The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook (40 page)

1 lime, sliced, for garnish

1 lemon, sliced, for garnish

Tabasco, for garnish

1. Place salted cod in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Refrigerate cod for at least 8 hours, pouring off the water and replacing with fresh cold water every 2 hours. Once fish has soaked in water for 8 hours, rinse off fish and cut into 3 sections.
   
2. Place potatoes and cod in a large pot and cover with water. Bring water to boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer until the potatoes are tender and the cod flakes easily, about 30 minutes. Drain and let cool for 10 minutes.
   
3. Place potatoes and cod into a large mixing bowl. Season with seafood seasoning, salt, pepper, parsley, and cilantro. Roughly mash with a potato masher, then add eggs and onion until evenly combined. Do not over-mash — there should still be pieces of cod and potato in the mixture. Form mixture into golf-ball-sized balls, then roll balls in flour. Flatten slightly between palms.
   
4. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. In batches, fry cod cakes in oil until gold and crispy on both sides, about 3–4 minutes per side. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels, then serve with sliced limes, lemon, and Tabasco.
   

As readily available as seafood was for those with money to spend, poorer families in Edwardian England would only eat seafood once a week, and usually the cheapest seafood at that, such as kipper. These poor families were lucky to get one solid meal a day, and would not complain at the lack of protein (much less taste) in their diet.

This dish — consisting of meat smothered in Yorkshire Pudding batter — would have been a diet staple of most of Downton Abbey’s servants, as it was both cost-effective and easy to make. While not the healthiest of dishes, even cranky O’Brien would stop complaining once this moist delicacy was placed before her.

8 links pork sausage

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cup onion, cooked and chopped

1
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tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

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teaspoon mustard powder

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teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

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teaspoon freshly ground black powder

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
   
2. Spread oil over the bottom of a metal baking dish, then arrange sausages on oiled dish in a single layer. Sprinkle with cooked, chopped onion. Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven.
   
3. While baking sausages, whisk together flour, eggs, and
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   cup of the milk in a medium-sized bowl until smooth. Gradually whisk in the rest of the milk until smooth, then thoroughly stir in Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
   
4. Remove sausages and onions from oven. Pour batter over them until almost completely and evenly covered. Return pan to oven and bake for 30–35 minutes or until the center has risen and browned. It is normal for the underside to be slightly soft.
   

Toad in the Hole is commonly served with a heaping helping of onion gravy and a small side of vegetables. Cookbooks in the late 1800s recommended making this dish with “pieces of any kind of meat, which are to be cheapest at night when the day’s sale is over,” rather than with the sausage listed above. In Hannah Glasse’s 1747 cookbook
The Art of Cookery
, she included a variation of this dish called “Pigeons in a Hole,” which used pigeons as the meat. No wonder past English cooks found it necessary to smother this dish in gravy!

It’s not surprising that the male servants at Downton Abbey such as Thomas or William might require a day away to air their troubles, and it’s quite likely that they would get hungry while doing so. Luckily, this filling traditional meat-and-potato casserole was available at almost any pub at the time, so the servants wouldn’t have to worry about filling their gullets if Mrs. Patmore wasn’t around to cook for them.

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cup unsalted butter, softened

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cup unsalted butter, melted

2 pounds stewing lamb, cut into large chunks

2 medium onions, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 cups lamb stock

2 cups chicken stock

2 bay leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2
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pounds potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. In a large oven-safe dutch oven, melt softened butter over high heat until hot but not smoking. Heat lamb chunks on both sides until colored, then remove lamb chunks and drain on a paper towel.
   
3. Add onions and carrots to hot dutch oven and sprinkle with flour. Sauté, stirring constantly, until vegetables are softened but not colored. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, lamb stock, chicken stock, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring mixture to a boil, then stir in meat and add bay leaves.
   
4. Turn off heat. Arrange sliced potatoes on top of meat, then cover with half of the melted butter. Cover dutch oven, then place in preheated oven for 1
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   hours or until potatoes are cooked.
   
5. Brush potatoes with more butter, then turn up oven to 375°F. and add rest of melted butter. Cook until potatoes are brown, about 5 minutes.
   

While this recipe might include what seems like a lot of lamb for one dish, it is nothing compared to what Victorian royalty might have been served. At Buckingham Palace, in fact, there were daily deliveries of 200 necks of mutton and 250 shoulders of lamb, among other groceries. It seems that next to ruling, the most important part of the day for the royals was eating!

A convenient use for leftover Christmas food, Bubble and Squeak is often served on Boxing Day (usually the day after Christmas, a holiday celebrated by the Commonwealth of Nations countries), though this dish can be made any day of the year. While Mrs. Patmore would never dream of serving this downstairs dish to her superiors, it’s likely that at some point or another the staff enjoyed this recipe. The Boxing Day holiday tradition began in the United Kingdom, when the wealthy would give a box containing a gift to their servants.

1 medium head cabbage, chopped

8 slices bacon, diced

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 large carrots, diced

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cup peas

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 cups baked Russet potatoes, cooled and thinly sliced

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teaspoon paprika

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. In a large saucepan, cook cabbage in a small amount of water for 10 minutes or until very tender. Drain and set aside.
   
2. In a nonstick cast-iron skillet, cook bacon in olive oil for 3 minutes, then add onion, carrots, and peas. Cook until bacon is cooked and vegetables are soft; then add butter and cooked cabbage and potatoes. Season with paprika, salt, and pepper. Add more spice to taste. Cook mixture until browned on bottom, then turn over and cook again.
   

The first mention of this dish can be found in Thomas Bridges’s 1770
A Burlesque Translation of Homer
: “We therefore cooked him up a dish/Of lean bull beef with cabbage fried,/And a full pot of beer beside:/Bubble, they called this dish, and squeak.…” Collaborator Francis Grose goes on to define the dish in his 1785
A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
: “Bubble and squeak, beef and cabbage fried together. It is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire.” While this dish traditionally calls for meat, due to rationing during World War II, meat came off the ingredients list.