PACKED IN 500G GLASS JARS; DARK BROWN AND SLIGHTLY GRAINY. SHARPLY APPLE TASTE WITH STRONG LIQUORICE AND CINNAMON NOTES. COMPOSITION: APPLES, CIDER, LEMONS, SPICES.
HISTORY:
Black butter is made on the island of Jersey. Originally a by-product of cider-making, it is a type of apple paste eaten as a spread on bread. The use of the word butter, like ‘cheese’, is common for these very thick fruit pastes. Butter describes a mixture that is potted, while cheese is the preferred term for a paste poured into an oiled mould to set, then wrapped in paper or foil for storage. Cheese is sliced with a knife and eaten as an accompaniment to dairy cheese or as a sweetmeat on its own. Butter is spreadable.
At first, these were often known as marmalades, the word deriving from the paste made from quince, which is marmelo in Portuguese. In Europe it is most often commercialized as pâte de coings in France or membrillo in Spain.
English recipes for fruit pastes are to be found from the 1400s. Some included spices as well as fruit pulp and honey or sugar. Many fruits have been used as a base: black currants, red currants, elderberries, gooseberries, damsons, quinces and oranges. It was a useful way to cope with seasonal gluts. However, in the nineteenth century, new methods of preserving made them seem old-fashioned and they went out of favour. In the confectionery industry, they survive as fruit pastilles and jellies.
Apples were the most familiar fruit and were reduced to butters more often than to cheeses. The American cookery writer Delia Lutes has an evocative description of her family’s way with apple butters at the turn of the century. In England, and still today in Jersey, they were called ‘black’ butters. The novelist Jane Austen wrote in a letter that some black butter served to her was neither properly set nor sweet enough, remarking that it was probably insufficiently boiled.
There has survived on Jersey a tradition, which must stretch back many generations, of making a black butter heavily flavoured with spices. It has remained a communal task and important social event: much labour is needed, both for preparation and for stirring. This has been maintained by a few people, mostly using the exercise as a means of charitable fund-raising. However, production of black butter has declined since the Second World War (Brown, 1986). Interest in the product has lessened. Fewer cider apple trees are now planted and many old ones were uprooted in the storm of October 1987, which affected apple production in general.
TECHNIQUE:
On Jersey, favoured apple varieties include France and Romeril (sweet) and Bramley’s (sour). All formulae that survive are for making large batches. One recipe requires 27 barrels of prepared apples, 70 litres of juice, 24 whole lemons, 13kg sugar, 500g cinnamon, 1.5kg mixed spices, 500g nutmeg, plus lemon juice and liquorice. For cooking, a very large, heavy brass cauldron called a bâchin, well over a metre in diameter and 30-40cm deep, is needed.
Apples (about 12 parts sweet to 1 part sour) are peeled, cored and cut into small pieces; some are pressed to yield fresh juice. A wood fire is prepared, the bâchin put in place and the apple juice first reduced to half by boiling. Three barrels of prepared apples are added and the whole cooked gently. From now on, the mixture must be continuously stirred. Periodically, more fresh apples are added until just over half have been incorporated. Several liquorice sticks (the black dried-juice type) are pounded and added. After the addition of more fresh apple, whole lemons reduced to a pulp are stirred in. Once all the cider apples have been incorporated and cooked down, the Bramley’s are added. Cooking continues until the mixture is thought ready for testing; this is done by taking some up on a wooden spoon and slapping it onto a saucer. If the saucer doesn’t fall when the spoon is lifted, the butter is deemed ready.Spices, sugar and lemon juice are stirred through. The mixture is potted and sealed. Cooking can take 24-30 hours and the mixture becomes progressively heavy and stiff. Constant, thorough stirring is essential.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
CHANNEL ISLANDS, JERSEY.
‘Hunger is the best sauce in the world.’
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, DON QUIXOTE (1615)
Blueberry (High Bush)
DESCRIPTION:
BLUEBERRIES ARE SMALL ROUND BERRIES JUST UNDER 1CM DIAMETER; THEY HAVE A THIN BLACK SKIN COVERED IN A POWDERY BLUE BLOOM, GREENISH OR PURPLISH FLESH, AND A DISTINCTIVE SLIGHTLY WINY FLAVOUR.
HISTORY:
High bush blueberries, Vaccinium corymbosum, are related to the native British bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and flourish in similar conditions. A precedent for the use of blueberries was well established in hill and heathland areas of the British Isles, where the inhabitants were accustomed to using wild blaeberries or bilberries in various sweet dishes. In Scotland, in the hills of Angus and Perthshire, blaeberries were picked by itinerant travellers who used a wooden device which they combed through the small bushes to extract the berries. These they sold in towns and villages to be eaten with cream, used for jam, or made into pies. Since the wild berries are time-consuming to gather, fruit-farmers have been experimenting with the alternative high bush blueberry.
This was developed in New Jersey, USA in 1920, putting to good use acid, boggy soils which had previously been thought worthless for growing. They have been grown in Britain since the 1930s. The first edition of Law’s Grocer’s Manual (c. 1895) mentions ‘swamp blueberries’, which grew on bushes up to 6 feet (2 metres) high, so it is possible that the British growers were aware of this type of plant some decades earlier but no evidence for their cultivation has been found. According to grower Jeremy Trehane, the bushes with which his family began production were offered free to British growers by a Canadian university in the 1940s. Cultivation has spread to other places in the lowland heath areas of the southern counties of England. In Scotland the berries were originally developed at the Scottish Crop Research Institute at Invergowrie as an alternative to blaeberries.
TECHNIQUE:
High bush blueberries grow well in impoverished acid soils (ideally pH 4.3-4.8, although they can tolerate slightly higher pH if dressed with peat) of the type which underlie many of the heathlands of Britain. The ground is cleared and the bushes planted at an appropriate density. Their only major nutrient requirement is potash, but to do well they do need heath-land environments, as good growth relies on the presence of a particular micro-organism in the soil, which is not found in land that has been cultivated. They are pruned lightly in winter to remove old wood which has not fruited in the previous season. Protection from birds is necessary.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH ENGLAND.
Borage
DESCRIPTION:
BORAGE (BORAGO OFFICINALIS) IS A TALL ANNUAL HERB WITH COBALT-BLUE FLOWERS AND STEMS AND LEAVES WHICH ARE COVERED IN COARSE HAIRS; THE LEAVES AND FLOWERS HAVE A FLAVOUR REMINISCENT OF CUCUMBER, AND A NATURALLY COOLING EFFECT WHEN EATEN.
HISTORY:
Borage was probably introduced to Britain by the Romans, and has subsequently spread and naturalized on the chalk hills of southern England. There have been literary references to it since the thirteenth century. It was valued as a medicinal herb, and was made into cordials. Apothecaries considered it promoted cheerfulness and herbalists still use it to ease colds and throat complaints. The herb has also been used to decorate and flavour drinks. Dorothy Hartley (1954) quotes a recipe for claret cup from a Victorian magazine. This gives instructions for each glass to be flavoured with a sprig of borage, commenting