Nettle pudding has been declared Britain’s oldest recipe, dating from 6,000BC
When you think of old-fashioned English cooking, it probably conjures up images of roast beef or steak and kidney pie. But nettle pudding makes those dishes look like young pretenders.
The creation from 6,000BC was yesterday declared Britain’s oldest recipe. It was a staple of Stone Age man, who made it by mixing nettles and other leaves such as dandelion and sorrel, with barley flour, salt and water.
Almost as old are smoky stew, which was made of bacon and smoked fish, and meat pudding, a forerunner of haggis and sausages.
Roast hedgehog was also a firm favourite some 8,000 years ago, the UKTV series The People’s Cookbook will reveal.
Served with a wild duck or cinnamon sauce, hedgehog was the provenance of the rich, with its thorny nature meaning it would have been avoided by all but the most adventurous cooks.
Barley bread was popular from around 5,000BC, while pottage, or meat and vegetable stew, became part of the Ancient Briton’s diet 3,000 years later.
Prior to the arrival of the Romans, popular English dishes included smoky fish stew and roasted hedgehog
With the arrival of the Romans came the concept of using eggs to blend and set foods, rather than just eating them whole.
Cracking the egg brought custards, pies and pastries, including the original mince pie.
Unlike the sweet versions favoured by 21st century Britons, the first mince contained meat. Fruit was also included, while alcohol and spices were used to preserve the mixture.
Passed on by word of mouth at first, recipes were written down from Roman times, with many going on to form part of today’s staple diet.
Paul Moreton, of UKTV Food said: “Although British eating habits have obviously changed over the years, this shows that home-cooked dishes like pancakes and pottage have been passed down from generation
to generation.”
But, while pies, stews and dumplings may still be popular diet today, other ancient foods have fallen off most menus.
These include garum and liquamen. Made by the Romans from the 1st century AD, these pungent pastes and sauces, made from fish guts and heads, were used to flavour dishes.
Dr Ruth Fairchild, who spoke to food experts and archaeologists to compile the list of Britain’s oldest recipes, said there is much to be learned from our forefathers’ attitude to food.
How do you want your hedgehog? Roast hedgehog was a very popular dish 8,000 years ago
The University of Wales Institute home economist, said: “You have to think how much more is wasted now than then.
“Food waste today is huge. A third of the food in our fridges is thrown away every week without being eaten.
“But they wouldn’t have wasted anything, even hooves would have been used for something.
“They had to eat what was grown within a few miles, because it would have taken so long to collect everything, and even collecting water would have been a bit of a trial.
“Yet today, so many people don’t want to cook because they think of it as a chore.”
Nettle pudding
Ingredients
1 bunch of sorrel
1 bunch of watercress
1 bunch of dandelion leaves
2 bunches of young nettle leaves
Some chives
1 cup of barley flour
1 teaspoon salt
Method
Chop the herbs finely and mix in the barley flour and salt. Add enough water to bind it together and place in the centre of a linen or muslin cloth. Tie the cloth securely and add to a pot of simmering venison or wild boar (a pork joint will do just as well).
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