Huddersfield Incredible Edibles

I've had years of practice doing barmy food experiments,

but you should not try anything you see on Incredible Edibles,

especially if it involves knives, matches, raw meat, ovens,

unicorns or windmills.

If you don't like blood, guts, gore and entrails,

then close your eyes and think about fluffy pink kittens instead.

Tasty.

I'm Stefan Gates, and I'm a food adventurer.

I've been searching for the most delicious,

the most adventurous and the most unusual foods on earth,

and now, I'm going to serve them to you,

because this is Incredible Edibles.

Guys, you ready for an adventure?

Yeah!

Today, I'm in Huddersfield in Yorkshire,

home to Yorkshire Puddings, Wensleydale Cheese,

some wonderful ham and we're going to be cooking

some of the best grub on the planet.

Anyone hungry?

Yeah.

I hope they left their table manners at the door,

cos this is going to get messy.

Coming up, my volunteers get a look at the gory ingredients

in a traditional black pudding.

Inside that blood, is forming a blood clot.

I take to the high seas to find some alternative fish to cod.

That is a beautiful sea bass.

And three lucky taste testers go hopping mad,

when they find out what they ate in my mystery meal.

Boing, boing!

But first, we discover just how far familiar ingredients travel,

before arriving on our plates.

Here on Incredible Edibles, I like to start every show

by doing something that really pushes the boundaries

of what's possible with food.

Something so cool, it'll make you shout...

That's incredible!

Now, who likes strawberries?

-Me!

-Everyone likes strawberries.

They're a classic British fruit

but there's only a short period when you can grow them.

You can only eat British strawberries in the summer.

If you want them on Christmas Day, where would you get them?

-Supermarket.

-Where would the supermarket get them?

-Different countries.

-Yeah, where do they come from?

-Africa.

-Africa, quite possibly.

-The Caribbean.

-America.

-Europe.

-New Zealand.

-Jamaica.

Brilliant answers. You'd have to fly them a long, long way,

probably from South Africa where it's warm when it's cold here.

In the past, people could only eat food that was in season.

Now, Niamh over here is holding another classic seasonal food.

-What have you got there, Niamh?

-A leg of lamb.

A big old leg of lamb.

Any idea what time of year used to be when people ate lamb?

-Autumn.

-Autumn?

-Summer.

-In summer.

-In spring.

-In spring.

-Christmas.

-Christmas.

-Winter.

Lots of different answers.

Lamb are born in the spring

and they're ready to eat in the summer, so that's when we eat them.

If you want lamb in winter, if often has to go

on an incredible journey from somewhere like New Zealand.

When it's winter here, what season is it in New Zealand?

Summer.

Exactly.

Now, to give you an idea of just how far lamb travels,

I have a handy demonstration.

I want you to imagine that we're standing in New Zealand.

There we are!

Over there is a shopping trolley waiting back in the UK,

which would be 11,000 miles away.

On this scale, a centimetre is equivalent to ten miles.

So, if you want lamb in winter,

this little - baa! - lamb needs to travel 11,000 miles.

We're going to be using this handy little slingshot here,

Callum and BJ, you grab that for us.

Using that, we're going to try and make our little lamb

fly all the way from here in New Zealand, over there to the UK.

Now this slingshot has been specifically designed for the task,

so, please, don't try making one of these at home

and, in particular, don't try it with real sheep!

Grab hold of the slingshot, let's put the lamb there.

OK, I'm going to pull back.

Pull, pull nice and tight.

OK, 3, 2, 1 ...

It flew, it went like this, it went, "ah, no, I'm going home."

You're going to the UK. All right, let's try once more.

OK, are you ready? 3, 2, 1...

So close. But that is just lamb.

Now, often the ingredients from one meal come from all over the world,

so to show you just how far one of our favourite meals travels

before it ends up on your plate, I'm going to be using one of these.

But just how far does Spaghetti Bolognese travel?

Find out later on.

It looks like scrambled egg, doesn't it? But it's snot.

No, it's not snot, it's something called ackee.

It's a really, really popular Jamaican fruit

and it's a really important ingredient

in something called ackee and salt fish.

You have to be careful,

because if you eat this stuff before it ripens

it causes something that sounds a bit like this ...

Technically, it's known as Jamaican vomiting sickness.

The taste is notoriously hard to describe, but here goes.

Here goes.

Mmm.

That's like a little bit eggy, a little bit sour,

a little bit potato-like,

but it's like no fruit I've ever tasted in my life.

Now, you don't have to travel to the other side of the world

to find some incredible foods.

Some of them are right here on your doorstep.

To discover a great British delicacy,

I have the help of three fantastic volunteers.

Give it up for Ashleigh, Shaun and Dylan.

Who are currently looking a little bit nervous.

OK, guys, do you know what this is?

-No.

-No.

-It's disgusting.

-Sausage?

-Sausage, yeah, it's a sort of sausage.

This is black pudding.

It's traditionally eaten in a great British breakfast,

although you can eat it on its own sprinkled with some vinegar.

-Have you ever had it before?

-Yeah.

-You have? Excellent.

-Don't like it.

-You don't like it! Even better! OK.

-What about you, Shaun, have you had it before?

-No.

The rumours that go round say it's pig fat

and I don't like the texture and the feeling in my mouth.

Do you ever eat sausages? A lot of pig fat in sausages.

Well, it does look like a sausage but it's quite unusual

because it's made without any meat at all.

Shall we find out what it's made of?

-Yeah.

-OK.

What we've got is barley, rusk which is a bit like breadcrumbs,

onions, spices, herbs, porridge oats and a bit of wheat.

That's pretty basic stuff,

but it starts getting a bit more dangerous.

-It's lard.

-Lard. Well done.

Top banana, that's exactly what it is.

Everyone, grab a little bit and tell me what it feels like.

It's like a cheese.

Give it a good squish in your fingers.

-Sticky.

-Sticky, greasy. Do you like the look of that?

-No.

-No? OK, well this is lard.

It's pork fat that's been reduced down.

What I'm going to do is show you the insides of a black pudding.

-Can you see the fat in there?

-Yeah.

It looks like chocolate and feels like melted chocolate.

Easy to tear apart and it smells a bit dodgy.

A good description!

The thing is, you put the fat in because it gives you flavour.

You shouldn't eat too much fat in your diet,

but that is where the flavour is.

If you've a piece of beef and it's got fat round the edge,

that's where all the flavour is.

Obviously, the fat isn't the main ingredient here.

Dylan, please reveal the main ingredient of black pudding.

-It looks like gelatine.

-Gravy.

-Looks like gravy? It does.

-Is it pig's blood?

-Brilliant.

That is pig's blood.

What you've got there, is you've got a big lump of it

and what's happening, is inside that blood,

it's beginning to firm up, it's forming a blood clot.

That's why you've got a big lump there.

A bit like when you cut yourself and it forms a scab on your skin,

that same thing is happening there.

Smells like a farm with the hay that's put outside

and left for a while.

Brilliant description.

It smells like the loos in the swimming pools.

I think we need to mix all these ingredients up.

Pour that into your bowl of blood.

Very good. Now, this is pig's blood.

It used to come from a freshly slaughtered pig,

but these days, most butchers use dried blood

as it's easier to get hold of and less messy.

Blood is a fantastic source of iron and we need blood

because it helps your red blood cells carry oxygen around the body.

Let's get the fat in.

This lot all gets put into a casing

but it's going to get very, very messy now.

So, we need to put on some gloves.

OK, now, we need to pour all of this gloop into some casings.

-What are these made of?

-Fat.

-Is it pig intestine?

You're right, pig intestines.

Those are the insides of a pig.

We need to get that blood through my specially constructed funnel,

into the casing and then we're going to make our own black pudding.

Scoop out a big double handful, oh, that's lovely.

Stuff it down with a couple of fingers, that's it.

Can you see it through there?

There we go. OK, a load more.

Oh yeah, that's a beautiful thing.

I'm going to tie it off at the end.

-What do you reckon, guys?

-Eugh!

-What do you mean, eugh?

It's a beautiful thing, look at that.

Now what happens is,

that gets poached in water until it's nicely cooked

then it's ready to eat. Before we try some,

we need to wash our hands.

OK. You've made your own.

How do you feel about eating it?

-"Um..."

-Not good.

-A bit nervous?

-But will you try it for me?

-Yeah.

Yes! What are we waiting for? Let's tuck in.

They're our beautiful slices, poached and then fried

so grab a big chunk and tell me what you think.

It's quite dry.

Quite chewy. It feels like a biscuit.

There's lots of oats and crunchy bits, so you've got the blood

but also this sort of cereal and pieces around it.

-It's really greasy.

-It's fatty, there's a lot of lard in it.

-Do you like it?

-No.

-No. Why not?

-I don't like the feel of it.

The thought of it makes me like, "eugh".

I quite like it now but the thought of the blood puts me off.

It's a strange idea, isn't it?

-It's OK, but off-putting.

-Ashleigh, would you try it again?

-Probably not.

-Shaun?

-Yeah.

-You would? Excellent. Dylan?

-Yep.

-Brilliant. Do you reckon everyone should try it?

-Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Fantastic. There you go.

You don't have to go to Transylvania to eat blood like vampires,

you can do it locally right here on your doorstep in Huddersfield.

So please give my volunteers a massive round of applause.

Come on, guys. Brilliant.

Incredible Edibles.

I've travelled the land far and wide

in search of mind-blowing food

but now I'm off to Whitstable

cos my next mission is to search the seas.

Fish! From fish cakes to fish and chips and fish fingers,

the British love it. Trouble is, we tend to stick to the same fish.

It's always cod or haddock,

salmon or tuna, and that's beginning to cause problems.

So I've come here to Whitstable to meet a fisherman who'll show me

there's plenty more fish in the sea, and some can be incredible.

This is Matt the fisherman, skipper of the boat.

He's taking me out to the North Sea to help me on my quest

to find some alternative fish that tastes just as great as cod or tuna.

With the boat nearly three miles out to sea,

Matt is ready to roll out the net.

It quickly falls to the bottom.

The boat pulls it along like a giant sock,

swallowing fish in its path.

Is it on the seabed now, lifting things from the bottom of the sea?

It's not scraping along the seabed very hard,

it's probably a few inches off.

Hopefully any fish on the bottom, it just disturbs and they come up.

What do you think we'll catch today?

I couldn't possibly say. Every day's different.

Hopefully we'll get a nice variety for you to look through

and we can go from there.

Our net's been out for a couple of hours now.

Have we caught some delicious fish?

I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

-Stef?

-Yeah.

All we need to do now is separate all the fish.

Look at that. That is a beautiful sea bass.

Wow! That's enormous.

-Herring?

-Herring.

-And what's that?

-Shad.

-Shad?

With my freshly caught fish boxed and iced,

our next job is to get it filleted by Kieran the fishmonger.

First I'll scale it. You don't want to do it too hard

cos you can go into the flesh and damage the meat.

You cut through the belly, from the end of it to the head.

-Yeah.

-Then just scrape the belly.

It's incredibly fresh fish, straight out of the water.

You want to get all the meat so not much is left on the bone.

-There you are, there's a fillet of fish.

-Beautifully done.

'That's the sea bass sorted.

'Now for this unusual-looking cuttlefish I also caught.'

Bit like a squid. We've got the ink sac in there.

-Messy?

-Very messy.

It's the cartilage of the cuttlefish.

Some intestines and all,

everything it's eaten.

'I suppose it's about time I got my hands dirty.'

Big hunk of meat in there. That'd go well on a grill?

It'd be lovely on a barbecue or something, yeah.

'Now for the big question.

'Will sea bass and cuttlefish taste as good as more familiar fish?'

Ah!

That is heavenly.

What an amazing day. I've been on a trawler for the first time.

I've caught some extraordinary fish,

and the great thing is,

they taste absolutely fantastic.

When you taste something this good,

it almost seems strange to eat cod at all.

Incredible Edibles.

Today we're in the Yorkshire town of Huddersfield.

'So far we've made pudding fit for a vampire.'

That is a beautiful thing.

'And I caught my dinner aboard a North Sea trawler.'

'Still to come, our unhinged genius makes plastic out of milk.'

Now that's incredible.

And our volunteers find out

how far their food has to travel before they get to eat it.

Run, run! Yeah!

But first it's time for my Mystery Meal.

Incredible Edibles.

Today I'm going to bring one of my favourites

right here to Huddersfield.

Now, up on stage are Tobo, Casey and BJ.

KIDS CHEER

Now, like me, they are willing to try new and adventurous foods

to see if they can unearth a new treat.

Tobo, how are you feeling?

I'm feeling very nervous because, like, I'm going to try something.

Are you worried about what you may try?

Yeah, cos I don't want to try something that I don't like.

Don't worry, it's an adventure. You'll taste something delicious.

Casey, what's the most unusual food I could serve to you?

Um, testicles, as it belongs to someone else or another animal.

OK. BJ, what's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?

-Squid.

-That's pretty adventurous.

-So, up for an adventure?

-Yeah!

I need you to focus on the food, so please put your blindfolds on.

The reason you've got blindfolds is so you concentrate on the food.

You don't worry what it looks like,

just think about what's going on in your mouth,

the taste and smell and texture.

Casey's not so sure, she's going, "Waah!"

Now that you're in the dark,

I think we can take a look at what they're going to be eating.

So, they are going to be eating...

this.

Eugh.

-It looks nice.

-Yeah, looks fantastic, doesn't it? Any idea what it is?

-Chicken nuggets.

-Chicken nuggets.

-Chicken drumsticks.

-Fish.

-Chinese.

-Some Chinese thing? Yeah, could well be.

Have we got a clue? Scampi...

Fish... Swan? That's a good idea!

OK, well, the big thing is, you don't have to taste it.

They do. OK.

Mystery Meal.

We-e-e-ell,

before you can try it, I'm going to reveal to everyone at home,

today's Mystery Meal is...

this.

There we go.

Mmm.

-Yeah?

-Smells nice.

There you go, and there you go.

So have a little smell of it first.

Ah. Nice.

It smells like chicken.

-Smells like fish.

-Tobo, any guesses as to what it might be?

-It's either chicken or fish.

-Chicken or fish.

Maybe chicken?

It feels rough on the out, and then inside it's nice and smooth.

-Exactly.

-Greasy.

-It's been cooked in fat, so it'll be a bit greasy.

I'll eat this with you. Before you tuck in, I'll explain what it is.

It's been dipped in a bit of batter and deep-fried in olive oil.

Smells delicious.

These are a great source of protein and very low in fat

and they're enjoyed massively in places like France and China.

I'd say they're kind of the gourmet version of chicken.

Hmm-mm.

-Now, are you ready?

-Yes.

-Ready for an adventure?

-Yes!

Excellent! Tuck in.

Mm-mm-mm!

That was quick, Tobo.

Tobo, what do you reckon that's like?

-That was so nice.

-Really nice, wasn't it?

Yeah, really nice.

It's like chicken, but with the texture of fish.

-It's got a wonderful sort of very succulent texture, hasn't it?

-Yes.

-Casey, do you like that?

-Yes.

-Why's that?

It's like batter and then on the inside it's really soft.

It's really nice.

-First you get the nice crunchiness, then the nice...

-Soft...

-Soft...

-All the soft meat inside.

-..Chickeniness.

-Would you eat this again?

-Yes.

-Yeah!

Happy to have that again. Excellent. It's time to remove your blindfolds.

These are what you've been eating. They do look like chicken nuggets.

It's time to reveal exactly what you've been eating.

You've been eating...

CHILDREN: Eugh!

Yeah.

You are the coolest kids on Earth.

You've been eating frogs' legs.

I'll show you what they look like before they've been cooked.

Eugh!

Badoing, badoing.

Boing!

So now that you know what it is,

would you like to have some more?

I'll eat the whole plate. Yes.

Hey! Top man.

-I just don't like the sight of it.

-It tastes nice

but when you find out what it is, it isn't nice.

Would you try it again?

-No way.

-No, you wouldn't?

-Never.

-Never again. Why's that?

Cos I don't like eating other animals, I don't like it.

BJ, you've nearly finished the whole plate there.

Tell us about frogs' legs.

-They're nice, taste like chicken.

-Taste like chicken?

Would you recommend all your friends out here try it?

Yeah.

Yeah!

Would you guys eat frogs' legs?

Yeah!

You guys have been absolutely brilliant.

Let's make some noise for the most adventurous eaters in Huddersfield!

So, there you have it, three more brilliant volunteers

who were up for trying something fantastic and new

in my Mystery Meal.

It might look unusual but it tastes great

so I say hop on the bandwagon and give frogs a go!

SCREAMING

'Don't eat me!'

EVIL LAUGHTER

Cutlery, plastic bags and packaging.

These are the things we use every day

but what have they in common?

Well, they're almost all made from oil.

But these plastics in front of me are actually made from food

and I'm going to show you how.

Wow!

Scientists are always on the lookout

for ways to make new environmentally friendly plastics

that won't stay in the ground for years and years.

One way is to use food

like potatoes or corn

or even sugar to make plastics -

but there's a much older way

and that is to use milk.

Mmm!

Milk we know is made of water, fat and especially protein

and it's the protein we want to make our plastic.

Now, proteins are beautifully folded and coiled molecules

and if we add vinegar to them,

what they do is they clump and stick together and they curdle.

Let's give it a go.

What we need is to warm some milk.

We want to do so very gently so that it doesn't boil.

So after our milk has warmed,

what we have to do is to add

a few spoonfuls of vinegar.

And now we're going to mix it

and you can start to see it's curdling quite nicely.

so what we have is curds and whey, just like in Little Miss Muffet

but what we want is the curds

and we're going to get rid of the whey.

Now to do that, we just strain

and this plastic-like stuff is called casein.

That's what we're going to make our plastic from

and so the important thing is to get this as dry as possible,

then you could leave it to mature and it would turn into a cheese

but actually what we can do now

is to mould it into pretty well any shape that we like.

And so when you've finished packing your mould, all you have to do

is to leave it on a radiator for a few days

and what you'll end up with is something like this.

Milk plastic.

Now that's incredible.

Incredible Edibles.

Here on Incredible Edibles, I like to do something so cool

it'll make you shout, "That's incredible!"

Now earlier on, we discovered

that food often travels a huge distance to get onto our plates

because loads of things can't be grown in the UK throughout the year.

Now, who loves Spaghetti Bolognese?

-Me!

-Ah. Fantastic. What is Spaghetti Bolognese made of?

-Mince.

-Mince, yeah.

-Spaghetti.

-Spaghetti, yeah.

-Pasta!

-Yeah, what else is in Spaghetti Bolognese?

-Onions.

-Onions.

-Tomatoes.

-Tomatoes. Brilliant.

-Sometimes mushrooms.

-You can have loads of things.

Well, let's take pasta, beef, onions and tomatoes.

But to make Spaghetti Bolognese at any time of year in this country

we often rely on food travelling around the world.

To show you the lengths we go to to get the food to our plates,

we're going to use one of these.

Ha-ha! Come with me.

There we go! Now, two intrepid volunteers

are going to have a bungee rope attached to their back

and they're going to try and run the equivalent distance

to pick up their far-away ingredients.

First, we're going to go 1,000 miles to Italy for our pasta,

then 2,000 miles away to Egypt for the tomatoes,

then 5,000 miles away to China for our onions

and finally, 8,000 miles to Argentina for the beef.

Now, I have to say, unless you have one of these bungee runs at home,

don't even think about trying to do something similar.

It'll take a heck of a lot of effort to get the food onto your plate

so please give it up for our volunteers, Niamh and BJ!

CHEERING

So, Niamh, are you feeling bouncy?

-Yeah.

-Think you can do this?

-Yeah.

-You've got to travel 8,000 miles to Argentina.

-Uh-huh.

Feeling pretty confident?

-Have you got strong legs?

-Yeah.

-And are you good at sport?

-Yeah.

-Favourite sport?

-Football.

Football. I think this is perfect.

OK, BJ, how do you feel about this?

-Confident.

-Uh-huh. Why's that?

Because you'd get more power in your legs.

You need to push hard to get there. I think you two have what it takes.

Guys, are you ready for a trip around the world?

-Yeah.

-Go and get strapped up!

-OK. Niamh, are you all set?

-Yep.

You're going to travel to Italy. Are you ready?

Three, two, one...

Go!

Go on! Woo-hoo!

That was easy. OK, now for the second one.

BJ, you're going to go all the way to Egypt for the tomatoes,

that's about 2,000 miles away.

-You ready?

-Yeah.

OK. Three, two, one,

run! Go on!

Aw! Man down, man down.

It's been pretty easy so far

but now it's time for Niamh

to travel 5,000 miles to China for onions.

-Are you ready for this, Niamh?

-Yeah.

It's going to be a tough one. Three, two, one,

run! Go on! Go, go, go!

Oh! Nearly.

And again, and again.

Go on! Run!

Aw!

Go on! Go on, Niamh, you can do it!

Yeah!

It's the last one. BJ, you've got the long one, mate.

You've got to go all the way, 8,000 miles,

to Argentina to pick up the beef.

Three, two, one. Go!

Go on, run, run, run.

Yeah!

Well done. Those foods have travelled 16,000 miles,

more than halfway round the world

so you can have Spaghetti Bolognese at any time. It's a long way.

Guys, do you want me to try and get the whole lot in one go?

Yeah!

Yeah? OK.

Run! Run! Run!

Aaah!

Run! Run! Run!

Aaargh!

I'll take some of that with me.

Yeah!

KIDS LAUGH

Yeah!

In the past we could only eat whichever food was in season.

Now we can eat what we want, when we want, from anywhere in the world.

What do you think of that, guys?

-That's incredible!

-Oh, yeah!

That's all we've got time for now.

My thanks to the most hungry eaters in Huddersfield

and to you guys at home for watching.

Join us next time on Incredible Edibles

where absolutely anything could be on the menu.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd