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Country Pursuits

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The Royal Family are steeped in tradition,

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and throughout history the royal tables have

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showcased culinary excellence.

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'In celebration of royal food...'

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We know it's the Queen's recipe

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because we've got it in her own hand.

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'..from the present and past...'

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That is proper regal.

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'We recreate old family favourites.'

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Now, the Queen Mother had this really wicked trick with these.

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What a mess.

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'We sample royal eating alfresco...'

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-Wow.

-That is what you want.

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'..and revisit the most extravagant times.'

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Pheasant, stag, turkey, salmon,

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oysters and turbot dressed in a lobster champagne sauce.

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Unbelievable.

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This is Royal Recipes.

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Hello. I'm Michael Buerk, and welcome to Royal Recipes.

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This is Audley End,

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magnificent stately home built in the style of a royal palace,

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and a former home of King Charles II.

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In the splendour of the gardens,

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halls and kitchen of this grandest of country houses,

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we'll be recreating the food served at the highest royal tables.

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And it all starts here, with this gem,

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a royal kitchen maid's cookbook,

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the only surviving recipe book of its kind in the royal archive.

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This is an exact copy of the original,

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which is kept at Windsor Castle.

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Inside, the recipes of Mildred Nicholls,

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who worked at Buckingham Palace

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in the early 1900s.

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And for the first time in over 100 years,

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we'll be bringing these recipes back to life.

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This time we cook food that reflects the royal family's love

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of the countryside.

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From their hunting, shooting and fishing pursuits,

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to their enjoyment of rich, rural flavours.

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Right, so...

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'Today in the Royal Recipes kitchen,

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'chef Anna Haugh tries sausage making,

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'using the Queen's favourite meat, pheasant.'

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You might be lucky to get a cocktail sausage.

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It's quite a process, and quite an art, I think.

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Lord Iveagh shows Dr Matt Green the rich history of a shooting estate,

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created by a maharaja and adored by royalty.

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-So George there.

-That's right. King George.

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-And the Queen.

-Wow.

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And we follow Prince Charles's example

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and go foraging for mushrooms.

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That's worth picking.

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In the kitchen wing of this glorious stately home,

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we start our celebration of the royals' country pursuits

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with a recipe from the early days of the Queen's reign,

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and a firm favourite with the Queen mother.

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Hello and welcome to the grand kitchen.

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With me, Anna Haugh, top chef at a London restaurant...

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WHISPERED: ..where the young royals go.

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Yes, they do from time to time.

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Down the ages, most of our kings and queens have been country lovers,

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and when it comes to eating, they are really fond of game.

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What are you going to do for us today?

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Well, I don't blame them. I love game myself.

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And today I'm actually going to make a royal recipe.

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This is a recipe from the Queen Mother's cook,

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and it's galantine of game.

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-Galantine?

-Galantine.

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So galantine usually would be like a kind of sausage-shaped, kind of, um,

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type of terrine.

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-Cylindrical rather than square.

-Yes.

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But today I'm going to keep with the traditional terrine mould,

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just because it's easier to kind of shape it.

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So I've lightly cooked off pheasant and partridge breasts here and then

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the legs I've just kind of pulsed in a blender while they were raw.

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And I'm going to mix it with a little bit of sausage meat

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-and then pack it in nice and tightly.

-Wow.

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So, first of all, I'm just going to give these a bit of a slice.

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You want to kind of cut them about a centimetre thick.

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-Yeah.

-So that we can nicely line it up on top.

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OK, so I'm going to mix the two meats here together.

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-Mm-hm.

-It's pretty simple.

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But you just want to make sure that it's completely combined.

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Tell me, why the sausage meat?

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The sausage meat is a good kind of filler

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and the flavour of the pork meat

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is very nice. Then we're going to wrap it in bacon

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as well so, it kind of all gels in very nicely together.

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So just give it a good mix so that it's

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nice and evenly kind of distributed.

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In the olden days, would they have wrapped it in bacon like that?

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They may not have, no, actually.

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They probably would have just

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had this in a cylindrical mould so it looks

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like a large sausage.

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And then they would have sliced it and set it in gelatine, or aspic,

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or possibly set the entire one in aspic as well.

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There's a little bit more in there.

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OK.

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And then...

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Oh, you're sticking in a layer of the breast in at that stage?

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-Yeah.

-The royals would have had

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-lots of pheasants to play with, wouldn't they?

-Mm-hm.

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They were so fond of hunting and shooting

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-and fishing and everything.

-Yeah, yeah.

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You don't really have to be a royal, do you?

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I mean, the pheasants and partridges and things are, in the season,

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are pretty widely available.

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Absolutely, yeah. I would completely agree.

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-It's a kind of "vegetarians, look away now".

-Yes!

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So, I'm going to pack this in lovely and tightly.

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Oh, look, you've left a bit of pheasant.

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Yes, just for you.

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-A little snack.

-Mm.

-Keep those energy levels up.

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-OK.

-Mm-hm.

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I'm going to fold this over...

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..like this.

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And then a few more slices

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just to make sure that there's no bits of mince peeping out.

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Are you sure it's going to stay sealed?

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Yes. Yeah, no, it will, it will all kind of cook together.

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I think I should be able to fold them over now.

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Yeah.

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It does look very neat, doesn't it?

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Yeah. And wait till you see it when I turn it out.

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It's super neat.

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So all I'm going to do now is wrap it in some tinfoil...

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..give it a good kind of

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squeeze all around.

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And then I'm just going to cook it in a tray of hot water and this just

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helps with the kind of even cooking...

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-Right.

-..of the terrine.

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So you need to cook this for about

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an hour and a half at about 160 degrees.

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-Mm-hm.

-I'm just going to give my hands a quick wash because I've

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been handling raw meat and I'm just about to reveal how our terrine is

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is going to look, our galantine's going to look.

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A-ha. Oh, I love this bit.

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-Yes.

-Can I do the reveal?

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-Yes, please.

-One, two, three.

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-SHE GASPS

-Ho-ho!

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-Isn't it beautiful?

-It's lovely, isn't it?

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Turn it round a bit there. Shall I put the plate there?

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Yes.

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Oh!

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Oh, look at that.

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Yeah. Wouldn't that be lovely,

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just sitting around a table with your friends, a cheeky glass of red.

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One or two. Now, how do we eat this?

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-Do we have it on toast?

-On toast, maybe,

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with a little bit of fig chutney could be quite nice.

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-Fig chutney?

-Yes.

-Ooh-hoo!

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Yeah, I think something with a little bit of kind of sweetness,

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acidity and a bit of spice...

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-Yeah.

-..goes so well with game.

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-Have a knife and fork.

-Thank you.

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Right.

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It looks fantastic. I'm going to go from this end.

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-Mm.

-Mm-mm-mm.

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Oh, yes, it's quite solid.

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-Yeah.

-Here we go.

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-Mm.

-Mm.

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I'll have a bit of toast with it.

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The chutney goes so well with that.

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It does. You kind of need a bit of the chutney with it.

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Mm.

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But although it is game, it's not overpowering game.

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-No.

-I don't think it is the scariest game in the world

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-to make a galantine with.

-It certainly isn't.

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Oh! The Queen Mum's cook knew what she was doing.

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A delicious and simple way for

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the royals to enjoy the game shot for their table.

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Shooting parties have always been part of royal life.

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Many a grand shooting estate

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was created specifically to attract their patronage.

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Elveden in Suffolk is one such estate.

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It's current owner is the fourth Earl of Iveagh, Edward Guinness.

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-Good morning.

-Good morning.

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He's agreed to share its past with historian Dr Matt Green.

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-This is fantastic.

-This is our van.

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This van has been with us since 1934.

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Since 1934?

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It's what the shooting guns have always been driven around in.

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A suitably vintage start to the day.

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The Guinness family have owned the 17,000-acre estate since 1894,

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but Elveden was a firm favourite of the royals even before then.

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It was Queen Victoria's close friend,

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the Punjabi Maharajah Duleep Singh,

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who bought it some 30 years earlier and set

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about building its hunting reputation.

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With Duleep Singh, Elveden became

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one of the finest shoots in the country.

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Apparently, one day, he killed...

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..760 game birds with 1,000 shots.

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With 1,000 shots?

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That's almost a 100% success rate.

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He was considered extremely good, one of the top ten shots of his day.

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Are you that good?

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Forever if it wasn't a challenge it wouldn't be fun.

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-The game birds are safe with me.

-OK!

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Elveden was the perfect place for the Maharajah

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to entertain his neighbour, the Prince of Wales,

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who owned the 7,000-acre Sandringham estate

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just across the county border in Norfolk.

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And it was a whole social occasion.

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They had some delicious food and drink,

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and Duleep Singh got so large,

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he needed to be seated while shooting on a wicker chair...

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-Really? Right.

-..which rotated so he could face the game birds from

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whichever direction they came from.

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So, he could swivel round and then have a shot?

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He was a sitting gun.

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Edward VII, George V and George VI all shot here at Elveden.

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No shooting party was complete without lunch.

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-So...

-So, where are we?

-Over this way.

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-Yes.

-This wood here is the Duke of York Wood.

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Shoots would stop off and enjoy their lunch.

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And they would have the most amazing array of food,

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which was all laid out in a marquee.

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Over here? In a marquee?

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-Yes.

-Really?

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It's amazing to kind of picture that, isn't it?

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The Prince of Wales himself

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would have been out there after a successful morning,

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and almost by magic this marquee would appear and they'd be in

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there having this lavish banquet, exchanging excitable tales,

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quaffing down fine wines, and then going back out there.

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It must have been amazing.

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If only the trees could talk.

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All the stories and the wonderful tales that were told.

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There's plenty to tell from Lord Iveagh's family archive.

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It includes detailed records

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of those lunches and the illustrious guests.

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-Come in, Matt.

-Thank you.

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This is my great-great-grandmother's book.

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It's a photograph album that she took with her

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and many of her guests signed.

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And she put in some beautiful photographs...

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Oh, wow! These are really old.

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So, this is essentially a collection of photographs of the shoots.

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What about this picture here? Talking of lunch,

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are these the kind of pop-up dining halls

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they used to have their meals in

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-in the middle of the shoot?

-They were.

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They were dining at the Duke of York Wood.

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-Wow!

-So, the trees have grown but the place is the same.

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What are these signatures?

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So, they're all the host guests.

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OK. And George there.

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That's right. King George.

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-That was the king.

-And, um, the Queen.

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-Churchill.

-Here we go.

-Churchill.

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And there's even a picture of Edward VII himself.

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It's amazing to see these.

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A really vivid trip down memory lane.

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-That's right.

-Thank you for showing it to us.

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Not at all. My great pleasure.

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Shooting parties are still a part of life today on some royal estates.

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Apparently, Anna, pheasants are the Queen's very favourite game bird.

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It's probably a good job because they shoot an awful lot of them.

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Especially over Christmas.

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Boxing Day is apparently the big shooting day.

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Prince Philip used to, I think his doctors advised him not to,

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used to be shooting these birds.

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And the Queen was involved in picking them up, apparently,

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-or at least collecting them.

-Just imagine the two of them there,

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as a couple, out kind of doing such a traditional British hobby.

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And Prince Philip likes cooking, I think.

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Yeah, I heard he did like to cook.

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And also when they would shoot the pheasant, any of the leftovers,

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he would bring to the local butcher

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and they would make pheasant sausages.

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He didn't want to see anything wasted.

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-Exactly.

-Are you going to do those pheasant sausages?

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I'm going to make pheasant sausages but I've never made them before.

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So, I'm following this old pheasant recipe for sausages,

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-and I'm going to give it a go.

-OK.

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So, fingers crossed that I make edible sausages.

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-So, what have you got?

-The first thing I'm going to do is I have some

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sausage meat, some chopped up streaky bacon, and minced pheasant.

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Because pheasant isn't the obvious thing to have in a sausage,

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-is it?

-No.

-There's very little fat on it.

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Very little fat. But I think there's a good flavour to lend very well.

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If you match it up with the kind of fattiness of your sausage meat

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and your bacon, I think it's going to go really well.

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And then I'm just going to put a little hint of spice

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in there as well to give it a bit more interest.

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So, let's get going.

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-So, I'm going to stick them all in.

-It's a smoky bacon?

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Yes. Yeah, just to give it a little extra bit of flavour.

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You're going to mix them all together?

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Mix them all together, actually,

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and I'll just pop the spice in there now.

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What spices are they?

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A pinch of nutmeg.

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-Mm hm.

-And then another pinch of allspice.

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And I'm just mixing it in here with the sausage meat, the chopped bacon,

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and then the minced pheasant.

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-Mm hm.

-And just give it a good mix.

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And then I'm going to use a kind of sausage attachment on...

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Sausage attachment!

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On a home mixer.

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I'm quite interested to see how this is going to go.

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I'm quite nervous. I'm quite nervous.

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-Shall I hold it?

-Yes.

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Make sure it doesn't move.

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So, the recipe says, I need to spoon it in there.

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-Mm hm.

-Put a little bit extra on the side.

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Switch this little bad boy on.

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WHIRRING

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And let's...

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get sausage making.

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Ooh!

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And you've got the sausage skins already on the end there.

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Do you want me to do that? Shall I press that down?

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Yeah. If you keep spooning.

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I will.

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I don't know how hungry you are, Michael,

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but you might be looking to get a cocktail sausage.

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It's quite a process, quite an art, I think.

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Yeah.

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Oh, yes.

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Now, that's a proper looking sausage.

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It's not as easy as it looks, this, you know.

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I mean, we could keep going all day with this.

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We could, we could. Shall I put a bit more in?

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-No, definitely not.

-That's it?

-Let's nip this in the bud. Switch it off.

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Yeah.

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Phew! Ooh!

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-OK.

-And a little tie.

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That's quite good. With your help there, Michael, I was able to...

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I think that was the crucial element, actually.

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Yes, absolutely.

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Now... Now I've got to twist them into sausages.

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OK. So, I think we should get three out of here.

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-Yeah.

-If I do that like that.

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And then just give them a twist.

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Give them a twist.

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Twist.

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OK. Pheasant sausages. Three pheasant sausages there.

0:15:150:15:18

I'm quite proud of that.

0:15:180:15:19

-They do look good actually, don't they?

-Yeah.

0:15:190:15:21

So, the next step is to fry your sausages in a pan.

0:15:210:15:24

Little bit of butter, a little bit of garlic and thyme.

0:15:240:15:27

-Mm hm.

-Goes delicious with some mashed potato.

0:15:270:15:29

Mashed potato, of course.

0:15:290:15:32

Of course. Bangers and mash.

0:15:320:15:33

But this is a cider gravy.

0:15:330:15:35

So, you've got chicken stock, very little bit of flour,

0:15:350:15:38

caramelised onion in here.

0:15:380:15:39

And a little secret to this is a spoonful of English mustard.

0:15:390:15:44

-Yeah?

-So, you've got the sharpness of the cider and you've also got

0:15:440:15:48

the hint of mustard, just to take off the fattiness of the sausage.

0:15:480:15:52

And then maybe just a little pinch of brown sugar in there as well,

0:15:520:15:55

just to give it a bit of sweetness.

0:15:550:15:57

Just give that a nice little stir.

0:15:570:15:59

They probably needed recipes for leftovers because, you know,

0:15:590:16:02

so many pheasants get shot on these occasions.

0:16:020:16:05

King Edward was so keen on shooting that he had the clocks

0:16:050:16:09

advanced by half an hour at Sandringham,

0:16:090:16:11

so he could spend more of the day shooting.

0:16:110:16:13

What do you think of that? They used to call it Sandringham time.

0:16:130:16:16

-That's brilliant.

-Yeah. Oh, I love your mash!

0:16:160:16:19

Creamy. What's the secret with that?

0:16:190:16:20

Being Irish, I think.

0:16:200:16:22

-What, you're good with potatoes.

-Yes.

0:16:220:16:24

-Oh, yes, yes. yes.

-OK.

0:16:250:16:28

Now that...is what I call a sausage.

0:16:280:16:31

And you put them on top... That's your cheffy bit, isn't it?

0:16:330:16:36

That's my cheffy bit. Yes.

0:16:360:16:37

Well, you know... My pizzazz!

0:16:370:16:40

-OK.

-Yep.

-Now our lovely gravy.

0:16:400:16:43

It's very traditional.

0:16:470:16:48

Would you serve it with any other vegetables?

0:16:480:16:51

No. No.

0:16:510:16:53

I think just like this is exactly what you want.

0:16:530:16:56

On a cold winter's day.

0:16:560:16:59

Exactly. So there you have it.

0:16:590:17:01

Pheasant sausage, cider gravy and creamy mash.

0:17:010:17:04

Yes, please. Bring it on.

0:17:040:17:05

Knife and fork for you, knife and fork for me.

0:17:050:17:07

Go on. You made 'em.

0:17:070:17:09

Oh, yes. They're chunky, aren't they?

0:17:090:17:12

Here we go.

0:17:130:17:15

Mmm.

0:17:160:17:17

-Mm.

-I've never had pheasant sausage before.

0:17:190:17:21

-Mm.

-And I certainly will have it again.

0:17:210:17:23

-It's delicious.

-Absolutely delicious.

0:17:230:17:25

These posh sausages would be a favourite

0:17:260:17:29

with all ages after an afternoon in the countryside.

0:17:290:17:32

For the Royal Family,

0:17:320:17:34

rural pursuits mean different things to different people.

0:17:340:17:37

Prince Charles is passionate about natural food,

0:17:370:17:41

and he's not averse to foraging for his supper.

0:17:410:17:43

When it comes to mushrooms, John Wright is an expert,

0:17:510:17:54

a self-taught mycologist,

0:17:540:17:57

and like Prince Charles, he's very happy to forage.

0:17:570:18:00

I'm been mushrooming a very long time now, 1965, I think I started.

0:18:020:18:06

I get just as excited now as I did when I first started.

0:18:060:18:09

I can't wait to see what we're going to find today.

0:18:090:18:12

Mushroom foraging can be traced back to the Roman times,

0:18:120:18:15

but it is not until recently that it's become such a popular pastime.

0:18:150:18:19

People absolutely love it,

0:18:200:18:21

and it sort of calms the nerves and slows the heart rate.

0:18:210:18:25

I remember seeing a picture of Prince Charles

0:18:250:18:27

in the paper carrying a mushroom basket

0:18:270:18:29

and I thought, "That's great",

0:18:290:18:30

because he's got people that can go and pick mushrooms for him,

0:18:300:18:33

but he wanted to do it himself

0:18:330:18:34

and that's the whole point of it,

0:18:340:18:36

you've go and actually do it yourself,

0:18:360:18:37

it's engaging with nature, really.

0:18:370:18:39

And with over 15,000 species of mushrooms in the UK,

0:18:420:18:45

there's plenty to choose from.

0:18:450:18:47

And the royal estates lend themselves

0:18:470:18:50

particularly well to foraging.

0:18:500:18:52

I think Prince Charles is quite a lucky mushroom hunter

0:18:520:18:55

because he's got access to this wonderful parkland

0:18:550:18:59

over most of the royal estate,

0:18:590:19:01

so he can just go wandering and he'll find grassland species

0:19:010:19:04

and woodland species, kind of in his own back garden.

0:19:040:19:07

Not everybody can do that.

0:19:070:19:08

Foraging for mushrooms takes great skill and knowledge

0:19:080:19:12

and should only be undertaken by experts such as John,

0:19:120:19:15

who often forages on his friends' land.

0:19:150:19:17

Grasslands like this are a great source of mushrooms,

0:19:190:19:22

as they have often been left uncultivated for hundreds of years,

0:19:220:19:25

creating an undisturbed environment for the fungi.

0:19:250:19:28

This is lovely. One of my favourites.

0:19:300:19:32

It's a really common mushroom.

0:19:320:19:35

And that's quite a nice size, you often get them in quite large rings.

0:19:350:19:40

It's called the Scarlet Wax Cap, it's quite a good one for

0:19:400:19:42

frightening your friends that come round for dinner.

0:19:420:19:45

People really worry about red things and I can understand why.

0:19:450:19:48

But no, there's some edible red things

0:19:480:19:49

and there's some poisonous red things,

0:19:490:19:51

you just have to know what it is.

0:19:510:19:53

These are nice. Look.

0:19:570:19:59

Quite amazing.

0:19:590:20:00

These are puffballs. This is quite tasty,

0:20:030:20:05

and you can see how tasty it is

0:20:050:20:07

because somebody has eaten a bit of it already.

0:20:070:20:09

There's been a slug in there.

0:20:090:20:10

There's a little bit left.

0:20:100:20:11

Try and get away from the slug-nibbled area.

0:20:110:20:14

Bit like a mushroom flavoured marshmallow.

0:20:170:20:20

That is worth picking. In the basket.

0:20:200:20:22

Now, look at this.

0:20:240:20:25

Wow.

0:20:260:20:27

John finds a ring of parasol mushrooms,

0:20:270:20:30

the final ingredients needed for a well-known royal favourite dish.

0:20:300:20:34

Now he just needs to find a spot to cook.

0:20:340:20:37

We have heat. My goodness, I think I'll just

0:20:370:20:39

sit here and warm my hands.

0:20:390:20:41

In honour of the very fine mushrooms I've managed to pick today I'm going

0:20:410:20:44

to use the Duke of Edinburgh's own recipe for wild mushrooms

0:20:440:20:48

which is mushrooms a la creme.

0:20:480:20:49

So let's get that melted.

0:20:510:20:52

What I think I'll do is I'll put some of our wax caps in first,

0:20:520:20:56

they take a little bit longer to cook, they're quite moist.

0:20:560:20:59

Remove the twigs, I don't worry too much about that.

0:20:590:21:01

That's a little scarlet wax cap.

0:21:010:21:03

Just get the stem off.

0:21:030:21:05

And now our magnificent puffball, I'll break him in bits.

0:21:050:21:09

Pop him in. What else have we got?

0:21:090:21:11

Here are my parasols next, these cook very quickly.

0:21:110:21:14

Just going to pull the stem out, you can't do anything with the stem,

0:21:140:21:16

and don't need to clean it, don't need to wash it,

0:21:160:21:18

just break it into little triangles and in it goes.

0:21:180:21:21

Mushrooms really do need salt, there's a very bland flavour,

0:21:210:21:24

they need that little bit of salt.

0:21:240:21:26

I'm going to put in a little bit of pepper.

0:21:260:21:29

These mushrooms are cooked. I'm going to put this in.

0:21:300:21:33

And I think that's enough.

0:21:330:21:34

I do like the cream thick but not too thick,

0:21:340:21:37

you don't want it to be like a sticky custard or something,

0:21:370:21:39

you just need it a little bit runny.

0:21:390:21:41

That's it, done. Just try it now.

0:21:410:21:43

Let's have a go. It should be perfect.

0:21:430:21:46

And the cream will have taken on the flavour of the mushrooms.

0:21:460:21:49

My God, that's amazing.

0:21:510:21:52

That is really, really brilliant.

0:21:520:21:55

I'll have some of the mushrooms.

0:21:550:21:56

I'm going to go with the puffball.

0:21:560:21:58

It's sort of ice cream, it really is.

0:22:000:22:03

It's just wonderful, but it's so much better out of doors.

0:22:030:22:06

It really is the perfect end to a foraging day -

0:22:060:22:09

pick something in the wild, we eat it.

0:22:090:22:11

When our kitchen maid, Mildred Nicholls,

0:22:160:22:19

who's left us this fantastic recipe book,

0:22:190:22:21

was working in the Buckingham Palace kitchens,

0:22:210:22:23

Edward VII was on the throne, then his son, George V.

0:22:230:22:27

Both dedicated countrymen, out and about all the time,

0:22:270:22:30

shooting, fishing, in Edward's case, philandering!

0:22:300:22:33

So what have you managed to find in Mildred's cookbook that is

0:22:330:22:38

a nice snack to take out on your country pursuits?

0:22:380:22:41

Something to put in the hamper, something to have in your hand,

0:22:410:22:43

-a nice sweet snack?

-OK, well, this recipe is very interesting.

0:22:430:22:46

It's called chapeaux communs, and it's like...

0:22:460:22:49

-Chapeaux communs?

-Yeah.

0:22:490:22:51

I've never seen anything like it before,

0:22:510:22:53

so I'm quite excited to see how it's going to turn out.

0:22:530:22:55

It's a kind of pastry that is wrapped around marzipan,

0:22:550:22:59

and then we're going to dip it in chocolate -

0:22:590:23:01

that originally wasn't in the recipe but I think it will be a nice

0:23:010:23:04

kind of twist on it - but I think what makes this recipe

0:23:040:23:06

so interesting is that the pastry is like a mixture between

0:23:060:23:10

kind of like a pastry and a bit of a cake, because you've got a bit

0:23:100:23:13

of baking powder in here, and a bit of cream...

0:23:130:23:15

-That's unusual.

-..butter, flour...

0:23:150:23:17

Yeah, it is, it's quite interesting.

0:23:170:23:18

So you just mix all those ingredients together and you roll it

0:23:180:23:21

out to about half a centimetre thick.

0:23:210:23:24

-And that's what we have here.

-"Chapeau" is French for hat,

0:23:240:23:26

-isn't it?

-That's right, yes.

0:23:260:23:27

And you shape it into a particular kind of hat,

0:23:270:23:29

-but we'll talk about that in a minute.

-Exactly. Exactly.

0:23:290:23:31

So, what do you do?

0:23:310:23:32

I'm just going to cut the rounds out now, and then I'm going to

0:23:320:23:35

-make the marzipan.

-I love marzipan.

0:23:350:23:38

Yeah, yeah. And I think the royals were fans of marzipan.

0:23:380:23:41

Oh, down the ages.

0:23:410:23:42

I think it would have been seen as a real treat because there was

0:23:420:23:45

a lot that you could do with marzipan -

0:23:450:23:46

you could colour it and shape it,

0:23:460:23:48

and I think back in the Tudors' time,

0:23:480:23:50

they used to like it shaped as little animals.

0:23:500:23:52

And they'd have them on the banqueting table.

0:23:520:23:55

-Yeah.

-And things like that.

-Biting their heads off.

0:23:550:23:57

Mind you, it must have been only for the very, very rich in those days.

0:23:570:24:00

Oh, yeah. Definitely.

0:24:000:24:01

So this is your almond flour, and it's the base of the marzipan.

0:24:010:24:05

It is just ground down almonds.

0:24:050:24:07

And I'm going to add the sugar.

0:24:070:24:09

And then we're going to add our butter to it.

0:24:090:24:11

And then the same way you would make like apple crumble,

0:24:110:24:15

you'd just kind of try to lift the butter, mix the butter,

0:24:150:24:19

through your almond flour as quickly as possible,

0:24:190:24:22

and this way you get kind of like an even covering of butter

0:24:220:24:26

on your almond so then, when you add your egg,

0:24:260:24:28

it just kind of all mixes together like a good dough.

0:24:280:24:31

The Queen loves marzipan, apparently,

0:24:310:24:33

and other people know that.

0:24:330:24:34

I think that when she went to Germany once,

0:24:340:24:37

they actually gave her a big marzipan

0:24:370:24:40

rendering of the Brandenburg gate.

0:24:400:24:42

-Can you imagine?

-Brilliant! You can just imagine her

0:24:420:24:44

-sinking her teeth into that.

-Yes!

0:24:440:24:47

-What next?

-So, all you need to do is crack one egg into the centre.

0:24:470:24:52

Keep a sharp eye out for any egg shell, looking good to go.

0:24:530:24:57

Just give it a mix.

0:24:570:24:59

OK, so it looks like it's almost together now,

0:24:590:25:02

so I'm going to get my hand back in there, a bit more pressure on it.

0:25:020:25:07

OK, so when you're rolling marzipan,

0:25:070:25:09

you don't use flour because this is a flourless recipe,

0:25:090:25:13

we're going to use icing sugar to help you roll it out,

0:25:130:25:16

so we're going to roll this into small little balls,

0:25:160:25:20

just going to take a little bit of icing sugar, there.

0:25:200:25:23

It's the fact that it's in tiny little pieces,

0:25:230:25:26

tiny little hats, that make it so suitable, don't they,

0:25:260:25:28

for putting in a hamper, almost putting it in your pocket if you're

0:25:280:25:31

-going out shooting or something?

-Exactly. Exactly.

-Oh, now, now, and

0:25:310:25:34

this is the tricky bit. Yes, yes, you roll the ball.

0:25:340:25:37

-Yeah.

-Very neat. Very round.

0:25:370:25:40

So, now I'm going to start shaping the little hats.

0:25:400:25:43

We're looking for a three-point hat.

0:25:430:25:46

Oh, it would be called in those days a tricorn hat, or something.

0:25:460:25:50

-A tricorn hat.

-Don't know why they went out of fashion.

0:25:500:25:53

They look rather elegant, I think.

0:25:530:25:54

Oh, they look rather sweet, don't they?

0:25:540:25:56

Don't they look quite pretty, yeah? They do look quite pretty.

0:25:560:25:58

So, I'm just going to pop these on the tray, now,

0:26:020:26:04

and I'm going to eggwash them.

0:26:040:26:07

It gives them a nice kind of glaze and shine,

0:26:070:26:10

and then I'm going to bake them in the oven for about

0:26:100:26:13

10 to 12 minutes, at 180 degrees, and then when they come out,

0:26:130:26:17

just to give it an extra kick, a little bit more sweetness,

0:26:170:26:20

I'm going to glaze them with a sugar syrup,

0:26:200:26:22

which is just water and sugar boiled together.

0:26:220:26:25

It's going to be a really kind of sweet little mouthful, isn't it?

0:26:250:26:28

Yeah. A nice, crunchy, soft kind of biscuit.

0:26:280:26:31

So I've actually baked some earlier on,

0:26:310:26:33

which I'm going to bring over now.

0:26:330:26:35

-Look at these.

-They do look lovely, don't they?

0:26:350:26:38

But they've lost some of the hat shape.

0:26:380:26:40

Yeah, well, it's a different hat shape.

0:26:400:26:43

-But, yeah, I can kind of see...

-A kind of squashed hat!

-Yeah.

0:26:430:26:46

So these ones I did glaze with sugar syrup on top, and you can see

0:26:460:26:50

how shiny and delicious they look,

0:26:500:26:52

I'm going to now dip them in the chocolate.

0:26:520:26:55

Now, Mildred wouldn't have done this.

0:26:550:26:57

-No, she wouldn't have done this.

-This is your twist.

0:26:570:26:59

This is my twist.

0:26:590:27:00

This does look good.

0:27:000:27:02

When you put that chocolate on there, isn't that going to leave the grid?

0:27:020:27:04

You put it on the grid there, will that leave a grid pattern?

0:27:040:27:06

You can't see it, and what it does is that if there is a little bit of

0:27:060:27:09

excess chocolate, if I have been a bit sloppy in my dipping...

0:27:090:27:11

-Oh, surely not!

-..it means that it will drip off.

0:27:110:27:14

It does look good, doesn't it?

0:27:140:27:16

So it's really important that when you melt your chocolate,

0:27:160:27:18

you do it over a bain marie cos chocolate's quite sensitive.

0:27:180:27:21

You use those bain maries quite often, don't you?

0:27:210:27:23

I do, honestly, I don't know what I'd do without a bain marie.

0:27:230:27:27

I think these are the two prettiest ones, or them, so go for the...

0:27:270:27:31

Go for the Quasimodos.

0:27:310:27:32

We should wait, shouldn't we, for the chocolate to set?

0:27:320:27:35

But I don't think I can.

0:27:350:27:37

-OK.

-Can I try it?

-Go on.

0:27:380:27:41

I really hope you like this! Oh, my goodness, that looks delicious!

0:27:410:27:44

Can I do it in one? No!

0:27:440:27:45

Mmm!

0:27:480:27:49

Now, I'm not a marzipan fan,

0:27:490:27:51

so I don't know how I'm going to feel about this, but I do think

0:27:510:27:53

the chocolate is going to help.

0:27:530:27:56

It's a chunky little mouthful of sweetness, isn't it?

0:27:560:27:58

I think Mildred's onto a winner, here.

0:28:000:28:02

I think...

0:28:020:28:03

hats off to Mildred!

0:28:030:28:05

That's it for our programme on food for royal country pursuits.

0:28:070:28:11

See you next time.

0:28:110:28:13

Mmm!

0:28:130:28:15

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