Down the Local 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 we go. Look at them!

'..outstanding food producers...'

Oh, wow!

'..and innovative chefs...

'..but we also have an amazing food history.'

It's safe to say that's what the Romans brought to us -

-the art of cooking itself.

-Absolutely.

It's called a sala catabia.

It's like a savoury summer pudding.

Now, during this series, we're going to be taking you on a journey

into our culinary past.

-Everything's ready, so let's get cracking.

-We'll explore its revealing stories..

BOTH: Wow!

..and meet the heroes that keep our culinary past alive.

Pontefract liquorice has been my life,

and I've loved every minute of it.

'And, of course, be cooking up a load of dishes

'that reveal our foodie evolution.'

That's a proper British treat.

Looks good, tastes good. That's going to do you goof.

Quite simply...

BOTH: The best of British.

Today, we're going to be looking at a distinctively British offering to the world of gastronomy.

Pub grub.

MUSIC: "We're Going Down The Pub" by Sham 69

Yeah! Pubs have been the mainstay of British society since the Middle Ages,

and our favourite venue for eating our traditional native cuisine.

And indulging in some of our favourite beverages.

'In the show, we'll be cooking up some pub-inspired classics...

'..sampling our traditional brews..

'..and celebrating a dining trend that has redefined pub culture.'

Throughout history, beer was seen as a staple of the British diet.

These days, a lot of British boozers not only serve great grub as well as ale,

they've been instrumental in shaping our food culture.

Cheers, mate.

-The great British pub.

-Yes.

It is incredible how food's come on, isn't it?

What was the first, kind of, piece of pub grub that you ever had, Kingy?

Three separate dishes on the bar, on Sunday, and only on a Sunday.

Cheese, raw black pudding and silver-skinned onions. That was it.

Brilliant. What about you?

You had a pickled egg, you put it in the cheese and onion crisps, you gave it a bang on the bar,

and then you just kind of hoy it out like that -

the cheese-and-onion-crispy pickled egg. I still like it.

But what was the last thing you ate in a pub?

A pave of turbot with a beer sabayon.

-THEY LAUGH

-What about you?

Oh, a saddle of rabbit with a duxelles of porcini mushrooms, wrapped in pancetta!

-Give over, man!

-I know!

-It's great!

-It is, isn't it?

THEY SIGH

The British boozer can trace its family tree back 2,000 years.

Decent pub grub, however, is a more recent phenomenon.

The Romans introduced us to drinking establishments,

with taverns selling wine.

Beer, or ale made from hops, arrived in the 14th century,

followed soon after by pub signs reflecting local trades and political loyalties.

The Victorians built thousands of pubs as a place of relaxation for tired workers.

The pub really is a distinctly British institution.

And for many years, the food had a distinct flavour.

-Well, yeah, it was sh...

-Shocking.

Or just non-existent.

See, in the early days, the pub wasn't a place for women, children or food.

Food? In a pub?!

Time, gentlemen, please.

It just wasn't right.

There WERE bar snacks,

and if you were lucky, you might even get a curled-up sarnie or a cold sausage roll.

In all the pubs, there would be bread and cheese, and pickles,

and other things on the table for any of the customers, you know, and probably cold meat.

They would give that away, of course.

Naturally, that used to bring the people into the pubs.

Ee, well, those wouldn't. What's that? Cheddar? Ham?

I can't really tell!

But there was no hot food.

What you would call a proper meal.

Pubs survived like this for years, but by the 1960s, eating out had become fashionable,

and cafes and restaurants were booming.

So the pubs fought back, and used improved food and atmosphere to tempt in the fairer sex.

The pint tankard, though not replaced, is outnumbered by the daintier stemmed glass.

The businessman's lunch can be shared by the businessman's wife.

Flowers are a constant reminder of the feminine presence.

The man in a hurry will eat his sandwiches over the public bar.

But the woman would sooner not.

Then, some bright spark realised that if you could have the meals with minimal washing up,

you'd be on to a right good winner.

Chicken in a basket was born.

Soon followed by everything in a basket.

Sausage in a basket, scampi in a basket...

Hmm. Or for the more sophisticated palate, hope was just around the corner...

at the Berni Inn.

'But what everyone likes at Berni Inns are the tender Berni Steaks.

'There's a place for you at your Berni Inn.

'Why not join the Berni set?'

The first Berni Inn opened in Bristol

in the mid-1950s,

but they were really popular in the '70s.

Oh, yes. By then, B-E-R-N-I spelt "class."

-Prawn cocktail...

-Steak and chips...

-Black Forest gateau...

You know how to treat a girl!

Breweries got in on the action,

opening up endless chains of family pubs that did grub.

But while most stuck to the tried-and-tested,

a revolution was beginning at The Eagle in London.

In 1991, they brought in a real chef,

making high-quality food in a real pub.

A decent British boozer with some - how would you say? - gastronomy!

A pub with gastronomy... You could call it "pubstronomy."

-SIMON SIGHS

-It was the birth of the gastro-pub.

Gradually, the idea spread, and by the Noughties, every smart pub worth its weight in sea salt flakes...

-..or freshly ground black pepper...

-..started remodelling as gastro.

Even supermarkets joined in, packaging ready meals as "gastro-pub style."

In 1993, just over half of all pubs served food.

But a decade later, it was nine out of 10.

Things have come a long way since pickled eggs.

And the pubs that have called time on bad food have helped revolutionise British cuisine.

Indeed, in the last two decades, the gastro-pub has led the way

in keeping traditional British dishes alive.

Aye, and you know, first up in our Best of British kitchen,

we're cooking a time-honoured dish

that has become a great pub grub classic.

It's the Barnsley chop with Cumberland sauce.

Ee-up, landlord!

What's on't menu toneet?

Barnsley chop.

Oh, where would Barnsley chop hail from, then?

It is said to have originated from t'King's Head in Market Hill in Barnsley in 1849.

Ee, and it was an egalitarian sort of cutlet.

Because, you know, farmers would go in there on market day, and eat a whopper.

But also, in 1933, the Barnsley chop was served at the opening of Barnsley Town Hall,

and even the Prince of Wales had a whopper.

Now, this is a Barnsley chop, and this is proper pub grub.

-It's basically a slice off a sheep's back.

-It is.

Now, to start our Barnsley chop,

we have thyme, we have mint, and we have rosemary.

I'm going to make some Cumberland sauce, and ours is a lovely recipe.

It's got orange zest, port,

stem ginger, redcurrant jelly, orange juice, lemon juice...

It's really aromatic and lovely.

It's much better than the stuff you buy.

First off, I need to peel an orange. I want the zest.

Now, all I'm doing while Dave's doing that

is I'm just finely chopping the three herbs that we mentioned.

It's a herby rub, isn't it?

It is. That's what we're going to do with it.

Mix it with some salt and pepper in a bowl,

-and then really push those herbs into our Barnsley chop.

-Oh!

Look at that. Orange peel.

Do you know, I remember Barnsley chops

were judged as much on the quantity as the quality.

-Yeah.

-And a Barnsley chop, you always do a whopper.

It's the kind of T-bone steak equivalent, isn't it,

-of the sheep world?

-Yes, it is.

Now, you see this zest.

I've done it with a potato peeler, which is what I want.

But I must cut that white pith out, because that's really sour.

Just get a knife, and just pare it down even finer.

See? Get rid of that. Get it going.

We're going to boil this zest

for about five minutes, just to make it nice and soft.

That's where the orange oils are, all the good stuff.

Now for the herbs.

We're using two tablespoons of rosemary, one tablespoon of thyme, and four tablespoons of mint.

Ee, Kingy, hasn't pub food changed over the years?

I always remember, years ago, going to a pub in Langport in Somerset.

It was a real old scrumpy pub.

All the food they used to do was beans on toast.

-SIMON CHUCKLES

-But can you imagine it, being a scrumpy pub...

-it really was quite...

-HE LAUGHS

It was quite a heady mixture in there, really.

-I bet it was.

-You know?

I mean...

Like a lot of these things, you can buy Cumberland sauce in a jar,

but when you take the time to do it properly,

with the real orange zest, you know, and the stem ginger,

it's just beautiful.

What do you think about the advent of the gastro-pub?

Well...

-I like it if it's still a pub.

-Yeah.

If it's a pub that's serving, kind of, spoonfuls of nonsense, then it's not a pub.

I mean, there's a place for fine dining, and I'm not sure whether the pub is it.

-gastro-pubs and pub food, it shouldn't be, kind of, small portions.

-No.

It's quite a difficult balance. Some get it right and some don't, don't they?

Yeah, but are we kidding ourselves, Si? Is a gastro-pub a term for simply a pub that does good food?

I want to go to a pub for a night out.

I want to have some proper good beer, or some proper nice cider,

and I want to have something...

No, I don't want to eat fancy food, I just want it to be really, really good.

-And if they've made a reputation on good, simple food, then all power to their elbow, in my view.

-Yeah.

-I don't want formality...

-No!

-..in my pub food.

You know, I don't want to have to dress up for it.

I love fine dining, I love the conventions of fine dining,

I love the etiquette and the history of it, but not in a pub.

-No. It's the wrong environment, isn't it, in essence?

-Yeah.

'Chop the orange into juliennes - ooh, sorry - matchsticks,

'this is pub grub we're cooking, after all.'

It's taken a bit of time, but that's the pared-down zest of one orange.

That's the substance of my Cumberland sauce.

'Place the orange matchsticks in a small saucepan, cover with water, and bring to the boil.'

'Simmer for about eight minutes, then drain and set aside.

'Now for the ginger.'

Now, stem ginger is preserved ginger.

And they do it in balls.

It's just root ginger that's been preserved in syrup.

It's either great with sweet or savouries.

'Now, chop it up, and set it aside.'

What I'm going to do is take the thyme, rosemary and the mint,

salt and pepper, and just push that into the Barnsley chop.

It even sounds big, doesn't it? A Barnsley chop.

You just know it's going to be, like, a big chop.

Now, extract the juice from the orange

and add the juice of half a lemon.

But don't forget, we don't want the pips.

There you are, in the pan I've got the juice of one orange,

the juice of half a lemon, about 15ml of port.

There's nothing that glugs like port, is there?

Some redcurrant jelly and all it is is jelly made from redcurrants.

Cook for 7 minutes over a low heat.

Oil in an already pre-warmed pan.

Two things to remember when you are cooking meat.

Make sure that the meat is at room temperature

and you've got some heat in your pan

because it makes all the difference to how that meat tastes

and how succulent it becomes. That's a top tip!

OK? So there we go.

-Listen.

-MEAT SIZZLES

Heat straightaway into the meat.

Now, what we are doing is cooking these chops in a traditional way

in that the pan we are cooking them in is then going to be transferred

into the oven so we've got three minutes per side.

We finish them off for eight minutes in the oven.

Brilliant way of doing it

and that's how they would have done it all those years ago.

We were talking about gastro-pubs before.

It's important not to forget that one important role of the gastro-pub

is that it really supports local farmers and local suppliers.

It's one way that they can cut out the middleman

and sell direct to the consumer, the publican.

It's good, honest business.

Gastro-pubs are known and should be known for their fresh,

seasonal, local produce.

That's what they do.

When you're putting the meat in the pan,

don't move it about for the first couple of minutes.

Then, you'll get a nice, even colour around it.

See this bit here? We want some colour on that now.

We are going to stand the chops up, next door to each other.

It's funny lamb fat, isn't it? It's nice when it's crispy.

-But when it's not crispy, it's not...

-It's a bit...

-Aye!

Put them together like that, hold them in.

And then, as soon as we've got some colour on this fat,

pop them in the oven for about six to eight minutes,

depending on how you like your meat.

To finish off the Cumberland sauce,

I'm going to pop in that boiled orange zest.

That's nice and soft now.

And this lovely stem ginger.

It's great, stem ginger, it's sweet, it's sticky

but still got the fire of the ginger.

Now, Cumberland sauce can be served warm or cold.

Now, this can go in the oven between six and eight minutes.

We are not going to transfer them to a baking tray

because this frying pan has a metal handle and can go straight into the oven.

Thanks, mate.

Yours is ready in six, mine's ready in about seven.

Which gives the chop time to rest!

# Where hast thou been since I last saw thee?

# I love you, my fat Barnsley chop

# I'm loving my big Barnsley chop... #

Is it just me?

-Oh, man!

-Oh!

We should leave it to rest for a minute, shouldn't we?

Yeah.

That's a minute. That's champion.

The sauce, as it's cooling, it's just like a syrup.

If we let this go cold, it would go back to jelly.

That's the one you put it in a jar and you have with your ham sandwiches.

Yes, that's it.

When you're faced with such fine produce

and great pub food traditions, it's hard not to be greedy, isn't it?

It is, but the good thing about a Barnsley chop,

it can be a chop for sharing.

You start at an end each and meet in the middle.

-Like spaghetti.

-Yeah.

No.

Oh!

Oh, heaven. That's perfect. Really nice.

That is, isn't it? Do you know, the Barnsley chop, I can't see it not having a future.

Great British pub food.

-What's yours? Fancy a pint?

-Oh, yeah.

-Where we going? The local?

-Pub!

'Ee, lad. There you have it. The big, bad Barnsley chop.

'And with double the meat of a regular cutlet,

'it's value for money, too.

In recent years, British food has been recognised

as being some of the best in the world...

with some of the most gratifying dishes coming not out of restaurants

but from that national treasure - the humble public house.

As a result, we Brits now eat more meals in pubs than we do in restaurants.

Sadly, though, the Great British boozer is in decline,

with an average of 25 closing every week.

Some ARE stopping the rot by offering great food

and keeping the locals happy with a real pub atmosphere.

Like our Best Of British food hero and pub saviour...

-I'm not overdoing this, mate, am I?!

-No!

-Give the lad a big build-up, like...

-..pub super chef Dominic Chapman,

at the Royal Oak in Berkshire.

One of only 13 pubs in the country to hold a coveted Michelin Star.

And the power behind it is someone

who remembers the Great British boozer in its heyday.

In my generation, they were where you went -

to gossip, to talk, to cash a cheque.

Well, we didn't have cheques in those days! To borrow money.

They defined village life for me, growing up in Yorkshire.

They had a very important part to play in my life.

Food wasn't on the agenda. You had that at home.

They were drinking places.

Places where you played snooker, cribbage, where you gambled.

There's a generation that wouldn't understand what I'm talking about.

I might be talking about igloos, for all that they would understand what I'm talking about!

That's been the trick, my trick, is to understand the difference, the change, what's happened here.

Nowadays, you have to give people a different reason for going to a pub than I had.

After years as Britain's best-known TV chat show host...

..Sir Michael Parkinson sunk his money into a pub partnership with his son, Nick.

I can remember showing you it, and you said, "Are you mad?"

MICHAEL GUFFAWS

Cos it was a fairly rundown, horrible place.

That doesn't describe it half what it was like.

It was an absolute shambles. It was like buying a ruin, wasn't it?

-Yeah, it was horrible.

-You saw the potential before I did, that's for sure.

They opened the pub in 2001, and whilst Sir Michael and Nick front the business...

..behind the scenes, Dominic is busy cheffing.

He joined the team in 2007, and raised their game,

earning the Royal Oak a Michelin Star in 2010.

It's amazing. It took a few years, but when we got the news, you know,

that's the best day of your life, it really is.

I mean, that's... You know, I was...

Michelin stars are pretty special within our industry,

so we now need to work hard and protect that,

because all the effort and hours you put in to achieve a Michelin star,

you don't want to throw it away. It's all about performing every day

and making sure you're consistently very, very good. That's what it's all about.

Just because you've received one doesn't mean you'll hold onto it.

Michelin is about good food.

You don't have to be poncy to get a Michelin Star.

You have to produce food that is tasty, seasonal,

looks great, and there's a little bit of love on that menu.

I don't think it's rocket science. I love my job.

I love what I do.

So, I hope that's reflected in the food that we serve

and the menu that's on offer at the Royal Oak.

It's not what I would call typical Michelin food. Dom's food is very real, very basic

and good and tasty. He doesn't do foam!

We don't do things like that. We don't want to.

And Dominic is cooking up one of his signature dishes - hare and trotter pie.

I'm going to joint the hares,

I'll brown a piece of bacon...

carrot, leek, celery, onion, garlic,

and I'll brown that off.

Separate pan - I'll brown some button mushrooms,

I'll caramelise some tomatoes...

It's a dish with a traditional feel, but it's not a simple one.

I'll do a reduction, a red-wine reduction,

I'll do a port-madeira reduction.

No way! This recipe's got more reductions than a closing-down sale!

Put them all into one pan with some stock, I'll then add may aromats -

bay leaf, thyme, pink peppercorns, juniper berries, black peppercorns -

into the oven for 2.5 hours.

Break down the meat, get rid of the bone.

So the next stage is building the pies.

I've got my onion, some bacon, some hare,

some mushrooms and some pig's trotter.

Lay the pastry over the pie,

and then into the oven at 200 degrees for 12 minutes.

The pie's ready.

-Well, the proof of the pudding...

-Pie!

-..is in the eating.

YORKSHIRE ACCENT: Bring on the pie! Aye, bring on t'pie!

Very excited. Yeah. I love it.

If you're a careful cook and take time to be delicate

and make things look great, but also taste great, that's the battle, and I guess that's what's so hard.

I've got real interest in that,

so that's what I try really hard to get right...if I can!

Oh, God!

That sauce is fantastic.

And the sauce - to die for.

Well done, Dominic.

THEY BOTH LAUGH

That's beautiful. You can't get better than that.

There's nothing posh about that at all.

It's basic good grub.

You couldn't eat better than that

anywhere in the world.

-Is it all right? >

-Very good that.

-You like that, did you(?)

-I can't really contribute much more. It's very good.

Here endeth the lesson.

Hold on your, Parky! He's still got it in him, you know!

The great thing is, like many gastro-pubs,

the Royal Oak is helping to keep the spirit of the traditional local well alive!

British pub culture has changed dramatically over the years,

sometimes for the better.

But they're called boozers for a reason.

We Brits like a drink and it's been that way for a very long time.

Britain's luscious green and fertile landscape

has produced two ancient drinks that have undoubtedly

defined our national character...

Beer and cider!

I mean, there's just nothing better.

And, you know, it's good, because our climate lends itself

to the cultivation of hops

and apples.

In medieval Britain, people were very suspicious about the water,

and brewing was as important as baking.

It was quite common then for people to drink

up to a gallon of beer a day.

For centuries, beer and cider were made in small batches at home,

or on the farm...

..providing us Brits with not only a clean drinking supply...

..but also a valuable source of vitamins and minerals

in centuries past.

But it's the many varieties

of ancient cider apples and cereals fermented to brew beer,

that have shaped our social history...

..and helped to create the rich heritage

of brewing and fermenting that we think is well worth celebrating.

From old ale flavoured with rosemary and thyme,

brewed by medieval monks...

..to today's fashionable revival of traditional beers and ciders.

-Three cheers for the old apple tree. Hip, hip -

-Hooray!

We've got a lot to be proud of.

And in the Best of British kitchen, we're going to be paying homage

the huge role that beer has played in our culture

by using it as the basis for our next recipe.

When you look at the best of British, you have to look at beer.

-Yes.

-We're northern Europeans, and we grew grain

and not grape, but our beer-brewing culture

is every bit as complex as the French vin nobles.

Yes, there it is.

Now, look, the French keep banging on about their wine and stuff,

and it is very lovely and complex and gorgeous and we love it,

but the same palate and flavours and complexity applies to

some of our brew from the wonderful British Isles.

They are some of the most incredible tastes

and flavours you can wish for.

All beer is made from a combination of malt, hops, water and yeast.

He strains off the juice -

thin, sweetish stuff they call wort in the trade,

boils it with hops in a copper for a couple of hours,

and when it's cool he adds the yeast.

Six days from now, he'll have beer.

But it's how you process them

that creates different flavours and strengths.

From light ales...

..to dark bitters.

However, we've been brewing ale since

Neolithic times, when cereals like malt and barley

were first harvested.

Beer was brewed at home.

And as an Anglo-Saxon drinking culture developed,

people would pop round to the best alemaker in the village...

And the British pub was born!

The Romans and Normans tried to introduce us to wine.

Wine? No.

We stuck to good old British ale!

This ale is truly bright and good.

No finer draught from any wood.

And in the 15th century, the Dutch caused great controversy.

They introduced us to hops, which made the beer last much longer.

But it also altered the flavour

and added a bitterness,

which made people HOPPING mad!

Henry the Eighth's a good example -

he banned beer brewed with hops from his court!

But 150 years later, hops were finally accepted

as a vital part of the taste of ale.

And in the 1750s,

when the British Empire was at its height,

London was the world capital of beer brewing,

with more than 20,000 breweries.

Beer was safe to drink, because it used boiled water,

which, in turn, killed germs.

And it quickly caught on

that if you had a few pints, you'd avoid cholera!

The new industrial technologies of the 19th century

allowed for even more varieties.

Well, there were three beers,

all of which we liked enormously, and they shone among all the rest.

Bitter,

black London porter,

and pale ale.

When brewers flooded the streets with sweet, dark London porter,

they were hailed as saviours.

In a few years, their businesses swelled to enormous size.

All these rich varieties and flavours of British beer

make it fantastic to use in the kitchen!

Cheers!

We're going to cook for you something that epitomises

British brewing.

It's also a pub grub classic -

scampi in a basket!

But ours puts all others to shame.

We're got lovely langoustines from Scotland,

but we're going to treat them to a light batter

infused with the deep, dark flavour of British bitter.

This is a langoustine. This is it naked.

The scampi you put in, the crunch you eat.

And this is a new product we just found.

It's smoked langoustines, and they taste epic.

Our scampi in the basket won't just have the world's best beer batter,

it's going to be a mixture of smoked and regular langoustines.

And we're going to teach you how to make a tartare sauce from scratch,

because it's beautiful.

Real, home-made tartare sauce.

Yeah. Should we crack on?

-Let's make a splatter and have a go at batter.

-Right.

We're using 75 grams of cornflour.

And 200 grams of plain flour.

The mixture of the two flours will give us,

well, batter bordering on shrapnel.

Yeah, it does.

The cornflour is fabulous,

because it gives a crack

and a lightness to the batter.

-It's wonderful.

-And a pinch of salt.

And now, a bottle of beer.

Use your beer of choice. This is a good dark bitter.

About as British as it comes. You can smell the yeast, can't you?

You can. It's lush.

That's the consistency we're looking for. I'll just give it a good whisk.

Next, we add two tablespoons of white wine vinegar.

This has the effect of making the batter super-crispy.

Much like Yorkshire pudding, we're going to leave that aside

to rest until the flour expands and absorbs the beer

and you will get a better batter.

But, you know, deep-frying in batter doesn't have to be unhealthy,

cos what happens is, the thing you're frying,

it heats up, it makes steam.

The steam pushes the fat out

while the outside goes crispy.

Time to start the tartare sauce - by making a mayonnaise.

Don't, not when I'm juggling!

'First, crack two large egg yolks into a bowl with a pinch of salt

'and a pinch of sugar.'

Bit more?

Right, now.

What we're going to do

is whisk them...

..until they change colour.

Light colour. And that means

that the egg yolks

have emulsified with the salt and the sugar. There we go.

Now, emulsification doesn't mean we're making paint.

No, it's the process of two ingredients blending to become one.

When you're making mayonnaise, or indeed, tartare sauce,

the type of oil that you use will affect its flavour.

You want a light mayonnaise, just use sunflower oil or a light oil.

If you made one with 100% olive oil,

it'd be really quite heavy and sludgy.

This one, we're using about two-to-one.

Two parts sunflower, one part olive.

Now, this needs to be drizzled in with a delicacy.

Slowly.

Just keep whisking it.

It's hard work doing it by hand.

If only I had an electric whisk.

ELECTRICAL WHIRRING

And in next to no time,

emulsification takes place.

-I love home-made mayonnaise.

-Oh, that's mega, isn't it?

-Oh, lovely texture.

-Oh, yeah. Look.

-Yes.

-Mmmm.

That's God's salad cream.

Poi-fect.

Right.

Now we can start to make the mayonnaise into tartare sauce.

-Yes, we can.

-So I shall "ta-ta", and go and get the gherkins.

-Ha ha!

Chop six gherkins,

along with a handful of capers.

Just going to put these

into the mayonnaise.

And the chopped gherkin or cornichon.

"Cornichon" is just French for gherkin.

Beautiful.

We put in some parsley and some tarragon.

Look at that curly parsley, it's like a Martian's afro.

Now. Fold that in.

That's a proper tartare sauce.

It is.

That is gorgeous.

So we're going to have the best ever scampi,

with wonderful British beer batter,

home-made tartare sauce...

Right. At this point, we should adjust the seasoning.

'Time to get frying.'

'We're using a chip pan so we can see

'what's going on. But deep fat fryers are safer and easier

'when you're cooking at 190 degrees!'

BOTH: Deep-fried. 190.

-Kingy!

-What, mate?

-Shall we just mix up

the smoked langoustines with the ordinary ones?

-Then it's like a lovely pic'n'mix and surprise party.

-Perfect.

Now, put some flour in a plastic bag or a bowl,

and season with a pinch or two of salt.

The seasoned flour, apart from drying them off,

it insures that the batter sticks to the scampi.

How many times have people tried to do this at home,

and your batter falls off?

That's because you don't flour them first.

Hand these over to Friar Tuck.

I love him. He's a great character, Friar Tuck.

Yeah, when I was a kid,

he was always my favourite one of the Merry Men.

It's cos he was fat.

Yeah. I like fat folk.

Now watch this, it's good.

In there.

And then drop it.

Just hold it for a little bit,

and then drop it in.

Beer has a magical effect on the batter -

adding both body and lightness at the same time.

They need hardly any time to cook.

As soon as they're golden, they'll be done.

Kingy, that batter's awesome.

Listen to that.

It's so incredibly crisp.

You know what, Si, I think we should keep these coming.

-Yeah.

-Do you know, cos I think the crew are going to be round these

-like a possum in a dustbin.

-They're closing in

as we speak. Get back and go and stand over there,

the two of you. Cut that out.

Beautiful.

Man, as soon as these come out, we're ready.

Let's make this the best, most jaw-dropping

scampi basket you've ever seen.

"Hey! What you doing to me mates?"

-They've been out for the night and they've got battered.

-"Oh!"

Fantastic.

Can we eat it yet?

And...dip.

Oh, that beer batter is superb.

It is.

Comes through,

nice, robust, beery, yeasty flavour. Fabulous.

And remember, this batter is not just for scampi.

The secrets - the cornflour,

the beer and the vinegar.

Get into your beer and appreciate it for what it is,

because it's a great British product.

So there we have it, our mega beer battered scampi.

Light and crunchy, golden and savoury.

All because of our wonderful British bitter.

But now, we're heading to Herefordshire,

to pay tribute to that other stalwort of the British pub - cider.

In Britain, cider has a long and distinguished history.

We've been growing apples here since Roman times,

and records show that since the 12th century,

monks were well-versed in the art of cider-making.

Cider became the drink of the people.

Farms in the countryside produced it by the barrel-load.

In fact, there was so much cider

that in the 18th century,

farm labourers' wages were part paid in cider -

typically three to four pints per day!

Not only that but the more you managed to drink on the job,

the more you were allowed!

So a two-gallon-a-day man was considered worth the extra he drank.

But in 1887, the fun stopped.

A new law prohibited the payment of wages in this way.

And now drinking cider is just about having good old knees-up!

# Now lift up your glasses to cider

# And let the health go round

# May the apple tree forever stand

# Now drink your liquor down. #

We'd better get on, you know.

-Oh, aye.

-We've got pressing business.

-Certainly.

We're meeting Mike Johnson, a man who is dedicated

to making cider the old-fashioned way.

-Hi.

-Mike, hello. I'm Si.

-Hello, Mike, nice to meet you.

-Hi.

-How are you getting on?

-Fine.

This looks like work.

Yeah, it's going to be a little bit different for you,

but I'm sure you'll do well.

You can't make cider without apples. That's the first step, isn't it?

-Yeah. We've got to pick 'em up.

-Aye.

But you pick them up, don't you? You don't pick them off a tree.

No, with cider, to make really good cider,

you need ripe apples with the right sugars.

But if we can pick the early ones up first,

they don't go rotten while the others are ripening.

So we're just going to pick a few early windfalls up.

-You lead the way!

-Yeah, come this way.

-What a fantastic orchard.

-Amazing, isn't it?

-There's a heck of a lot of apples on that tree, though.

-There are.

And unfortunately this year it's been very dry, so the trees

are a bit stressed with drought.

But I'm sure they'll still make a nice cider.

It's quite satisfying picking stuff, isn't it?

You really feel tired at the end of the day,

but it's really nice to see

-all those apples picked up.

-Yeah, I bet it is.

And if one person works really hard, they can pick a tonne up in a day.

-A tonne?

-A tonne?!

-Yeah.

The traditional method is to beat the trees with long poles

called polting lugs to make the apples fall from the trees,

but Si's got a more hands-on approach.

Ouch! Me head.

MIKE LAUGHS

Aargh! It's raining apples.

Ow!

My mate has his uses.

Sitting here in Mike's orchard amongst his 200 varieties

of apple trees reminds you of just how many

different kinds of English apples there are.

Over 2,000 -

many of which have been forgotten for decades.

Heritage growers like Mike are bringing them back onto the market.

And they have such lovely names.

Cowarne Red, Knotted Kernel,

White Beech, and Strawberry Norman.

Over the last 50 years, many of these

ancient English apples have lost out

to commercial varieties which were quick to crop,

had a reliable shelf life and consistency of shape and colour.

To make things worse,

during the commercial expansion of the cider industry

in the '50s and '60s,

small cider producers were bought out by large companies.

And as hydraulics and industrial science

superseded old-fashioned methods of cider production,

traditional methods and their interesting results

in terms of flavour and taste were largely lost to history.

But Mike is leading a renaissance in old-fashioned cider making.

# I am a cider drinker

# I drinks it all the day... #

He's holding a festival on his farm

to introduce people to old English apples.

And to showcase traditional methods.

You've got a lot of people here this weekend,

-because it's quite special. There's a cider festival on.

-Yeah.

It's a cider festival which is designed to allow people

to meet cider makers.

-Oh, brilliant!

-A bit like speed dating with apples.

-Yeah, exactly.

-That sort of thing.

I'll always encourage people who want to make cider,

and I think everybody in every town and village

should have a part in it,

and there's apples all over England that just rot on the floor

because nobody bothers with them.

-Pick up your apples and press.

-Yeah.

First you have to mill it, so we'll switch the mill on.

We're using a modern mill, a scratter, which shreds the apples

to a pulp without squashing the pips in the process.

In the past, they were ground with horse-drawn millstones.

But these crushed the pips,

which slowly released cyanide,

and if that accumulated in the body over a lifetime,

it could become poisonous.

Oooh! Nasty.

But shredding the fruit is the easy part,

because Mike's fellow cider makers

Dave and Fiona Mathews will show us

how to juice the pulp the old-fashioned way...

using elbow grease.

-Would you two like to do all the work...

-Yeah, yeah.

-..while we just shout advice from the sides?

-Aye.

The pulp has to be evenly spread across the fine mesh,

because there are eight layers going on here.

Aw. This is good, this.

There's skill involved. If you get it wrong,

everybody will know.

-You need a very even layer every time.

-Right, yeah.

If it's all to one side, it's going to tip up when we squash

-and it's all going to pour out and be a complete mess.

-Right.

-So keeping it even's what it's all about.

-Even and level.

-Even and level.

-All right.

Those are not two things that we are strong at!

So, spread it with your hands?

Get your hands in there, into the corners.

I mean, Dave.

Presumably this is how you'd have done it in Victorian times?

Nothing different?

It is. This goes back quite a long way.

The technology of this screw press and the original stone mill

is from the olive oil days in the Mediterranean,

and has come up into Britain about the 12th century with the Normans.

And the old original presses would have had a carved wooden thread,

and then they got into the metal in about the 17th century.

But this has been done this way for centuries.

Each layer is called a hair,

because this cloth would have been originally made of horsehair.

And the whole stack together is called a cheese,

-I think because you press the curds to make cheese, don't you?

-Yes.

In the same you press the pommes to make cider.

Bucketfuls of them.

-Really well into the corners.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, it looks pretty good, boys.

Pretty even, pretty straight.

-Well done.

-Thanks.

-For first-timers!

Right, now. You're going to get one screw each, OK?

One, two, three, four!

-Yes.

-One, two, three!

And this is how Morris dancing was born!

And the juice is starting to pour out now.

-Look at that!

-Wow.

Oh, that's fantastic.

Look how clear it is as well.

It's very rarely that clear and bright.

That's exquisite, man.

Absolutely. The natural sugars in that are fantastic.

That's not what I expected at all. I thought it was going to be sour!

Cider apples... It's really, really sweet.

Next, all our hard-won apple juice

is left to ferment in barrels.

Unlike the modern industrial method of adding

dried yeast to apple juice, Mike lets the natural yeasts

work their magic, turning the sugar into alcohol.

He believes it makes a better cider!

You know the way you make the cider now, Mike?

Is this a technique you've mastered

-that would have been used for hundreds of years?

-Absolutely.

There was a huge amount more knowledge 50 years ago.

There were so many more cider makers making this style of cider,

and unfortunately, we've almost lost a generation in passing it down,

but there's a lot of enthusiastic people making it now.

That's nice. I've had quite a lot of cider,

but I don't think I've had cider where I can identify...

you know like a nice wine, you taste it at first, it's one flavour,

then it mellows out and there's two or three other flavours.

-The tail of the flavour's there for a long time.

-Yeah.

Very easy to drink as well.

It's very important to know your varieties

if you want to make interesting ciders.

The secret of a good cider is in the blend.

And we're going to learn how to mix up a medium dry cider

with Mike's many traditional varieties.

This one is Ashton Brown Jersey.

This is a bittersweet apple.

-Smells cidery.

-Yeah.

This is Foxwell. When you've got the flavour of it,

blend it in with your other one.

-I haven't got a sweetness yet.

-It's a fantastic flavour.

-It is a fantastic flavour.

-The acidity is so strong.

Bitter-sweet cider dries the palate.

But compliments a sweeter flavour to make the perfect blend.

The one should balance the other out quite well.

The best of British!

Smells good.

-Now, that's perfect.

-It is lovely.

Who says that cider isn't as complex as wine?

Because it is,

and the art of this is absolutely superb.

-And you know, this would be beautiful with food.

-Yeah.

It's such a joy to discover cider with so many complex flavours.

And thankfully Mike and his fellow cider makers are bringing back

wonderful old traditions which might have been lost forever.

Now, there's nothing that the taste buds going as much as a pint.

But when you're feeling a bit peckish,

which pub meal do you go for?

There are some real corkers out there, but here's our top five.

MUSIC: "Top Of The Pops" Theme Tune

At number 5, it's the ploughman's lunch.

Here are your ploughman's lunches. Annie.

Introduced to pubs in the late 1960s,

quite simply cheese, bread and pickle.

Imagine those hungry farmhands

wiping off sweat after a hard day's ploughing!

Er, no. Actually, Simon, it had nothing to do with that.

It was invented by the Milk Marketing Board

-to promote the sales of British cheese.

-Oh.

Anyway, I love mine with a big hunk of Stilton.

I know you do, Sizo!

Bangers and mash is our number 4!

And did you know the term was in use as far back as 1919?!

Sausages, particularly those made under rationing in World War II,

had a higher water content and a tendency to burst with a bang

if cooked too quickly, hence the name.

Bangers and mash, for me, is all about variety,

especially if you use a speciality sausage

or add an ingredient like chives or roast garlic to the mash. Mmm!

-DEEP VOICE:

-And it absolutely has to be onion gravy!

-Coming in at 3 is fish and chips.

-Wowzer!

You can't beat our national dish.

Just the smell of vinegar soaking into the batter is enough to drive me crazy!

Fish and chips are truly iconic.

A visit to the chippy has been an important part of British culinary experience

since the late 1850s.

'Certainly no other food has won such a special place in the British way of life.'

And during World War II, fish was one of the few foods that wasn't subject to rationing.

Lots about!

Steak-and-ale pie is number 2 on our list.

The classic pie-and-a-pint.

-What could give you more pleasure?

-Pie-tastic, Dave!

And pub grub needn't be any more gastronomic than this.

Simply made and using local ingredients,

it's British food at its best.

-And topping the chart, it's...

-HE IMITATES FANFARE

..the fish pie, a mainstay of any pub menu

and topped with clouds of fluffy mash.

The ULTIMATE comfort food!

So, next up in our Best Of British kitchen,

we're cooking just that - our pub grub tour de force - the fish pie!

But this is no ordinary fish pie...

No, this is OUR fish pie, a fabulous fish pie.

A decadent mix of cod, smoked haddock and salmon

in a dill-and-white wine sauce with a cheesy mash topping.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away - called Glasgow -

we wandered into a hostelry and we came upon a gentleman called Billy.

And he was very famous for his granny's fish pie,

and after some gentle persuasion, Billy passed on that recipe.

It's about what's affordable and fresh,

so go to your fishmonger - they're brilliant people.

But Billy's fish pies were individual,

they were a honking big meal and it was rammed with fish.

Now, milk goes into the pan.

'There's 600ml of whole milk,

'add a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper...

'and a couple of bay leaves.

'Then place in three different types of fish.'

You only poach that for two minutes,

then you leave it to stand for five minutes, and all that liquor,

you use to make the sauce, a dill sauce, in which to suspend the pie.

Oh, the suspended animation of dill. Ooh.

Now, while Dave's doing that, I'm just going to get on and do our cheesy mash.

Very, very simple. All I'm going to do is add butter to the pan.

-That's a lot of butter.

-It certainly is. But it's worth it.

But it's interesting, it was after the Romans left

when we got left with the legacy of eating fish,

because the Church insisted that we had a meat-free day,

so Friday became fish day, and we all started to eat more fish.

Over the millennia or so, we learned to be more inventive with fish,

so we made fish pie, we cooked the fish with fruit.

Those medieval recipes, they're, like, mackerel with gooseberries.

Still a classic dish. I've had that on numerous occasions.

-It's really, really good.

-Phwoar!

'For the mash, poach the potatoes until they're just soft,

'then squidge through a ricer.'

Now, I've just melted the butter. I'm just going to put some cream...

-Lovely.

-This is proper mash, innit?

-Yeah.

Just give that a little squidgely-widgely.

'Coarsely grate 150g of mature Cheddar

'and put aside about a quarter of that for the topping.'

It's funny. Seafood pasta - Parmesan I don't think goes, do you?

-Oh, God, yeah.

-Oh. Strike that one, then.

-Yeah. What?

-Cheese goes great with fish.

-It does.

All I've done with the mashed potato is I've put them through a ricer.

I'm going to add the cream and butter to that,

and then I'm going to stir through the cheese,

-and that's the cheesy mash that's going to top our fantastic fish pie.

-Yep.

Now, we turn this off now and we wait for five minutes.

That fish is just going to relax in that milk.

After five minutes we can crack on and make the sauce.

See, it's really very simple.

Stir the cream and butter into the mashed spuds.

You see, when I was a kid, in our house,

we were more fishcake people than fish pie people.

-Opinion is divided, Dave, isn't it, about fish pie?

-Mm-hm.

Do you have eggs in it, or do you not have eggs in it?

Billy had eggs in it.

-And what do we like?

-Eggs.

-Love 'em.

I've just mixed that cheese in.

Want to taste, mate, see if it needs a bit salt?

Oh, loads of seasoning necessary. White pepper in mashed potato.

-Always.

-Always white pepper in mash.

-I think, white pepper, it tastes sharper with the mash.

-Yeah.

It's nice. It's cleaner.

Right, this fish is done, cos really,

what I want at this moment, rather than the fish, is that juice.

Look at that.

Take the fish out.

Lovely big paves of salmon.

Smoked haddock.

I'm going to flake this, so don't worry about this falling apart.

In that milk, we've got all the goodness from the fish,

the bay and the seasoning.

It's not a namby-pamby sauce, I've got a lump of butter

and I'm going to make a roux.

To the melted butter, add five tablespoons of plain flour.

And stir the flour in and make a paste.

Some may say it's going to resemble wallpaper paste.

However, do not panic.

Slowly add the milky fish broth,

stirring over a medium heat for five minutes,

until the sauce is thickened.

Believe me, this will be smooth.

If it isn't smooth, we will put a whisk to it.

-Are we there?

-Yeah, yeah...

Tell us when, mate.

It's a bit lumpy, but we'll soon deal with that.

While Dave's wrestling with the sauce, I'm going to cut the eggs.

-A top hairy biker... Oh, it's lush, that.

-It is, look at that.

Have a butcher's.

The first thing you notice when you taste it,

is the smoky flavour from the fish.

It's brilliant. It's also quite salty, the smoked fish.

I have to watch my seasoning.

We haven't been shy with the dill, either. Lovely.

Remember, this will let down a bit more of the sauce

because, as the pie cooks, there will be more liquid coming out of the fish.

'If you're using eggs, you need six hard-boiled ones

'and they need to be sliced.'

A little tip, which really does help to get a neat finish on your eggs,

is wet your knife as you cut through the egg.

-My mam used to have one of those wire things for cutting eggs.

-I love them.

I used to think it was a banjo and I used to pretend I was George Formby.

"Son, put the egg slicer down." "Mum, where's the plasters?"

-Right, there's all the eggs you can shake a stick at.

-Brilliant.

-The mash is ready.

-Sauce, fish, eggs.

Put a dollop of sauce in the bottom of each bowl.

Then break up the fish, checking all the time for bones.

A bit of salmon...

It's funny, that salmon... It started off being a poor man's fish

and then it was a super posh man's fish and now, ironically,

it's one of the most affordable fish on the market.

-Continue to layer up. There we go.

-Eggs.

-Look at that.

-That'll do us, that's enough egg.

-I think so. Now, more sauce.

'It may look quite thick at the moment but in the oven,

'it'll mix with the juice from the fish and, trust us,

'it'll come out perfect.'

Essentially the logic is, and I agree, I hate watery fish pies.

So many people make fish pies, and you go through the process

and it looks great when you put it in,

but there's like a layer of water when you get under the potatoes.

Not this pie.

Not this pie, viewers.

Now pub pies, whether it's a fish pie, steak and kidney,

chicken and mushroom, you have to have a generous, well-packed pie.

And these pies are going to be towered up like that.

We're going to be rustic with this.

None of your fancy piping or Duchess kind of rondelles,

it's just dollops of mash, as rough as you like.

All those rough bits will translate into crispy bits.

-Keep it rough, keep it rough.

-I'm roughing.

-Hee, hee.

That's a hearty portion for one, isn't it?

Sprinkle the remaining cheese onto the pies and place on a baking tray.

I had a geometry wipe-out, then.

There we are.

Pop these into a preheated oven about 180 to 200 degrees Celsius,

for about half an hour until golden.

The top tip, if they're not golden enough, finish them under a grill.

Oh, yes.

Oh, they are...hoooot!

DAVE LAUGHS

That is gorgeous.

-That is a proper pie, isn't it?

-Look at that. I love the colour.

But we know there's a lot going on below that crust, you know.

-Shall we find out?

-Yes, go on.

It's like David Bellamy looking into a garden pond. Look at that.

You see, that's where the sense of that thick sauce comes in.

It's perfect. It's creamy. It's not full of water.

That's brilliant.

It tastes brilliant. It's simple, straightforward, no-nonsense, pub fish pie.

And tasty.

It's great, I love the combination of the fish, it's so simple.

There's just enough smokiness. A third of the fish was smoked.

But the salmon is meaty and flaky.

I say, because of that sauce being thick, it's not at all watery.

And the mash.

It's quite simply decadent.

Long live pub grub.

In recent years, Britons have been rediscovering the joys of our traditional pub culture.

From the sumptuous gourmet meal...

..to the revival in historic beer and cider making.

The British pub has always had a unique place in society.

But adding decent food and quality booze into the equation

has helped create a truly British culinary scene.

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

Visit...

..to discover some amazing facts about the history of food.

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

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