Nigella’s great scone debate: Does cream go on first – or is it the jam?
AS a cookery writer, she must have known the fuss it would whip up.
Sharing a list of recipes online, Nigella Lawson posted a photo of an indulgent teatime scone – topped with cream first.
Her followers were quick to start a debate over the picture, with some defending the Devon technique of spreading the jam on the top of the cream, and others backing the Cornish method of doing it the other way round.
Even comedian Dawn French – who lives in the Cornish town of Fowey – weighed in on the dispute. Retweeting Miss Lawson’s post, she joked: ‘Nigella, darlin girl, far be it and all that, but seriously … jam goes first … No exceptions. Please.’
Miss Lawson, 58, replied : ‘I bow to your Cornishness and general fabulosity … but I am not a believer in constraining rules – we all take our pleasures when and how we can.’ Attempting to settle it once and for all, Miss French, 60, responded: ‘Agree wholeheartedly my queen. But I venture to suggest that one is never constrained when one is doing the right thing.’
What seemed to go unnoticed in the discussion was that Miss Lawson hadn’t even used jam in the picture she shared, but a mixture of cream and black treacle.
Cream tea has been served in Britain since the 11th century, with arguments about the correct presentation raging ever since. It was reported earlier this year that for royal tea parties, the Queen prefers the Cornish method of topping her scones with jam first.