Garden Parties & Picnics Royal Recipes


Garden Parties & Picnics

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The Royal Family are steeped in tradition.

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Throughout history, the royal tables have 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 the 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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-Oh, 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...

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

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

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

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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 kitchenmaid'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 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 served up by the Royal Family outdoors,

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at their picnics and garden parties.

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Since she came to the throne over 60 years ago,

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the Queen has welcomed two million people

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to the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

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And, more recently,

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Her Majesty threw a huge picnic in the Mall to mark her 90th birthday.

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Today on Royal Recipes, Paul Ainsworth finds out what's cooking

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when Prince Philip takes over the barbecue.

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It's a proper royal recipe and we're going to do Gaelic steak

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and a real royal favourite - whisky sauce.

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Historian Dr Annie Gray reveals

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how Queen Victoria made the picnic fashionable.

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It's to Queen Victoria herself,

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that we really owe the popularity of it going forward.

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For she was a fierce picnicker.

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She loved it.

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In the grounds of this stately home, we start with a royal barbecue.

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We're roughing it here today at Audley End.

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With me, Michelin-starred chef Paul Ainsworth.

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-Hello, Michael. How are you?

-I'm very well in my jacket.

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Yes. Yeah, you look lovely and warm, Michael. Lovely and warm.

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They say nobody deters the Windsors from having a picnic

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in all weathers.

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-No.

-It can get really, really wintry in Balmoral, even in August,

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-I think.

-And they still will love to have a barbecue, won't they?

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-Yeah, yeah.

-Why not?

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Have you seen those home movies of the royal families and picnics?

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-Yeah, yeah.

-Everybody's pitching in, but Prince Philip is in charge.

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I bet he is. It's a manly thing. It's the barbecue.

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-It is a man thing.

-It is. Do you feel manly right now?

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-I do.

-Well...

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-Right, let's get cooking.

-OK.

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OK, we're going to do a real favourite royal recipe,

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especially of Prince Philip's.

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-This is his signature picnic dish.

-Yeah, signature picnic dish.

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-What does he cook?

-We're going to do Gaelic steaks, potatoes in the bag,

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which is really, really nice. Everything on the barbecue.

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-Yeah.

-And a real royal favourite - whisky sauce.

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OK? Would you like a tipple while we cook?

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-Well, I might. Yeah.

-If we get cracking straightaway...

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-OK.

-We're going to take a little tinfoil bag here...

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And this I really recommend doing.

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It's delicious. So, I'm just going to put some oil over the potatoes.

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And you've got some butter in there as well?

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Yeah, some butter in there as well.

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Some seasoning.

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-Salt and pepper.

-Yeah.

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Basically, the potatoes are going to steam themselves...

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-Just tip them in?

-Just tip them in, like that.

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Give them a good ruffle around, so you get all of that seasoning.

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-Yeah.

-And then just literally fold the bag...

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-..like that.

-It's pretty simple, isn't it?

-Pretty simple.

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And straight on. The coals are going to get lovely and warm.

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All those potatoes are going to roast in that butter, the oil

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and seasoning, garlic. Beautiful. Next, the steaks.

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Let's get the steak on. We just put, lightly,

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a little bit of oil on that steak.

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Like that, OK?

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-Lightly season.

-Yeah.

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Crush that right the way over the steak.

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The steaks we're using here, Michael, are sirloin.

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That middle, sort of, steak where you've got that lovely eye of meat,

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nice fat content going around.

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Beautiful. Straight on.

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Nice, hottest part of the barbecue.

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You need white heat. Like, proper good heat.

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-That's the secret, isn't it, to barbecuing?

-That is the secret.

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The Royals often do this. They load up the Land Rover, don't they?

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And they're up on the moors above Balmoral.

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Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, yeah.

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Well, do you know what? Like you say,

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taking a barbecue on a picnic and stuff -

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-what better way to enjoy your day? Especially like this.

-Yeah, yeah.

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So, we've got our steaks on, we've got our potatoes on

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and now we're going to make our whisky sauce.

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So, with our sauce, we just need not as much of a heavy heat

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as what we've got here with the steaks.

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We're just going to have...

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-our shallots.

-Just diced shallots, those?

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Diced shallots. Right, we're going to have a little rearrange.

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-See, our sauce now.

-Yeah.

-We've got that lovely heat into the sauce.

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This is such a great way to cook.

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So, we move our... These are our potatoes that are ready.

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-Going to move those potatoes to the front.

-Yeah.

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Right, for our whisky sauce - really, really simple.

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We've got some lovely mushrooms, sliced chestnut mushrooms.

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-They go in.

-You're not going to cook those for long, I don't imagine.

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-No, they're going to... It's a very quick sauce.

-Yeah.

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So, we're just going to get those nice and...

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Get them coated in that lovely shallot mixture.

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We can season all the way through, so we've got that lovely flavour

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coming up all the way through the dish.

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Now, you'll see with these steaks...

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Just have a look under here, Michael. Ready? When we turn over...

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-Look at that.

-Oh, wow!

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And then again, we don't move it.

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We just leave it there and let it do its thing.

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-Yeah.

-OK.

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Meanwhile, we've got this delicious sauce.

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So you can see juices start to come out the mushrooms

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and into the sauce. And we're going to reduce those down.

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Now, those mushrooms. If you just have a smell of that.

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-Yeah.

-We've got the thyme, the garlic, the mushrooms, the shallots.

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-It's such a classic sauce.

-Oh, it's lovely.

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We're kind of referencing sort of, like, a steak-Diane-type sauce.

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-Yeah.

-Yeah, really nice.

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OK, next...

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-A dram of whisky.

-Yeah.

-Is that enough for you?

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No, a little more, if you wouldn't mind.

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-Well, it burns off.

-Yeah, absolutely.

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So we're just going to reduce that whisky out.

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-Yeah.

-And what we want is that pure whisky flavour and just burning off

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-some of that alcohol.

-You can smell it, actually.

-Lovely, isn't it?

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-Absolutely lovely.

-Come this way.

-Yeah. Right, we're ready.

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Steaks off. We're just going to rest those now, Michael.

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-That's important, this resting business?

-Absolutely.

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-Really, really important.

-It's what we amateurs don't do.

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Stock in.

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-That's beef stock, yeah?

-That's beef stock going in.

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So now that's going to come to the boil.

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We're going to add a little bit of cream. Not much,

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cos we don't want it to be too rich and heavy,

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and we want that lovely, lovely colour.

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Oh, look at that! Lovely colour, isn't it?

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And it's just literally about getting that nice...

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-Not too thick, but, like, a nice body to the sauce.

-Mm.

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-And I mean, to do that outside... Potatoes are done.

-Yeah.

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Steaks are resting. The sauce is coming to a lovely simmer.

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Yeah. And, actually, it's only a few minutes.

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-It's only a few minutes.

-Yeah.

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-Just a little waiting game now and we can eat.

-Mm!

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-Right, I'm going to grab my plate.

-Yeah. "MY plate"?

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Yeah, my plate. You're not having any!

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All right?

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-Look at this.

-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Beautifully... That is going to be so lovely and tender and pink.

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Sauce... This is the bit that's fun, as well.

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-Ready?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Grab the potatoes.

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Stab them with the tinfoil.

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Straight in like that. And look at those.

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-Oh, they're terrific, aren't they?

-Look at those.

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Yeah, little beautiful mini roast potatoes, just cooked in that butter.

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-Yeah.

-Absolutely delicious.

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Just going to put some of those on the side.

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-Grab our sauce.

-I love the way you do that so carefully, you know.

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You take a lot of care of these things.

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Just a little. Just on the top. I don't want to go all over the steak,

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I want to put more on the plate as well, cos I don't want to

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lose that lovely caramelisation that we've got.

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-We'll move those...

-Out of the way.

-..over there, out of the way.

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And there we go. Right, Michael.

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-Get stuck in!

-I will, I will, I will!

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Ah, look at that!

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Oh, beautiful. Red on the inside.

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-Yeah.

-Caramelised on the outside.

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-Mm-mm-mm!

-Is that good?

-Mm-mm-mm!

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Look, nice and fluffy, roasted.

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-Beautiful!

-Mm!

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You forget how cold it is with food that good, don't you?

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-You do, yeah. Oh, it's great. Go on, have a go.

-Fantastic!

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-Oh, yeah. I'm going to have some of the fat.

-That sauce.

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The mushrooms, the richness. Amazing!

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Oh, yeah. Right, you can do the washing up.

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-You just need a...

-Before...

-Need a stream.

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Before I do the washing up, I'm going for a run!

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Because I am freezing!

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-Great. Well done, Paul. This is brilliant.

-Pleasure.

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Barbecue steak, Prince Philip-style.

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A picnic dish to suit all-weather alfresco dining.

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The passion for picnicking has been around for hundreds of years.

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But it was that royal trendsetter, Queen Victoria,

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who made it fashionable.

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Historian Dr Annie Gray is at Chiswick House in West London.

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It was built by the Duke of Devonshire,

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and has vast, landscaped gardens.

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This love of the outdoors by the Georgians, then by the Victorians,

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laid the path for the picnics we know today.

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Gardens like this were really popular in the 18th century.

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They were spaces of sociability,

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they were places where the aristocracy and their friends

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could come together, undisturbed by the hoi polloi.

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Where they could play games, paint, read books and eat.

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Mealtimes were changing at the end of the Georgian period.

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The fashion for luncheon was taking off, and this new midday meal

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was well suited to the appetite for alfresco dining.

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Unlike today's picnics,

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you wouldn't sit on the ground and get dirty.

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No, you would have a table with a gorgeous cloth,

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servants bringing you baskets full of food, both hot and cold.

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Champagne virtually on tap. And it would be a marvellous,

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wonderful occasion where you could look at your garden

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and think to yourself, "I own this. Isn't it just amazing?"

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It's to Queen Victoria herself that we really owe the popularity of it

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going forward, for she was a fierce picnicker.

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She loved it.

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From Balmoral Castle,

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she would go off into the Highlands and perhaps fry up a fish that she'd

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caught that morning from the lake.

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The newspapers then, as now,

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reported on the doings of the Royal Family all the time,

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and so pictures and reports of Queen Victoria's activities

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circulated, making picnicking truly the thing to do.

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It became so much a part of life

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that the doyenne of the Victorian establishment, Mrs Beeton,

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thought it necessary to include a section on picnicking

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in her bestselling cookery book.

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She said, "One of the pleasantest forms of entertainment

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"is a well-arranged picnic, if only a fine day be selected,

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"while nothing is calculated to give greater dissatisfaction

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"than a badly managed one. To have chosen the wrong people,

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"even one or two who are not likely to make themselves agreeable,

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"to have given people wrong seats in the various vehicles,

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"or to have too many ladies in the party are all often fatal errors."

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As well as giving warnings about the guest list,

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she even created a sample menu for a picnic for 40 people.

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It included two racks of lamb, four roast fowl,

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six lobsters and four dozen cheesecakes.

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Then we come to that perennial picnic favourite today -

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the Scotch egg.

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Fortnum & Mason claim they invented it in the 1730s,

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and while they may not have done,

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it certainly seems that that was around the time they came into being.

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One of my favourites is sausage rolls.

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The Victorians would simply take bread dough and stuff the sausage meat

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right within it, before sealing it up and cooking it.

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So, again, you could just pop it in a pocket

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and off you go to the countryside!

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Royal picnics weren't always outdoor affairs.

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King Edward VII in particular loved to take

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an absolutely whopping picnic along to the theatre, or to the opera.

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12 courses.

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He was particularly keen, Paul, I think, on cold meats.

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-Cold meats. Yes.

-And particularly keen on...

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PAUL CHUCKLES

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-Tongue. Not a fan.

-Now, don't be put off.

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No, it's lovely.

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-We're not talking about 12 courses here, though, are we?

-No, no.

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-We're talking about tongue for a modern picnic.

-We are.

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And we're going to do a proper, hearty, roasted tongue sandwich.

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So, the first thing we do, we're going to put our pan onto the heat.

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We're going to add a little bit of oil.

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And when that oil gets hot, we're going to add a little bit of butter.

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What we've got here is an ox tongue.

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-It's huge!

-It is huge. And it's been brined.

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By "brining", I mean we've put it in a salt solution,

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so, actually, it's firmed up a bit

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and got that lovely, wonderful flavour,

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the salt running through it.

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We've then just cooked it in a bouillon of vegetables.

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And cooked that for about two hours.

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Right, so let's go straight in.

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So we're going to take a nice slice.

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And we take this end piece off here.

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If you see in there, Michael, it's...

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really meaty.

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Butter.

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-Oh, wow.

-Now, no need to season it.

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Now just sit both slices, just like that.

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Back onto the heat. We're going to turn that heat down a little bit.

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Meanwhile, we're going to move over here, and make our own mayonnaise.

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-From scratch.

-Ever made mayonnaise before?

-No, no.

-From scratch.

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Get it out of a bottle, I do.

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Two egg yolks. Spoonful of Dijon mustard.

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English is also nice, but I know the Royals like things from France,

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don't they?

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Little bit of white wine vinegar.

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And this is what we call here...

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We're just basically making almost like a zabaione base, OK?

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We're just emulsifying the egg yolks, the vinegar and the mustard.

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So, just here, Michael.

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-Yeah.

-We're adding in our oil.

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And we're adding it in nice and slowly.

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Not too quickly. Can you see it starting to thicken?

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-Yeah.

-You can hear the sound of the blades going round,

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and you can just hear the sound changing.

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-Right. We're just going to stop.

-Just as a matter of interest,

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-why are you actually roasting, frying the thing?

-Come and look.

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Because, I mean, you've brined it, you've boiled it.

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Why are you cooking it twice?

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Because you... Flavour.

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-Now we're going to build our sandwich.

-OK.

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So we've got some wonderful sourdough bread.

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Use your favourite bread. Rye bread, brown bread, white bread -

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whatever you want. Now, rather than just buttering it,

0:15:200:15:24

our fat is going to be our mayonnaise.

0:15:240:15:26

So we're going to put this wonderful, lovely mayonnaise,

0:15:260:15:29

just smear it all over.

0:15:290:15:30

It's a nicer colour than the stuff you get out of the bottle.

0:15:300:15:33

Both sides, like that.

0:15:330:15:34

Even if it doesn't taste as good, it looks nice.

0:15:340:15:36

It looks nice. Yeah, it looks nice.

0:15:360:15:38

Trust me, it tastes a lot better.

0:15:380:15:41

Right, we're going to have... Move our mayonnaise.

0:15:410:15:43

Going to take our tongue...

0:15:430:15:44

-Yep.

-..straight out, OK?

0:15:440:15:47

And lie that in our sandwich, like so.

0:15:470:15:49

For me now, I think people like...

0:15:490:15:52

To me, it looks like a bacon sandwich.

0:15:520:15:54

-Delicious.

-It fits, it fits!

0:15:540:15:57

-It does.

-Cinders.

-Absolutely.

0:15:570:15:59

Little bit of that lovely roasting butter over the top.

0:15:590:16:02

I mean, already, just like that, you'd want to put that in...

0:16:020:16:05

-Certainly would.

-Hammer it in half.

-In my mouth, yeah.

0:16:050:16:08

Yeah!

0:16:080:16:09

Right, Stilton.

0:16:090:16:11

Wonderful British cheese.

0:16:110:16:13

We're just going to take some of that Stilton.

0:16:130:16:15

-Just...

-Crumble it.

-Just crumble it like that.

0:16:150:16:17

And with that hot tongue, it'll just start to warm that.

0:16:170:16:20

I don't want it melted, cos I want the Stilton for texture.

0:16:200:16:24

-OK?

-Yeah.

-And over the top.

0:16:240:16:26

-It's rich, though, isn't it?

-Oh, it's gorgeous.

0:16:280:16:30

Absolutely gorgeous.

0:16:300:16:31

Next, some gherkins.

0:16:310:16:33

And exactly what you just said there - it's rich.

0:16:330:16:36

So we're just going to cut through with some lovely acidity from these

0:16:360:16:40

lovely pickled gherkins.

0:16:400:16:41

All right? On with our gherkins.

0:16:410:16:44

They really make a sandwich, don't they?

0:16:440:16:46

They do. Absolutely delicious.

0:16:460:16:48

Look at this! Watercress.

0:16:480:16:51

-Nice and peppery.

-Yeah.

-Like that.

0:16:510:16:53

We're just going to go with a little bit of cracked pepper

0:16:530:16:56

-over the top of this sandwich.

-OK, stop fiddling - let's eat it.

0:16:560:16:59

That like that.

0:16:590:17:01

Yeah.

0:17:010:17:03

Yes! And here it is.

0:17:060:17:08

-Look at that!

-Don't put it TOO far away.

0:17:080:17:10

Ooh! Get stuck in, Michael.

0:17:100:17:13

Right!

0:17:150:17:16

MICHAEL CLEARS HIS THROAT Here we go.

0:17:160:17:18

There's no elegant way to do this, is there, Paul?

0:17:180:17:20

-There isn't. Let's go.

-Hang on. I don't think my mouth's big enough!

0:17:200:17:23

Mm!

0:17:280:17:30

Mm-mm!

0:17:300:17:32

Converted to tongue?

0:17:320:17:33

-I am actually, yeah.

-That's beautiful, isn't it?

0:17:330:17:36

The texture's great. And the sourdough is quite a contrast,

0:17:360:17:40

isn't it? I think this works particularly well with sourdough.

0:17:400:17:44

-But...

-And that blue cheese.

-..your mayonnaise is lovely,

0:17:440:17:46

and the blue cheese lifts it.

0:17:460:17:48

And the gherkins cut through it.

0:17:480:17:51

I think King Edward would have liked this.

0:17:510:17:53

This is what he needed on his picnic.

0:17:530:17:56

A tasty sandwich for a modern picnic.

0:17:560:17:58

Nowadays, the grandest of picnics

0:17:580:18:00

are held by the Queen in the gardens of Buckingham Palace,

0:18:000:18:03

where she hosts three garden parties every year.

0:18:030:18:06

Grant Harrold here, who's been butler to Prince Charles,

0:18:090:18:12

Prince William, Prince Harry, has not only worked at garden parties,

0:18:120:18:16

but been a guest often. How have they changed over the years?

0:18:160:18:19

Obviously, originally, they were more the kind of...

0:18:190:18:22

Queen Victoria's garden parties, you had diplomats, you had earls, you had dukes.

0:18:220:18:25

Today you have people from all walks of life,

0:18:250:18:27

people that have given or done something for the country.

0:18:270:18:30

You've got military, you've got charity organisations,

0:18:300:18:32

so it's kind of changed to how it was, say, over 100 years ago.

0:18:320:18:36

What goes on, then? What goes on?

0:18:360:18:37

So, you arrive at three o'clock.

0:18:370:18:41

The Royal Family arrive about four.

0:18:410:18:43

The Queen arrives on the West Terrace.

0:18:430:18:44

They play the national anthem so you know that she's about to walk down.

0:18:440:18:47

You'll suddenly see these lines form, these two kind of lines,

0:18:470:18:50

of where she's going to walk from the West Terrace down to the royal tea tent.

0:18:500:18:53

And you can actually stand there.

0:18:530:18:55

And if you're lucky, you might actually get to meet her -

0:18:550:18:58

but hopefully without holding out a tea and a sandwich.

0:18:580:19:00

The idea is to have that quickly.

0:19:000:19:01

And the food is tea, sandwiches, cakes.

0:19:010:19:04

-Just that.

-That's kind of how...

0:19:040:19:06

You can have... Some people might have the cakes first and then

0:19:060:19:08

the sandwiches, but I'm kind of always saying, "Have the sandwiches first and then the cakes."

0:19:080:19:12

But do that before you meet the Queen,

0:19:120:19:14

cos otherwise you might not actually get to meet the Queen - you might miss the opportunity.

0:19:140:19:19

And are all these garden parties exactly the same?

0:19:190:19:23

I mean, the thing is, the kind of basis,

0:19:230:19:25

the way it's set up, is the same. You've got the large tea tent,

0:19:250:19:27

you've got the diplomatic tent, you've got the royal tea tent,

0:19:270:19:31

you've got two military bands, you've got the gentlemen ushers.

0:19:310:19:34

Logistically speaking, these must be pretty big affairs?

0:19:340:19:37

They are. You're talking about 27,000 cups of tea,

0:19:370:19:40

20,000 sandwiches, 20,000 cakes.

0:19:400:19:43

So there's quite a bit actually done for these events,

0:19:430:19:46

and a lot of planning. The planning's six months in advance,

0:19:460:19:49

so they are quite big events.

0:19:490:19:50

Does the Queen have tea herself

0:19:500:19:52

or does she just mingle with her guests?

0:19:520:19:55

Once she's, obviously, met some of the guests for about 30 minutes,

0:19:550:19:57

she has tea in the royal tea tent,

0:19:570:19:59

and that's obviously looked after by her own staff.

0:19:590:20:01

But the actual garden party itself - these days it's catering.

0:20:010:20:04

Since George V, we've had catering come in to do those kind of things.

0:20:040:20:08

In the days of Queen Victoria, it was actually done by her chefs.

0:20:080:20:11

But, again, it was very different -

0:20:110:20:13

as we said, there would be the diplomats, the earls, the dukes,

0:20:130:20:16

and it was a much more, again, lavish affair.

0:20:160:20:18

-Now it's the outside caterers?

-Now it's the outside caterers.

0:20:180:20:22

The Royal Family enjoy growing and serving their own produce.

0:20:220:20:26

At garden parties, the apple juice comes from the Sandringham orchards.

0:20:260:20:29

Prince Charles is continuing that tradition,

0:20:290:20:32

but sometimes he needs a little bit of help -

0:20:320:20:35

as a farmer from Wales discovered, rather to his surprise.

0:20:350:20:39

John Morris and his wife Margaret

0:20:420:20:45

run a family farm in Crickhowell in Powys.

0:20:450:20:48

For the last nine years, they've been producing

0:20:480:20:51

an award-winning apple juice from their historic orchard.

0:20:510:20:54

Most farms in this area have orchards and they have old orchards.

0:20:550:21:00

But very few farms have orchards of this size with such old trees in it.

0:21:000:21:06

The reason for that is, when my grandfather moved here,

0:21:060:21:08

he saw it as potential,

0:21:080:21:10

so that he could sell apples rather than perhaps

0:21:100:21:13

scrubbing out trees and just growing grass for animals.

0:21:130:21:17

30 varieties of British apples are grown here -

0:21:170:21:20

some are very rare indeed.

0:21:200:21:24

John and his wife specialise in making apple juice

0:21:240:21:27

from single varieties.

0:21:270:21:29

Their expertise is known throughout the area.

0:21:290:21:32

So much so that Prince Charles contacted John

0:21:330:21:36

for help with the apples grown at his neighbouring orchard in Wales.

0:21:360:21:40

About eight years ago now, we had a phone call saying,

0:21:410:21:43

"Would you come and identify some apples in an orchard near Llandovery?"

0:21:430:21:48

We didn't know it was his orchard at the time.

0:21:480:21:51

We went down and identified some of the apples in there.

0:21:510:21:55

Some were more difficult to identify.

0:21:550:21:58

And following on, he asked us to press the apples for him.

0:21:580:22:01

He obviously liked the apple juice

0:22:010:22:02

because we've been doing it ever since,

0:22:020:22:05

and now the pear juice for him as well.

0:22:050:22:07

What we have here, actually,

0:22:070:22:09

are pears from the Prince of Wales's home in Highgrove

0:22:090:22:11

and also pears from his farm in Wales

0:22:110:22:13

that were picked yesterday evening.

0:22:130:22:15

The fruit is picked and brought to the farm, where it's washed...

0:22:150:22:19

..broken into smaller pieces

0:22:210:22:24

and then put into the press.

0:22:240:22:26

And now we have to press the juice out of them.

0:22:260:22:29

When we put it under this 19-tonne press,

0:22:290:22:31

you're surprised how much comes out. I'll switch it on now.

0:22:310:22:34

Once pressed, the juice is stored overnight in tanks,

0:22:360:22:39

so that the sediment settles before bottling.

0:22:390:22:42

Then it's pasteurised in warm water.

0:22:420:22:45

This kills the yeast and prevents alcohol production.

0:22:450:22:48

Prince Charles came to John and Margaret's farm to see for himself

0:22:520:22:55

how production was going.

0:22:550:22:57

The Prince came July 2014.

0:22:580:23:02

It was very exciting, very strange, and he was lovely -

0:23:020:23:06

very ordinary, made you feel at ease.

0:23:060:23:09

And he was genuinely interested, and you could see

0:23:090:23:13

that he just wasn't there for the sake of being there,

0:23:130:23:16

that he was interested because we are a small farm,

0:23:160:23:18

trying to make a living.

0:23:180:23:20

It was just an honour for him to support us

0:23:200:23:23

and to support local businesses around here,

0:23:230:23:25

because there are a lot of food and drink places in the locality.

0:23:250:23:30

The following year, their juice was awarded the Royal Warrant -

0:23:300:23:33

the first producers in Wales to achieve this distinction.

0:23:330:23:36

Mildred Nicholls' recipe book from the early 1900s

0:23:380:23:42

features recipes for several apple puddings.

0:23:420:23:45

They include the perfectly portable, picnic-friendly apple tart, or...

0:23:450:23:49

A lot of those picnics, you know,

0:23:520:23:54

must've been prepared by Mildred Nicholls, who was a kitchenmaid

0:23:540:23:57

in Buckingham Palace in the early years of the last century,

0:23:570:23:59

and whose fabulous old recipe book

0:23:590:24:02

is an absolute treasure trove of royal recipes.

0:24:020:24:05

-It's incredible.

-Not surprisingly, quite a lot of them apple recipes.

0:24:050:24:08

There's one here, tarte de pommes a la Russe.

0:24:080:24:12

-What's your take on this?

-My take on this is, I'm doing it exactly how

0:24:120:24:16

Mildred did it, cos when I read the recipe, I loved it,

0:24:160:24:19

and I think that her techniques

0:24:190:24:21

and what she was doing was really current now.

0:24:210:24:24

Starting with these apples...

0:24:240:24:25

What we've got here, Michael, is the Bramley apple,

0:24:250:24:28

so we've got hundreds of variety in Great Britain but the Bramley,

0:24:280:24:31

everyone knows it and it's a great apple.

0:24:310:24:33

It's great because it cooks down

0:24:330:24:35

-and she's cooked it with muscovado sugar, some butter.

-Muscovado sugar?

0:24:350:24:38

-And some lemon.

-It looks like Demerara, it looks like brown sugar.

0:24:380:24:41

No, it's muscovado, so it's darker brown.

0:24:410:24:43

-Demerara's a bit lighter.

-Yeah.

0:24:430:24:45

Again, Mildred's pastry - just a lovely, simple,

0:24:450:24:47

sweet pastry that we've just blind baked, all right?

0:24:470:24:51

We're just going to smear that in. Now, what was really interesting -

0:24:510:24:54

I've never seen this before - is Mildred then did...

0:24:540:24:57

Like a lemon curd, but it's got so much lemon in

0:24:570:24:59

as what we would know as a lemon curd.

0:24:590:25:02

So we're going to start with the butter in the pan.

0:25:020:25:05

We're going to take one lemon.

0:25:050:25:07

OK. And we're just going to do the juice of one lemon...

0:25:070:25:11

..eggs and sugar.

0:25:120:25:14

Then going to add into there, as well, Michael, our cornflour.

0:25:140:25:17

That just stabilises it.

0:25:170:25:20

In here we've got our lemon juice and our butter.

0:25:200:25:22

Now we're going to add in our eggs.

0:25:220:25:24

So we've got three egg yolks.

0:25:260:25:27

-Royal brown eggs, are they?

-Royal brown eggs!

0:25:290:25:31

And one egg. OK.

0:25:330:25:35

Cornflour in.

0:25:350:25:36

And our sugar.

0:25:400:25:42

-Plenty of sugar.

-Plenty of sugar. Plenty of butter, plenty of sugar.

0:25:420:25:45

It wouldn't be a Mildred recipe if it didn't have plenty of sugar and plenty of butter!

0:25:450:25:49

And just over a low heat,

0:25:490:25:51

you basically just cook all these ingredients together.

0:25:510:25:53

What happens is the lemon juice then just starts to thicken.

0:25:530:25:57

-It's kind of like a custard curd.

-Yeah.

0:25:570:26:00

-Can you see our mixture's just starting to thicken?

-Yeah.

0:26:000:26:05

-Basically, we're going to pour it all over the top.

-You just pour it on the top?

0:26:050:26:08

It's such a great... It's such a fascinating recipe.

0:26:080:26:12

-Then we just literally just smooth it into the corners.

-Make sure it's all covered?

-Absolutely, like that.

0:26:120:26:17

Oh, yeah.

0:26:190:26:20

And that is why you blind bake it,

0:26:210:26:23

because that won't be that long in the oven.

0:26:230:26:25

So that pastry would still be raw.

0:26:250:26:27

-Yeah.

-So, if you could just take that to the oven for me...

0:26:270:26:29

-Yeah, put Mildred down.

-Put Mildred down.

0:26:290:26:31

And out there you should find one that's already done.

0:26:310:26:34

OK, I'll pop this in the oven and bring the other one back.

0:26:340:26:36

-Thank you, I'll have a tidy up.

-OK, see you in a minute, Chef.

0:26:360:26:40

Oh, look at this - symphony in gold, isn't it?

0:26:430:26:45

And the top has gone beautifully crinkly.

0:26:450:26:48

-You can see the apples.

-The apples are starting to poke through.

0:26:480:26:51

-Beautiful.

-We're just going to

0:26:510:26:54

literally finish it with some icing sugar,

0:26:540:26:56

just over the top, just for a little bit more Mildred sweetness.

0:26:560:27:00

Oh, yeah.

0:27:000:27:01

Snowing icing sugar!

0:27:020:27:05

Mildred's looking down at you, you know, and smiling, I think.

0:27:050:27:09

I hope so, cos it's been an absolute pleasure to cook these old recipes.

0:27:090:27:13

-It really has.

-Well, here's to Mildred and here's to us! Come on!

0:27:130:27:16

-Would you like a slice?

-Absolutely.

0:27:160:27:19

-Oh!

-OK...

-Yep...

0:27:190:27:21

-Oh, look at that!

-Look at that!

0:27:240:27:26

-No, after you.

-No, go on.

-Oh, all right.

0:27:260:27:29

Mm! Mm-mm-mm!

0:27:310:27:34

Ooh, the pastry is good, too.

0:27:340:27:36

Ooh!

0:27:360:27:37

Ooh, that's really good.

0:27:380:27:40

It really bursts in your mouth, doesn't it?

0:27:440:27:46

-I love that recipe so much.

-Well done, Mildred.

0:27:460:27:49

It was Mildred, not you, wasn't it?

0:27:490:27:50

It was all Mildred! I just merely showcased it.

0:27:500:27:54

OK. Well, it's time to wrap up that picnic rug,

0:27:540:27:57

put everything back in the hamper.

0:27:570:27:59

Our royal picnics are over, aren't they?

0:27:590:28:02

See you next time.

0:28:020:28:04

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