Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

How to make butter at home

September 22, 2009
How to make butter at home

Making butter is simple. It’s really just very agitated cream. The craft of making butter seems to have been lost.  In past centuries, most butter was made by hand using methods similar to this.  These are forgotten skills now, so much so that actually doing it yourself by hand and seeing a pat of butter [...]

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Dealing with gluts – chutney

September 8, 2009
Dealing with gluts - chutney

It happens to all courgette growers. Turn your back for a day or so and the small, delicate fruits transform into gigantic marrows.  They take over your plot, they take over your fridge.  You kid yourself that courgette soup is nice, then you realise it isn’t.  You throw them on the compost heap. Happens every [...]

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How to roast a chicken

July 29, 2009
How to roast a chicken

There are many ways to roast a chicken.  Everybody has a tweak, an opinion, a little trick or two. This is how I do it. I prefer a roast chicken to be simple.  I’ve tried all sorts of ways, including a heart-stopping version involving nearly a pound of butter, garlic, thyme and a lot of [...]

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Indian lamb kebabs

July 14, 2009
Indian lamb kebabs

These skewers of lamb are perfect for the barbecue and make a good alternative to the normal barbecue standards of burnt sausages and undercooked chicken. They’re easy to make, and cook in just a few minutes.  It’s better if the lamb is cooked slightly pink. The flavourings here are most definitely Indian, a heady mix [...]

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Rhubarb relish, ready for winter (already)

July 9, 2009
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Around this time of year, rhubarb tends to get tired and worn out. The stalks, those that haven’t been plundered already, are green and thick, with big umbrella-like leaves.  Everything starts to look a bit Jurassic, overgrown and gnarled. The slender pink and red elegance of the early stalks has long faded, and the taste [...]

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Quintessential Americana – the burger

June 29, 2009
HamBurger

Every year I look forward to the Glastonbury Festival.This year we marvelled at the shortness of Lady Gaga’s dress (really, how did she not expose herself), wondered why people listen to Kasabian and decided to do something tenuously food related in honour of Bruce Springsteen*. Something quintessentially American. Something straightforward and honest, no nonsense, down [...]

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How to make a pork pie

June 11, 2009
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I feel like I’ve mastered a mysterious, secret art. I made a pork pie, and it was easy. More than that, it tasted astounding. Here’s how. Start with the pastry. The pastry is unusual as it’s made with hot water. It seems to go against everything you know about making pastry, but it does work. [...]

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Home-made bacon

November 23, 2008
How to cure bacon at home

Bacon is very easy to make. In its simplest form, it’s just the application of salt to pork, with some waiting around involved. My bacon isn’t much more complicated than this, and is based on the method from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s encyclopedic River Cottage Cookbook . Find a piece of pork belly, as big as you [...]

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