2556 calories

Not my calculation, but this is what the recipe says.  This is fudge - made from sugar (lots), golden syrup, unsalted butter, cream and vanilla.  Each piece is a mere 71 calories (not 70 or 69 if one trusts what it says.)

It tastes as it looks: buttery, creamy and intensely sweet. You need a sugar thermometer and it takes about 25 minutes to make. If you click on the photo, it’ll take you to a uktv video: it shows just what I did but they use dark brown sugar and clotted cream instead of butter and double cream.

“Time is the longest distance between two places.”

Tennessee Williams; The Glass Menagerie (via wordpainting)

An expensive and unnecessary makeover

James Daunt, the Managing Director of the Waterstone’s book chain, has decided to dump the apostrophe to make it more ‘versatile and practical’. Practical for who? Those who want to buy online?  I think Google can cope with the old spelling and this move is hardly likely to recapture the trade lost to Amazon. Daunt went on to talk of introducing ‘a font that reflects authority and confidence.’ Now we’re getting nearer to his thinking: design and lettering are a subtle way of influencing purchasers.

A study was done showing that students who submitted the same work in different fonts got better grades if they used, say, Times Roman, than Georgia.
Changing the Waterstone’s lettering and ditching the apostrophe will cost the company plenty: just think of employing all those sign writers and buying thousands of new bags for a start.  It had better be worth it - in the end it’s the customers who will be paying.

(The photo was taken at the O2 Centre in Finchley Road, London. I wonder if the book chain owner would like to get the cafe renamed too!)

Sifting

Ever wondered why recipes suggest that you should sift the flour?  The answer is to get rid of any lumps. Equally important, sifting makes it lighter as more air is incorporated into an otherwise heavy mass. In the past rice or flour might have contained pieces of stone that you’d want to separate.

Last week I wrote about Pierre Blot’s 19th century book (A Pile of Cooking Know-How). It was written as a manual for Ladies and their Professional Cooks and contained ‘the whole science and art of preparing human food.’

I’ve done a bit of sifting and if you scroll down you can see some of his more
outrageous comments and those that still hold good today.

(Photo by Ilian.  Click on the picture to go to his website.)

English roast-beef cannot be compared to American roast-beef - it is so superior.

We think that curry is very good and necessary on the borders of the Ganges River - but not on the Hudson or thereabouts.

Muffins, and other cakes or pastes, served warm are very bad for the stomach and teeth.

Opossum, otter, raccoon, skunk, fox, woodchuck, and other like animals: we cannot say that we have had much experience in cooking the above animals.

Frogs: the hind legs only are used as food. Take the hind-legs of fifty well-skinned green frogs, put them in cold water then simmer on the fire for about four hours.

Tstchy soup: put four pounds of beef into a soup-kettle (the poorer classes always use mutton) with a chicken or a duck, pork, sausages and vegetables. Cover with fish broth and a head of cabbage and simmer for about three hours.

The unexpected

Words of wisdom from Pierre Blot’s 19th century cookbook

Fat is not like water, which, no matter how fast you boil it, you cannot augment the degree of heat, while you can that of fat.  If water, by boiling it fast, could be heated as much as fat, it would be used to fry in its stead, being cheaper.

Sandwiches: these are too well known to require any direction.

Truffles: we think they may be compared to lace - both are dear and neither has an intrinsic value.

Dinner Time - on account of the various occupations of members of the same family, this is often the first and only time of the day that sees them all assembled.

Fun or yuk?

Children will happily eat broccoli if it looks like trees. (The idea comes from my children’s cookbook www.LookitCookit.com). Starting at the stem end you cut the vegetable into about 6 long pieces and ask them to help you cook it. Put it in the microwave with a spoonful of salted water for about 3 minutes. The ‘trees’ will stay green and crisp.  If you want them a bit softer you cook for another minute.  Try it.  What do you have to lose?  The child can only say ‘no’.

Forcing them will probably end up with a lifelong aversion to the vegetable. George Bush was apparently made to eat it as a child. One of his saner sayings was:

“I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat broccoli”.

The photo is by Ilian.  Click on the picture to see more of his work.

As everyone knows and none of us find it easy to admit, putting on weight comes from eating too much.  My mother was big - she told herself she had  ‘large bones’. I was fatter when I was young. I ate huge amounts of ..well, almost everything.

Now I cook a lot, never eat while I’m doing it, but I’m tempted to snack when I’m relaxing in the evenings. So here are a few thoughts which might make it easier to stay out of the kitchen:

1. Brush your teeth after dinner - you’ll be less likely to peek in the fridge for something to eat while you’re watching television

2. Bellringing.  A friend who has taken up church bellringing says that the arm action and general exercise has helped her lose pounds

3. Be generous - give away cake, muffins or chocolates that you happen to have around

4. Read a book on a Kindle - you’ll be less likely to eat while you’re doing it because you can’t click to turn the pages if your hands are sticky with chocolate or cake crumbs.

The Royal Wedding cake

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had two wedding cakes. The secret recipe for the ‘alternative’ chocolate wedding cake has now been partially revealed: it contained 1,700 Rich Tea biscuits. 

The cake was made by master chocolatier Barry Colenso. He worked with a team for 29 days to design a cake to meet royal approval. On the day, two cakes were taken to Buckingham Palace in different vehicles, just in case one was involved in a crash. Although the exact recipe is still not available, it is said to be based on Prince William’s childhood favourite: chocolate biscuit cake.

Darren McGrady was a personal chef to Princess Diana and the Queen so presumably he knew or created the original recipe. You can hire him for your  next party or corporate event, but I doubt if he’ll give away the details.

I’ve tracked down a version of the ‘No Bake Royal Chocolate Biscuit Cake’. Click on the picture and it will take you to the website.

Food fun

A cartoon by Mike Williams.  His work is on birthday cards in many stores. You can see more of his irreverent takes on religion by clicking on the picture.

Would you take advice from someone young, opinionated and angry?
You’d better, because James Altucher has come up with 33 Unusual Tips to Being a Better Writer.

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/03/33-unusual-tips-to-being-a-better-writer/

When you’ve taken his suggestions seriously you can move on to the next stage, getting the book published.

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/05/why-and-how-i-self-published-a-book/

A zillion people out there are would-be writers. Altucher tells them why they should go the self publishing route. I’ve tried it and it works.  But it’s rather like finding a cure to a chronic disease: the medicine might have some effect at first but it doesn’t solve the problem long term. In the same way, it’s easy to get a book on Amazon and Kindle. You don’t need an agent, an editor or a pesky publisher who keep saying ‘not for us’. But when you’ve done it…. what next? It’s just not the same as having a pile of best-sellers in the window of Waterstones or Barnes and Noble. Your book is there online for a million readers, but somehow…. they haven’t found it yet.

If you’re happy following this theme you might like to read my piece on the much-viewed blog Huffington Post. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/judy-jackson/wanna-be-a-kindle-millionaire_b_1104833.html

I was assured it goes out to over 4 million readers. I think I’d get more response if I called up a dozen friends and asked them to read it!

An easy puzzle

Making biscuits - or cookies - is fun.  It’s not something that’s necessary; after all you can buy them in any corner store. But biscuits made with butter and cut into shapes are perfect to serve with ice cream or stewed fruit like apricots or plums.  There’s nothing tricky about the method either. If you click on the picture it will take you to videojug - brilliant short films about what they call ‘getting good at life’.  Watching someone cook makes it all so much easier. What are you waiting for?  Have a go.

Are you cut out for it?

To make these you need:

Recipe for butter biscuits (see jigsaw shapes above)
Cutters - round will do but they’re boring
One child - boy or girl, doesn’t matter

To get some more ideas for what to do on a rainy day with children, click on the picture.

A Pile of Cooking Know-how

There’s a surprising amount to learn from old cookery books. In 1865 Pierre Blot - a refugee from Napoleonic France - published The Handbook of Practical Cookery in America.

Blot is an expert. He warns his readers (Ladies and professional cooks) that the study of cookery is ‘as uninviting and dry as the study of grammar at first’. His book is amusing and informative - anything but dry. He begins by telling cooks:

Make use of everything good
Waste nothing
Have no prejudices
Be careful, clean and punctual

He is opinionated: ‘No one can roast in an oven… an object cooked in an oven is baked.’  He explains: ‘When an object tastes greasy, it’s not because it has been fried in grease, but because there was not enough of it, or it was not properly heated.’

I first came across this book in the Rare Books room of The British Library. Now through the miracles of modern technology it’s available free on Amazon. Click on the picture to find out more.

Draw your dinner

A brilliant idea from America: paper place mats which are elegant enough to use for ‘ladies who lunch’ or for any gathering that includes children.  The adults can make tasteful designs on the plates - the younger ones can draw and colour what they hope will be for dinner.