Holidays and Travel Royal Recipes

Hello, I'm Michael Beurk.

Welcome to a brand-new series of Royal Recipes.

This time, we're at Westonbirt House, formerly a grand country house,

now a boarding school which has played host to royal visitors

for over 100 years.

In this series, we're delving even further back in time to reveal over

600 years of royal food heritage.

You play Anne Boleyn and I will play Henry VIII!

And we've been busy unlocking the secrets of Britain's great food

archives, discovering rare and unseen recipes that have been royal

favourites through the ages,

from the earliest royal cookbook in 1390...

It's so precious, so special, that I'm not allowed to touch it.

..to Tudor treats from the court of Henry VIII.

I can't wait for this. One, two, three.

We'll be exploring the great culinary traditions enjoyed by the

royal family, from the grand to the ground-breaking,

as well as the surprisingly simple...

I did think that was going to be a disaster.

Woo!

..as we hear from a host of royal chefs...

Prince Philip would walk past or pop his head in, "What's for dinner,

"what we having?" Oh, yeah, it's not just a normal kitchen.

..and meet the people who provide for the royal table.

If it's OK for the Queen, it's OK for everyone.

Welcome to Royal Recipes.

Royal holiday habits are under the spotlight in today's show.

We're heading off on some royal travels and looking at the kind of

food that British monarchs and their families enjoy on their breaks from

public life.

Coming up on Royal Recipes...

It's pretty quick, this, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Everything is quick.

Well, you know, I just make it look easy, Michael.

..Chef Anna Haugh rolls out a royally-inspired barbecue dish.

I'm not going to wait for you today.

No. No manners at all.

Dr Annie Gray reveals how sugar-loving monarchs brought

a holiday staple to Britain.

350 years ago, ice cream was almost magical,

and eaten only by the super rich.

And we recreate a show-stopping Victorian dessert.

-Look at that.

-I've no idea what you're trying to do there, Michael.

I'm making it into a kind of crown.

I'm here in the Italian Gardens,

the Royal Recipes outdoor kitchen, with executive chef Anna Haugh.

-A barbecue, Anna, what are you going to do?

-I'm going to make haggis kebabs.

-Haggis kebabs?

-Haggis kebabs, yes.

And this is a favourite, apparently,

of the Princess Royal, Princess Anne.

When she goes sailing, cos she does a lot of sailing,

and she goes on sailing cruises up the Western Isles of Scotland,

she apparently orders these little haggis canapes from a very famous

haggis maker in Bruntsfield in Edinburgh that I used to go to when

I was the BBC Scotland correspondent.

We have that in common, me and Princess Anne.

-Great, so you might actually enjoy these kebabs.

-But haggis kebabs?

Well, I think it's just because we're going to skewer them and

barbecue them, that's what makes it a kebab.

-OK.

-But I love a bit of haggis.

-Yep.

-Right, OK, I'm going to cut this open.

Now, come on, tell me what a haggis actually is.

Haggis is all of the delights that

you find inside a happy little pig.

You've got a bit of liver, you've got a bit of kidney.

You might have a little bit of tripe.

-Ooh!

-But you also have other delights in there, like you've

got some pearl barley,

and there'll be some oats and some onions and garlic.

Why are you mixing it with pork?

Because it's going to hold it better together so we can put it on the

barbecue and keep it a bit juicy as well.

It's 50-50 haggis to sausage meat.

So it makes it possible to kebab it?

Exactly, yeah, yeah.

It's the great national dish, isn't it, of Scotland?

Have you ever been at one of those Burns suppers?

-No, I haven't.

-When they bring it in and they slice it open with a knife

and there's this wonderful Burns' Address To The Haggis and everything

and there's a piper, and there's Scotch whisky - brilliant.

-That sounds amazing.

-Absolutely brilliant.

Now, come on, what next?

OK, we're ready to go, so I'm just going to shape it into, kind

-of, large walnut-sized balls.

-Mmm-hmm.

-Oh, the pork keeps it together, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-So I'm going to pop these ones onto the barbecue.

-OK.

-There we go.

-OK.

-Yeah.

OK, next I'm going to make the glaze that we're going to brush over the

top of the haggis, and I think this is really delicious.

This totally lifts the dish because the sweetness from the honey and

then obviously the amazing aroma from your whisky.

A good whisky? Let me have a sniff.

Ooh, it's a blended whisky. Mmm! Very nice.

I'll just put this over here, Anna.

BOTH LAUGH

You won't be needing any more, will you?

So, I'm just going to give that a nice mix.

I think all the royals love Scotland, but Princess Anne in particular.

Do you know what her full title is, Princess Anne?

I've got it here. Her full title is Her Royal Highness,

the Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, Princess Royal,

-Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter,

-Oh, my goodness.

Extra Lady of the Most Ancient and Noble Order of the Thistle,

Dame Grand Cross and Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order,

Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of

-St John of Jerusalem.

-That's a little greedy, no?

Put that on a visiting card!

-This big.

-OK, so...

-OK, now, where are we?

..next we're going to move on to our lovely neeps and tattie cakes.

I've cooked 50% turnips, or swedes,

and 50% potato.

-Right.

-So, to this, I'm going to add some flour and some butter.

-Here we have...

-Yeah.

-There. I'll just give that a good shake in.

Just keep a little bit aside, so, to help me make the cakes afterwards.

Mmm-hmm.

So, I'm going to give this mix...

A lot of this cooking seems to have a lot of pepper in it.

I remember when I've had haggis,

you get a real sort of peppery sense of it and pepper in the swede

because swede can be, or neeps, could be pretty bland, couldn't it?

Yeah, that's right, I will put

pepper in it, thank you for reminding me.

-Oh, that's perfectly all right.

-Yes. We make a great team, huh?

Mmm. I have to keep you up to the mark, you know?

-Just occasionally.

-Little bit of butter in there as well.

I'm going to save some of that butter to actually fry

the tattie cakes. So that's looking really good now.

It's looking really quite rich, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's looking good.

-Yeah.

-So, I'm going to dust the top of the board...

-Mmm-hmm, as you make it up into the cakes.

-..spoon a little bit out.

This is really, really Scottish.

Really, really Scottish.

-And the second one.

-I think the royal family has had a love affair,

really, with Scotland for yonks.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert absolutely fell in love with it.

I think Albert bought Balmoral privately, actually.

-It was a private home. It's owned by the royal family, not one of the palaces.

-Oh!

-Well, this, you need to be super gentle with because it's so...

-Why?!

..light and fluffy and delicate.

This is going to be like a little cloud.

-OK.

-Give that another little roll in flour.

They do look good, actually.

Yeah. OK, so I'm just going to put some butter into the pan.

Oh, and I'm going to turn the kebabs now, first.

I'm surprised Princess Anne has time for these sailing cruises in the

Western Isles. She's supposed to be the most hard-working of the royals,

you know, the most official duties.

Yes, I've heard that. Now I'm going to lift these up and be really

-delicate with them, cos I want them to keep their shape.

-Yeah.

-OK.

She's very much her own person, I think.

Didn't she refuse titles for her children because she thought that was too much of a burden for them?

-Now, what did you do there? You put some glaze on.

-I glazed it with the

honey and whisky glaze that I made earlier on.

Now, is that for the taste or the look?

-Oh, that's for the taste.

-Oh!

It's all about the flavour.

-How are the cakes doing?

-They're coming along,

they're going to need a little bit longer to get a nice crunchy edge on them.

-Yeah, you want an edge, cos they're soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside?

-Exactly, yes.

-You're flipping them, Anna.

-Yes, I am.

Is this a dangerous moment?

This is a dangerous moment, trying to...

Oh, they look great, they look really golden.

I'd say our kebabs are done so we're going to rest these just for a few minutes. OK. So...

-Those cakes?

-I think our cakes are ready now, so I'm going to take them

-off now as well.

-Excellent.

Tip these out onto the plate.

Two for me, one for you!

-One for you, Michael.

-Aw!

Now, how are you going to plate these up?

-So, we've got some lovely watercress here, which I just think...

-That'll be a nice contrast.

It's exactly what you want with a barbecue, is a lovely green salad.

I'm going to dress that actually with a little bit

-of extra virgin olive oil.

-Mmm-hmm. And that's peppery, too.

There's quite a lot of peppery flavours in there.

A little marriage in heaven.

Tiny little bit of salt on that and that'll be done.

So, there you have it, your haggis

kebabs with neeps and tattie cake.

Looks terrific, doesn't it?

Just as the Princess Royal would have on her Hebridean cruise.

On the aft deck with the sun tipping down over the Atlantic, and maybe a

little nip of Scotch to go with it?

-Why not?

-Come on, let's try it.

Here we go. There's a knife and fork for you, you first.

Thanks. Yes, I'm not going to wait for you today.

No, no manners at all.

-Oh, that looks great.

-It does look good.

-Can I have that bit?

-Yeah.

Mmm!

Mmm!

Oh, it needs a yacht.

You need to be in the Hebrides.

I think the combination of...

..the haggis, all peppery, and the pork, is really good.

Well, thank you. I think the whisky and the honey glaze, though,

is a lovely finish on top.

-That really adds something to them.

-Mmm.

A great modern take on a

traditional Scottish dish.

The Queen loves her annual holiday north of the border, when she spends

the month of August at Balmoral.

Reportedly her favourite residence,

it's possibly the one place where she can relax.

Whether she's holidaying at Balmoral or on royal duties elsewhere,

it's said that the Queen never leaves home without a supply of her

favourite mineral water, but she's not the only royal to have developed

a particular fondness for water from a little corner of Worcestershire.

The Malvern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

For centuries, locals and famous figures like Charles Darwin,

Charles Dickens and our own royal family,

have appreciated the region's water for its taste and alleged healing properties.

It bubbles up from about 70 natural springs around here.

One of them, the Holy Well,

is believed to be the site of the oldest bottling plant in the world.

Water's been collected here since the 1600s.

It's a centuries-old tradition that current owner Mike Hum is happy to continue.

This is called Jubilee Hill and this is where the Holy Well spring

comes up through the Precambrian rock, which is the hardest rock in

England, and it's that hard

that it doesn't shed any minerals into the water.

Therefore, it explains the purity.

There's an outlet of the Holy Well spring further up the hill which is called the Eye Well.

It's called the Eye Well because 11th century monks used to wash

people's eyes with it, thus the purity of the water.

By the middle of the 19th century,

Malvern was a bustling spa town with the great and the good coming here

to take the waters.

Even Queen Victoria visited.

But the area was truly put on the map when water bottled by Schweppes

at the Holy Well site flowed from a magnificent glass fountain at the

Great Exhibition of 1851.

The bottling operation at Holy Well changed hands around the turn of the

20th century and water continued to be collected there until the 1950s.

It then lay undisturbed until Mike rediscovered it decades later.

We acquired the well pretty much by accident.

We were buying the cottage next door

and we found out that the well was in the sale.

It was pretty derelict but we renovated it.

Over time we've discovered how important the Holy Well spring was,

and the water, the history that it had,

the provenance that it had, so in 2008,

we started the company and, in 2009, started bottling.

Mike now runs this as a business and is determined that stories about the

provenance of the Holy Well are kept alive.

The water first came into history in

1558, when Queen Elizabeth I granted

the rights of the water to the Lord of the Manor.

Providing it gave rest and refreshment to travellers,

cos this was a pilgrimage route to St David's in Wales.

And when the building was built in 1851,

these two rooms were set aside -

here for refreshment and next door for rest.

The first bottling took place in 1644 and there was, in fact, in the

17th century, this poem that was written...

..Lord In The Water.

It was a song, actually, but I'm not going to sing it.

"A thousand bottles there were filled weekly

"And many costrels rare

"For stomach sickly

"Some of them into Kent Some of them to London sent

"Others to Berwick went.

"O, praise the Lord."

This shows to me how important the water must have been to everybody in

this country at the time.

It's believed Queen Victoria never travelled without water from the

Malvern Hills.

In 1895, her cousin, Princess Mary Adelaide,

granted a royal warrant to water bottled in the region.

And the current Queen's grandfather, George V,

handed down a second warrant in 1911.

The flow rate from the spring varies, but the water has never been

known to dry up, so Mike and his team can be reasonably confident

of having a steady supply.

This is the bottling plant,

probably the smallest bottling plant you'll ever see.

We access the water over here and the spring flows through,

around the walls, and into the two tanks.

From the tanks,

it's pumped through a UV filter to kill any nasties that might be in

the water, and into the bottling machine.

From the filler, we go to the capper...

..and on to the table for stamping with the date code and into the packing case.

Even today, we still supply water to the Queen.

In October 2013, our local MP, Harriet Baldwin,

had tea with the Queen and took along a gift of water.

And she received a letter of thank-you in reply.

"The Queen has asked me to thank you for the kind gift of spring

"water, which Her Majesty was pleased to receive.

"This message comes to you with the Queen's good wishes."

So, if it's OK for the Queen, it's OK for everyone.

HE LAUGHS

Spending precious time with the family on holiday is just as

important for the Windsors as it is for the rest of us.

Their historic connections to continental royalty means they're

dab hands at laying on a good regal spread when the European relatives

drop in for dinner.

-What are you cooking?

-I'm making Truite Allemande,

which is breadcrumbed trout with

a velvety veloute sauce.

So, the first thing I'm going to do is what we call "pane",

which is breadcrumb the fish,

is put all the fish into a little bit of flour.

Just the one side?

Just the one side.

So, the flour helps absorb a little bit of moisture from the fish and

also for the egg wash to stick onto it.

And the royal connection, Anna,

is that this was the dish that was

served when Prince Philip's parents

came here and had lunch with

-King Edward VII, 110 years ago, in 1907.

-Goodness!

Prince Philip's parents, Prince Andrew, who was Prince Andrew -

this is interesting - Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark.

-They're not very close together, are they?

-No!

But he was prince of both of them, and Prince Philip's mother,

Princess Alice of Battenberg,

who was actually King Edward VII's great-niece.

-They're all interrelated, you know.

-Yes, they're all related.

-All back to Queen Victoria.

The Crown heads of Europe all seem to date from Queen Victoria.

So, this is going to go on to quite a high heat in some oil.

I'm also going to turn on our sauce which is some flour and butter that

I cooked down, and I've added fish stock to it as well, and a little

-bit of milk.

-So, what makes it trout allemande,

-which is French for German, obviously.

-Yes.

-So it's a German sauce?

What makes it the German sauce?

Well, it's a veloute base.

So a veloute base has the flour and

the butter, but it's the addition of

these very rich, expensive ingredients, cream and egg, that makes it allemande.

It's rather interesting the way politics intrudes in all this, isn't it?

This is the German sauce, as you're saying, with all the rich

ingredients, but then after the First World War, when Germany wasn't

quite so fashionable in England and France,

-they called it "sauce parisienne", apparently.

-Yes.

I think it was Escoffier who rebranded it.

-Oh, was it?

-Yes.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, he'd be a Frenchman, of course.

-Yeah.

-Calling it "parisienne", but it's actually German sauce.

They like it rich, don't they?

Yeah. OK, I think our oil looks like it's hot enough now to go in.

So, they changed the name of the sauce and of course, famously,

the royal family changed their name,

from a rather Germanic name, and became Windsors.

Ah, yes, listen to the sizzle.

-Yes.

-You're doing that very carefully.

Well, I don't want to burn myself on television!

When it comes to cooking with fish in general,

you do want to be careful and delicate with it.

You don't want to damage it but, yes, if I was a bit rough with it,

I think the breadcrumbs would come off.

But all we're looking to do now is just get a little bit of colour

-on the breadcrumbs.

-You are going to cook both sides?

Yeah, just barely.

Just the time it takes to turn all the fish.

Because I suppose one of the dangers is...

..all too easy to overcook this?

That's it, exactly. So, as they're all turned over now,

I'm ready to take them out of the pan.

That is the briefest of dips, isn't it?

That's it. Well, you know fish is just so delicate.

So we're going to let them rest while I give my sauce a little bit

of a whisk to make sure it's all...

They had healthy appetites in those days, you know.

Cold soup to start with.

And then they had four dishes.

Trout, grilled chops,

chicken and tongue "a l'anglaise"

and then cherries and a compote of

-peaches to follow.

-Oh, delicious.

You'd want to sleep after that, wouldn't you?

-Yeah.

-This is probably the lightest of the dishes, isn't it?

Well, yes, I think fish would be a nice, light kind of dish for them

-to have.

-With cream, with egg?!

-With cream, with egg, yes.

BOTH LAUGH

That's very true. So I'm going to whisk my cream and my egg together,

and the reason why I'm going to mix the cream and the egg together

before I add them into the sauce is

to stop the egg from curdling into scrambled egg.

-So I'm just going to give it a little whisk.

-Yep.

And our sauce has come up to the boil, so I'm just going to pour this on top.

So first of all, I'm going to put a little drop in just to introduce it,

make sure it doesn't scare it too much,

and then the rest of it goes in.

-Oh, gosh.

-So this is like a savoury custard,

just like you would make a creme anglaise or a custard at home.

So I'm just going to pour this back into the pan.

Would you say this was pretty rich for modern tastes?

I'd say this is quite rich but I do think, in a small amount, you would definitely want this now.

I think this is a special sauce and with something so simple, like this,

I think it is quite suitable.

So I'm going to keep this stirring

as I'm thickening it so that, again,

it doesn't turn into scrambled eggs.

But because the liquid was hot when it went in and it's gone back into

a hot pan, it's almost ready immediately.

Pretty quick, this, isn't it?

-Everything is quick.

-Yeah.

Well, you know, I just make it look easy, Michael!

OK, I'm going to add a little bit of lemon zest.

You are so delicate with that.

-Very little. Well, you don't want to get the pith.

-Yeah.

-Cos that makes it bitter, doesn't it?

-That's it, that's exactly it.

So, by not cooking out the lemon zest,

by just adding it in at the last minute, you get the freshest,

most kind of perfume-y version that you can, from...

-If you do it too soon...

-Well, it cooks it out and it just

changes the flavour. And it's still lovely, but it won't be as nice as

-if you keep it lovely and fresh.

-OK.

Now, it's going to go with some vegetables.

-What you got?

-Just some simple little baby potatoes in some butter,

and some spinach.

-I'm going to chop some chives.

-It's a lovely combination of tastes, isn't it?

And the chives, for the decoration, for the fresh taste, for what?

The flavour of onion comes from chives,

same as spring onions, and it's just a very delicate finish to the

buttered baby boiled potatoes.

I always love the way a professional chef does this kind of thing.

Do you ever cut yourself?

When I was younger, I was like Michael Jackson.

I went around with plasters all over me, left, right and centre, yeah.

Your fingers were longer then, were they?

BOTH LAUGH

So I'm going to give these a little stir now.

They're looking good.

Little bit of salt there.

I'm going to put a little bit of lemon zest in this as well,

give it a nice fresh finish.

Now, this looks really great.

Stupid question, you didn't take the skin off the back of the trout?

No, but there's so much flavour in the skin.

There's so much flavour and also it would protect the flesh from the

-high heat that we were cooking it at.

-Yeah.

OK, little bit of spinach.

-It's such a lovely, green spinach, isn't it?

-Mmm.

-Look at that.

So there it is.

Yeah. Truite Allemande with buttered spinach and some baby boiled

-potatoes.

-Oh, marvellous.

-We want to try this, Anna. There you go, there's your knife and fork.

-Thank you.

-There's mine.

Ooh, there you go.

-You first.

-OK.

-Eat the skin? No, no...

-Oh, absolutely.

-The best bit.

-No, sort of, namby-pamby...

-It's the best bit.

-..taking it off?

-Mmm!

Oh.

Just think,

Prince Philip was just a gleam in his parents' eye when they were

having lunch with Edward VII and, 40 years later, almost to the day,

he married Princess Elizabeth, the future queen.

Wow. Mmm!

-Mmm!

-Mmm! The crunch is very nice with it, yeah.

-The crunch is great, you get the lemon.

-Yep.

The wonderful saltiness and the

wonderful flesh of the trout.

Marvellous.

A real royal luncheon dish.

It's no secret that the royals enjoy the outdoor life and for so many of

them, it's the ideal way to unwind on holiday.

Prince Philip himself famously enjoys field sports and,

as a younger man, would help stock

the larder with game at a number of royal residences.

As a member of the Buckingham Palace kitchen staff in the early 1980s,

Des Sweeney travelled with the royals when they holidayed at Sandringham,

Windsor Castle and Balmoral.

And there's one gamey dish that stands out in his memory.

Today we're going to make a Highland venison Wellington with mushroom

duxelles, glazed shallots and a port wine jus.

This was a dish they would have at Balmoral.

Traditionally, they would go to Balmoral in August, and this would

be a nice celebration dish.

Basically they're on holiday, so not doing so many royal duties,

staying somewhere they can relax and have a nice, sort of, festive dinner.

Des starts by making the mushroom paste that will cover the venison.

Duxelles is a combination of shallots, mushrooms, some parsley,

some thyme, all sweated down over the heat.

Adding some butter to the mushrooms and the onion

just to give it a nice, rounder flavour.

The whole family really used to enjoy Balmoral.

It was a time that they could really, sort of, relax,

they were away from the public eye, they could really have a proper

family holiday, like the rest of us.

I'm just going to add some more seasoning.

The kitchen at Balmoral wasn't particularly large but there was a

lot of activity. It would be the chefs,

sort of, footmen, and pages and security,

so a lot going on in a small area.

So I'm just going to let that simmer now for ten minutes, and you'll get

a nice, dry, sort of mixture

which you can lay under and around your venison.

While the duxelles is left to sweat down, it's time to prepare the meat.

I'm going to seal the venison loin, bit of butter,

bit of seasoning. Just going to get that pan nice and hot.

Venison was available in Balmoral.

It was on the estate.

And there was plenty of it and it was theirs.

They didn't have to go and buy it. It was, you know, had been bred.

It's like the Rolls-Royce of meat, really.

It reminds me of the kitchen and the camaraderie of the boys,

and as you're cooking, somebody walks past the window and you think,

"Oh, I know that person. Oh, yeah, I remember where I am now."

Prince Philip would walk past or pop his head in.

"What's for dinner, what we having?"

Oh, yeah, it's not just a normal kitchen.

The venison is left to rest while Des finishes the duxelles.

So what we're going to do now is just add some coarse pate,

a little bit of butter just to finish off, gives that richness,

that full flavour that you're looking for.

The variety was amazing.

One weekend you'd be in London,

another weekend you could be in Windsor or Scotland.

You was always somewhere different, so different kitchens,

different menus, different ingredients all the time.

It's all melted in nicely.

I'm going to take that out and let it cool down.

While it cools, there's time to prep the pastry.

And we're going to roll it out into a nice big rectangle,

so you've got plenty of room to cover your venison.

As a royal chef, Des got to travel and use the finest ingredients,

but the job could be far from predictable.

We'd been working all weekend to prepare for the Italian state visit

and, all of a sudden, the Italian government got overthrown!

So basically, all the prep we'd done went to the staff canteen.

Lot of happy staff, but not so many happy chefs!

Trim all your edges.

Once the pastry is cut to size,

it's coated with egg wash to help it stick.

And the duxelles mixture is added.

Adding my meat.

So, now I'm going to put some wholegrain mustard.

It just gives it a nice tang to it.

The neatly wrapped venison just needs a glaze.

So, give that a nice egg wash and then that should go in the oven for

30, 35 minutes, depending on size.

The only time things go slightly awry is timings.

We'd be working on a time but that would get held up by different

dignitaries, or different occasions,

and things would have to be put on hold.

Time's up for the venison, and it's the moment of truth.

Technically, it should be a nice eye of red meat,

colour fading to brown on the outside.

Yeah, no pressure. Fingers crossed.

There you go, that's not bad, is it?

Little bit of sauce over the meat.

A little bit of sauce served separately.

So there you have Highland venison Wellington with grazed shallots,

port wine jus.

That is a real royal recipe.

It's not too hard to imagine the royals tucking into this when

they're taking time off at one of their country retreats.

If you're talking about holidays,

this is the real favourite for royals and everybody else,

I suppose. Ice cream. What's your favourite?

-Um...

-Do you like it at all?

-I don't mind a bit of ice cream.

Ooh, now, that sounds as if you don't like it.

Maybe a bit of coffee and caramel.

The average Brit gets through seven litres of ice cream a year.

What do you think of that?

Well, I think somebody's eating 14 litres

because I'm not eating seven litres!

Somebody's eating my share!

The royals love it, too. The late Queen Mother, she was particularly

pleased with ice cream.

-Bonne glace.

-Mmm!

-That sounds good.

I don't even know what bonne glace is, what is it, do you think?

I think it's like a Baked Alaska without the meringue on top.

Ah, right. Her other favourite was

-peach meringue with vanilla ice cream.

-Mmm!

-What do you think?

-Fruit would win me over, yeah.

Something strange about somebody who doesn't like ice cream.

Perhaps if they had foie gras ice cream, would that be OK?

There is such a thing, it's delicious.

-Really?

-Yes.

-I think you'd have to be a royal for that.

Cos the royals,

they clearly enjoy a bit of ice cream,

as do most of us, let's face it.

But there was a time when the likes of us

wouldn't have been allowed to eat it.

Ice cream was once the exclusive preserve of royalty

and the aristocracy.

Annie Gray went to York's Georgian Mansion House to lift the

lid on the regal connection to this staple of the British holiday.

Today, if I fancy an ice cream,

I can just open my freezer or listen out for the telltale tinkle of

Greensleeves on the street, but 350 years ago,

it was a very different proposition.

Ice cream was almost magical and eaten only by the super-rich.

That was because ice cream-making

required a particularly precious commodity - ice.

It was harvested from frozen rivers and lakes and stored in ice houses,

and, initially, no-one but royalty could possibly afford one of those.

The first one was built at Greenwich in 1619 for King James I,

followed shortly afterwards

by another one at Hampton Court Palace in 1622.

So they really did start off as the province of royalty before spreading

out to the extraordinarily wealthy.

Ice-cream making was also pioneered in royal kitchens.

Annie is recreating a Georgian recipe for water ice.

Back in those days, a bucket was used as a low-tech freezer.

I'm going to fill this bucket with a mixture of my crushed ice and salt.

Adding salt helped to make the air inside the bucket extra cold.

The ice cream itself was made in a metal container called a sorbetiere

which was placed in the freezing bucket

and packed around with more ice and salt.

It seems quite counterintuitive to add salt to ice.

The thing is, there's a reaction that's taking place.

So the ice is desperate to melt, and in order to melt,

it sucks all of the heat out of the surrounding atmosphere, meaning

that everything around it gets much, much colder.

Inside this sorbetiere is going to be significantly below zero.

Given the effort that went into making it,

it's no surprise that the first recorded mention of ice cream has

royal credentials.

It was served at a feast in Windsor Castle in 1671

when guests marvelled as Charles II

tucked in to the exotic delicacy.

But only the kitchen staff would have known

just what it took to produce it.

I'm going to use a little bit of 21st-century technology on my

17th-century sorbetiere mixture.

The method may have been rudimentary, but the mixture of salt

and ice produced remarkably rapid results.

We're at minus ten.

minus 12, minus 13, minus 14.

Once the ideal temperature's been reached,

ingredients are added to the container.

This centuries-old recipe uses water, lemon and orange preserve.

Here goes.

Royal chefs would experiment with extravagant flavours,

making water ice from cinnamon, pineapple and ginger.

Or they mixed cream, eggs and sugar to make ice cream.

If I just left it in here, it would eventually freeze solid,

probably leaving a fairly liquid core.

The secret to good ice cream,

or a water ice as this is, however,

is to keep the stuff moving.

What you want to do is break up all of the ice crystals.

The smaller the crystals in the ice,

the nicer it will feel in the mouth.

For centuries, ice cream remained an expensive luxury,

appearing on the royal table in evermore extravagant forms.

By the late 18th century and in the 19th century,

moulded ice creams were all the rage.

Francatelli, who was cook to Queen Victoria briefly in the 1840s,

included lots and lots of recipes for moulded ices in his cookery

books, including ones with names like Iced Pudding a la Victoria.

From the mid-19th century,

Francatelli's fellow Italians were also introducing chilled treats to

the British public.

Tony Questa's grandfather arrived here in the early 1900s,

and set up a thriving ice cream business in York.

This was taken in the Tang Hall area of York.

I don't remember this, but my father did mention about the pony and the

cart that used to go round the villages,

and quite a few people do remember it.

They'll stop me and say, "Are you any relation to the Questas,

"and the ice cream, Questa's?"

-I say, "Oh, yes."

-Presumably here, I can see the top of the sorbetiere,

so presumably the barrow is packed with ice and salt to keep the ice cream chilled...

-It would be, yes.

-..as, as it goes out on its rounds?

-Yes.

The liquid would go to the edges of the container

and freeze and then they'd have big wooden paddles that they have to

stir it in, so real back-breaking work.

So, very much the same way that ice cream had been made, still in use in

-the Edwardian period?

-Absolutely, yes. So, you're talking even into

the '30s, pre-Second World War,

it would be made that way.

I love this little girl here.

Yes, yeah. And the other one feeding the pony!

SHE LAUGHS

Actually, the pony, my dad used to say when they'd finished

selling, he used to say, "Home, Peggy!"

-and she knew the way home, so...

-Oh, wow!

..off she went.

It wasn't until the 1940s when fridges became more commonplace that

mass production of ice cream began,

and what started centuries earlier as an exclusive royal delicacy

became a much-loved holiday treat for all of us.

But does Annie's Georgian water-ice stand the test of time?

It's absolutely beautiful.

Melts in the mouth,

tastes just faintly of orange and

lemon, and it's one of the most

refreshing things I've ever eaten.

All that talk of ice cream is making me pudding hungry.

So, what have you got?

I'm going to make Baked Alaska with Italian meringue.

It is a really glamorous dessert and

I think it's a show stopper if you

make it at home for a dinner party.

The centre of the pudding is actually ice cream,

topped with a bit of sponge and then finished with meringue and

it just looks really dramatic.

Now, this goes back how far with the royal family?

To Queen Victoria with Charles Francatelli.

Charles Francatelli, yeah.

We've got a book of his recipes, published after his death.

This is the kind of dish that you're doing, and it says,

"Whip 12 whites of egg with a pound of sugar."

I mean, that's really hearty.

Queen Victoria did have a famously sweet tooth, didn't she?

So, come on, what do we actually do?

OK, so this is softened ice cream that I'm just going to put in a bowl

that's already been lined with clingfilm and a little bit of oil to

make it stick on the outside of it.

And then I'm going to top it with some sponge

that I've actually shaped with the bowl.

You pre-cut it, have you?

Yeah - it should fit exactly to the top of the bowl.

-That's just ordinary ice cream...

-Yeah.

-..or just lovely ice cream?!

This is lovely ice cream. But you could use any bowl for this,

so, as long as you use the top of

-the bowl to fit in perfectly...

-It fits, it fits!

-..like this!

-Well done!

-Yeah.

So, if you wouldn't mind running that to the freezer.

I don't know about run, but I shall take it at a fast clip, OK?

OK, that's great, thanks.

Michael, can you see the other one there?

Yes. Should have been wearing gloves, it's cold.

Really cold.

OK, so the first thing I want to get on, it's the sugar and the water.

So, you've got 225 of sugar,

90 mls of water and you want to have it up on a reasonably high heat.

So as we're waiting for that sugar to come up,

you're going to separate the eggs.

Oh! I've never done this before, you know.

OK. I can't believe you've never done this before.

All right, all right.

OK, so just tap your egg on the side of the bowl.

-Yeah.

-And then into this bowl.

-Yeah.

-No, into this bowl, here.

-Oh, that one?

-You want to do your egg white, so...

Hang on...

-..and not let the...

-Egg yolk in.

And then tip it into the smaller shell

and then into the bigger shell again.

You do not want to break the egg yolk.

If you do, that will destroy the meringue.

So, once you've done that... Yeah, top marks.

-I think I did that perfectly.

-That is perfect, actually.

Egg whites are going to go into our mixer.

-OK, four of them?

-Yep, four of them.

We're going to set it on a medium to high whisk and you just want to make

them nice and light and fluffy.

The more air in there, the better, eh?

Yeah. So, our sugar syrup should be at about 115 degrees now.

It's actually a good...

This is really scientific, isn't it?

115 degrees.

I've been called lots of things, but not a scientist!

So you want it at about 115 degrees once your egg whites are whisking,

and then you'll have enough time to bring it up to 118.

That's three more degrees. And then you're ready to do your...

-I mean, that really, seriously, is precise, isn't it?

-It is, yeah.

OK, so we're nearly there now.

Almost there.

I'm just going to have a look at the meringue. I think this can go a little bit more.

You wanted it to be that much stiffer?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-And then I'm going to turn it down...

..at a reasonable speed because I'm going to pour this in.

-Now, this is...

-While it's still going, yeah?

This is quite dangerous because this is hotter than boiling water, so you

can imagine if you got this on your skin, it would be dire straits.

You want to slowly pour it in because if you pour it in too

quickly, it would all just drop to the bottom of the bowl.

Right now, the sugar is cooking the egg white.

-So we're going to get it into piping bags now.

-Ah!

You don't have to use piping bags.

If you don't have a piping bag you can spoon it around, but this just makes it a bit easier.

OK? So you can give me a hand with this if you want, Michael.

Yeah, I'm dying to have a go at this, actually.

So if you open the bag up and fold it down...

-I've never done this.

-..around your hand.

But I've ALWAYS wanted to.

It's not easy stuff, is it?

-Yeah. Well, the caramel has, obviously...

-It's sticky, and...

..yeah, firmed up the meringue.

Why are you so much faster at it than me?

Cos I'm so much better at it than you, Michael.

While you wrestle with that piping bag...

It's not easy, come on, it's not easy!

..of meringue, I'm going to get our ice cream.

I think mine's done.

OK, so to turn this over, you place

a plate on top of it and voila.

-This is the moment of truth, isn't it?

-I know.

And there you have it.

Oh, it looks perfect. Ah!

It does, if I do say so myself.

The next thing we need to do is pipe some meringue around.

Yup, I'm ready for this.

So, it doesn't really matter how you pipe this around because

afterwards I am going to give it a little bit of a

swirl with a palette knife.

I think this is bringing out the inner artist in me, you know.

-Look at that.

-I have no idea what you're trying to do there, Michael.

I'm making it into a kind of crown.

SHE LAUGHS

Francatelli was really a kind of confectioner and

sugar expert at a time when Victoria

absolutely loved sugar, and then he went on

to work for her son, for Bertie.

All of them had a sweet tooth

and Francatelli certainly played up to it.

-Look at that.

-I don't think he would have hired you, Michael.

But you've made it like a stockade round here.

SHE LAUGHS

I'll just give it a little bit of texture,

so you don't have to be too careful about how you go about this.

There, we'll just leave it like that and then now, what we're

going to do is actually blowtorch it.

-God!

-Dangerous. And you just want to really gently,

if you can see that...

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

-Gives it a lovely flavour.

It gives that lovely, kind of, caramelised sugar flavour.

-Would you like?

-Yeah, I would.

But Francatelli, presumably, would

have just had to put it in an extremely hot oven, on blast?

Exactly. Exactly.

-Yeah! Ooh!

-Mind your hands.

-Quite a natural with fire.

-I am, actually, yeah.

-So, there we have it, that's our Baked Alaska.

That looks terrific, doesn't it?

-It gives it a texture, too, the crisping of the outside.

-Mmm.

And then, the last thing we're going to do is just to add a little bit

of fruit because inside it is

strawberry ice cream, so some nice berries just placed

-around the side would be quite nice.

-That makes it look wonderful, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-You can just imagine at a dinner party, bringing this in the end of the meal.

-Yeah. An absolute show stopper.

-Yeah.

Come on, Anna. Come on, come on, come on!

-Ooh, that feels good.

-Yeah.

That's quite a small piece you're cutting there, Anna!

Well, this one's for you and the rest is for me.

Oh, that looks brilliant, doesn't it?

-Look at that.

-That looks great.

OK, and there we have it, Baked Alaska with some fresh strawberries.

-Can I have a spoon?

-Ah, yes.

There you go, there's a nicer, bigger one for you now.

-I should wait for you, but...

-No, you tuck in.

-You sure?

-Yeah.

There we go. And a strawberry, too.

Mmm! Mmm!

-The bit of burnt...

-Mmm.

..that lovely top to it, and then the ice cream.

The glamour of all this, perfect end to a royal meal,

and, indeed, perfect end to the programme.

Join us next time for more Royal Recipes.