British apple market is distinctive in having several varieties that are grown specifically for cooking. These disintegrate into a purée more readily than eating apples (having more malic acid). Other countries tend to grow varieties (and develop sympathetic recipes) that are used for both cooking and eating.
The Grenadier is the first cooking apple to reach the market at the start of the English apple season in late summer. Its origin is unknown; it was exhibited in the 1860s by one Charles Turner, a nurseryman in Slough (Buckinghamshire), and was commercialized in the 1880s. It cooks to a purée. Another early-season cooking apple, of the type known as codlin (a sour apple which cooks to a froth), which came to prominence just before the First World War was the Emneth Early, raised at Emneth in Cambridgeshire. It was important for many years, but is now rarely seen for sale.
Grenadier is good for dishes in which a frothy purée is needed. A drink made with codlin apples is ‘lambswool’, in which the cooked pulp is floated on top of hot spiced ale.
TECHNIQUE:
See Bramley’s Seedling (p. 111) for details about root-stocks. Optimum pollination time for Grenadier is early to mid-May; the tree is of medium vigour and is a heavy cropper. Picking is by hand in mid-August. Grading is by diameter (sizes are set according to variety) and by quality (EU standards, for appearance) into Grade 1 or Grade 2. Grenadier can be stored for only about 2 months.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH EAST ENGLAND, KENT.
Kentish Cobnut
DESCRIPTION:
FRESH HAZELNUTS. AT THE START OF THE SEASON, COBNUTS HAVE GREEN HUSKS AND SHELLS, AND PALE MILKY KERNELS; AS IT PROGRESSES, THE SHELLS TURN BROWN AND THE FLAVOUR OF THE KERNELS BECOMES MORE INTENSE. THE KENTISH COB PRODUCES A MEDIUM-LARGE NUT, THIN-SHELLED AND ELONGATED WITH A LONG HUSK, GROWING IN CLUSTERS OF 2-5 FRUITS. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CULTIVARS ARE SHAPE AND SIZE. FLAVOUR: MILKY, SLIGHTLY SWEET, CRUNCHY TEXTURE.
HISTORY:
The hazelnut, Corylus avallana, is indigenous to all of Britain and there is evidence of its use for food from archaeological sites from the Neolithic onwards. Hazelnuts have been cultivated since at least the sixteenth century but these seem mainly to have been another species, native to south-eastern Europe, Corylus maxima, which is distinguished by the length of its husk. The name filbert seems always to have referred to nuts with long husks which covered the nut itself. Cobnut was used to describe ‘our hedge Nut or Hasell Nut Tree’, while filberts were ‘that which groweth in gardens and orchards’ (Gerard, 1597).
Kent was already famous for its Filberts when John Evelyn wrote his great treatise on forestry, Sylva, in 1664. They continued to be grown as part of a mixed husbandry with hops, apples and cherries (Roach, 1985). There were 3 or 4 important varieties: the one known as the ‘Kentish’ Filbert was the white-skinned.
This was ultimately displaced, either from 1812 or from 1830 (depending which Lambert was in fact responsible for its introduction), by an improved breed called Lambert’s Filbert. It was inconvenient that history never guaranteed the identity of its progenitor. Lovers of simplicity will also decry the renaming of Lambert’s Filbert as the Kentish Cobnut, but that is what happened around the turn of the century.
Mrs Beeton (1861) wrote, ‘It is supposed that, within a few miles of Maidstone, in Kent, there are more Filberts grown than in all England besides; and it is from that place that the London market is supplied.’ By the early 1900s, over 7,000 acres (approximately 1,750 hectares), mostly in Kent, was given over to hazelnuts, and substantial quantities were exported to the USA. There had been much experiment with different varieties, although the Kentish Cob reigned supreme. Thereafter, nut production declined greatly, until only a few specialist growers remained. The reasons are largely to do with changes in agricultural and orcharding practice in Kent, as well as the high level of handiwork involved in maintaining the cropping trees. Little research has been undertaken to improve strains. Kent remains the chief centre of production, but there are orchards in Sussex, Devon and Worcestershire.
TECHNIQUE:
Two or three varieties of hazelnut are often grown together to ensure pollination. They require a sheltered, well-drained site. In modern practice, they are grown as bush trees on stems 35-40cm high, and planted in rows 5 metres apart. Older ‘plats’ (the local term for a hazelnut orchard) may be planted more closely. Close planted trees are pruned by hand; mechanical pruning can be carried out in more widely spaced, modern plats. The trees are routinely treated with fungicide, although experiments are being carried out in the organic production of hazelnuts. Picking is by hand. Some plats are marketed as pick-your-own. A hectare of trees produces about 4 tonnes of nuts per annum.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH EAST ENGLAND.
Leveller Gooseberry
DESCRIPTION:
A DESSERT FRUIT THAT IS LARGE, YELLOW AND SWEET.
HISTORY:
The gooseberry is usually a fruit more suitable for cooking, needing considerable sweetening for palatability unless used as a savoury accompaniment to meat or fish. But Leveller is a variety raised by J. Greenhalgh in Ashton-under-Lyne (Lancashire) in 1851 that became an important dessert fruit. Roach (1995) remarks that it was, and still is, grown in the Chailey-Newick district of Sussex, ‘where the cultivation of large-sized Leveller berries for the dessert trade has reached a very high degree of perfection.’ The berries have been grown in this area for the London market since before World War II.
TECHNIQUE:
The area in East Sussex associated with the growing of this variety for the dessert market is sandy and highly suitable, producing a berry which ripens well with a very sweet flavour. The fruit is gathered by hand in late July or early August; it must be picked when it is just ripe and marketed straight away.
Those who grow gooseberries for show prune the bushes severely and strip most of the fruit early in the season, leaving only a few berries to attain the largest possible size.
REGION OF PRODUCTION:
SOUTH EAST ENGLAND, EAST SUSSEX.
COMPARE WITH:
Careless Gooseberry, East Anglia (p. 113)
Medlar
DESCRIPTION:
MEDLARS ARE SMALL FRUIT (3-4cM DIAMETER), WEIGHING ABOUT 15G. THEY LOOK LIKE BROWN-SKINNED APPLES, BUT HAVE A CUP-SHAPED DEPRESSION, KNOWN AS THE EYE, BETWEEN THE CALYX LOBES. COLOUR: GREEN-PURPLE WITH A SLIGHT GLOSS WHEN FRESH; PURPLE-BROWN, DULL AND SOFT WHEN BLETTED. FLAVOUR: SWEET-ACID.
HISTORY:
The medlar, Mespilus germanica, is a native of Transcaucasia and made its long journey into northern Europe after its adoption by Greece and Rome. It may even have been brought to Britain by the Romans - a single seed has been excavated at Silchester - and it was certainly cultivated here during the Middle Ages. The hedge-row specimens that are still found, especially in the South-East, are probably escapees from this early cultivation (Roach, 1985).
When English garden varieties were first described and codified, there were not many sorts of medlar held in high esteem - the most celebrated were the Dutch and the Neapolitan. Thus, by and large, it remained until the end of the eighteenth century when a new variety, or so it seemed, was named: the Nottingham. This appears in fact to be a Neapolitan, but muddled or renamed. The re-baptism stuck, and Nottingham it is to