Cambridgeshire

by Helen Gaffney

Cambridgeshire, since 1974, consists of what was Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and the Isle of Ely. The best known city in the region is the world-famous university city of Cambridge. There is no record of a definitive foundation of the University although it is known to be one of the oldest in the world. It probably grew naturally out of schools, as was usual for early universities. It is, however, the originator of a number of recipes.

One of the best-known of these recipes was the Cambridge or College Pudding, thought to be the fore-runner to the Christmas pudding. It is one of a large family of British suet puddings, enclosed in a floured cloth and cooked by steaming. The use of the pudding cloth was first identified in a recipe for College pudding in 1617.

A group of rich custard recipes also appears to belong to the Cambridge area. Burnt Cream, a beautifully rich custard, is served under a layer of caramelised sugar. And Frances White, writing in 1932, gives a recipe for tartlets of pastry made with ground almonds filled with cream custard. He remarks that they were favourites with Cambridge undergraduates in the 1890s, when they were known as cream darioles. 'Dariole' originally meant a small pastry case with various fine fillings, but it has come to refer to the small tin moulds, deep with steeply flared sides, similar in shape to the foil dishes used by commercial bakers to hold custard tarts even now.

Cambridge is as well served for sausages today as in the past. Many local butchers still make sausages to their own recipes. For a traditional pork sausage, the standard is set by Waller's with their Royale (sic) Cambridge sausage (which always has a skin unlike its cousin the Oxford sausage). Close competition comes from Newmarket sausages made by Powters of The Pork Shop in Wellington St, Newmarket). The Pork Shop, which has its own pig farms, makes upwards of eight tonnes of sausages each week!

Cambridgeshire is home to the Fens, previously a landscape of water and marshes that has been drained over the centuries to create some of the most fertile soil in Britain. This is the famous rich, dark peat used to grow numerous cereals, flowers, fruit and vegetables. This region is the 'food basket of Britain' and supplies many of our shops with fresh produce.

Wisbech, in the Fens, grows many soft fruits, such as strawberries and blackberries, and has acre after acre of apple orchards, notably growing Bramley apples. Strawberries are an important crop from the Fens. One of the most popular, all-purpose types is the Cambridge Favourite variety.

An unusual fruit from the county is the Cambridge Gage, which makes a delicious tart. It is a small to medium round plum, with a flesh that clings to the stone. It is green in colour, ripening to amber and has a juicy tender flesh with a well-balanced sharp-sweet flavour. Its origin is unknown but it is likely to be a seedling of a greengage but showing greater vigour and better cropping. It was presented at the National Fruit Trials in 1927 in Cambridge and was thought to be "the greatest of all the English gages" by the gourmet André Simon in 1960.

Wisbech is also home of the 200 year old Elgood's Brewery, a family-run business using traditional brewing methods, such as original open copper vessels. The North Brink Brewery is an important landmark in this fenland market town in the north-east of the county. It is a classic Georgian brewery situated on the bank of the river Nene. Its best-known brew is the cask-conditioned Elgood's Bitter. Elgood's brewery also produces two beers with a Black Dog theme: Black Dog Mild, which can be sampled in the visitor's bar at the brewery and Old Black Shuck, which is a stout that is produced seasonally and available during November and December.

To the south of the county, carrots and celery thrive around Ely, a cathedral city that once stood on an island surrounded by water. More than half of the British outdoor crop of celery comes from Ely. A famous recipe from the region is Celery Baked in Cream.

Ely is also noted for its abundance of eels, still a local delicacy. Once the lifeblood of the Fens, eel catchers landed up to thirty thousand eels a year around Wisbech in the industry's heyday. The area today also has a high reputation for the quality of fishing, being particularly noted for its bream, roach and pike.

Geese were much farmed in eastern England. Mrs Beeton wrote in 1861: "The best geese are found on the borders of Suffolk, and in Norfolk and Berkshire; but the largest flocks are reared in the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire - large herds of them are sent every year to London". In this arable region, the geese were fattened on stubble after the wheat harvest. Before the railways, they were shod by walking them over hot tar, then driven on foot to the city. Michaelmas (29th September) was a date on which geese was eaten; it was one of the quarter-days of the English business year, when cottagers paid their rents and presented a goose to their landlords.

Huntingdon's most famous dish is the Fidget Pie, which is a lovely old-fashioned recipe. These pies were made in many parts of the English Midlands and are sometimes known as fitchett pies. Either way it's uncertain as to how it got its strange name. The pie was reputed to smell foully during baking (perhaps it was thought to smell like a polecat; 'fitchett' being a dialect name for these animals). Lizzie Boyd in 1988 has also suggested that the name comes from the term 'fitched', meaning five-sided, referring to the original shape of the pie. Alternatively, as the pie's sauce is rather runny in consistency, the pie does indeed seem to 'fidget' on the plate! Bacon, onions and apples are the traditional filling and the pie was originally made round harvest time to feed the hungry workers.

To the west of the Fens is the village of Stilton, named after the famous English cheese - a creamy and open-textured favourite with a green/blue mould radiating from its centre and a characteristic orange-brown coat. Traditionally Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire is considered the centre of this famous industry, as it was near this market town that the first cheeses were produced, some three hundred years ago. These first cheeses were sent by the maker to his brother-in-law, the landlord of the Bell Inn in Stilton, where they were served up to visitors and travellers - hence the village became renowned for its cheese and, although it was never made in Stilton, has given its name to one of the greatest cheeses in the world.

In the south of the county is the Chilford Hall Vineyard, near Linton, the largest vineyard in the East Anglia region. The Hall has been the home of the Alper Family since the 1960s and is still very much a family-run enterprise. The first vines were planted in 1972 on a gently-sloping hillside and today Chilford is one of the region's most respected wine producers, with a fine array of dry and medium-dry white and pink wines, and even a quality sparkling pink.

The county has a rich food heritage thanks to both the city of Cambridge and from the towns and countryside around. The diversity represents the differences within the county - the hearty fare from the fens contrasting with the sweet delicacies of Cambridge. Here there is something for everyone.