Well since crocus is a greek word (krokos), originally, I suspect the original plural was krokous. The Latin most likely should be crocoses. Bit like octopuses/octopi/octopedes, best treat it as an english word imo.

I don't know how you got on LiR with the fruit preserving but I bought a small jar of sauerkraut and another of kimchi a couple of months ago. I realise now why such ferments aren't that popular this side of the Dutch Sea. I also remember why it's been so long since I last had some fermented cabbage. I opened the jar of sauerkraut first to have with my lunch. I had got it into my head that sauerkraut was just going to be like a sort of intense coleslaw. But it's nothing of the sort and has a weird tang all of its own which I had completely forgotten about. However, it sort of went okay in a corned beef sandwich. But coleslaw would have been infinitely better. 

Well, I thought, surely the kimchi (which the jar said included ginger, garlic and chilli) was going to be an improvement. A few days later when the jar of sauerkraut was finished, I duly opened the jar of kimchi in anticipation. The kitchen almost immediately filled with what can only be described as the stench of raw sewage. Mrs V fled to the garden for air. Toughing it out, I thought well I've bought this stuff so then I may as well try it. Maybe it'll be like the durian fruit - tastes better than it smells. So taking a fork I gingerly lifted a small amount to my mouth. Yuk. No. It tasted as bad as it smelled. It could be that it's a senior player in the world of acquired tastes or else I might have just bought a duff jar. Either way it went strait outside for composting. I don't even think that rats would have wanted to eat it and I actually felt sorry for the worms.

On a pleasanter note - I'm glad that Spring has sprung (or at least it has here). In addition to crocuses etc there are also Whitebeam trees in blossom everywhere. We don't have a Whitebeam on our patch but our Whitethorn has some tiny buds on it which promise to put on a show later this fortnite (meteorological Beasts permitting).

Oh Vizzer, any attempt of mine to make apple vinegar won't come to maturity for quite some time yet.  Your story of the overwhelming kimchi odour made me think of one of my late mother's tales.  She was more organised than I am and had saved an egg to relish as a 'treat' during the war.  Apparently when she cracked it, it stank to high heaven.  She always had her eggs when they were fresh after that. I THINK she had been home to visit her folks in north Wales and someone up there had given her an egg/some eggs.  My maternal grandparents did keep chickens though at one time and made things like homemade fruit wines, though I think more people went in for making things at home in those days.

In the front garden I have a vibernum fragrans which is having a second show of blossoms this year - though the first show was in autumn 2022, so not strictly speaking the same calendar year but I think people will know what I mean (some of them have opened so it isn't just a showing of leaf buds).  The blossoms can be cheering (especially the ones in the autumn) though vibernum fragrans can be invasive if not pruned back.  On Saturday I walked round one of the big stores which sell gardening stuff and stuff for household diy and noticed some of the plants for sale.  I was looking for a new lead for my dehumidifer (no luck) but in the gardening department they were selling grape hyacinths.  I already have some of those in the garden and THEY are invasive, albeit a pretty colour (not in flower quite yet in my garden but pushing through).

My magnolia is in almost full bloom and needs its head examined. Other seasonal stuff is holding back for better days - ah but they are natural to the country so seem to have a built in understanding of the climate which the magnolia doesn't. I wonder how it will cope with a shed load of forecast snow.

Oh and I am with you Viz on buying liddle jars of enticing tidbits from eastern parts  and then chucking them out. Slowly our own stuff is being replaced by assorted gunk whch can only be used in recipes beyond the common ken and taste.

I see Toblerone is losing its swiss touches because it will be made elsewhere - and doubtless it will gradually change in size, shape taste and appeal - much as Cadbury owned by Hershey is slowly evolving its trad stuff to something else..... all right so I miss the nature of the old Cadbury's bar. 
 I have just read on line of someone moaning about the loss of Frys' choc creme choc bars - tho I know the mint ones are still around. And there was a moan about no blancmange powder in any supermarket. I miss Mansion polish - no not as a toast spread but something to use and make me feel the house is all fresh and bright - a sort of comfort cleaner. I'm told I can get 7lb tins of it in India - yer well - I'll not be driven to extremes.
So we are at the mercy of young trendy buyers = why on earth does my little local Tesco store need  18 different kinds of soy sauce - of course all the homeland pickles I recall in youth have long gone... Branston or nowt in these parts. Here endeth my rant.

On a more cheerful note, my thanks to you, Viz for bringing up some old threads which I have read from end to start - thence to find out that several of them were ones I set going. What a pleasure it has been to visit  other minds again - old friends/sparring  partners and who all hold a serious place in my memories of more exciting days than are my lot now. So to   you, Viz, Temps, Trike, Per, Meles, Island Dawn and Ferve and others who jumped BBC ship to REs Hist, thank you most sincerely for all the richness with which you brought to this site - enough to making me try to rise to your levels of knowledge and contribution - and of course, above all to nordman who made it all possible - and damn near impossible on occasion. Perhaps I am all historied out to be able to make reasonable contribution ...aka  getting old... but I do read what others write so am pleased it is still going - and so then  to you LiR for doing just that. Regards to all. P.

We are currently delighting in the Girl Siduri's home-made pickled cauliflower. We have a store of apple chutney (made with apples salvaged from the fruit iissue at school) and her "secret recipe" pickled onions (she makes her own spiced vinegar, but there seems to be a theory that "If it hasn't got chilli in it's not pickle" these days. Not that I dislike that, but it overpowers subtle flavours.

And to you too GG - its just that you kept on changing your name? And I left out out Caro! How could I have done that? ....... easy.... old age is really setting in. Anyone else out there from the good ol' days please forgive - and come in here have a moan and a port. Regards. P.

I haven't gone very far afield with shopping since I jarred my back.  Sorry to hark on about it - it has improved but I'm still not 100%.  The local Co-op sells pickled onions and I've seen pickled olives in some of the supermarkets and I'm sure I've seem some pickled red cabbage for sale.  Today has been sunny but the ambient temperature (typing this in the late afternoon) is cold and having looked at the weather forecast online I have read that the meteorologists think there will be a temperature of -2 overnight.  Tomorrow they reckon will be cold but dry but they think there will be snow on Thursday.  With my back playing up I've been having a delivery from Tesco each week.  If there is going to be snow I had better make haste booking a slot for next week because the slots go very quickly when there is snow and ice.  I may have mentioned before that when the 'Beast from the East' hit four years ago it did so around the time of my birthday (17th March/St Patrick's).

Some people like pickled beetroot I believe.  I'm not a fan of beetroot though I can eat the leaves.  I've only met one other person who loathes beetroot like I do and that's the leader of the U3A French group I attend.

Wel I hope the seaweed is miisleading for Thursday. We have a funeral to attend at Dunston. Pretty bleak churchyard  in the snow.

Yes, the Girl Siduri does pickle red cabbage. I enjoy that or beetroot with curry. Odd? Definitely. Junior Monster has been known to proclaim that he knows where his weird comes from.

Nothing weird about beetroot served with curry - that along with several other sorts of salad is usual. Beetroot is also used with turmeric/saffron to make another popular and tacky looking mess of what is called rainbow rice. Green mango pickle  - on the seed pod or in smaller kasoundi  chunks both in spicey hot oil is ever present on the table - less so sweet mango chutney but always with thick home made yoghurt, raitas and assorted spicy mixtures, dips and sauces peculiar to each household. Even everyday meal      tables are pretty load with dishes of many kinds of stuff. I still do it too as routine. But not with a well made fish curry - that needs nothing more. Making it tomorrow - soooooo good. Let it snow let it snow let it snow.

Lime pickle is my favourite addition, but any chutney is acceptable. When we were at Malvern Autumn show I went to a demo by this lass https://www.sukipantal.com/ - she was jealousof my bay tree, agreeing fresh is so preferable to dried bayleaf. The one thing I can't bear with curry is Bombay Duck.

Is that the Dunston south of Stafford, GG?  There's one near Gateshead - travelling there WOULD be a journey and a half in inclement weather.  Though 'Dunston' as a name is nearly as common as Aston. In Staffordshire I can think offhand of Aston-by-Stone, Aston-by-Doxey and Wheaton Aston.

Yes, it's the Staffordshire one.  As you say, there are plenty of Astons and Hamptons about, such as the football team we all love to lick, Aston Vanilla. Bit like Avons and Ouses amongst the rivers.

Oh of course, Aston in Birmingham.  I worked in Birmingham in the early 1970s - Aston Hall was a revelation to me, an old house in what was/is a very urbanised part of the city.

I'm not indulging in pickles at present.  Just taking a few moments to have a cup of tea.  As I rely on a laptop these days I haven't downloaded AdBlock because I found when I used it a few years ago that it took up a lot of memory on a computer (not so concerning when I was using a desktop computer).  I keep getting adverts for portaloos (I haven't been looking at anything online about portaloos so I don't know why I'm getting them).  Then there's the lady who is trying to persuade people to sign up for her course on how to sell books that you haven't written on Amazon.  Not interested dearie. I could understand if I'd been 'surfing the net' and looking at websites about these featured such things but I haven't.

People probably know this already - but my late mother spoke Welsh and she told me that any river is an 'avon' in Welsh.

Well technically it's "Afon". No "V" in Welsh, to the distress of these people

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531873/Welsh-villages-plans-change-Varteg-Farteg-ditched-residents-feared-ridiculed.html

You are quite right, GG.  I've never learned Welsh and just know a few words.  I could learn a little Welsh online if I really put my mind to it.  I'm not a fan of The Daily Mail but that article was quite funny.

I hope everyone is coping in the cold weather (in the UK at least, I don't know how things are overseas).  Here there was some snow yesterday afternoon and again this morning but it seems to have become more sleety and rainy in the afternoon though there is still a carpeting of snow on the ground.  I've felt the cold today even indoors with the heater plugged in.  An extra (or even some extra) layer(s) of clothing helps I find.

Further to your post on the "who knows" thread, Nielsen, how are you? I hadn't seen you around for quite a while so was wondering where you'd got to. We do seem to be dwindling in number, but most of us are still lurking around somewhere. Does the bar serve any breakfast, I wonder, other than the pickled gannets?

Ah, thanks for finding this place and calling out MM.

Well, I've been a bit down healthwise due to aftermaths of 'rona and such, but am on mending.

Hopefully you'll take a cup of coffee this Sunday morning, I agree that it still is a little early - at this longitude - to have something much stronger.

Ah yes I do have a longitudinal advantage over you: the sun's been up for hours and now that the wind has dropped it's already a balmy 15°C outside. But not all is well here weatherwise: we've had almost no rain at all since about November and have had strict water conservation measures throughout southern France since February: no watering gardens, filling swimming pools, washing cars, watering golf courses or football fields etc. I, with my neighbours, have a private spring in the woods but even that is forbidden to use except for domestic water to the houses, in order to conserve ground-water levels. The spring ran very low during the drought last supper and there's been almost no snow on the mountains to build any reserves, so it's already getting quite worrying. If there's no water whatever will I put in my whisky?

I've just been checking out that I'd gotten the 'tudes right, the longs and the latis I mean, and I think that we're both at about the same longitude - or one hour ahead of Greenwich at least.
The latitudes though, they're the ones where you feel the heat - or lack of it!

The water though that's a difficult one, but the problem you mention, I think I've found a solution by taking my whisky neat.

Ah yes I did mean a latitudinal advantage. Although I may have a longitudinal advantage too as here I'm actually to the west of Greenwich (0° meridian) but am in the same time zone as yourself (Central European Time) meaning the evening sun goes down especially late (I think I've got that right). It's even more pronounced for Asturias in NW Spain where they have the same time as us but are even further west than the extreme west of Ireland. That coupled with the Spanish trait of not going out in the evening until very late means they can have some very long days ... no wonder a midday siesta is usual.

Well those longitudes get us there.

About the water though, do you recall this old joke,
in the olden days an elderly man entered a doctor's waiting room and went to the receptionist.
"I've an appointment wi' t'man," said he.
"Abahrt what," said the young receptionist, were eager to prove her standing in the waiting room.
"It's the watterworks," said he.
She blushed a bit but then kindly reprimanded him.
"You don't want to be so blunt here where everyone in the waiting room may hear you. Couldn't you be a bit more discreet and perhaps say that you have a problem with your ears?"
"Aye, A could do that if'n' y'a want," said he.
"I do want, so please go out and come back in, and we'll start over again," said she, proving the pecking order in the waiting room and being rather impressed with herself.
He nodded, went out, lit his pipe and enjoyed the sunshine while thinking, before going in again.
"Good morning," she said, "and what have you come for today?"
"Tis me ears," said he.
"What seems to be the matter?" asked she.
"A can't bluidy piss from them," said he.

Those in the waiting room laughed at the nosy secretary.

That's a bit like going to a French pharmacy. They stock all sorts of stuff and are really helpful but anything that's remotely medicinal can only be dispensed from behind the counter: you can't just discreetly help yourself to a packet of aspirin, some cough syrup, anti-diarrhea tablets, hemorrhoid cream or something for a slightly embarrassing rash. Moreover the pharmacists always insist on discussing your symptoms in great detail - at the counter with the queue behind you - so that you get the correct product. So while the customer ahead of you discusses all the intimate details of their condition to the person behind the counter, you have to just learn to turn a deaf ear, until it's your turn to reveal all.

And now I really must go and plant the last of my potatoes and maybe attempt to prop up my poor broad bean plants that all got flattened, yet again, in last night's gale. And then I need to do my income tax return (groan).

It's now midday here, the wind has picked up again and I still haven't planted my potatoes (nor even looked at the online form for my tax return). Time maybe for an aperitif before lunch?

More than we might need for watering down a scotch, I have had a line of interconnected dustbins fixed to a drain pipe to collect gardening water for the long dry summer. Can get another line going beside a large shed - oh the excitement! 

Wondering about a coronation tea  of some sort like the 1953 one we had when stuff was still short, I have discovered that no store - apart from Amazon - stocks good old fashioned blancmange powder - so no pink rabbits here this year.  I recall we made a huge jelly crown with jewel sweets and big arches of golden  icing sugar  supporters made over milk bottles - and coloured golden with yellow curtain dye.  All were eaten and all survived (Because we did not tell them) but I bet the E numbers we used for it were dreadful. However a huge port jelly went down very well too. Not doing it again this year.

Why the rush to do a tax return - must it be done  early in France? My accountant would have a fit if called in before August.

I used to do potatoes but such a lot of trouble and then I found Mr Tesco got good assorted crops and cheaper too.

No rush to do taxes - the form only went live a week ago, so there's plenty of time yet (although I mustn't forget it like I did last year: I missed the date, couldn't then submit it online and had to physically go with a grovelling apology for my lateness to the regional tax office, and that also meant I was late in submitting my correct national assurance statement, in turn prompting them to demand paper copies because I was too late to complete it all online  ... I don't want to go through all that hassle again).

I'm just doing a few second-early potatoes (for "new" potatoes) in the tubs I've just emptied of saffron bulbs (the saffron flowers I harvested last autumn). Potatoes are no hassle at all but you are right, they are easier and cheaper to buy whenever required from the supermarket.

Priscilla wrote:

Wondering about a coronation tea  of some sort like the 1953 one we had when stuff was still short ...

You could try The King and The Queen Consort's Coronation Quiche:



It looks like a fairly standard vegetable/herb quiche to me, however "quiche" sounds rather French (although ultimately I think the word derives from the German Küche a diminutive of the German Kuchen, "cake"), wouldn't flan or tart at least sound more British? I like the addition of tarragon but the broad beans, though I love 'em, seem a bit odd texture-wise - I'd have used asparagus myself, which will be readily available as the asparagus season officially starts on St George's Day, 23 April.

As to vibrant pink or other coloured blancmange, even the great Auguste Escoffier was a fan, "Blanc-mange is scarcely ever served nowadays, and this is a pity; seeing that, when it is well prepared, it is one of the best entremets that can be set before a diner. Blanc-mange, as it is prepared in England, is quite different from that generally served; but it is nevertheless an excellent and very wholesome entremet." (Escoffier, 'Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery', 1903). Mind you he of course didn't use a sachet of ready-made blancmange powder, but made it from scratch using finely ground almonds, corn-flour, sugar, milk, gelatin, fruit syrup for the colour and a finally dash of kirsch, maraschino or rum.

Not doing the quiche - at least it doesn't have curry powder in it like coronation chicken which is really awful. I make curries with assorted spices and from scratch with imagination, sheer luck and guess work. usually they are good - sometimes very good. I give lessons in how to make my fish curry.... but I do also have spices I am not sure when to use - a cupboard load, in fact. Asian cookery sites are fascinating because they all make the same things very differently. That is because every family has its own style and balance of spices and flavours - even colour can vary greatly. Any way am not a great quiche fan and the great British public will have no idea about fresh - or come to that dried tarragon. You need a Royal herb gardener of the ....... "Tell Thomas to send in a little trug of tarragon, if you will"..... sort. 
Ta, MM, for the blancmange real recipe - sounds great but will not be making. Anyway I have none of those huge smart copper moulds that collectors now buy. Pretty things in their own right.

A coronation chicken sandwich truly is really awful. In fact it's an outright abomination. I'm surprised it survived the ending of rationing in 1954 yet it was still regularly to be found on offer right up until the 1990s and still occasionally rears its ugly head even today. Let's hope that the coronation quiche finally erases it from public memory.

Talking about the British public and tarragon - I seem to remember Tarte poulet à l'estragon (chicken tarragon quiche) being a popular item on the menu of a lunch place I used to frequent in Vigo Street W1 back in the early 90s. This was only about 10 years after the publication of Bruce Feirstein's book Real Men Don't Eat Quiche: A Guidebook To All That Is Truly Masculine. I remember thinking "More fool them!" as I tucked in to a whopping protein-packed slice of chicken surrounded by egg.

I don't think I've ever sampled coronation chicken!!  At one time when I was working away from my hometown I lodged in the house of an Indian couple and the wife half of the couple sometimes treated me to some Indian meals (I wasn't coeliac in those days) some of which included curry but I think curry from a takeaway is a bit different from home-made Indian curry.  She was a good cook.  Then much later when I was working in London I used to sometimes call in at one of the local takeaways (I was partial to chanah dahl).  These days I'm cautious because of having a gluten intolerance.

Since I've known about my allergy I've bought "free from" cheese and tomato or cheese and onion quiche though the last couple of times I've been to M&S  I haven't seen them.  Lately I've been making my grocery purchases in person rather than having a weekly delivery (little and often rather than in one fell swoop).  My back still isn't 100% but I do need to get some exercise.  I could make my own quiches either the lazy way (buying ready mixed gluten free pastry) or by making my own pastry and then providing the filling and cooking said quiche(s).

The last bag of potatoes I bought was a small one.  I didn't use them straightaway and they'd started to sprout/go green but I managed to salvage the inner parts of the potatoes and make chips of them.

I'm experimenting (bought them online) with some "decaf" tea and a re-usable cotton tea bag.  It tastes okay but I'll have to monitor it and see how it goes.

Dhal curry - the food of the Gods  from lentils is about the best there is. I make about a gallon at a time and freeze it and never have a curry meal without it. Took me years to get it to perfection. I have one kg left of pale yellow lentils which is twice the price abroad and never found here for some reason which makes for the very best.  Now have my neighbours here trained in making it too - what possible interest any of that could be to REs Hists I have no idea - sorry.

I like tarka dhal - it's similar to ordinary dhal but just a little 'otter!

I'll get my coat ...

Tarka dhal just has heated spices added on top - and any dhal can be as hot as you like. Do Piaz has loads of onion so is sweeter.  I just like depth of spice flavours - and I also cook it for a very long time - we sometimes have it with just rice and a large dollup of quality natural yoghurt. I use        fresh ginger/garlic paste quite heavily...... and in all manner of other foods as well. I have frozen boxes from making it in quantity.

I've used spices more since I had doctor's orders to cut down on salt because of high blood pressure though if I'm honest I need to restock because I'm more or less out of them now. I use lentils and chickpeas in my diet quite often because pulses are a source of protein and I've been vegetarian for several years so not getting protein from meat. I buy the tinned lentils though. Come to think of it I've seen green and red lentils but never yellow (to buy at least) though I'd never really thought about it until I read Priscilla's observation that yellow lentils aren't readily available in the UK.

The re-usable tea bags (I only bought two) are serving their purpose and the tea tastes okay. I think re-usable tea bags have been around for some time; I just wasn't aware of them. I think some people even make their own tea bags. I've only just become aware that there is a company that deals in English-grown tea - it's expensive though. https://tregothnan.co.uk/shop/tea/

I've never heard of a re-usable teabag but I have a re-usable teapot. Every morning I charge it up with loose tea and then fill it half full with boiling water to get a couple of mugs' worth of tea. I then just rinse it out or occasionally put it in dishwasher to get rid of any tannin stains. Whatever are these teabags - re-usable or otherwise - of which you speak?   

I do have a stainless-steel mesh ball that closes with a clip, but which seems incapable of accommodating enough loose-leaf tea to give a decent cuppa. I also have a another slightly bizarre, two-part, egg-shaped, infuser-thingy, that is supposed to float about in your mug. I never use either of them (they were both presents). I also have a lovely set of very delicate, white porcelain, lidded tea-bowls, each made with a built in strainer and spout, and so they are rather like very small one-person/one-cup teapots. They are intended for professional tea-tasting but are generally much too fiddly/delicate to use for regular tea drinking and above all I find they lack sufficient capacity for a good-sized cuppa.

Just to prove I'm not telling porky pies though I didn't actually get mine off ebay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Reusable-Tea-Bags/38181/bn_7023467257 I contacted an online place to ask if they had "decaf" tea bags and they said not as such but that they had loose "decaf" tea and re-usable tea bags. I bought some loose tea and a couple of the tea bags (to see if I got on with them - no use in ordering loads if they don't work for me).

Away from re-usable decaffeinated teabags, the first known cocktail is believed to be El Draque which is said to have been adapted by Sir Francis Drake from a medicinal cure of the Taino indians in Cuba. The story goes that, despite a profitable voyage privateering in the Caribbean Sea and the Spanish Main in the 1580s, his crew fell sick with tropical fever which was only relieved by the bitter bark of a local tree. It was a sort of tropical equivalent of aspirin from temperate willow bark. This he mixed with rum, sugar, lime juice and mint to make it palatable for his crew. Today it’s virtually indistinguishable from the ubiquitous mojito although there’s no ice or sparkling water in El Draque. If bitter tree bark is not readily available, then other botanical bitters will do.



With the return of unseasonably cold weather in the British Isles this weekend, it's a suitably international aperitif for St George’s Eve whether that be in England or Catalonia or Malta or Grenada etc.

Staffordshire is preparing to give mugs to babies born on Coronation Day. I somehow doubt they will be silver as the ones from 1953 were:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-65338065.amp

With just over a week to go before the coronation, I see that the Yeomen Warders at the Tower of London have finally got their new uniforms correctly bearing the cypher of the current monarch:

   

But as the previous uniforms under the late Queen were labelled 'ER, surely the new ones under the new King should be emblazoned 'IM, no?

... I'll show myself out.

Today here is Anzac Day where we commemorate the Gallipoli landings. It's a bit odd that our most important day after Christmas is one of a defeat. wikipedia says: "The campaign was considered a great Ottoman victory. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the history of the state, a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire retreated. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey eight years later, with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli, as founder and president.
The campaign is often considered to be the beginning of Australian and New Zealand national consciousness; 25 April, the anniversary of the landings, is known as Anzac Day, the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in the two countries, surpassing Remembrance Day (Armistice Day).^{[13][14][15]"}


In New Zealand it is the only day where the shops (including petrol stations and supermarkets) are closed till 1pm (Xmas Day they are closed all day). My son was a bit surprised, though he is over 40 and that has been the case all his life! My 7-year-old grandson last year said, "It's not a celebration, Gramma, it's a commemoration." Before we shifted away we went to a service for it every year, with different speakers each time, with a different message, some emphasizing the part women played or the pacifists or remembering the old soldiers still living. (That last would have been quite a few years ago.)

Vizzer wrote:

A coronation chicken sandwich truly is really awful. In fact it's an outright abomination. I'm surprised it survived the ending of rationing in 1954 yet it was still regularly to be found on offer right up until the 1990s and still occasionally rears its ugly head even today. Let's hope that the coronation quiche finally erases it from public memory.

Coronation Chicken was very much a product of its time and place ... something slightly different with echoes of the Commonwealth, yet mild and innocuous enough to be served (called 'Poulet à la Reine') at the official coronation lunch for a diverse range of dignitaries and foreign guests, although at the same time, since rationing was still in force, not too extravagantly elitist. When called simply 'Coronation Chicken' it was accepted as easy to make, with its fairly readily obtainable (or substituted) ingredients, and could be copied by ordinary cooks throughout the land - cooks who were still having to struggle with rationing and shortages, but had nevertheless been brought up on a wartime ethos of improvisation and make-do. So top marks to Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume in 1953. However like you I'm surprised Coronation Chicken still remains so popular today when most people's palates are much more sophisticated, their wallets generally fuller, and now that tikka marsala is apparently the nations's favourite meal, beloved or so the royal PR claims, even of the late queen herself.

But Coronation Chicken was by no means the worst thing thrown up (maybe even literally so) by food specialists in response to the marketing allure of the royal event in 1953. How about this monstrosity by Chivers, the loyal makers of instant flavoured gelatine, a by-product of the industrial production of leather and glue?



Interestingly there is another special dish that has likely appeared at every coronation of a king or queen of England for over 700 years and is actually rather like an ancestor of Coronation Chicken; it being pieces of spiced chicken in a thick, creamy, slightly sweet sauce. This traditional coronation chicken dish is usually called dillegrout, although over the centuries the name has changed many times. However more about all that tomorrow.

That coronation jelly does look hideous - like a menacing and highly venomous red spider and a queen spider too. That said - one wonders how many people were minded to knock up the paste for and prepare the Icing Crown Arches. Quite a few I'd imagine. I feel slightly guilty, however, for sneering (from the safety of 70 years' distance) at mock cream.

Coronation chicken (being spicy, creamy and fruity) does sound very much like a mediaevel concoction. Maybe it should be renamed 'Concoction chicken'. I'm looking forward to hearing about dillegrout though.

Something which did buck the rationing trend at the last coronation (with meat still being rationed) was the tradition of roasting an ox. The minister for food in 1953, Gwilym Lloyd George issued licences for any appropriate organisation or local authority which made an application to roast a whole ox on the proviso that the roast beef be given away free to those at the feast. I'm not sure what licence (if any) one might need today to roast a whole ox. Neither have I heard of any plans in the locality or beyond to do so. I'm guessing that it would probably take a night and a day to fully cook one. So if anyone's thinking of roasting an ox in time for Saturday then the clock's ticking and the hours are running out to source an ox, dig a fire pit, erect a spit and set a roaster roster.

Vizzer said, "I feel slightly guilty, however, for sneering (from the safety of 70 years' distance) at mock cream." There used to be a lady in the group with whom I meet for lunch about once a month who was lactose intolerant. She's no longer with us, sadly, but I imagine she had to have some sort of "mock cream". Of course there is a better choice of such item than there was 70 years ago.

I'm still knitting dishcloths intermittently (as a sampler of various stitches which would still be useful). I have one drying on the line - I try to change the working dishcloth sufficiently often to discourage bacteria from taking root. There was a story going round at one time that microwaving a damp dishcloth for a couple of minutes in the microwave would kill numerous pathogens but later people warned against the practice because it seems in some cases dishcloths caught fire inside the microwave so it was a safety hazard. I'm thinking about dishcloths because I paused to have a cup of tea and catch up on Res Hist but I've also got a dishcloth knitting project on the go.

Vizzer wrote:

Something which did buck the rationing trend at the last coronation (with meat still being rationed) was the tradition of roasting an ox. The minister for food in 1953, Gwilym Lloyd George issued licences for any appropriate organisation or local authority which made an application to roast a whole ox on the proviso that the roast beef be given away free to those at the feast.

I'm rather surprised that the government of the day allowed any ox roasts at all, what with meat still being under strict rationing. As a consequence of the rationing of meat (in place since January 1940) all livestock had to be registered at birth, could only be slaughtered at ministry-approved abbatoirs and could only be sold by registered butchers at fixed prices and for the required number of food coupons. To raise an unlicenced pig, cow, bullock or sheep was a serious offence and if discovered the animal would be confiscated, the butcher's shop selling the illegal meat would be closed down (and all the unsold meat dyed green to mark it "unfit for human consumption") and all the persons involved facing heavy fines if not prison. The 1984 comedy film 'A Private Function' (with Michael Palin and Maggie Smith) although set six years earlier at the time of the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, highlights the the risks ordinary people might sometimes take just to get just a little bit more than their due ration, as well as depicting the extreme lengths the police and food inspectors sometimes went to in trying to root out the black market.



To the relief of everyone - except maybe the spivs and some dishonest butchers who were flouting the system to make money - rationing of meat finally ended in July 1954. But for the coronation in June 1953 meat rationing was still very much in force with the Ministry of Food apparently having serious concerns that the nation’s meat stocks might disappear in just one day, or that there would be civil unrest if the limited supplies that were available were unfairly distributed. So while whole ox roasts were a traditional way for communities to celebrate royal events, the problem was how to limit the number of oxen available while ensuring there was a fair distribution of the few that were available. Hence as you say, any organisation intending to hold an ox roast had to get a licence from the Minister for Food, which would only be issued on the proviso that the roast beef would be given away for free. However there was also another far more restrictive requirement which was that the organisation or civic authority applying for the licence had to prove that it was a "long-standing tradition" for their particular community. Accordingly they had to show that they'd previously roasted an ox at the last coronation, that of George VI in 1937. This successfully (from the government's point of view) whittled the numbers down somewhat to just 154 applications across the country, of which 33 were refused, 40 withdrew and 81 were finally approved. Even so I expect it often proved difficult to secure the necessary ox. Furthermore requests by some towns to be permitted to roast a pig or sheep instead were rejected as being "quite improper" probably because the government knew from their experience of the 1947 royal wedding that there were likely to be a great many more illegal 'pig clubs' operating in secret around the country than there were unregistered bullocks, so allowing whole pig roasts would just be facilitating criminal activity.

When informed in the House of Commons by the Minister for Food that local authorities needed to apply for a licence to hold an ox roast, Jean Mann, then Labour MP for Coatbridge, demanded, "But where do they get an ox? Some have not even got a mutton chop" to which Bob Boothby, then Conservative MP for East Aberdeenshire, ironically suggested that maybe people could roast herrings instead. Likewise when Norman Dodds, then Labour MP for Dartford, drawing on comments by angry members of the Housewives’ League about the inadequate temporary increase in the ration of sugar and margarine, suggested that "some people would rather roast the minister", the said minister, Gwilym Lloyd George quipped, "As I would have to issue the licence, it is very unlikely that that would happen".
(see Hansard 11 Feb 1953 ; Hansard 1 Apr 1953 ; Hansard 24 June 1953).

Actually now I think about it, provided that a town could actually get hold of an ox, roasting it whole in the open air over a fire of scrap wood is actually quite a cost-effective way of feeding a very large number of people, as well as providing a grand celebratory spectacle.

Here's a youtube of the 1953 Coronation ox roast held in Ledbury, Hertfordshire, documenting the whole thing from building the hearth, making the spit, firing it up, cooking the beast and finally sharing it out (for free of course). Although I was not even born in 1953 the film does still bring back memories of the sort of community spirit and simple pleasures I remember from my childhood in a small town in Sussex.

That Ledbury Ox Roast is a gem of a little film Meles and in colour too. Thanks for posting it. Some of the details are fascinating such as the factoring in, in the design of the spit, of being able to roll the ox away from the fire periodically in order to baste it. A lot of thought and planning went into the event. Also, I didn’t envy the fellow who had the job of carving the beast even with giant carvers. 

Spin forward 70 years and by all accounts it seems that there were actually more oxen roasted in 1953 than in 2023. So much for us patronisingly looking back at the poor hungry folk of ‘Austerity Britain’. Some suggest that the reason is the cost-of living crisis in 2023, which is probably true in part, although I suspect also that public tastes and sensitivities have also changed. Seeing a whole ox trussed up and publicly roasted simply might not appeal to sections of the 21st century UK public. Also, why would you want a sandwich of hot roast beef and freshly baked bread when you’re used to the synthetic taste of frozen bread rolls and chilled beef strips.

On Coronation Nite I ended up toasting His Maj with an all-American Mint Julep. The Kentucky Derby was on at 2 minutes to midnight BST and it seemed like a welcome change after a day of profound British emotion. My horse didn't win.



Mint Julep - the signature drink of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, Louisville - bourbon, brown sugar, crushed ice, mint.

As I've said before I'm old enough to remember the 1953 coronation in a vague way. I remember looking at the TV and at the Queen's coach.  Other details may have been confabulated from repeats (of highlights, not the whole thing) I've seen over the years. Anyway while I've been sitting having a cup of tea I read something online about a lamb that managed to get a motorcycle helmet stuck on its head (it was freed fortunately).  Now let's see if my experimentation with shortening long links has worked:- https://cutt.ly/s6A3EUi    What intrigued me was this sentence:- "However, as the 46-year-old walked onto the field, he realised the four-week-old cattle was in fact wearing a black crash helmet."  I thought that, these days at least, "cattle" only referred to the bovine family.  That said, I visited an exhibition about Arab stallions at the British Museum some years ago where the word expression "cattle" was used to include horses, so I assumed (I know it can be dangerous to assume) that the word "cattle" once had a wider, more inclusive, meaning.  Then again, it could be that the article has been generated by one of the AI writing programs in existence and had not been proofread properly.

I'm having a "cuppa" and trying to catch up on ResHist.  I can't remember whether I mentioned that I slipped in the garden a couple of weeks ago and broke my right wrist (I'm right handed)...no dishcloths being knitted by me at present.  I'm wearing one of the modern wrist braces rather than a plaster cast.  I wanted to exercise my fingers in a way that didn't involve any fine wrist movements.  I found a YouTube channel by a Japanese lady about cat's cradle (in a way you can do flying solo) and origami.  I'm trying the more basic versions to get some finger exercise.  I think I looked into it before but I did a bit of googling around about the subject and it seems Cat's cradle/Ayatori - or any ofits other names is ancient - I ended up on the Beano website looking for information.

I've only just seen your post LiR: I hope you're managing Ok, have you got anyone to help you with doing shopping and household stuff. When I broke my finger it was often the littlest of things - such as doing the washing up, tying my laces or trying to open a glass jar - that defeated me. So I sincerely hope you recover quickly.