Country Pursuits 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 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...'

-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,

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

and a former home of King Charles II.

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 cook food that reflects the royal family's love

of the countryside.

From their hunting, shooting and fishing pursuits,

to their enjoyment of rich, rural flavours.

Right, so...

'Today in the Royal Recipes kitchen,

'chef Anna Haugh tries sausage making,

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

You might be lucky to get a cocktail sausage.

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

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

created by a maharaja and adored by royalty.

-So George there.

-That's right. King George.

-And the Queen.

-Wow.

And we follow Prince Charles's example

and go foraging for mushrooms.

That's worth picking.

In the kitchen wing of this glorious stately home,

we start our celebration of the royals' country pursuits

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

and a firm favourite with the Queen mother.

Hello and welcome to the grand kitchen.

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

WHISPERED: ..where the young royals go.

Yes, they do from time to time.

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

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

What are you going to do for us today?

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

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

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

and it's galantine of game.

-Galantine?

-Galantine.

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

type of terrine.

-Cylindrical rather than square.

-Yes.

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

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

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

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

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

-and then pack it in nice and tightly.

-Wow.

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

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

-Yeah.

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

-Mm-hm.

-I mean, they're still slightly warm, these are.

I'm sure you can still kind of smell them. There's a lovely kind of...

-I didn't even smell them.

-..like a mild... Yes, go on.

-Sorry.

-Get in there.

-Oh.

-Yeah. Yeah.

-It's lovely, game.

-Yeah.

-Isn't it?

-But if you're not a fan of game, this actually...

-Could you do it with chicken?

-Yeah.

Originally, this would have been done with chicken.

But, I mean, when you live in a country like the UK,

there's some of the best game in the world.

-Mm-hm.

-And I think it's a great shame that once it's in season

that we don't kind of avail of it.

But, yes, if you wanted to use chicken, you could.

Actually it's very good for using a little bit of leftovers as well.

So if you had your roast kind of chicken

you could do that with a little bit of sausage meat

and you could pack it in.

OK, I'm going to start...

But this is a royal recipe.

No chicken here.

This is a royal recipe. That's exactly right.

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

-Mm-hm.

-It's pretty simple.

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

Tell me, why the sausage meat?

The sausage meat is a good kind of filler

and the flavour of the pork meat

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

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

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

nice and evenly kind of distributed.

The sausage meat that I have is from a local butcher.

-Mm-hm.

-It's already kind of seasoned.

Mm-hm. And it's a bit fattier, obviously, than game, isn't it?

It is. Actually, you're right,

there's a good fat content in the sausage meat,

which gives a good richness to the galantine.

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

They may not have, no, actually.

They probably would have just

had this in a cylindrical mould so it looks

like a large sausage.

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

or possibly set the entire one in aspic as well,

if they were going to slice it later.

They absolutely loved aspic, didn't they?

They did love aspic, and I think because we don't use it any more

it seems kind of bizarre to us,

but it was a method of how you preserved it

because it stopped the oxygen getting into the meat.

-It was a preservative more than anything else?

-Yes, yes.

I like the taste of it. Why's it gone out of fashion?

I don't know, because I don't like the taste of it.

So, uh...

-Maybe it's us cooks that have...

-Yeah, yeah.

..signed its death warrant.

There's a little bit more in there.

OK.

And then...

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

-Yeah.

-The royals would have had

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

-Mm-hm.

They were so fond of hunting and shooting

-and fishing and everything.

-Yeah, yeah.

In fact, I think Edward VII bought Sandringham in Norfolk, you know,

one of the royal households, for its shooting,

principally for its shooting. And the estate is

actually laid out as a shooting estate.

You could imagine that, though.

Waking up in the morning,

going out with your team of friends and shooting the game.

-Yeah.

-Bringing it back into a kitchen like this

and creating recipes like this. I just think it's wonderful.

I really do. And I think it's a great shame

that sometimes recipes like this are just kind of

not as popular as they should be,

because once you've made this, this is going to last you days.

-Yeah.

-And traditionally this is eaten cold.

You know, this would be a kind of cold larder starter.

-Mm-hm.

-And I just think although it takes a little bit of time to make

there's an awful lot of satisfaction to recipes like this.

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

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

are pretty widely available.

Absolutely, yeah. I would completely agree.

-Are they expensive?

-I mean, everything's all relative.

-Mm-hm.

-But, no, I would not say it's an exceptionally expensive meat.

It wouldn't be any more expensive than duck.

Mm-hm.

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

-Yes!

So, Michael, would you reckon that you'd give this a go?

I think I could do this.

-Yeah?

-I think I'm an undiscovered cooking talent, actually.

So I'm going to take the credit of that,

so when you make your first cookery book

you've got to dedicate it to me.

You've done that brilliantly!

That actually works, right to the last spoonful.

-Well, Michael...

-Was that just your innate skill?

Just my skill, that's all it comes down to.

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

to make sure that I don't have any little air pockets.

-Yeah.

-And essentially, that is all the hard work almost done.

I'm just going to close it up.

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

Yes, just for you.

-A little snack.

-Mm.

-Keep those energy levels up.

-OK.

-Mm-hm.

I'm going to fold this over...

..like this.

And then a few more slices

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

Are you sure it's going to stay sealed?

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

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

Yeah.

It does look very neat, doesn't it?

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

It's super neat.

And you could understand, actually,

why they would set it in the kind of gelatine or the aspic

when you see this turned out.

-OK.

-OK, so, all I'm going to do now is wrap it in some tinfoil...

..give it a good kind of

squeeze all around.

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

helps with the kind of even cooking...

-Right.

-..of the terrine.

So you need to cook this for about

an hour and a half at about 160 degrees.

-Mm-hm.

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

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

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

A-ha. Oh, I love this bit.

-Yes.

-Can I do the reveal?

-Yes, please.

-One, two, three.

-SHE GASPS

-Ho-ho!

-Isn't it beautiful?

-It's lovely, isn't it?

-It's beautiful.

-What are the shiny bits down the side?

Yeah, that is the natural kind of gelatine

that has come out of the meat.

-Its own aspic?

-Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

-So I should carve now?

-Yeah.

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

Yes.

Oh!

Oh, look at that.

Yeah. Wouldn't that be lovely,

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

-One or two.

-Supper for a royal.

And you'd take it cold like this?

Yes. Traditionally galantine would have been served cold,

and balontine, which is almost the same idea,

but that would be served hot.

Now, how do we eat this?

-Do we have it on toast?

-On toast, maybe,

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

-Fig chutney?

-Yes.

-Ooh-hoo!

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

acidity and a bit of spice...

-Yeah.

-..goes so well with game.

-Have a knife and fork.

-Thank you.

Right.

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

-Mm.

-Mm-mm-mm.

Oh, yes, it's quite solid.

-Yeah.

-Here we go.

-Mm.

-Mm.

I'll have a bit of toast with it.

The chutney goes so well with that.

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

Mm.

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

-No.

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

-to make a galantine with.

-It certainly isn't.

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

A delicious and simple way for

the royals to enjoy the game shot for their table.

Shooting parties have always been part of royal life.

Many a grand shooting estate

was created specifically to attract their patronage.

Elveden in Suffolk is one such estate.

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

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

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

-This is fantastic.

-This is our van.

This van has been with us since 1934.

Since 1934?

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

A suitably vintage start to the day.

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

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

It was Queen Victoria's close friend,

the Punjabi Maharajah Duleep Singh,

who bought it some 30 years earlier and set

about building its hunting reputation.

With Duleep Singh, Elveden became

one of the finest shoots in the country.

Apparently, one day, he killed...

..760 game birds with 1,000 shots.

With 1,000 shots?

That's almost a 100% success rate.

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

Are you that good?

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

-The game birds are safe with me.

-OK!

Elveden was the perfect place for the Maharajah

to entertain his neighbour, the Prince of Wales,

who owned the 7,000-acre Sandringham estate

just across the county border in Norfolk.

And it was a whole social occasion.

They had some delicious food and drink,

and Duleep Singh got so large,

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

-Really? Right.

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

whichever direction they came from.

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

He was a sitting gun.

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

No shooting party was complete without lunch.

-So...

-So, where are we?

-Over this way.

-Yes.

-This wood here is the Duke of York Wood.

Shoots would stop off and enjoy their lunch.

And they would have the most amazing array of food,

which was all laid out in a marquee.

Over here? In a marquee?

-Yes.

-Really?

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

The Prince of Wales himself

would have been out there after a successful morning,

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

there having this lavish banquet, exchanging excitable tales,

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

It must have been amazing.

If only the trees could talk.

All the stories and the wonderful tales that were told.

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

It includes detailed records

of those lunches and the illustrious guests.

-Come in, Matt.

-Thank you.

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

It's a photograph album that she took with her

and many of her guests signed.

And she put in some beautiful photographs...

Oh, wow! These are really old.

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

What about this picture here? Talking of lunch,

are these the kind of pop-up dining halls

they used to have their meals in

-in the middle of the shoot?

-They were.

They were dining at the Duke of York Wood.

-Wow!

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

What are these signatures?

So, they're all the host guests.

OK. And George there.

That's right. King George.

-That was the king.

-And, um, the Queen.

-Churchill.

-Here we go.

-Churchill.

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

It's amazing to see these.

A really vivid trip down memory lane.

-That's right.

-Thank you for showing it to us.

Not at all. My great pleasure.

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

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

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

Especially over Christmas.

Boxing Day is apparently the big shooting day.

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

used to be shooting these birds.

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

-or at least collecting them.

-Just imagine the two of them there,

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

And Prince Philip likes cooking, I think.

Yeah, I heard he did like to cook.

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

he would bring to the local butcher

and they would make pheasant sausages.

He didn't want to see anything wasted.

-Exactly.

-Are you going to do those pheasant sausages?

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

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

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

-OK.

So, fingers crossed that I make edible sausages.

-So, what have you got?

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

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

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

-is it?

-No.

-There's very little fat on it.

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

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

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

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

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

So, let's get going.

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

-It's a smoky bacon?

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

You're going to mix them all together?

Mix them all together, actually,

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

What spices are they?

A pinch of nutmeg.

-Mm hm.

-And then another pinch of allspice.

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

and then the minced pheasant.

-Mm hm.

-And just give it a good mix.

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

Sausage attachment!

On a home mixer.

-This is the bit I'm dying to see.

-Yes, well,

I mean, I'm dying to see if I can make these.

You don't make sausages as a general rule?

No. I mean, I do boudins and I would do different

sausage shapes but not actual, traditional sausages,

which I think is great.

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

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

-Shall I hold it?

-Yes.

Make sure it doesn't move.

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

-Mm hm.

-Put a little bit extra on the side.

Switch this little bad boy on.

WHIRRING

And let's...

get sausage making.

You push it all down like that?

Yeah. A slow process.

-Yeah.

-Hope you've got no plans for the afternoon.

Ooh!

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

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

Yeah. If you keep spooning.

I will.

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

but you might be looking to get a cocktail sausage.

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

Yeah.

Oh, yes.

Now, that's a proper looking sausage.

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

MICHAEL STRAINS

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

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

-No, definitely not.

-That's it?

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

Yeah.

Phew! Ooh!

-OK.

-And a little tie.

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

I think that was the crucial element, actually.

Yes, absolutely.

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

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

-Yeah.

-If I do that like that.

And then just give them a twist.

Give them a twist.

Twist.

OK. Pheasant sausages. Three pheasant sausages there.

I'm quite proud of that.

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

-Yeah.

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

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

-Mm hm.

-Goes delicious with some mashed potato.

Mashed potato, of course.

Of course. Bangers and mash.

But this is a cider gravy.

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

caramelised onion in here.

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

-Yeah?

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

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

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

just to give it a bit of sweetness.

Just give that a nice little stir.

They probably needed recipes for leftovers because, you know,

so many pheasants get shot on these occasions.

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

advanced by half an hour at Sandringham,

so he could spend more of the day shooting.

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

-That's brilliant.

-Yeah. Oh, I love your mash!

Creamy. What's the secret with that?

Being Irish, I think.

-What, you're good with potatoes.

-Yes.

-Oh, yes, yes. yes.

-OK.

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

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

That's my cheffy bit. Yes.

Well, you know... My pizzazz!

-OK.

-Yep.

-Now our lovely gravy.

It's very traditional.

Would you serve it with any other vegetables?

No. No.

I think just like this is exactly what you want.

On a cold winter's day.

Exactly. So there you have it.

Pheasant sausage, cider gravy and creamy mash.

Yes, please. Bring it on.

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

Go on. You made 'em.

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

-Yeah.

-And that mash.

Look at it! Like silk.

Cider gravy. Here we go.

Mmm.

-Mm.

-I've never had pheasant sausage before.

-Mm.

-And I certainly will have it again.

-It's delicious.

-Absolutely delicious.

These posh sausages would be a favourite

with all ages after an afternoon in the countryside.

For the Royal Family,

rural pursuits mean different things to different people.

Prince Charles is passionate about natural food,

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

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

a self-taught mycologist,

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

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

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

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

Mushroom foraging can be traced back to the Roman times,

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

People absolutely love it,

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

I remember seeing a picture of Prince Charles

in the paper carrying a mushroom basket

and I thought, "That's great",

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

but he wanted to do it himself

and that's the whole point of it,

you've go and actually do it yourself,

it's engaging with nature, really.

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

there's plenty to choose from.

And the royal estates lend themselves

particularly well to foraging.

I think Prince Charles is quite a lucky mushroom hunter

because he's got access to this wonderful parkland

over most of the royal estate,

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

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

Not everybody can do that.

One of the greatest places for fungi,

I'm not sure if you can pick there any more, that's Windsor Great Park.

I must say I have been picking there in the past.

And there you have these mature trees,

these veteran trees and they've had time

to establish relationships with lots of fungi.

Foraging for mushrooms takes great skill and knowledge

and should only be undertaken by experts such as John,

who often forages on his friends' land.

Grasslands like this are a great source of mushrooms,

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

creating an undisturbed environment for the fungi.

Many of the more dangerous varieties,

such as the Death Cap and Destroying Angel,

won't be found here, as they grow in woodland.

This is lovely. One of my favourites.

It's a really common mushroom.

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

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

frightening your friends that come round for dinner.

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

But no, there's some edible red things

and there's some poisonous red things,

you just have to know what it is.

These are nice. Look.

Quite amazing.

These are puffballs. This is quite tasty,

and you can see how tasty it is

because somebody has eaten a bit of it already.

There's been a slug in there.

There's a little bit left.

Try and get away from the slug-nibbled area.

Bit like a mushroom flavoured marshmallow.

That is worth picking. In the basket.

Now, look at this.

Wow.

John finds a ring of parasol mushrooms,

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

Now he just needs to find a spot to cook.

They say that food always tastes better outdoors,

and it certainly does,

and nothing better than mushrooms you've picked half an hour ago.

These are super fresh.

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

sit here and warm my hands.

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

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

which is mushrooms a la creme.

So let's get that melted.

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

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

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

That's a little scarlet wax cap.

Just get the stem off.

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

Pop him in. What else have we got?

Here are my parasols next, these cook very quickly.

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

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

just break it into little triangles and in it goes.

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

they need that little bit of salt.

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

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

And I think that's enough.

I do like the cream thick but not too thick,

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

you just need it a little bit runny.

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

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

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

My God, that's amazing.

That is really, really brilliant.

I'll have some of the mushrooms.

I'm going to go with the puffball.

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

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

It really is the perfect end to a foraging day -

pick something in the wild, we eat it.

The Royal Family's love of the outdoors has always meant

a willingness to try something new.

Here in the grand library of the house, I'm with Fiona Ross,

who is a food historian and writes a lot about the Royals.

Most of the royals really adore country pursuits, don't they?

But Prince Philip, I mean, he's 90-odd now,

but certainly for most of his life has been a real enthusiast

-for the outdoors.

-Yes, he has.

When he first met the Queen, he used to go jogging with four sweaters on.

You know, he loved exercising so much.

And then he's always been...

In later years, he became very interested in playing polo,

and the Queen gave him his first polo horse in 1951.

He was very resistant to the idea at first,

he said, "I'm not going to ponce about on horses."

He also said it was a snob's sport.

But he ended up being amongst the top 2% of polo riders in Britain.

-And shooting, fishing?

-Shooting, fishing, yes, absolutely.

He was taught to shoot by the Queen's father,

and when he first turned up for a shoot with the Queen's father,

he had no gear, nothing whatsoever,

George fitted him out with everything,

and subsequently he's shot snipe in Sandringham,

or capercaillie and grouse in Scotland, in Balmoral.

He loves to clean and gut the creatures himself,

and then he flogs them off to the local butcher,

called HM Sheridan in Ballater, who sells them on.

He's a bit of a practical joker, too, on these kind of things.

Yes, yes, he can have a lovely sense of humour.

When the Queen was rather upset during the tour of Canada in 1951,

because her father was so ill, he decided to cheer her up

by offering her imitation bread rolls,

which squeaked when she bit into them.

He also offered her mixed nuts from a tin,

and when she opened it, a snake flew out.

Actually, practical joking seems to run in the Royal family, doesn't it?

The Queen Mother was a famous practical joker,

as well as being an outdoors woman.

Yes, she was, she loved anything that made people laugh,

she was absolutely adorable.

She loved fishing,

and was very amused once when another lady spotted her

fishing in the River Dee, and tried to curtsy,

thus filling her waders with water.

But her picnics were famous.

Yes, she loved having picnics, as all the Windsors did.

What she loved most of all is her equerry recalled that she liked

something fishy like a mousse, to start with,

and that would be followed possibly by some cold game,

caught the day before, and finished with jam tarts,

which she would cut the head off of and fill with cream.

All in the great outdoors,

which in her case was the far north of Scotland,

so she must have been pretty hardy.

She was very hardy, yeah.

She was hardly enough to survive one of Prince Charles' meals.

Prince Charles invited her to his bothy for a venison stew,

and they sort of chewed their way through the venison stew,

and then when she was driving back with her equerry, she said to him,

"Are you feeling a bit hungry?"

And he said, "I'm fine". She said, "Well, I'm hungry.

"Let's go make some scrambled eggs."

Which they did.

-Fiona, thanks very much.

-Thank you.

Country life for the royals nowadays is also about the enjoyment

of growing and eating their own produce, and one of

the most prized fruits that they grow is the Windsor white peach,

and royal chef Darren McGrady

has a recipe that really shows the fruit off.

In the grounds of Windsor Castle,

they grow the best peaches in the world.

Plump, juicy, sweet, and they really are the culinary crown jewels.

Unfortunately, I don't have those gorgeous peaches

they have at Windsor,

but I've got some nice ripe ones here.

Darren is making Peach Princess,

a dish he's cooked many times in his 15 years' service.

To make this royal favourite, these peaches are left to soften for

five minutes in water, with some sugar and cinnamon sticks.

While the peaches are cooking, we're going to make the mousse,

and the mousse is really retro, 1970s,

but it tastes fantastic, and when peaches were in season,

this is a dish that the Queen would have...

maybe twice a week.

So, we start off by boiling some milk.

We then need to put some eggs and sugar together,

but we need to separate the eggs,

so we want the egg whites to whisk into the mousse,

but the yolks go in with the sugar.

And then, a little vanilla in there, too.

This is mixed together, then the boiled milk is added.

And once it's all mixed in, we go back to the pan.

When the mixture has the consistency of cream,

it's time to add some dissolved gelatine to help it thicken.

Pour into that, keep whisking as you pour,

because we don't want lumps of gelatine in there.

The mixture is then cooled in the fridge for 30 minutes.

While the mix is just cooling down slightly,

the peaches should be ready now.

And we can lift those out to a plate.

I'm really serious when I talk about the peaches being the crown jewels,

the culinary crown jewels. When the peaches were in season,

they travelled to wherever Her Majesty was,

and if she was at Balmoral Castle,

there were wooden boxes made and the peaches were actually taken from

the trees, wrapped in cotton wool,

and packed neatly into the boxes, and then driven to Balmoral.

Once the egg mixture has chilled, it's time to whip some cream...

Nice, soft peaks on the cream.

..and the egg whites.

And whip the egg whites until they're nice and stiff.

How do you know when they're ready?

They need to be really, really stiff,

so much so that if you tip the bowl up over your head, it doesn't fall

into your hair. Then, we start off with the cream...

..and add all of our cream...

..into the egg mixture.

Then we can add the egg whites, and just fold these in, cut and fold,

cut and fold, turning the bowl.

So once it's all mixed in together,

then we're going to pour it into our beautiful dishes.

This part needs to go in the refrigerator just to set up,

and I've got one in here that's been setting for a while.

Ah, yes, this one's set up perfectly.

This is just what we're looking for.

Nice and firm on the top.

It's ready for the peaches.

The next stage is to peel our peaches, take that skin off,

and then we'll just cut some little slices, lay them on the top,

and then cover them with the jelly.

And they just lay neatly on top.

And finally, all we have to do...

..is put our jelly over the top.

Darren has already prepared a sachet of citrus jelly

to complete this dish.

And I'm just going to spoon this over the top of those peaches.

And that's the most gorgeous Peach Princess.

A timeless classic, worthy of its regal title.

Peach of a dish, would you say?

Oh, good one! Good one!

Look, when our kitchen maid, Mildred Nicholls,

who's left us this fantastic recipe book,

was working in the Buckingham Palace kitchens,

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

Both dedicated countrymen, out and about all the time,

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

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

a nice snack to take out on your country pursuits?

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

-a nice sweet snack?

-OK, well, this recipe is very interesting.

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

-Chapeaux communs?

-Yeah.

I've never seen anything like it before,

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

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

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

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

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

so interesting is that the pastry is like a mixture between

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

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

-That's unusual.

-..butter, flour...

Yeah, it is, it's quite interesting.

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

out to about half a centimetre thick.

-And that's what we have here.

-"Chapeau" is French for hat,

-isn't it?

-That's right, yes.

And you shape it into a particular kind of hat,

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

-Exactly. Exactly.

So, what do you do?

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

-make the marzipan.

-I love marzipan.

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

Oh, down the ages.

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

a lot that you could do with marzipan -

you could colour it and shape it,

and I think back in the Tudors' time,

they used to like it shaped as little animals.

And they'd have them on the banqueting table.

-Yeah.

-And things like that.

-Biting their heads off.

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

Oh, yeah. Definitely.

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

It is just ground down almonds.

And I'm going to add the sugar.

Is marzipan always with almonds, or could you do it with other nuts?

Oh, you can do it with any nuts, I mean, a walnut marzipan...

Traditionally?

Traditionally, it's almonds, but walnut marzipan was my favourite.

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

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

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

through your almond flour as quickly as possible,

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

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

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

I got the impression you're slightly sniffy about marzipan,

as if it's sort of an old-fashioned taste?

-Yeah, I do...

-When I said, "I love marzipan"...

"Yeah, somebody your age probably would."

That's exactly what I thought.

-Oh, right!

-Oh, my God, Michael, it's like you can read my mind!

Well, it is fairly transparent.

Yeah. Well, my dad loves a bit of marzipan,

and I remember as a kid when dad would be all excited about,

you know, the sweets you get at Christmas.

And I, as a kid, you know, they looked amazing, you were like,

"Oh, beautiful!" You'd sink your teeth into them and you'd be like...

Not a lot going on here for me.

But the Queen loves marzipan, apparently,

and other people know that.

I think that when she went to Germany once,

they actually gave her a big marzipan

rendering of the Brandenburg gate.

-Can you imagine?

-Brilliant! You can just imagine her

-sinking her teeth into that.

-Yes!

We've been trying to do some research and find out

a bit more about it, having found it in Mildred's book,

but there isn't very much about it, but chapeaux communs

rather sounds... It means a kind of revolutionary hat,

it seems rather an odd thing for the royal family to have in that sort

-of way, doesn't it?

-I mean, wait till you see like, when these bake,

they will look a little bit like Napoleon's hat.

Oh, wow! OK.

-What next?

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

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

Just give it a mix.

Now, if the almond meal you have is a bit dry,

a tiny teaspoon of water or anything like that would kind of be enough.

-Just to moisten it.

-Just to bring it together, because you don't

want your marzipan to be too dry,

you don't want it to kind of crumble,

you DO want to be able to kind of sink your teeth into it.

Eurgh. I'm not a marzipan fan. Even saying that!

But that's, I know, the way it should be.

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

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

OK, so when you're rolling marzipan,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-going out shooting or something?

-Exactly. Exactly.

-Oh, now, now, and

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

-Yeah.

-Very neat. Very round.

Is the size important?

Yeah, well, I think you want to be able to have a good amount

of the marzipan in there. I think it's the star of the show.

Mm. You want to sink through the pastry and into the sweetness

-of the marzipan.

-Exactly.

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

We're looking for a three-point hat.

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

-A tricorn hat.

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

They look rather elegant, I think.

Hang on, I've got a very big head!

Seven and seven eighths, you know.

There we go. Oh, they look rather sweet, don't they?

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

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

and I'm going to eggwash them.

It gives them a nice kind of glaze and shine,

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

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

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

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

which is just water and sugar boiled together.

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

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

So I've actually baked some earlier on,

which I'm going to bring over now.

-Look at these.

-They do look lovely, don't they?

But they've lost some of the hat shape.

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

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

-A kind of squashed hat!

-Yeah.

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

how shiny and delicious they look,

and what I'm surprised about is that the pastry's quite firm.

May I just...? Oh, yeah.

-I thought the pastry was going to be soft.

-Yeah.

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

Now, Mildred wouldn't have done this.

-No, she wouldn't have done this.

-This is your twist.

This is my twist.

-Oh, just the bottom?

-Maybe... Yeah.

Maybe to hide the marzipan flavour is why...

-I'm dipping it in chocolate.

-Spoilsport!

You don't think you're almost literally over-egging the pudding?

You know, you've got chocolate AND marzipan,

and this lovely pastry.

-Yeah.

-With the butter and cream in the pastry.

Oh, my goodness, that sounds amazing!

When you describe it that way!

Everything in the way you describe, it sounds amazing.

Yeah. I'm slobbering a bit myself, I have to say.

This does look good.

But when you put that chocolate on there isn't that going to

leave the grid? You put it on the grid there,

isn't that going to leave a grid pattern?

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

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

-Oh, surely not!

-..it means that it will drip off.

It does look good, doesn't it?

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

you do it over a bain marie, and what this does is that it gives it

a slower and more even temperature

to the whole bowl so it doesn't burn,

because chocolate's quite sensitive.

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

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

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

Go for the Quasimodos.

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

But I don't think I can.

-OK.

-Can I try it?

-Go on.

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

Can I do it in one? No!

Mmm!

Now, I'm not a marzipan fan,

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

the chocolate is going to help.

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

I love marzipan.

-Takes me back to my childhood.

-The crunch is lovely, isn't it?

We could only ever afford it at Christmas, but we absolutely

loved it. Oh, I think Mildred's onto a winner, here.

I think...

hats off to Mildred!

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

See you next time.

Mmm!