Читать книгу Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook - Regula Ysewijn - Страница 22

|

33

Kitchen Notes

Candied citrus peel: Good-quality candied orange

and lemon peel strips are ¼ inch (6 mm) thick

or thicker. The skin must be sticky, and the strips

should appear juicy. Pass up any that look dry or

are marred by cracks.

Currants and raisins: Select dried currants and

dark and golden raisins (UK sultanas) that have

good color and appear neither crystallized nor

dry. When adding them to cakes or fruit loaves,

it is always best not to soak them in advance. If

you add plump soaked fruits to a dough, they can

get damaged during the final kneading or shap-

ing process, and if you add them to a dough at an

early stage, they can introduce unwanted mois-

ture. I prefer to work with a wetter dough that

compensates for the fact the fruit is not soaked.

The fruit also attaches better to the framework of

the baked good when using this method.

Golden syrup and black treacle: These are by-prod-

ucts of sugar refining and are typically English.

Lyle’s brand golden syrup, the best-known

English maker, is available in some grocery stores

and online in the United States, though it can be

replaced by high-quality maple syrup or honey

if you’ve failed to plan ahead. Lyle’s also markets

black treacle, though it is more difficult to find

outside of the United Kingdom.Light or medium

(dark) molasses is a good substitute.

Herbs: A variety of fresh herbs, such as parsley,

thyme, marjoram, sage, savory, chervil, and mint,

are called for, all of which Mrs. Patmore would

have used freshly harvested from the estate gar-

den. In the case of bay leaf, I have specified fresh

bay when it is preferred over dried.

Salt: I used fine sea salt in all the recipes, but feel

free to use whatever you have on hand, as long as

the crystals are not too large or rough and thus

hard to absorb or dissolve.

Spices: Purchase your spices in small quantities

if possible, as their flavor diminishes over time,

especially when forgotten at the back of a cup-

board and rediscovered only after three years.

If a recipe calls for many different spices and

assembling them all seems too daunting, you can

sometimes use mixed spice, a popular UK blend

of sweet spices (typically nutmeg, cinnamon, all-

spice, cloves, coriander, and ginger); pumpkin pie

spice, a similar blend widely sold in the United

States; or chai spice mix in their place.The substi-

tution will not yield the same taste, but the result

will still be very good.

Sugar: A handful of sugars are used in this book.

When I call for “sugar,” I mean plain granulated

sugar. Superfine (UK caster) sugar, confectioners’

(UK icing) sugar, light and dark brown sugar, and

Demerara, a pale amber, large-grain, minimally

refined sugar, are also used.

Vanilla: Both the seeds of a vanilla bean (UK pod)

and pure vanilla extract (UK essence) are called

for in this book, the latter as an alternative to the

more traditional mace and bay in the Custard

Sauce on page 155.

FLOURS AND LEAVENERS

Baking powder: This common leavener is activated

when exposed to moisture or heat. In contrast to

baking soda (UK bicarbonate of soda), which is

made of only sodium bicarbonate, baking pow-

der contains sodium bicarbonate, two acids, and

usually cornstarch (UK corn flour) to keep the