The Victorian Way

Currently Playing: How to make potted swan - The Victorian Way

Buy your copy of our 'Victorian Way' cookery book: http://bit.ly/2RPyrvQ Visit Audley End House and Gardens for yourself: https://bit.ly/31K6exp English Heritage is a charity that cares for hundreds of historic sites in every corner of England. Find out how you can support our work here: http://bit.ly/38Cv9lA Cold-meat cookery was a very important part of managing a big kitchen. Mrs Crocombe is here to share her way of potting a Victorian favourite Christmas roast: swan. RECIPE The recipe is based on an amalgam of late-Victorian sources. To replicate it, all you need is: - leftover meat from a roast (don't use swan - they're protected by law!); - fatty bacon; - salt, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and mace; - port; - salted butter and clarified butter. METHOD Pound the meat in a pestle and mortar, adding bacon to taste. Season and spice as you go. Press your paste into a jar, and top it with salted butter. Bake for 2-3 hours. Drain off the butter while still hot, and then top with clarified butter and allow to cool. For modern purposes, keep in a fridge and eat within a week. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS OMG! Did you really use a swan?! No. Swans are protected by law. We used a goose, dressed up with some swan feathers to make it feel important. No swans were harmed in the making of this video. But did the Victorians eat swan? I thought they all belonged to the monarch. Yes they did. There’s a pervasive myth that all swans belong to the Crown: that’s not quite true. All unmarked mute swans come under royal prerogative, which is to say that the Crown gets first refusal on them. In the past, when they weren’t protected by other laws, poaching one was the equivalent of stealing from the monarch, so you could be prosecuted. However, many wealthy institutions or individuals had their own flocks of swans, which they farmed and, yes, ate. If you didn’t have your own, you could simply buy one. This continued until well into the 20th century. What’s this recipe in rhyme? If you ordered your swan from the Great Hospital in Norwich, it came with a recipe in rhyming couplets. It’s been widely reproduced. We are pretty certain Mrs Crocombe must have cooked swan on at least one occasion, for she wrote the recipe into her own manuscript recipe book (if you have a copy of the Victorian Way cookbook, it’s in the back). The bladder. Please, tell me what on earth is happening here. Pig’s bladders are like nature’s clingfilm (or were, to the Victorians). Stretched over a pot like this, they dry out and form an air-tight seal. It is, admittedly, a bit smelly and rather slimy to do. We don’t recommend trying it at home – but it was a common technique in the past. No part of an animal was ever wasted. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL: https://goo.gl/c5lVBJ FIND A PLACE TO VISIT: https://goo.gl/86w2F6 FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK: https://bit.ly/3LPAF96 LIKE US ON FACEBOOK: https://bit.ly/3MevLDN FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: https://bit.ly/3pvFv3y FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: https://bit.ly/3Balkei