 | |
Easter proper begins with Good Friday (also called Holy Friday or Great Friday), this being the Friday before Easter and commemorates the commemorates the crucifixion and death of Christ. It has long been traditional to eat hot cross buns on Good Friday and below are three recipes for this sweet, fruity bread:
Hot Cross Buns
Hot Cross Buns With Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon Cross Buns
On the South Coast of England and Especially in Devon and Cornwall it's been traditional to serve a fish pie as the evening meal on Good Friday. Below is a link to the recipe for this pie:
The evening of Easter Saturday is traditionally time to decorate eggs or to make Easter eggs and Easter biscuits (cookies) which are then hidden around the house in preparation for the easter egg hunt on Sunday morning. Below are a few recipes for Easter eggs and biscuits:
Bunny Biscuits
Easter Biscuits
Glazed Easter Biscuits
Easter Sunday was traditionally important as the time for Easter services. It is also the day for traditional Easter hunts for eggs and biscuits. Easter Sunday is the day for the main Easter meal and below are some suggestions for an Easter-themed dinner.
Starters
Deviled Eggs II
Deviled Eggs II
Bunny Salad
Easter Egg Starter
Easter Egg Salad
Soups and Salads
Bavarian Herb Soup
This is a very tarditonal soup and hearkens back to the time when bitter herbs were traditionally eaten at Easter in Christian countries as a sign of penitence.
Main Course
Lamb, of course, is the traditional Easter meat par excellence, with its association with the Jewish Passover. Roast lamb being the traditional meal. But below are a few variants on this old stalwart that you may like to try:
Roast Lamb With Apple Tartlets
Easter Leg Of Lamb With Apricots
Easter Greek Lamb
These days roast hams are gaining popularity during the Easter meal. Here are some recipes for you to make your own roast hams:
Easter Ham
Easter Ham Slice
Honey Glazed Easter Ham
Fowl such as Chicken and turkey are becoming popular these days. Here are recipes for chicken and turkey dishes, including the ever-popular roast turkey:
Easter Spring Chicken
Maple-Glazed Roast Turkey Breast With Cornbread Stuffing
The Ultimate Roast Turkey
If you would like to try something new, then have a go at these recipes:
Easter Brisket
Hareless Potpies
Main Course
The breaking of bread is a traditional part of the Jewish passover meal an this has survived in the Christain tradition, though most Easter breads are sweet rather than savoury. The recipe below, therefore is for a rather rare savoury Easter cheese-based bread.
Romano Cheese Easter Bread
Dessert
Easter Ledge pudding is a truly ancient kind of dessert. It's been around probably from ancient times but became associated particularly with Easter during the Middle ages. Serve this as a dessert and bring a note of ancient Easters to your meal.
Easter Ledge Pudding
Here are other Easter-associated desserts:
Easter Almond Pudding
Easter Grain Pie
Sweet Breads and Cakes
Sweet breads are particularly associated with Easter. Here are a selection for you to bake:
Chocolate Bunny Bread
Tsoureki
Easter Rolls
Though Saffron originates from Greece, saffron cakes and small saffron buns were traditionally eaten with clotted cream in Devon and Cornwall during the Easter period, most especially on Easter Sunday:
Easter Sunday Saffron Cake
Resurection Rolls are sweet rolls baked with marshmallows in the centre. As the bread bakes the marshmallows dissolve into the bread, leaving the roll hollow in the centre... just like Christ's tomb on the third day:
Resurrection Rolls
There are many versions of the following classic plaited Easter bread, which is also known as 'Easter Crown Bread'. This recipe is for the simplest version, which is a plain bread studded with eggs. Other versions have flavourings, typically candied peel and aniseed. The eggs studded in the plaited bread echo the crown of thorns whilst the eggs are also symbols of resurrection and re-birth.
Braided Easter Bread
Easter Crown Bread
There are also other traditional Easter cakes for you to make:
Cathedral Windows
Chocolate Nest Cake
Easter Cake
Easter Fruit Cake
Easter Party Cake
The following are modern recipes for cupcakes, but they're nice and something you can get the kids involved in making:
Birds' Nest Cupcakes
Easter Cupcakes
Sweets and Candies
The tradition of sweet egg-shaped candies goes back to the middle ages, though the giving of chocolate eggs is a rather modern development:
Almond Macaroon Nests
Bird Nests
Bird Nests with Jellybeans
Bird Nests II
Cherry Nut Easter Egg
Chocolate-covered Easter Eggs
Chocolate-covered Marshmallow Eggs
Easter Chocolate Cream-filled Eggs
Chocolate Eggs
Coconut Easter Eggs
Creamy Easter Eggs
Easter Egg Candies
Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and formerly marked the beginning of a week of secular celebration though this was reduced to only one day during the 19th century. Events on Easter Monday include egg rolling competitions and, in predominantly Catholic countries, dousing other people with water which, at one time, had been holy water blessed the day before at Easter Sunday Mass and carried home to bless the house and food.
In past times the Easter season lasted from Easter itself to the end of lent. One of the major festivals during this period was mid-Lent Sunday (now Mothering Sunday) where he devout parishioners went to the Mother Church of the parish, or the Cathedral of the diocese, to make their offerings. Sometime in the 17th Century the day became the festival of human motherhood when the whole family met together and apprentices and servants were given the day off – probably the only holiday in the year – and took flowers gathered from the hedgerows and, sometimes the gift of a simnel cake to their mothers from their employers. This is how Simnel cake became associated with Easter.
Though Simnel cake is now an Easter cake it began as a cake for Mothering Sunday. The cakes themselves are known from Medieval times and it's likely that the word 'Simnel' itself derives from the Latin simila, meaning fine as the wheat flour from which the cakes were made was the finest milled at the time. All Simnel cakes tend to be very rich but some are simple, some use yeast doughs and some use a creamed mixture. The recipe below is for a 'Shrewsbury Simnel'. Basically flour, spices and fruit. All Simnel cakes are covered in white almond paste and decorated with 11 almond paste balls (all the apostles with the exception of Judas).
Originally Simnel cake was a case of hard pastry, colored gold with saffron and filled with all types of dried fruit. In later years the fruit filling became a fruitcake and the pastry was replaced by marzipan.
The original Medieval Simnel Cake (actually a pie) is given below:
Medieval Simnel Cake
Below are two modern recipes for Simnel case, the frist made without yeast and the second made with yeast:
Simnel Cake
Yeast-based Simnel Cake
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many cooks are apprehensive about baking, thinking it to be an extremely laborious and involved process. Following a complicated recipe and ensuring that everything is 'just so'. In fact, the basic sponge cake recipe is a very simple one and this article takes you through some of the rules and pitfalls of baking and gives you two sponge cake recipes to try. Follow this guide and they will come out perfectly every time.
The thought of a cold or chilled soup sends shivers up the spines of many diners. After all, soups are meant to be hot aren't they. But, just as a good hot soup can warm you up on a cold winter's day a chilled soup can also serve to soothe the palate and cool you on a hot summer's day. A century ago chilled soups were all the rage, and though we don't tend to make them much these days, there recipes are much in need of a revival. Here a classic hot soup is compared with a chilled soup.
Much of what we know, historically, about English cookery originates from the grand houses, as only these recipes were written down in recipes. The food of the 'common man' had to rely on oral tradition to be transmitted through the ages. As a result we know far more about the cookery of the grand houses than the cookery of the common man. This all changed in the Victorian ear with the rise of the middle classes and the adoption of recipes, spices and cookery methods from elsewhere in the world.
According to tradition, marmalade came to Scotland in 1797 when Mrs Janet Keiller had to do something with a ship-load of ripe oranges her husband had bought. From this was born Dundee Marmalade and this bitter-sweet product has been a traditional part of Scottish cookery ever since. Here you will find recipes that include marmalade as an essential ingredient.
Those obsessive about wild foods will source a whole meal from the wild. But this is not the way that it's best to start with or even to keep going with wild foods. It's far better to gather a few fruit, wild greens or mushrooms and to add these to your everyday cookery. This way you get an introduction to the range of wild foods available and you begin to extend your cookery by adding wild ingredients.
An ice cream is a cold dessert made, at the most basic level, with cream and flavourings and which is whipped to incorporate air into the mix both before and during the freezing process. However, Italian ice creams (gelati) have more flavour and are whipped less so they contain less air and are creamier. French ice creams (glaces) are based on an egg custard and taste rich and creamy. Find out more about these frozen desserts and how to prepare them.
Scottish cookery swings from the essential spartan nature of Highland Cookery, where the most is made of scant ingredients, to the richness of the recipes of the East Coast ports and border towns. Despite its reputation as something of a joke (which is, at least partially, deserved) Scottish cookery is alive and vibrant and represents a fusion of good ingredients, old recipes and modern techniques. Here, recipes are provided for a traditional highland meal and this is contrasted with a traditional rich cake.
Spring is the time for new resolutions and to make the best of fresh and new ingredients. Spring lamb and fresh rhubarb are at their best now and these two classic recipes show off these ingredients at their best. Here you will see some of the best of traditional British cookery that will allow you to make a spectacular meal from these ingredients.
Freezing is often ignored as a cookery technique, yet where would we be without those cold delights of ice creams, sorbets, sherbets and granaches? Here you will find recipes for classic ice cream and a classic sorbet. I hope that you will come to accept that chilling is also is also a valid and vital form of cookery.
British cookery is often seen as a joke, yet with the range of available fresh ingredients British desserts are some of the most divine and inspiring in the world. Here I present two classic desserts: one modern and one traditional for your enjoyment.
printer version