Hooray for brulee!
QUESTION Was creme brulee invented at Cambridge University?
Creme brulee (brulee means burnt in French) is a sweet egg-yolk custard made with cream. the cream, egg yolk and sugar mixture is poured into individual ramekins, poached in a hot water bath called a bainmarie and then chilled.
When the custard is firm, the top is covered with a layer of sugar which is then browned by a salamander (a culinary grill) or blow torch, forming a hard, caramelised crust on the surface.
the history of this delicious dessert is hotly debated, with the english, French and Catalans all claiming to have invented it. Food historians generally agree that custards were popular in the middle Ages, and custard recipes were circulated widely throughout europe.
Some have attributed the creation of the dessert to trinity College, Cambridge, in the 19th century, but this can’t be true. Custards topped with caramelised sugar appear in 18th-century english cookbooks (notably John Nott’s Cooks And Confectioners Dictionary of 1723) and the origin of the recipe appears to be French.
British food writer elizabeth David (author of Spices, Salt And Aromatics In the english Kitchen) traced Nott’s recipe for burnt cream to Francois massialot’s Creme Brulee in his recipe Cuisinier royal et Bourgeois of 1691.
the english translation of massialot’s book, the Court And Country Cook (1702), includes the first reference to ‘Burnt Cream’. massialot’s recipe is slightly different from the modern incarnation — it calls for milk, not cream, and the custard is baked in an oven rather than a bainmarie. Confusingly, in a later edition of the work his recipe appears as creme a l’angloise, and this might have led to confusion over its origins.
Creme brulee is conspicuously absent from major 19th and early 20th century French cookbooks, and this might have helped spread the trinity College legend that the pudding was invented when the college crest was burnt into sugar on top of a custard using a hot iron.
Catalans claim their dessert, crema catalana, also a rich custard topped with caramelised sugar and often flavoured with lemon or orange, is the origin of the French dessert, though theirs seems to have been first recorded in the 18th century.
the recipe began appearing once more in cookery books at the turn of the 20th century. unless a precedent is found, massialot’s recipe must be considered the first.
Alison Crozier, St Albans, Herts.
QUESTION For years, I’ve grown Moneymaker and Alicante tomatoes. This year, both varieties have developed hard skins. Why is this?
Moneymaker and Alicante are both medium-skinned tomato varieties, which should, under the right conditions, give an excellent crop of juicy fruits.
two factors can create extra thick tomato skins: under-watering and scorching. When tomato plants have too little water, they go into drought mode, growing thicker skins to prevent moisture loss. giving tomatoes the correct amount of water will help preserve thin skins — but take care not to overwater, particularly after a period of drought, as this can cause tomato crack. tomatoes can also be stressed by too much sunlight. this is a particular problem in greenhouses where tomato plants produce tomatoes with tougher skins in order to prevent sun-scald. During a prolonged heatwave, shading your tomato plants should prevent skin thickening. Some varieties of tomatoes are bred for thicker skins. roma and plum tomatoes are often used for canning and drying. thick tomato skins are easier to remove when canning and also hold together better when dried. Oliver Langley, Hampton Bishop, Herefordshire.
QUESTION What is the story of the Battle of Romani when the Turks tried to capture the Suez Canal?
the previous answer mentioned el Arish, a very important place in the history of our two Scottish regiments.
In 1917, my uncle Colin and 373 other members of the Black Watch landed in Suez. As the only serving battalion in the area, they thought they would be joining the 2nd Battalion in the Baghdad/Kut area, but found themselves at el Arish, along with a similar number of a dismounted yeomanry regiment, the Fife and Forfar yeomanry. they were then told they were to form a new battalion, the 14th (F&Fy) Black Watch.
they had a battalion, half of whom were fully kilted, the other half had breeches and flat caps. So attired, they fought at gaza and all the way up to Jerusalem. the breeches were gradually withdrawn as more kilts became available. they then sailed from haifa to marseilles and went into the trenches where, in June 1918, they became a fully kilted battalion.
there were many such ‘amalgamations’ in 1917, but none of the others had the trousers/kilt problem.
thomas Proudfoot, Alresford, Hants.
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