I am sure that fans of Orwell are aware that he wrote an essay for the British Council in 1946 as part of the organization’s efforts to promote British culture overseas. Sadly, this essay was rejected, the council telling Orwell that it was problematic to write about food in a time of strict rationing. Orwell went on to publish a shorter version of the essay in the Evening Standard. The original is reproduced in its entirety here. Recipes are included at the end.
I just recently heard of the essay and very much enjoyed reading it. In the spirit in which it was given (understanding British food culture and promoting British cookery beyond the bounds of the British Isles) I decided I would try some of the recipes contained therein. I’m a little late, of course, but I would hope he would approve.
My first attempt is his recipe for the Treacle Tart. I think he might have assumed a bit much with this recipe for those of us reading it past 1984 (some details I consider important, such as oven temperature and specific amounts of critical ingredients are lacking), but his countrywoman Mary Berry helped me out to refine those a bit.
I needed to source the golden syrup mentioned in the recipe as I could not find it locally. This resulted in using a bit less of it than Mary’s proportions in her recipe (11 oz. rather than 400 g, which is about 14 oz.) but I was glad of it because even though I used her proportion of bread crumbs, I think more would have been better (I suspect day-old bread crumbs from modern American commercial bread are not as dry as from day-old bakery or homemade bread of the time).
I enjoyed the amount of citrus, which I used from Mary’s recipe. I suspect Orwell’s probably included less. Trying ginger would be intriguing as well.
I am happy with my result, though it’s quite possibly the stickiest thing I’ve made since a caramel sauce I used to accompany poached pears a good 15 years ago.
So – anyone else attempted famous old recipes? I have one for Queen Elizabeth’s sconesthat I’ve been blowing off and need to get to. And what were your results?
Was this the same essay where he goes on a tirade against people adding sugar to tea, because it masks and overwhelms the tea’s own flavor, and then goes into a discussion of whether to add the milk first or second (because OF COURSE you’re adding milk)?
Coffee in Britain is almost always nasty, either in restaurants or in private houses; the majority of people, though they drink it fairly freely, are uninterested in it and do not know good coffee from bad. Of tea, on the other hand, they are extremely critical, and everyone has his favourite brand and his pet theory as to how it should be made. Tea is always drunk with milk, and it is usual to brew it very strong, about one spoonful of dry tea leaves being allowed for each cup. Most people prefer Indian to Chinese tea, and they like to put sugar in it. Here, however, one comes upon a class distinction, or more exactly a cultural distinction. Virtually all British working-people put sugar in their tea, and indeed will not drink tea without it. Unsweetened tea is an upper-class or middle-class habit, and even in those classes it tends to be associated with a Europeanised palate. If one made a list of the people in Britain who prefer wine to beer, one would probably find that it included most of the people who prefer tea without sugar.
No tirade against sugar, just a mention of class distinction. No discussion of milk first or second, either.
I wonder why he makes no mention of tea with lemon. I was under the impression it was (is) a popular alternative to tea with milk (though I normally drink the latter).