High Tea Hairy Bikers' Best of British

You know, we believe that Britain has the best food in the world.

Not only can we boast fantastic ingredients...

-Oh, there you go! Look at them!

-Isn't that fantastic?

-'Outstanding food producers...'

-Oh, look at that.

'..and innovative chefs...

'But we also have an amazing food history.'

Oh, wow!

Don't eat them like that. You'll break your teeth.

During this series,

we're going to be taking you on a journey into our culinary past.

Everything's ready, so get cracking.

'We'll explore its revealing stories.'

Wow!

'And meet the heroes that keep our food heritage alive.'

It's a miracle what comes out of the oven.

'And of course be cooking up a load of dishes

'that reveal our foodie evolution.'

Look at that. That's a proper British treat.

We have a taste of history.

-Quite simply...

-BOTH: The best of British!

Today, we're celebrating the most British of customs,

afternoon tea.

In the last several hundred years, tea has gained its rightful place

as our national drink.

Add cakes and sandwiches to the mix,

and you have the perfect combination.

In this show, we'll be rustling up an afternoon tea delight,

blending our very own variety of Camellia Sinensis.

SLURPING

That's tea, to you and me.

And rejoicing in this dining trend that's making a comeback.

With the likes of Victoria Beckham, Madonna

and Lady Gaga endorsing it,

afternoon tea has never been so hip, sweetie!

Believe it or not, the British love affair with tea started with coffee.

In 1706, Thomas Twining bought a coffee shop

right here on The Strand in London.

Because competition was so fierce between those coffee shops,

he decided to diversify.

-Guess what into?

-Tea!

-Fancy a cuppa?

-I do.

-Here you go.

-Thank you.

Tea soon inspired a whole new meal - afternoon tea.

There's nothing like it.

A cup of tea, a bit of food and some good conversation.

You know, afternoon tea, it's a peculiarly British institution.

I love it. There's nothing like a piece of cake and a good cup of tea.

Four meals a day.

-The Hairy Bikers do advocate four meals a day.

-Oh, yes.

And it's an afternoon tea classic that we're cooking up first

in our best of British kitchen.

Yes, the Viennese have given us Viennese coffee,

the Viennese waltz

and given their name to that melt-in-the-mouth biscuit,

the Viennese whirl.

It's something that we're both familiar with from childhood.

-It was kind of naff, wasn't it?

-It was, it was.

It was a bit naff and I have actually, I must confess,

a bit of a hang-up about Viennese whirls.

When I was little, I went to get one

-and a wasp was on it and it stung us.

-Ah!

I've never eaten a Viennese whirl since, other than the ones we make.

Start with 250g of plain flour.

Match the weight of flour

-with the weight of butter.

-Thank you.

-Just whack it all in.

-It's amazing, you know.

In the mid-19th century, the women would end up

-with like a 19-inch waist due to the corsetry.

-19 inches?!

-Completely distorted, yeah.

-Oh man, that's wrong. How uncomfortable!

-Especially when you're trying to eat a Viennese whirl.

-Yeah, exactly.

Corn flour.

Now ,this is the secret that makes a whirl crumble.

Yes, because corn flour takes up any moisture. It's dry.

-Next, icing sugar.

-Look at this.

The only smoking sugar. Prr!

'So that's 50g of corn flour and 50g of icing sugar.

'Using icing sugar instead

'of caster sugar gives you that very fine melt-in-the-mouth texture.'

And then half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Tsh! Obviously, if you like vanilla, you can use more.

This is our homage to Madagascar.

And then you put it on your mixer.

What's your favourite biscuit, Kingy?

Ginger snap.

I love a ginger snap. You cannae whack it. What's yours?

-The humble digestive.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

You know, I like a chocolate digestive,

but really just a plain digestive.

Are you a dunker or a biter or a slurper?

Well, I'm a dunker and then a slurper.

I like that. You get the firm bit in the middle that it hasn't reached.

I'm a bit of both.

I don't actually buy biscuits because I can't be trusted.

It's a shame, isn't it?

Hm, that's a lovely little batter, isn't it?

Look at that. Beautiful.

Now, the thing is that the Viennese whirl

is a cake/biscuit of two halves.

We must have symmetry and the size must be the same,

or it'll look all wonky when you put them together.

So what I've done is made this little template like this, you see.

Obviously the ink's on that side. So I draw around, like so.

Then what we do is, that batter that Mr Kind has so thoughtfully made,

you pipe within the perimeters of your template.

I'm going to put this lovely batter mix

into a piping bag,

because that's where batter mix lives.

Obviously we don't want to pipe onto ink,

so turn that over and there we have it.

-Oh, thank you.

-You don't have to put it all in at once.

It's like trying to manhandle a gibbon!

I've had to do that, you know. Manhandle a gibbon.

This'll stop it slipping.

-I didn't want you to run out.

-Run out?

Let's start here, shall we?

'Start your piping by working from the outside

'in a circular motion to the centre.'

# Ah, Vienna. #

-You little Viennese whirler!

-I'm like a machine.

Like a whirling dervisher.

-Wooh!

-Oh, that's gone...

That'll be all right, you see, as it'll flatten down as it bakes.

Now don't worry if you struggle with the piping,

they'll still look brilliant once they're baked!

While Dave's doing that, I'm going to get on with the buttercream.

The buttercream consists of butter, funnily enough,

icing sugar and a little bit of vanilla extract.

Put this into a bowl.

'You need 200g of icing sugar...'

Then you put butter in, like that.

'..and 100g of soft butter.'

A little bit of vanilla extract.

And then you beat the two together like a good 'un.

Right... Where's he gone?

-Oh, yeah.

-Bzzz!

You see, that's me. You see, I have the psyche of a cart horse.

You know, if it's manual, I'll do it.

I'll go over there and do it.

28.

That will give us 14 completed whirls. Whoo!

What about that? At the minute, it's like breadcrumbs.

But believe you me, it'll go.

There we are. You see?

So we put those into a pre-heated oven at 170C

for 12 to 15 minutes until they're lovely and golden.

Whoo!

We Brits love a biscuit. A hot drink and a biccy

is still an unrivalled partnership.

Last year alone, over £2 billion worth of biscuits,

cookies and crackers were sold in the UK.

Wow! The name biscuit comes from the Latin panis biscoctus,

meaning bread twice cooked,

and we were making them in this country by the Middle Ages.

In the 19th Century,

several new businesses including McVitie, Huntley & Palmer,

and Peek Frean, laid the foundations of the modern biscuit industry.

And chocolate-covered biscuits became big business after World War Two.

But biscuits aren't the comfy treat we think they are.

Oh no, there's definitely a dark side to the humble biscuit.

EVIL LAUGH

-Did you know that biscuits can be dangerous?

-You're joking!

There's a survey been done.

A third of all adults claim to have been scalded

fishing out the remnants of a dunked, fallen biscuit.

-Really?

-Yes.

Did you know that 28% of them

choked on crumbs?

Did YOU know that one in ten

have broken a tooth or a filling

whilst biting into a biscuit?

No.

Well, did YOU know

another 3% have poked themselves in the eye?

How very clumsy.

Did YOU know...

SI STARTS LAUGHING

..that 7% claimed to have been injured or bitten

by a pet or a wild animal whilst holding a biscuit in their hand?

It's a funny old world, the biscuit.

-I think it's time.

-Oh, yes.

-Oh, you beauties!

Ooh, look at them.

Oh, they're gorgeous, man.

Now, they need to cool on the trays for five minutes.

Then we move them to a cooling rack.

They're Viennese whirls like no other.

-There you are, my dear fellow.

-Thank you, dear heart.

As Viennese whirls go, Strauss would have loved them.

-A little knife?

-Thank you.

'After five minutes, place the whirls onto the cooling rack,

'bottom side up.'

Don't mess with them too much, because they're so crumbly.

You don't want to lose that lovely definition you have

on the other side.

'Next, spoon the buttercream mixture into a piping bag

'fitted with a large star nozzle.'

It looks like Nora Batty's tights, doesn't it?

-Ready for action, sir.

-Thank you.

Now, how does Bob Marley like his Viennese whirls?

Jam in!

MUSIC: "Jammin" by Bob Marley

# I hope you like jam in, too. #

Look at that. That is a Viennese whirl.

If you're a whirl, you might as well be a whirl

that's well dressed up for the party.

Check out those whirls, man!

-Do you want to try one?

-Oh, aye.

Whether it's from Ventnor or Vienna, they're smashing.

Mm.

See if you can do it without licking your lips.

No.

Oh, lovely.

Oh, very good. They just disappear, don't they?

-Yeah.

-Mm.

And for a bit of variation, instead of buttercream and jam,

try dipping one half of each biscuit in dark chocolate.

Ooh, delish-ioso!

Now, you may have heard that green is the new black.

And staying in is the new going out.

But did you know that afternoon tea is the new lunch?

There's nothing our nation loves more than a good old cuppa.

Especially when it comes with cake!

Aye, and in the heart of our bustling capital city,

this most British of customs has been enjoying

something of a revival.

Top London Chef, Paul Bates, is in charge of afternoon teas

at this upmarket hotel on Park Lane.

It's almost like a celebration.

A nice, delicate meal midway through the afternoon.

It's nice, petite things. Lovely flavours, different textures

and different sensations, you know.

It's a sort of diluted dinner, for want of a better description.

It should be all contrasting ingredients.

Paul's elegant menu will be sampled by two of Britain's

most dedicated afternoon tea enthusiasts.

Keith Newton is a connoisseur who runs a website devoted to

reviving the popularity of this unique national pastime.

Afternoon tea offers a little bit of decadence and indulgence.

A little bit of luxury. It's an affordable luxury, I think.

It's something that anybody can do.

For a couple of hours, a five-star hotel can be yours

for the price of a cup of tea, though a bit more expensive.

His dining companion is poet Elizabeth Darcy Jones,

who dedicates her writing to the charms of British tea.

It's an event where people can come together and be inspired,

sustained and,

I think, there's an intimacy.

It's said that wherever she is in the world,

the Queen always stops for tea.

-REPORTER:

-Inside, to soothe any strains,

there was a leisurely tea-sampling with musical backing.

Tea in Britain is so much more than a mere drink.

It's a way of life, Dave. The lifeblood of our nation,

almost a religion.

Tea arrived in Britain in 1659.

So tea in the early days is a luxury item.

It's come from an exotic place.

It's come from China. The Chinese have a monopoly on tea.

Britain puts a complete blockade on Chinese tea

and starts to grow tea in India.

And because India is ruled by the British, it becomes a British thing

and people think of tea as a British commodity,

grown by the British, for the British.

It's not until the end of the 18th century

that the masses start to be able to afford it.

So the poor people, as well as the rich people, can start to enjoy tea.

Despite tea being a fashionable drink in the 18th century,

afternoon tea didn't exist

until around 1840.

It was invented by Queen Victoria's lady-in-waiting,

the 7th Duchess of Bedford, who complained of a sinking feeling

in the afternoon, otherwise known as hunger.

In those days, there was a long gap

between what was a light luncheon and dinner at eight,

-so people would get a bit peckish.

-I know how they feel!

Hence the Duchess took an afternoon cup of tea,

served with a light snack, in her boudoir.

The Duchess of Bedford starts to take afternoon tea

and invites friends along. She's a friend of Queen Victoria

and once afternoon tea gets the endorsement of Queen Victoria,

it takes off. All of society wants to take afternoon tea

and people start to have not just intimate tea parties,

they start to have big tea parties, like 200 people.

But at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century,

tea shops take off in a big, big way.

And for the first time, women can go out without a male escort.

They can go out and they can meet lady friends.

There's something about taking afternoon tea,

when it's us girls all together, that there's a sort of freedom.

I'm sure there's just a hint of that coming through history, you feel.

"Yes, we can go and have tea together. We can go out

"and talk about things that actually we wouldn't talk about elsewhere."

Tea may have an illustrious history,

but Paul hopes to bring a bit of 21st century flair to the table.

Freshly creamed horseradish,

and then we have our rarely cooked roast beef, English beef,

and that's finished off with a little bit of celery cress.

You can twist it so far,

but at the end of the day there's an expectation about afternoon tea.

People don't want to have curry-flavoured chicken, for example.

You have to stick with the classics.

There's nothing more British or classic than afternoon tea.

Smoked salmon. Same supplier as the cream.

Here, what's that he's got there?

That's cucumber linguine, Si. Ooh! Proper posh, innit?

They expect luxury ingredients, so we have the ultimate here, caviar.

Caviar on top.

We have cocktail prawns, then we have lobster.

Scottish lobster, nice tail.

This goes on top of the prawns, like so.

You can see it's not two bits of bread slapped together, you know.

It does take some time to do.

It will please the traditionalists and also please the people

that are looking for something a little bit more adventurous.

I'm not suggesting their faces light up and it changes their world,

but I think it just lifts people a little bit.

D'ya think it'll be too modern for our afternoon tea connoisseurs?

Yeah, Elizabeth does strike me as a traditionalist.

I really hope we're going to keep one or two of the classic things.

Looking at the menu, it looks as if we are, which is a great delight.

It can be modern. There's a venue in London that has a DJ

during afternoon tea.

SHE GROANS

-I've been there myself.

-Does it work?

It does, because the music is...

It's slightly louder than background music,

but not so loud that you can't talk.

It's a young crowd who are going for afternoon tea

before perhaps going out in the evening.

So there's definitely a place for a modern afternoon tea.

While Keith and Elizabeth ponder the menu,

let's take a look at some etiquette do's and don'ts.

Firstly, milk goes in after the tea.

That's how the Queen takes her cuppa.

Ooh, it's a bit of a controversial one, Dave. Much debate over it.

Well, raising a pinkie is definitely a big no-no.

It's considered a pretence to good manners,

-indicating the owner doesn't have any.

-Call the tea police!

The correct order when eating afternoon tea

is to eat savouries first, sco-o-ones next and sweets last.

It's scones, man!

You say scones, I say sco-o-ones!.

Yeah, yeah, whatever!

As it's traditional for the gent to do the pouring,

Keith, you can be mother.

Oh, goodness.

In a way, I know the food is taking centre stage,

but the tea is also taking its place.

It looks the part and the first hurdle is to make sure

that it looks the part. It certainly looks the part.

It certainly lives up to expectations from reading the menu.

I'm impressed.

I love the detail on the top,

the little flourish of white chocolate and raspberry,

so I think there's something for everybody in there.

Definitely a feast for the eye

and I know what I want to taste already.

There's something underneath here. I think it's horseradish.

All my favourites.

Mm, delicious.

There's a nod here to tradition, egg and cress.

-It's a cut above your average afternoon tea.

-That goes together really, really well.

-I'm extremely pleased with it.

-Quintessentially English.

Let's be proud of it.

-Good afternoon. How did we do?

-Paul's escaped the kitchen to hear the verdict.

-I did enjoy it very, very much indeed.

-Absolutely exquisite, it has exceeded my expectations.

-So you'll come back then?

-I think so, I think so!

After nearly two centuries, the afternoon tea is evolving and winning new fans.

And it still, as always, epitomises elegance.

But no afternoon tea would be complete without, well, tea!

It's the nation's favourite hot beverage.

During the first World War, it was considered

so essential that the government took over tea importation,

conscious that it was vital to the nation's morale.

Today, the UK is the largest market for exported tea in the world.

We're on our way to Andover in Hampshire, and we're gasping for a cuppa!

Luckily for us, we've been invited to a tea tasting by the master blenders at Twinings.

I hope they've got the kettle on!

Fewer things have a richer history than tea.

In fact, tea is the history of Britain in a cup.

Us Brits drink 60.2 billion cups of tea every year.

And here, tea tasters get through 600 cups of tea a day!

It may not look it, but tea tasting is a very exact science.

SLURPING

-What's your favourite tea?

-Well, tea.

-What do I do now?

-Wait six minutes precisely for it to infuse.

-Does anybody talk?

-No, it's serious.

ALARM RINGS

Twinings Chief Development Taster, Mike Wright, has kindly

stepped in to guide us through the highly skilled art of tea tasting.

OK, what we've got here is a whole load of different teas

that we're going to get you to taste.

They're all of different origins, different flavours,

different styles of tea.

This is just a brief summary of the different tastes you can get.

There's some I recognise, but others I don't.

I think the whole convention and traditions of this is fantastic, I haven't seen that before.

They have to get the tea exactly right, it has to be made in exactly the right way.

The water has to be fresh, it has to be oxygenated,

it has to be brewed exactly at the right time,

so just as it boils you have to pour it.

If you boil for too long, the tea becomes dull and flat.

So you guys, really, as a team, are like the sommeliers of tea.

We are trained for five years at least, and to be honest,

I've been working at Twinings for 24 years and you never stop learning.

Every tea, when it's made, will taste different

according to the weather conditions, according to when the monsoon arrives,

how much sun they've had and whether it's been dry.

So you can never rely on one tea to be exactly the same,

day in, day out. It will change constantly,

so we have to ensure that the customer gets exactly the same every time,

and that's what the blending skills are about.

That's like an artist's pallet!

It's only when you see tea like that you realise how different the colours are.

Every time we make a blend of tea we have to make a hand blend first of all,

so we use the actual teas that go into the manufactured blend.

-And every single one of these tins...

-Good grief!

-Holds a blend.

-So everything is traceable.

-Can I open one?

-Yes, please do.

And that's the secret recipe, so it will have all the estates that went into it.

-Everything is traceable.

-D'you know what? I'm dying for a cup of tea.

-Yeah.

-Do you have your very own tasting spoon?

-We have our own tasting spoon.

-Nobody would ever breathe on it!

-What a privilege!

-You are now an official slurper.

-Excellent.

This first one is a white tea.

So this is probably the least most manufactured tea.

-Huge leaves.

-Huge leaves, because it's made of the bud, and the top two leaves are

the most tender part of the plant.

They make this tea by, normally, sun drying.

So it has a very gentle oxidation, so it has a very light,

delicate flavour.

Presumably it's very expensive if it's that labour intensive.

It's incredibly expensive, the best teas are made in Zhejiang in China, or maybe Fujian.

It's got this gorgeous, delicate tea.

SLURPING

-Some people say it has a sort of a peachy flavour.

-Right.

So then we've got gunpowder.

They thought the tea looked rather like gunpowder, so it's very shotty, quite well rolled.

-Yeah. Gunpowder. Same spoon, do you have to...?

-Yeah, just carry on.

SLURPING

Both black and green tea come from the same plant,

and it's about the processing of the tea that changes the flavour.

So fresh on your mouth, though. I don't drink enough China tea.

People seem to be a little apprehensive, and maybe

the name puts them off or they think, "Oh, that's that posh tea."

But actually, it's just another type of tea,

and people should just try different types of tea, you know, be brave.

-Britain loves tea, and thank God for that.

-Absolutely!

Let's try the jasmine.

Now it's time for us to have a go ourselves.

Can we Hairy Bikers turn our culinary hand to tea blending?

SLURPING

-Two parts.

-Hmm.

-Samosa Oolong, times two.

-Oooh!

The sapphire is going to bring it to life,

give it a distinctive character never before seen in the tea world.

But then a touch of Yunan for class.

At the moment, it looks like something Alan Titchmarsh would grow!

-What a wonderful, wonderful thing to do.

-Make your own tea.

Just maybe, this is the missing link in the tea world.

-Exactly, you never know.

-This is the new Earl Grey.

-I tell you what, if it is, you'll have to buy it from us.

-You want the rights.

I know it's your tea, and we're here as a guest, but, yeah!

-OK, OK, we can do that.

-Are you excited?

-Yeah!

-What's your favourite tea?

-Darjeeling.

-Darjeeling.

I've got Darjeeling first flush as my base tea.

The only slight, off the wall kind of thing that I had in MY head

was the Lady Grey, because I quite like a blossomy flavour.

-I think you're showing your feminine side here.

-Really?

-Mm-hmm.

-Well...

-He was having pink macaroons down in the shop!

-They were nice!

What's your speciality?

At the moment, I'm working on product development.

So, any new blends around the world... Including these,

-you know, this could be it.

-Paradise in a cup!

Did you see what he did there? He giggled under his breath!

That's just happiness at being with you. Shall we get our spoons?

Shall I get our spoons? 'And it's Dave's tea up first.'

SLURPING

-You can certainly get the smokiness of the Lapsang in.

-Yeah.

The colour is very pleasant, it's sort of an amber colour, very clear.

Yeah! There's nothing wrong with that, is there?

-That's all right, that, Dave.

-It shouldn't work, but it has.

-The Lapsang gives it that sort of robustness.

-It's nicely balanced.

That's what I thought, just a hint of Lapsang,

-because Lapsang on its own can be quite a kick in the cojones.

-It's a strong tea.

You get lots of citrus on that, don't you?

Actually, the Assam gives it a little bit of body. I mean, that works well.

-That's lovely.

-Take some milk?

-Yes please.

-As we're British.

-That's green, dude!

-It is an interesting colour!

-It's not fabulous, that.

-No, it's not!

-It's not the best, that, no.

How come I get covered in it, what is that?

Nice cuppa, that one!

LAUGHTER

I think both of them are best drunk without milk.

Do you think any of them have commercial possibilities?

I think we'd have to put some serious consideration into that.

I'm going to go out and buy myself some of the white teas,

the Formosa Oolong, the big leafed kind of China teas.

-Keep it simple.

-Yeah, it's lovely,

-It'd be nice, I love that.

That white tea is fantastic. The great British tradition that is tea.

-And very proud of it we are, too.

-Absolutely.

That is a peculiar colour!

With our thirst well and truly quenched,

it's time to pay tribute to a key ingredient of the afternoon tea - the good old fashioned sarnie!

In Britain, we consume over 11 billion sandwiches every year.

Whether it's a gourmet delight or a curled up crust

from the chiller cabinet, it's the ultimate in convenience food.

You don't even have to stop what you're doing to eat one.

Britain's most popular food, let me show you how to make the most popular snack food.

Piece of bread, a piece of cheese, another piece of bread, voila. Sandwich.

BOTH: Philistine!

Legend has it that lazy aristocrat John Montagu,

the 4th Earl of Sandwich, invented the sarnie in 1762.

Now, Montagu was a hardened gambler,

who wagered for hours at a time, refusing even to stop for meals.

It is said that he asked his valet to bring him "meat betwixt two slices of bread,"

allowing him to continue playing cards.

The sarnie had arrived.

Whether Montagu was responsible or not, the sandwich was bound to have

been dreamt up by a hungry bloke too preoccupied to feed himself properly.

Since then, it has been central to any roadside picnic.

-A buffet table mainstay.

-And the backbone of any packed lunch.

Today, I'm going to give him cottage cheese,

which I shall mix with a little hard cheese,

just to give it a little bit more of a cheesy flavour.

hat's really, basically, all he has, sandwiches.

Because children like to have something to chew.

"Something to chew"? What a sorry state of affairs, when that is all that is required of a sandwich.

But everyone, and I mean everyone, loves a sarnie.

The humble sandwich is a truly egalitarian snack.

My favourite is brizola with parmesan cheese

and a drizzle of olive oil.

Mine's prawns with Marie Rose sauce. Not as pretentious as yours, Dave, granted, but just as tasty.

A key component of the sandwich is, of course, bread, and until the early 20th century,

it was made by hand, using a technique handed down for thousands of years.

Women have made bread since primitive times,

but nowadays, this sight is a rarity.

For baking today is a man's job.

And these huge mechanised bakeries changed the way bread was

consumed forever.

A shaft of light! The moment is here!

It's already sliced, you daft druid!

The pre-sliced loaf introduced in the 1930s made sandwich-making,

hardly a demanding task in the first place, even easier.

Make me a ham sandwich.

Right.

But then something came along to threaten the sandwich's place

as our number-one convenient food.

In 1954, the first Wimpy bar opened in London,

pedalling a new sandwich fad all the way from America.

By the '80s, Britain's High Streets

were filling up with fast-food outlets.

Chicken in a bun.

Delicious, succulent chicken wrapped in a light golden batter.

A Mother Earth-shattering idea.

From Wimpy.

The sandwich needed to adapt, and the first mass-packaged,

hermetically-sealed sarnie was introduced in 1980.

There was something to suit all tastes.

He wanted to go in and ask, of all things,

for a sausage and marmalade sandwich.

Do you serve sandwiches?

Yes, sir.

I would like one marmalade and sausage sandwich, please.

Thank you.

Fantastic!

But the filling in your sandwich says more about you than you think.

Something Tony Blair was only too aware of.

In 2004, he was asked live on Radio Sheffield

what his favourite sandwich filling was,

causing uncharacteristic hesitation.

It was a simple but loaded question.

We're nearly out of time. One more question. This is Sam.

"Ask Tony what his favourite sandwich filling is."

What's he going to go for, Si?

He could opt for the good old-fashioned bacon butty.

Aye, one for the proletariat, that one.

How about coronation chicken, though?

Hmm-mm. That would acknowledge Britain's colonial past and multicultural present.

-TONY BLAIR:

-Mmm...favourite sandwich filling.

Surely not the upper crust brizola and Parmesan cheese

with a drizzle of olive oil, dude?

-Bacon, lettuce and tomato.

-Bacon, lettuce and tomato.

Ah, the good old classless BLT! Clever Tony!

-We've learnt something new. Tony Blair.

-That's one I wasn't expecting.

There we are. This is Radio Sheffield.

Whatever the filling, the sandwich is quite possibly the best thing

since sliced bread and a British invention we can be proud of.

Now, afternoon tea is often confused with high tea,

but they are in fact quite different beasts.

Afternoon tea is also known as low tea,

and this would be served by the upper classes at around 4pm.

High tea, on the other hand,

is traditionally a working-class meal served later in the day

and a dinner table.

The names derive from the height of the table on which the tea is served.

So next up in our Best of British kitchen,

we're cooking a high tea treat - the Welsh rarebit.

Cheese on toast, by any other name, you know.

-It's more than just cheese on toast!

-Oh! Welsh rarebit!

There is one fundamental ingredient in said rarebit. It's toast.

Aye, but it's not just putting the cheese on.

A real Welsh rabbit, or rarebit, you make a really thick cheese sauce,

and that contains beer, cayenne pepper, English mustard,

Worcester sauce. You put it on your toast until it's bubbly.

It's special and it's worth it.

So don't just turn off, thinking,

"If they think I'm going to pay good money, waste my eyeballs watching two

"daft beggars make cheese on toast, they've got another thing coming."

-Give us a chance.

-Bear with us, bear with us! Ah, ba, ba!

-Love it!

-You're going to love it. Right. We start off with a pan.

-Pan!

-That's ja-pan!

-Ah-ha(!)

-A tray. I'm going to line this with foil.

Obviously, you have to make the toast under a grill, because it bubbles.

You know, if you put your sauce in a toaster, it wouldn't work, would it?

-It'd be messy, wouldn't it, really?

-Butter.

-Thank you.

Now, we go to a little butter shop where there is a little man

who takes little knobs of butter and wraps them up

in lovely greaseproof paper.

Do you ever think maybe that butter's normal-sized

and it's you that's got super-humongous?

THEME FROM "The Twilight Zone"

-Yeah.

-You'd be 20ft tall.

Maybe you are. It's all relative.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Right.

Could this really be a very small cheese triangle, and I've shrunk?!

HE SHRIEKS

Sauce. We use flour. We put that in there and make a roux.

-Now, not a kangaroo.

-Or a Michel Roux. No.

Not even a roodly-doo-doo-doo.

-A roux - a mixture of butter and flour that acts as a thickener.

-Ooh!

This cheese sauce - it's thick.

-Lovely.

-Look at that.

Now, to that we add some milk. Just drizzle the milk in.

And the other liquid component is beer. Heavy beer.

'We've used 100ml of each.'

Excuse me! Would you mind awfully passing me a whisk?

Oh, dear, you haven't got it into lumps, have you? You naughty boy!

You can't help it, can you? You know.

'For the toast, cut four thick slices of wholemeal bread

'and then grate 150g of mature cheddar cheese.'

We're using good old cheddar.

-Caerphilly would be good, especially if you're Welsh.

-Look at that!

-It's thick.

-Who you gonna call?! Ghostbusters!

-Looks like one of those things...

-Ectoplasm.

-Yeah, look at that.

One of the theories for the term Welsh rarebit, or Welsh rabbit,

is that poor people in England would have to survive on rabbit.

The poor people in Wales, who were considerably poorer

than the English, had to survive on cheese,

so the cheese on toast became known as Welsh rabbit.

It's a bit condescending, really.

Now, you're looking at this, thinking, "Blinking heck!

"He's not going to put all that cheese in!"

-Do you know what? I am!

-He is.

All of it. That's enough for four large slices.

You've worked hard. Be kind to yourself.

Now, let's make toast.

'Prepare a baking tray by lining it with tin foil.

'This will keep it nice and clean from all the melted cheese.

'Then arrange the bread onto the tray.' Lovely job.

Time to start building up the flavours.

To that, we have mustard, Worcestershire sauce

and cayenne pepper.

One teaspoon of English mustard, or Welsh mustard,

but something bearing on the hot side.

A pinch of cayenne pepper or chilli powder. Now, this is optional.

A nice pinch, give it a lovely red colour.

And four teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce.

One,

two,

three,

four.

One egg yolk.

Stir that in.

To make toast, you cut slices off a loaf.

You put it under the grill. When it's golden, you turn it over.

-When both sides are golden, you've got toast.

-Have you got that?

You have. Good.

Do you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to go outside and give it a whisk

and then it might thicken up a bit, cos that's hot.

Aye, it's cold out.

Ah! Lovely job.

-Are you chilling?

-Dude, listen, look at that, man.

Look...thick as... Look.

-Whoa!

-It's like Caramac.

-It is, isn't it?

-It's brilliant.

And that's what you're looking for.

So, take a ladleful and divide it between your toast.

And be generous with this.

Unctuous.

It does look strangely like Plasticine that's been

melted in front of the fire.

Now, we're going to give you a Hairy Bikers top tip.

What you need to do is make sure you spread it,

but spread it properly, right to the edges

so the edges of the toast don't burn.

I remember my mother used to say

when I was making the sandwiches as a kid, putting the butter on,

I'd miss the corner, she'd say, "Son, you'd never make a window cleaner."

-Oh, man.

-Pop that under the grill, and in about three minutes,

it'll be bubbling up like a rabid warthog. And under the grill.

# It's good to touch the green, green grass of home. #

Oh, what?! Look, you, you lovely cheese on toast.

Look, you, isn't it?

-That's not cheese on toast. That's a Welsh rarebit.

-Ah, man.

One, two...

-Shall we cut it diagonally? You know, posh-like.

-Aye.

-That's proper Welsh rarebit.

-Beautiful.

-Shall we?

-Oh, yes.

-This is going to hurt.

-Yeah.

It's one of those things that's just a comfort, isn't it?

I like the cayenne and the mustard. It just gives it a zing.

-And the beer as well.

-Hmm. Beautiful.

That's really very good.

-Ah, look at those beauties!

-Thank you, Wales!

And you don't have to stick to cheddar.

The topping can be made from any other hard mature cheese.

The afternoon tea is a national institution

and a chance to indulge ourselves in a bit of British formality.

The retro appeal of its elaborate rituals, the coming together

over a pot of tea, the dainty little sandwiches - what's not to love?

From the charm of the Viennese whirl...

..to the perfect cuppa...

..this teatime tradition is here to stay.

And to find out how to cook the recipes in today's show,

visit -

to discover some amazing facts about the history of food.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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