Salaric Cooking

There is a big drive at the moment to try and get people to eat seasonally so I thought I’d have a little look at what Mrs Beaton thought on the subject.

Her book is not my cup of tea but it does have lots of useful information in it.

FISH.–Barbel, brill, carp, cod may be bought, but is not so good as in January, crabs, crayfish, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whiting.

I haven’t even heard of some of these fish so I think I’ll have to do some investigating!

MEAT.–Beef, house lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

Veal is an iffy one morally these days though this is apparently only white veal, pink veal is ok – again I will endervour to find out more!

POULTRY.–Capons, chickens, ducklings, tame and wild pigeons, pullets with eggs, turkeys, wild-fowl, though now not in full season.

Again a few things here I have never heard of such as Capons and pullets.

GAME.–Grouse, hares, partridges, pheasants, snipes, woodcock.

Same for this section hence making all I can into links!

VEGETABLES.–Beetroot, broccoli (purple and white), Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, celery, chervil, cresses, cucumbers (forced), endive, kidney-beans, lettuces, parsnips, potatoes, savoys, spinach, turnips,–various herbs.

Interesting I wonder if they have them stored as I thought some of this definatly would be affected by winter frosts such as lettuce. Again more investigation – if anyone has any light to shed let me know.

FRUIT.–Apples (golden and Dutch pippins), grapes, medlars, nuts, oranges, pears (Bon Chrétien), walnuts, dried fruits (foreign), such as almonds and raisins; French and Spanish plums; prunes, figs, dates, crystallized preserves.

Interesting that she adds the ‘forgien’ food into the seasonal like this. I feel that buying seasonal is probably going to be coupled with local in todays scheme of things. Especially as we are supposed to be reducing waste and the carbon footprint of what we eat in this country and our local economy could do with the boost of local buying. Some of the things like snipes didn’t even have a wikipedia page – unless Mrs Beeton ment a computer game which I somehow doubt as computers didn’t actually exist back then!