A Taste of the Past (literally!)

This week, I’ve downed my trowel and headed for the kitchen, to have a go at Georgian cookery

Betley Court Dove-house. photo RHBrown

One of the first things you’ll notice as you approach Betley Court Gardens from Main Road is the Dove-house. Its quite a distinctive octagonal brick building with a decorative alternating red and blue brick pattern (Flemish bonding), and a slightly wonky roof with a lantern topped by a weather vane. It’s believed that less than 2,000 dove-houses survive today. Ours is not only in a good state of repair, but it serves as a rather unusual bedroom for one of the apartments.

Professor Brown undertook some research years ago, for his book ‘This Old House’, and although he could not find a date for its construction, it does seem that it was built at the end of the 17^th century, before the main house, as a living larder. He wrote,

“In the middle ages owning a dove-house was a prerogative confined to the Lord of the Manor….later, country gentlemen were able to erect their own. In the Winter months fresh meat was hard to get; there were no Winter feedstuffs until Viscount ‘Turnip’ Townsend pioneered them in the 1730s. cattle were killed in November and their meat salted for use in the Winter months. But pigeons bred well, and their young, or ‘squabs’, could provide fresh meat for the Lord of the Manor and his guests.”

Professor Brown estimates that the Betley Court Dove-house could accommodate around 450 pigeons, providing much meat for the table.

Delightfully, his research uncovered a pigeon recipe handwritten on the pages of the housekeeper’s book, dated 1767.

“To Raggoo Pidgeons

First make a pint of strong brown Gravy from lean beaf. Cut your Pigdeons down the Back and Lard the Breast with Bacon then brown and put the Gravy into a Haft pan with a little anchovies, a little juice of lemon, some Nutmeg, a little salt, whole mace, 3 shalots. Put in your Pidgeons & let them all stew together about a Quarter of an Hour then put in a little Mushroom Liquor Catchup; thicken with Butter & Yolks of Egg. Garnish it with Lemon & Barberries.”

I like a challenge, a culinary one even more so, and I used the excuse of my nephew visiting from Australia, to cook up the housekeeper’s recipe for the family, including the Professor.

First things first, ingredients. Now, Betley Court’s Dove-house no longer homes pigeons, so it was off to a game-specialist butchers in Sandbach for those. Thankfully, they came ready prepared, plucked and gutted. What struck me was how small they looked without their plumage, and how eye-wateringly expensive they were (£3.40 for a bird that comfortably fits in my hand – think budgerigar). I think I missed a trick with the pigeons. My work studio space in town is in an old pottery factory in Stoke, and the warehouses yet to be converted host a large feral pigeon population. Could’ve saved a few bob there!

I cheated with the gravy prep and bought readymade beef stock in a pouch from a supermarket. I even found ‘mushroom ketchup’ along the isle from the stock. The spices were a bit of a challenge though. I know barberries from gardening; the prickly barberry shrub, that is beloved by local authority landscaping teams for its thorny characteristics as a barrier. However, I had never come across the fruits being used in cooking before. After a few clicks around the internet, I found that barberries are still used in cookery, mainly Persian cuisine, where they are known as zereshk. That was my key to finding barberries in the shops. My search lead me to the wonderful Pak’s supermarket in Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, one of my favourite places to shop, stocking ingredients from all over the world. Low and behold, there between the maize snacks and dates, a bag of dried barberries. Nutmeg was easy enough to find, but I had not heard of mace before. This is the fibrous membrane that grows around the nutmeg kernel and is dried and used separately as a spice in its own right. Again, Pak’s came up trumps.

It struck me as interesting that a country housekeeper in 1767 could acquire these ingredients, and yet I’d gone to a degree of mither to find them. Incidentally, barberries were once very popular in cooking, bringing a citrus tang to dishes (just as today we might add lemon rind to a recipe). However, once it was discovered that the barberry harboured the plant disease stem rust, which affects wheat crops, there was a period when barberry bushes were systematically stripped from the English countryside, to protect yields.

Roggoo of Pidgeon, a al Betley Court. Photo RHBrown

I cooked the ingredient as directed by the housekeeper, then, as the meat was rather tough, popped the ‘raggoo’ into a medium oven for 1.5 hours. The meat fell off the bones, and the gravy had thickened to a nice sauce, so I would use that method next time. I added a few button mushrooms too. Then all there was to do was to add a flourish with the lemon garnish and barberries, steam some vegetables and mash potatoes and serve.

The verdict? The family rather enjoyed ‘pidgeon raggoo à la Betley Court’. The meat is surprisingly dark in colour, and quite gamey and rich cooked in a beef gravy. The anchovies, mace, nutmeg and shallots combination is definitely a flavour combination from another era. And the barberries provided tangy bursts, a delicious counterpoint to the rich gravy. I will use them again! Simple vegetables were all that was required as an accompaniment.

I kept the theme going and cooked Shrewsbury Cakes for dessert from a recipe in a cookery book by a contemporary of our nameless housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald. She had been a housekeeper at Arley Hall, in Cheshire. Following her marriage, she had to leave Arley Hall, but her experience and entrepreneurial nature resulted in her publishing a bestselling cookery book in 1769. She is the first person to publish a recipe for wedding cake as we know it today. And in this book (you can buy facsimiles from online bookshops) there is a recipe for ‘pidgeon fricando’ which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Betley Court recipe. 

As with the ‘raggoo’, the flavourings in the Shrewsbury Cakes; caraway seeds and sherry gave the biscuits a distinct taste of another era.  I did serve it with 20^th century ice cream though, from a box straight from the freezer  – it’s the Professor’s favourite!

Shrewsbury Cakes. Photo RHBrown

We reflected on the people of Betley Court from the past as we ate. That the same smells filled the dining room over 250 years ago can be conjured up again through the simple everyday process of cooking, is marvellous. Creating dishes from the past is a great way to time travel, just as eating foreign food can be trans portative. I really hope we uncover some more recipes as I would dearly like to travel to the past again.

All best wishes

Ladybird Su