE

The cook’s

room, just off the

kitchen at Audley

End, where Avis

Crocombe would

have looked

through her recipe

books and planned

her menus.

Audley End was one of the greatest houses of Jacobean England and

tells a story of favour and disgrace, wealth and poverty, and endless

architectural change at the hands of a sequence of ambitious owners.

It was originally built on the foundations of a Benedictine monastery,

Walden Abbey, which had been founded in the mid 12th century. In

1538 the abbey was closed by King Henry VIII, during the Dissolution

of the Monasteries. He gave the land and buildings to his Lord

Chancellor, Thomas Audley, and made him the 1st Baron Audley

of Walden.

Thomas pulled down much of the abbey and

converted the rest into a grand residence, Audley

Inn. His son-in-law and successor, Thomas Howard,

4th Duke of Norfolk, entertained Queen Elizabeth I

here for a week in August 1571, but was executed

for treason the following year after conspiring to

marry the queen’s rival, Mary, Queen of Scots.

The duke’s second son, also Thomas, redeemed

the family reputation, serving with distinction in

the fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada. In 1603

he was made 1st Earl of Suffolk by the new king,

➵

1

Audley End House

by

Andrew Hann

Audley End House |

15

ABOVE

Portrait of

Thomas, Lord

Audley, by a

follower of Adriaen

Thomas Key, 1569.

Audley converted

Walden Abbey into

‘his chiefe and

capital mansion

house’.

FACING

PAGE

Audley End House

today, from the

west.

James I, and appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household, an

important role in the royal court. In 1614 he was made Lord Treasurer

(in charge of the finances of the kingdom), one of the most powerful

positions in the country. The earl began rebuilding Audley Inn on a

spectacular scale soon after he was given his title, in the hope that the

king would visit him at his new house. It was a time when the royal

court moved around the country during the spring and summer

months, on what were known as royal progresses, inspecting the

kingdom. To be chosen as a stopping-off point by the monarch was an

honour, so leading courtiers tried to outdo one another in the

magnificence of their country houses, hoping to attract a royal visit.

The first earl’s newly built and renamed house – Audley End – was

perhaps the greatest of these grand houses and was said to have cost

£200,000 to build (about £50 million in today’s money). However,

the earl appears to have over-reached himself and when King James

visited in 1614 he is said to have remarked that the house was too

grand for a king, but might suit a Lord Treasurer. Two years later the

earl was accused of embezzling funds from the Exchequer. He was

found guilty but managed to avoid having his head cut off: instead he

was heavily fined and retired in disgrace to Audley End.

The earl’s fall from grace left his family with a huge house and

huge debts. His grandson James, the 3rd Earl of Suffolk, who inherited

Audley in 1640, had to sell off land elsewhere to

raise £50,000 to pay creditors, and struggled to

find the money to maintain the buildings and

gardens. Handily, King Charles II was looking for

a palace close to the racecourse at Newmarket.

Charles agreed to buy Audley End for £50,000,

with £20,000 left lying on mortgage.

The third earl was made keeper of his old house,

now the new palace. The earliest detailed pictures

of Audley date from this time: over 20 engravings

by Henry Winstanley, the Clerk of Works at the

palace. They show two courts, squares of buildings

around open courtyards: an inner, or little, court

beside a larger, outer court, like a squared-off figure

of eight.

The inner court had symmetrical state apart-

ments: for the queen on the north side and the king

16

|

How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe

Thomas Howard

(1561–1626), 1st

Earl of Suffolk, who

rebuilt Audley Inn

as the magnificent

Audley End in the

hope that the king

would visit him.

on the south; the outer court to the west contained lodgings and

offices. Further west was a vast walled garden, and the river Cam was

straightened up, so that it flowed through the centre, parallel to

the house.

Despite this magnificence, Charles II soon lost enthusiasm for

Audley End. By 1670 he barely used it, and the house began falling into

disrepair. In 1695 the 5th Earl of Suffolk, who, like the earlier earls,

was keeper of the house, wrote to complain about it to the great

architect Sir Christopher Wren, who was responsible for maintaining

the king’s buildings. ‘Those last great windes has soe extramly shattered

the chimneys of this house that it is dangerous to walke either in the

courtyard or the garden, great stones falling from them daily.’ So it is

not surprising that in 1701, the new owner, King William III, decided

to give the house back to the Howards. In return they had to cancel the

outstanding mortgage of £20,000, still owed by the king.

Over the next 50 years the Howards drastically reduced the size of

the house to make it more affordable to maintain; by 1725 little more

than the inner court remained. Henry Howard, the 10th and last Earl

of Suffolk, restored the family finances to some degree by marrying

Sarah Inwen, the daughter of a rich London brewer, but he died in

1745 without an obvious heir, leading to divided ownership of the

Audley End House |

17

One of the earliest

drawings of Audley

End, dating from

about 1676, by

Henry Winstanley.

Only the middle

range of these

buildings (dividing

the two open

courts), and the

two wings

extending

backwards from

it, now remain.

estate and a protracted legal dispute during which

the house was left empty and decaying.

The saviour of Audley End was Elizabeth,

Countess of Portsmouth, one of the three bene-

ficiaries of the estate. She bought the house and

park in 1751 for £10,000 from one of the other

beneficiaries and demolished the eastern long

gallery range to produce a smaller, U-shaped house.

She also restored the grounds, which were largely

bare (the impoverished Howards had felled most of

the trees for timber), creating a more informal

setting for the house. She also had the kitchen

garden moved behind the stable block, where it

remains today.

As the countess had no children, she chose as

her heir her nephew John Griffin Whitwell, on condition that he

change his surname to Griffin, her maiden name. Sir John Griffin

Griffin, as he became, was a man of action. He’d enjoyed a distinguished

military career during the Seven Years’ War, but in 1760 he was

wounded at the Battle of Kloster Campen and retired from active

service. When, in 1762, he inherited Audley End, he immediately

set about modernising it, employing the fashionable neoclassical

architect Robert Adam and equally fashionable garden designer

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.

Sir John and Robert Adam created a new suite of reception rooms

on the ground floor of the south wing, including a library. This

magnificent room was decorated with classical

friezes by the famous Italian artist Giovanni Battista

Cipriani, and statues made with artificial Coade

stone. They also built a stack of three galleries

behind the hall and on the north side of the house,

re-establishing a link between the north and south

wings of the house, and built a new service wing,

including the kitchen which was later to be Mrs

Crocombe’s realm.

Sir John was very keen on the new domestic

technologies of his day, which were making country

houses more comfortable and easier to run. He was

quick to have them installed: a pumped water

18

|

How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe

The saviour of

Audley End was

Elizabeth, Countess

of Portsmouth. She

inherited part of

the estate, and in

1751 bought the

house and gardens,

which she set about

bringing up to date.

Sir John Griffin

Griffin inherited

Audley End from

his aunt the

Countess of

Portsmouth in

1762. He was

very keen on the

new domestic

technologies of

his day.

supply, service bells, a flushing water closet (toilet) in 1775 (a year

before Joseph Bramah patented the device), and the new, bright,

efficient Argand oil lamps soon after they were invented in 1780.

It was in the grounds, however, that he made the greatest changes.

From the early 1760s he began to buy up plots of land to enlarge the

park and in 1763 Capability Brown began work: getting rid of the last

formal features and creating a newly fashionable, natural-looking,

but idealised landscape of flowing lawns, winding water courses, and

carefully positioned groups of trees and shrubs, which hid the service

buildings from view. A number of cottages in Audley End village were

bought and demolished so that workers’ houses no longer interrupted

the views and new garden buildings studded the landscape.

In 1784 Sir John was made 4th Baron Howard de Walden and

immediately began yet another set of improvements. The saloon was

redecorated to include full-length portraits of himself, his mother

and all previous owners of Audley End, painted by the fashionable

Italian artist Biagio Rebecca. Then the best bedroom suite was altered

to form a new state apartment in time for an anticipated visit of

George III, in 1786 – though sadly the king never came.

In 1788 Sir John was made 1st Baron Braybrooke. He had married

twice, but had no children, so when he died in 1797 his chosen heir

was Richard Neville, a descendant of the first husband of his aunt,

Lady Portsmouth.

Audley End House |

19

Sir John added

the service wing,

including the

kitchen where

Mrs Crocombe

would later work,

out of view of the

approach to the

house – as it is in

this painting by

William Tomkin

of 1768.

Richard, now 2nd Baron Braybrooke, came to Audley End as a

newly widowed, 47-year-old father of seven children. Audley was up

to date but did, however, need a nursery, so Richard had one built on

the second floor. He also had improved stoves installed to help heat

the mansion. In 1819 the house finally received another royal visit: a

daughter of George III, Princess Mary, visited with Prince William,

Duke of Gloucester (both her husband and first cousin) and his sister

Princess Sophia of Gloucester.

In 1820 the second baron retired to his ancestral estate, Billingbear,

Berkshire, leaving Audley End to his eldest son, also Richard Neville,

who’d recently married and started a family. On becoming 3rd Baron

Braybrooke in 1825 he and his wife, Jane Cornwallis, set about making

substantial alterations. Whereas Sir John had remodelled the house

in what was then the fashionable neoclassical style, Richard – a

scholar and antiquarian – wanted to restore its Jacobean character.

He began the laborious process of removing the white paint on the

staircases, panelling and carved screen of the hall, to reveal the

original unpainted Jacobean wood. Working with the architect Henry

Harrison, he saved the surviving Jacobean elements of the house and

made sure any new work harmonised with them. He also moved the

reception rooms back up to the first floor, where they had been when

the house was first built. In the gardens they created a new parterre

(a formal garden of paths and flower beds) to the east of the house.

Richard’s successor in 1858 was his eldest son, Richard Cornwallis

Neville. The fourth baron had been plagued by ill health and so could

not join in with the usual activities for men of his time, but instead

developed an interest in collecting and archaeology. He built up a

20

|

How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe

On becoming 3rd

Baron Braybrooke

in 1825 Richard

and his wife, Jane,

set about restoring

the Jacobean

character of the

house. One of his

guests described

the third baron as

‘rather a shy man

in mixed company’

but ‘wondrous

agreeable’.

FACING

PAGE

Charles, 5th Baron

Braybrooke –

Mrs Crocombe’s

employer – and his

family at Audley End

in about 1866–7. On

his left is his wife,

Florence, and at his

feet their daughter,

Augusta. Standing

with her hand on his

shoulder is Charles’s

niece Catherine, and

at the far left her

younger sister Mary;

their mother is the

woman seated to

Charles’s right. The

other three women

in the photo are

probably Charles’s

sisters Mirabel,

Louisa and Lucy,

with the family

chaplain, John Lane

Oldham, the man

in the hat.

large collection of fossils and stuffed birds which he displayed in

cases on the lower and upper galleries and created a museum room to

display antiquities and finds from his own excavations.

When he died at only 41 in 1862 he was succeeded by his brother

Charles Neville, whose main interests were agriculture and cricket.

Charles rebuilt the home farm, and used experimental methods to

improve the milk yields of his Jersey cows. He also laid out a cricket

pitch on the lawn in front of the house in 1842 (later moved to the

other side of the river). It was Charles, the fifth baron, who was Lord

Braybrooke when Avis Crocombe served as cook in the 1880s.

By then the house was much as we see it today – neither Charles

nor later generations of the family made many changes. Only the Adam

Rooms on the ground floor look different to the way they appeared in

Avis’ day, when they served as a bedroom suite: in the 1960s the

Ministry of Works, the government department then responsible for

buildings of national significance, restored these rooms to the way they

would have looked in the late 18th century, a hundred years before Avis

arrived at Audley End.

Salt

is normally sea salt, with a medium-sized crystal. This is known

in the US as kosher salt. Avoid the fine-grained table salts: these

usually contain additives which may throw the recipes off kilter (and

make them too salty, where we give amounts in teaspoons). Of course,

everyone has different tastes, so be guided by your own.

Milk

is always whole.

Where

cream

is listed, you can use any type. However, if we specify

double cream, it is what is known as heavy cream in the US. In Britain

we also have whipping cream, slightly lower in fat and ideal for

whipping. If in doubt, go for the most multi-purpose version you can

find. In Victorian recipes you’ll never go wrong with high-fat cream.

Baking powder

is widely available as a ready-made mixture. If you

cannot find any, just mix ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

with 1 tsp cream of tartar.

Gelatine

is given in leaf form. If using powdered gelatine use 1 tbsp

for every 3 leaves.

Suet

is the hard fat that surrounds the kidneys of most animals. It is

widely available in shops, online, or fresh from a good butcher.

Cooking with Mrs Crocombe |

25

Generally beef suet was used, but other types existed. We tend to use

beef and cannot guarantee the results of using another type of fat.

A vegetarian alternative is available.

Puff pastry

should always be made with butter. It is easily available

ready-made, at least in Britain, but do check the packet as some

brands made with vegetable fats can be nasty. If you cannot get an all-

butter puff, you may be better off choosing another recipe (or making

your own puff pastry). In most cases you could use a basic butter

shortcrust pastry instead.

Black treacle

can be replaced by blackstrap molasses, though you

can also buy treacle online.

We would always advocate using the best-quality

meat

possible. The

Victorians did not routinely administer hormones or antibiotics to

their cattle, nor did they practise battery farming. In Britain, there

are various welfare marks which indicate well-cared-for animals, and

we think that the organic standard is worth seeking out, both for

ethical reasons and because the meat will taste better and be easier

to handle. Wherever you live, it is worth making friends with a

decent butcher.

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How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe