Jubilee Royal Recipes

The Royal family are steeped in tradition and, throughout history,

the royal tables have showcased culinary excellence.

In celebration of royal food...

We know it's the Queen's recipe

because we've got it in her own hand.

..from the present and the past...

That is proper regal.

..we recreate old family favourites.

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

What a mess.

We sample Royal eating alfresco...

-Oh, wow!

-THAT is what you want.

..and revisit the most extravagant times.

Pheasant, stag, turkey, salmon, oysters, and turbot,

dressed in a lobster champagne sauce.

Unbelievable!

This is Royal Recipes.

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

This is Audley End, one of Britain's finest stately homes,

built in the style of a royal palace and once owned by a king.

In the splendour of the gardens,

halls and kitchen of this grandest of country houses,

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

And it all starts here, with this gem,

a royal kitchen maid's cookbook -

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

This is an exact copy of the original,

which is kept at Windsor Castle.

Inside, the recipes of Mildred Nicholls,

who worked at Buckingham Palace in the early 1900s.

And for the first time in over 100 years,

we'll be bringing these recipes back to life.

This time, we're cooking food served to celebrate a jubilee.

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest reigning monarch,

knows more than most about how to put on a great show

for these most special of royal anniversaries.

Today, in the Royal Recipes kitchen,

chef Anna Haugh tries some unusual 19th-century ingredients...

And now, our final ingredient, cockscomb.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

-What, the bit off its head?

-Yeah.

-Aren't they normally red?

..as she prepares Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee dish.

No, you don't like it!

Historian Polly Russell discovers how Windsor revived

the Royal Golden Jubilee ox roast.

I wrote to the Queen and then we received a letter back...

From Buckingham Palace?

..from Buckingham Palace.

And the Queen graciously agreeing to donating an ox for us.

Sprinkle 'em over.

And Paul Ainsworth gets creative with a British classic to honour

the Queen's historic reign.

And I hope you approve, ma'am.

In the kitchen wing of this stately home,

we start with the exquisite dishes

created for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Hello, and here we are in the grand kitchen,

with top London chef Anna Haugh.

There is something special, isn't there,

about living in the reign of Britain's longest-serving monarch?

Oh, I love a good royal party!

And this is the menu for her luncheon,

Diamond Jubilee luncheon, in 2012.

Just three courses, unlike the eight or nine

her great-grandfather would have had.

And you're going to do the middle one.

-That's right.

-The main course.

That's right. I'm going to do roast saddle of Welsh lamb with braised shoulder.

-What do you do first?

-OK. So, the first thing I have in my pan

here is some chopped up celery,

onions, carrot, and a little sneaky star anise.

-Star anise.

-So, I'm going to put a little bit more oil in here

and then I'm going to add my lamb shoulder.

And I think what I like so much about this dish

is that it's not just focusing on the prime cut,

it's also giving you the kind of secondary cuts as well.

Do you get more flavour out of the shoulder of lamb than you would...?

Ah, absolutely.

So I'm going to add tomato paste in here as well.

I'm going to give my rosemary a chop while I let that kind of caramelise up a little bit.

-So, rosemary and lamb.

-Yeah.

I think everybody in the universe knows that these two go very well together.

This is amazing, isn't it,

because this is an absolute celebration,

-as a lot of these royal meals are, of Britishness?

-Yes.

You know, Welsh Cambrian Mountain lamb,

marinated Uist island salmon with Lyme Bay crab.

It's all...

It's all a celebration of British,

whereas two, three generations ago, we were all pretending to be French!

-Absolutely. So, I'm going to add my white wine in now...

-Yeah.

And there's a lovely kind of acidity that you get from white wine.

And now we're going to put in our stock.

-And last but certainly not least...

-Your rosemary.

Rosemary. So, I'm going to pop a lid on this...

-Mm-hm.

-..and we'd cook that for about maybe two hours.

Let that kind of simmer away, like a light bubble, not a heavy boil.

And it should look like this.

Oh-ho-ho! Look at the steam coming out.

Yeah. Terrific.

I'll get out of your way.

Our next stage is searing off our saddle of lamb.

So, I'm going to oil it and season it.

So, what's happening here is you've got the shoulder for the flavour...

-Yes.

-And you've got this for the texture?

Yeah. Exactly.

So I'm going to put a little bit of oil in my pan.

-OK.

-The key is when you're cooking is control.

Controlling your heat. You need a lovely, smoking hot pan.

So hot that when I'm at home, my dad does have a fire extinguisher

in the background, ready to go.

Oh, the sizzle!

So, get a lovely golden brown colour,

evenly, all around.

-And then you're going to pop it into the oven...

-Mm-hm.

-..for me, Michael.

-Mm-hm.

190 degrees, for about 20 minutes or so.

And when you go to the oven, will you grab one there?

-I've already got it resting.

-OK. I'll be back in two ticks.

Look at this little beauty.

Lovely.

So, this lamb has been resting for about ten minutes.

It's really important that when you cook a piece of meat, that roughly

about half the length of time it takes to cook, you rest it.

That's what us amateur eaters never do. Because we're too greedy.

-No patience.

-Mm-hm.

OK, so, I think it's time to carve.

What is...?

Oh, look at that!

-I love it.

-Be-autiful.

What we serve this with is some beautiful British asparagus...

From the Isle of Wight, I think, on the original menu.

That's it. And we have our lovely braised shoulder.

It is two dishes in one, isn't it?

It is. It is. And I think it is really important

to kind of note that the idea of using the shoulder means

that more people get to eat the saddle,

because obviously, little lambs, they're not so big to share around.

-Oh, yeah.

-Fabulous.

-But it's the rosemary that's so lovely, isn't it?

Mm, mm.

Yeah. Ohh!

And then the last thing that we're just going to add

is a little bit of sauce.

So, in here I've infused

a bit of mint in with reduced-down lamb stock...

You can't have lamb without mint.

And there's a little knob of butter in here as well.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Just around.

-There you go.

-Yeah.

There's your knife and fork.

-OK, you go.

-Here we go.

I'm going to try the saddle first, because that does look great.

With a bit of the asparagus.

I'm going to have the top end of the asparagus.

-Come on, Michael!

-All right, all right, all right.

-Come on.

-All right. Ooh!

Get in there for the braised shoulder because that's what I want.

Mm!

-Now the braised bit, this is where the flavour is.

-Mm!

Oh!

Oh, I see what you mean.

The mint is lovely in it.

Mm, yeah.

Fantastic.

A celebration of lamb, and a worthy way to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee.

The original dish was created for the Queen

by one of the royal family's favourite chefs.

Michelin-starred Anton Mosimann

has cooked for four generations of royals.

It all started when the Queen Mother enjoyed his food

at London's Dorchester Hotel.

I came to the Dorchester in 1975.

It was one of THE best hotels.

I was so excited to meet the royal family and cook for them.

Princess Margaret, she came often,

and Her Majesty the Queen came for banquets and, of course,

the Queen Mother.

It was just an incredible experience for me.

Incredible experience.

Anton was invited to cook at not one but two grand events

to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

As well as serving lamb, he prepared fish courses.

My first dish today is a steamed sea bass, with a sauce vierge.

A bit of salt.

Pepper.

I love steaming because what you put in, that's what you get out.

A few leaves of basil.

The lid.

It's almost cooked.

It's less than two minutes

and this wonderful, beautiful fish is actually cooked.

I make my sauce vierge, which is a reduction of sherry vinegar,

a few shallots, finely chopped.

Add a bit of honey, just as a contrast.

And once it's cooked down, then it's olive oil

and spring onions,

I use a bit of chives and of course tomatoes.

I have some spinach here,

with broccoli and a bit of colour, a few carrots.

Fish and spinach, broccoli, go very well together.

A few new potatoes.

And the dressing.

Some of Anton's dishes have become

long-standing favourites with the Windsors,

passing from Queen Mother to daughter.

Her Majesty the Queen Mother, she loved her food.

And one of the dishes I remember was the cheese and spinach souffle.

He starts with a traditional roux sauce, made from butter,

flour and cold milk.

Some cheese.

Mix very carefully.

Now to put my spinach,

blanched first of all, then finely chopped,

and mix that together with the cheese mixture.

Mm! Delicious.

Then, Anton cools the mix and adds egg yolks.

Now I'm going to fold the egg whites into the mix.

Folding very gentle because I want to keep the air bubbles

in the egg whites. That makes the souffle rising.

The mix goes into individual moulds and into the oven for eight minutes.

Anton serves it with a fromage frais, yoghurt and chive sauce.

So light, beautiful.

So, here we are.

It's light, nice sauce and people loved it.

I've got the menu card for the banquet

for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee at Buckingham Palace. Look at it!

-They're all in French, of course.

-Yeah.

-Now, you are going to do one of these dishes?

-I am.

Which one are you going to do?

Le Poulet a la Financiere.

Chicken Financiere.

Is that banker's chicken, or...?

No, it's actually a chicken stew.

A chicken stew!

You know, the French. They want a fancy name for things.

It is essentially a very delicious chicken stew.

So, I'm good start of this recipe in here

with butter, onion, and carrots,

and they are just sweating down nicely on a good high heat.

I'm then going to add my mushrooms.

That will take a couple of minutes to kind of sweat down

on a high heat.

A lot of kind of juice and water is going to come out of mushrooms,

so you need a bit of patience and a bit of time with that.

So, while that's cooking away,

I'm going to give the chicken heart and the livers a bit of a chop.

Now, they loved offal, didn't they?

Yeah, and I love offal.

But from a chef's point of view, what does offal in a dish like this

-lend to a stew?

-Depth of flavour.

I mean, it's going to give a more complex, interesting notes.

-Yeah.

-Now, I'm going to pop them back on the plate.

Lovely, rich colour, aren't they?

Yeah, yeah. These are sweating down kind of nicely now.

They're coming along. I'm going to put a little bit of flour in there.

It's funny, thinking yourself back to that day

and Queen Victoria on the throne for 50 years.

She started, you know, that day having her breakfast

as a kind of picnic...

Completely different meal, picnic under the trees at Frogmore...

-I know.

-..where her husband, Prince Albert, was buried.

-So romantic.

-Near his grave.

I mean, it does, it breaks my heart.

-You want to believe that they were just madly in love.

-Well, yeah.

And she seems to really have, you know, been heartbroken,

once he passed away.

Gosh, the smell is...

The wine is reducing down. Yes, it is.

And, now I'm going to add the chicken stock to it.

Yeah.

Oh, it's already looking rather good, isn't it?

All sorts of delights going into it now.

Next is going to be...the olives.

-Ah, now, olives...

-I know. Just a little twist.

That's a little unusual, isn't it?

Yeah. Quite Mediterranean.

And then I'm going to put in the chicken heart and liver.

Now, I've already pre-seared the chicken legs and the chicken thighs

and breasts. I rolled them in a little bit of flour as well.

Again, as that cooks, that flour will help

kind of thicken up the sauce a bit more.

-So I'm going to pop them in now.

-OK.

Yeah, so you cook them for about a half an hour with the lid off.

Once you're ready with your dumplings, you roll them.

We're going to pop them in and cook them for another further 20 minutes.

So you've got dumplings coming in now.

I've got dumplings to make now. And I love dumplings.

No stew is complete without dumplings.

Exactly. So, in here, these are slightly fancy dumplings

because they have some freshly chopped tarragon in them.

Also, I'm going to add one egg and some suet.

So, first of all, give it a little bit of a stir.

Add the suet. So, your egg is going to go into the centre there.

I added a pinch of salt into that as well.

Just give it a bit of a mix.

Right, so, I've got to get my hands stuck in here now.

Yeah.

You don't want your dumpling dissolving, do you?

No, and this will be cooked inside the stew for 20 minutes.

OK. Right, I think we're ready to go now.

-That is well kneaded.

-Yeah.

And then all we're going to do is to shape them into nice

kind of little dumplings.

Give them a little bit of a roll.

So, now you're going to pop your dumplings in.

After your chicken has been cooking for about 30 minutes,

this is when you pop the dumplings in

and you must put the lid on to cook them. Another further 20 minutes.

And now our final ingredient, cockscomb.

-MICHAEL LAUGHS What, the bit off its head?

-Yeah.

-Aren't they normally red?

-Yes.

Well, these have been cooked.

-I've cooked these for two hours.

-I'm not sure about this.

Look, they're kind of rubbery.

What do you think they're going to taste like?

I don't think they're going to taste of much.

I think the reason they probably put them into stews was to prove that

they actually came from the cockerel.

-And that sense of a stew.

-Mm.

We've got all the chicken in there,

including its...cockscomb.

Still not sure. There you go.

OK.

It's decoration, I think, isn't it?

There's something rather funny about you know, the crown, the cockscomb,

from the chicken, in front of 50 kings and princes at this banquet.

-That sounds like some party.

-Yeah, come on, what did they eat?

Let's have a try. Oh, yes.

Still not sure about those cockscombs.

Let me try to see if I can get a little bit of...

Oh, look at the juice in that.

And Michael's three portions of cockscombs.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

No, no, you don't! No, you don't.

-OK, I'll be happy with one little bite.

-OK.

There we go.

All right.

Oh!

Is it...?

No, you don't like it!

It tastes all right, but it's one of those kind of

slippery type of things, you know?

We're not too convinced about the cockscomb.

I don't think it adds much to the flavour. But the rest...

The tarragon in the dumpling... Mm!

Chicken Financiere, banker's chicken, I'm going to call it.

-Well, it's a rich dish, isn't it?

-Mm.

For a Golden Jubilee.

Lovely.

Celebrating a jubilee is often a chance

to indulge in a bit of nostalgia,

and what better dish to serve than trifle?

At his Padstow home in Cornwall, chef Paul Ainsworth has been

inspired by the jubilee spirit to get creative with a pudding

that's reigned supreme in Britain for generations.

I love trifle, and in my trifle,

I'm going to have some beautiful British strawberries,

some beautiful British raspberries.

For our jelly, we're going to use Cornish sparkling wine.

We're going to add the whole bottle to the pan

and we're going to bring it...

CORK POPS

..to the boil.

I've got this wonderful sparkling wine with just some nice perfume

with the thyme, little bit of vanilla,

some star anise and some sugar.

So here we are - the lovely pile of strawberries,

just going to pop those into the sparkling wine.

Now, I'm going to add my raspberries in there like that -

the soft fruits just lightly poaching.

The heat's off now. Very gently, pass off that fruit.

Let your fruit just rest nicely like that.

And what we want to do, we want to bring that back up to a simmer,

just very gently, drop our gelatine and as soon as it goes in there,

pull it off the heat and just keep stirring

until you see it just all dissolved. And there you have it.

You've just made a beautiful sparkling wine jelly.

Now is the exciting part.

We're going to build our trifle palace.

So, just take your bowl,

just very gently, we're going to spoon our fruit in.

Nice and clean, so everyone can see those layers.

Now, I'm going to get my twist on this lovely royal recipe -

Cornish saffron cake.

Look at that yellow that's coming from the saffron.

It's an amazing alternative

to just those ordinary, boring sponge fingers.

Right, now, we're going to get the jelly.

Still liquid, it will start to set once it goes into the fridge.

Coming up just to the top of the level of the cake

and the beautiful soft fruit.

The trifle then sets in the fridge for two to three hours

while Paul makes a custard, using milk, vanilla and custard powder.

Once cooled, he adds it to the trifle.

And what you want is about an inch thick.

Lovely. It just looks delicious already.

While the trifle goes back in the fridge,

Paul whips up some double cream with vanilla and icing sugar

to make the top layer.

Spooning it on.

Look at that.

Lovely. That is proper.

Palace of Trifle.

Going to pop out into the fridge and we're going to make some honeycomb.

And we're just going to boil glucose, sugar,

and honey on the stove.

In with your bicarb.

Just whisk in that bicarb and let it come up.

And see the honeycomb coming up?

Fantastic. Let it rise, let it rise.

Now, pour onto your sheet.

And THAT is honeycomb.

Once the honeycomb has cooled and hardened,

Paul breaks it up and then it's time to decorate.

Get the little bits, sprinkle them over.

Now, if you squint, doesn't that look like the jewels in the crown?

Ma'am, I hope you approve.

The nation can't resist a street party.

In 1977, for the Queen's Silver Jubilee,

it was all about fancy dress, flag-waving, sandwiches, and squash.

The patriotic jollity that we recognise as street parties today

date back to the peace teas for children after the First World War

and were similar to those held for the Queen's coronation in 1953.

Historian Dr Polly Russell is in Windsor,

a royal town with a strong tradition of celebrating jubilees.

I thought it was the perfect place

to come and meet some real street party devotees.

The first one I went to was the coronation.

-It was definitely for children.

-Yeah.

There was a table down the middle of the street for children.

And the adults served the children.

The menu was usually sandwiches with fish paste or jam.

Yes. That's it, yes, quite!

And then they had blancmange and jelly,

which was a great treat in 1950-whatever it was.

A royal wedding in 2011 and the upcoming Olympics

saw the enthusiasm for Diamond Jubilee street parties

reach patriotic fever pitch in 2012.

Councils in England and Wales received

almost 9,500 road closure applications.

The theme was nostalgic,

with one boozy addition.

If you go back in time, all the photos you'd see,

-it's either orange squash...

-Orange squash, yeah...

Or it's tea.

And of course that has changed.

And I think that's quite nice, because people want to celebrate

and of course, these days, you celebrate with champagne or prosecco or whatever.

The modern street party is a sign of growing affluence.

Historically, it was up to the sovereign to make

their jubilee go with a swing by giving food to the poor.

In 1809, to commemorate George III's Golden Jubilee,

hundreds of oxen were roasted all over the country.

At Bachelors Acre in Windsor,

George's Queen, Charlotte, joined in the celebrations with her children.

Polly's meeting Windsor Council's Paul Roach

to find out how the ox roast was revived for our present queen.

-Hello.

-Hello!

-Hi.

Welcome to Bachelors Acre in Windsor.

Thank you. And what is this?

This is our obelisk,

commemorating two of the ox roasts that took place here.

It took a few months of planning,

then the consent of Her Majesty

to make it all happen.

-I wrote to the Queen and then we received a letter back...

-Oh.

On the 21st of May, 2012.

From Buckingham Palace.

From Buckingham Palace, acknowledging the fact

that we'd requested an ox,

and the Queen graciously agreeing to donating an ox for us.

Fantastic. And it says here, "The Queen will be pleased to receive

"an update of the event, so would you be kind enough to write again?"

-Did you do that?

-Yes, we did.

Oh, I'm glad.

-So, we fed 1,200 people.

-All gathered in this area?

-All gathered in Bachelors Acre.

-Fantastic.

Mildred Nicholls was kitchen maid at Buckingham Palace in the early years

of the 1900s, and this recipe book - look at this, Anna -

this recipe book, it's the only one of its kind in the Royal Archives.

Look at the writing.

Contains details of dishes at great events for three reigns,

like this one, look.

You can just about make it out, can't you?

Cerise Jubilee.

It was a pudding that was served at the Golden Jubilee of

Queen Victoria, from some chef called Escoffier,

-whom even I have heard of.

-Yes, I'd imagine you'd heard of him.

-He was one of the most famous chefs in the world.

-Now, what is it?

Hang on. We've got cherries, we've got kirsch and we've got ice cream.

-That's it, is it?

-Yeah.

-It does look rather good.

-It does look good.

But it's not up to your standard. You can do better than that.

I think we can do something.

Let me take that away. What are YOU going to do?

OK, so, today I'm going to make chocolate delice,

and that was served at the current Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

-Wow.

-So, I'm going to start first with the base.

So here I've already pureed up some Florentine biscuits,

kind of created this home-made praline.

And I'm going to take the cornflakes that I've toasted a little bit

in the oven to give them a little bit more depth of flavour.

I know that's a strange thing to say, that cornflakes have depth of flavour!

They're cornflakes, for goodness' sake!

But it does. It gives them a toastier flavour.

And then, on top, I'm just going to put the praline paste

and pulse it one or two times.

So I'm just going to pulse this.

OK, so you just continue to puree that for a few minutes and then you

just press it into the base of your chocolate delice.

So I'm going to bring my cream up to boil to make the custard,

which will become the topping of the cake.

So I have some sugar here and some eggs

and I'm going to whisk them in together,

while I wait for the cream to boil.

This is an adaptation of the original recipe,

so that it's a bit easier for people at home to make.

So the cream is now boiling, so I'm just going to, first of all,

pour a little bit on, just to kind of scald the mix.

Can I hold that for you?

Yes. You make a wonderful commis!

-You're my commis chef.

-Oh, right, OK.

-So I'm going to put this back in the pot...

-OK.

..and thicken it.

We're just going to thicken this.

You've got to stir this the whole time.

OK, so now I'm just going to pour the custard onto the chocolate.

-Oh, this looks lovely, doesn't it?

-Yeah, it does.

-Oh, wow.

You leave that for just a minute or two and then you'll take

your whisk and just give it a stir and you'll see it all melt.

See that? All coming together, and it's lovely.

Into a wonderful gooey mess.

Yeah. And then you've got to let that chill for a little while,

because if you add your whipped cream now, it'll just melt.

And that'll be a hot mess.

OK, so I actually have a slightly cooled down mix that I made

earlier on, so I'm going to use that now.

-Fold the cream through. So this is it here.

-Oh, yeah.

-It looks nice, yeah?

-It does, doesn't it?

So if you just passed me the whipped cream there, please.

There we go. That's the white one, is it?

Any time that you're folding in two ingredients,

you tend to take the lighter ingredient

and fold it into the heavier one,

so I take one spoon of it

and hopefully that will kind of help lighten it up a little bit.

Rather than the other way around?

Yeah, because otherwise it would just be lumpy.

Yeah. OK, so this is folded through quite nicely,

so all I'm going to do is put it inside the mould. OK, so just...

This, you'll need to set in the fridge for about two hours or so,

or, really, as long as you can is better.

So, yeah, just flatten it down.

I mean, honestly, I just want to eat this.

You can smell the chocolate. That's all nice and flat now.

-You did that brilliantly.

-You know...

You made the most wonderful flat top to it.

You either have it or you don't, Michael!

-So now I'm just going to dust some cocoa on top.

-OK.

So just a nice little dusting of cocoa on top.

So, you want to be able to put this into the fridge

for at least two hours, ideally overnight,

but I would never expect you to wait that long.

Ah, you know me too well! You have a plan.

Pop that over there and I'll get the one I made earlier.

OK, all right.

Big reveal.

-May I?

-You may.

Oh, I like this.

My big moment.

Ooh!

Oh, look at that!

So you need a nice hot knife to cut through your chocolate.

-Oooh.

-This is the good bit. Ohh!

MICHAEL LAUGHS

Oh, yes, I think that's probably about the right size.

It's like the Grand Canyon.

Here we go.

Now...

Oh, wow.

My word, look at that.

After you.

I'm going to have the... I like the bit at the end.

-Mm!

-Hang on.

-Mm!

I don't think you like that, Michael, did you?

No, I hate it, hate it.

But I might go off...and scoff it.

ANNA LAUGHS

Mm. The end of a perfect banquet, I imagine.

I can't get any of it in.

-And the end of the programme.

-Mm!

Mm! Till next time...