Poldark's leading man Aidan Turner flashes his toned physique while taking a walk with his wife in East London Lauren Goodger shows off results from 'cosmetic treatment' as she discusses 'road of recovery' - following 'attack' and tragic death of daughter Lorena 'I'll be 50 in a minute': Bodyguard star Keeley Hawes, 46, reveals she is preparing for a life away from acting Simon Cowell's company S圜o 'to face £1m lawsuit' as 'former X Factor contestants make bullying allegations against the show' Last week, Asda launched £1 pots of gilding glaze containing saffron.įood historian Marc Meltonville said: "Saffron gilding was very popular in the 16th Century and enhanced both the taste and appearance of roasted meats."īeatrice and Eugenie 'BEGGED Charles to let shamed Andrew back in from the cold': Future king 'rebutted pleas of princesses and Duke of York
Saffron was the most expensive spice available - it costs up to £500 a pound today - so using it still gave an indication of the host's affluence. It gave the bird a beautiful colour as well as a subtle flavour. It made little difference to the taste but showed off the host's wealth - and fortunately it is non-toxic.īut more frequently, the gilding would be made from a saffron butter, spread over the roasting chicken or turkey for the last 30 minutes of cooking. Real gold leaf was occasionally used for the task. The technique for making roast birds golden was favoured by Henry VIII and was the ultimate sign of wealth and opulence in the 16th Century. "It had dozens of things like yellowhammers in it and weighed 20 stone."ĪNOTHER historical cooking tradition coming back into fashion this Christmas is gilding. "These pies would have given Bill Oddie nightmares," he said: "There was one baked for the Earl of Lonsdale in 1753 after which there must have been not a single bird singing for miles. But much as I enjoyed it, the impression is better than the taste."įood historian Ivan Day said that despite popular opinion, multi-bird feasts were historically cooked in pies, rather than roasted because with the real fires of the era, rather than ovens, the outer meat would have become dry and tough. "There's no doubt it's a very impressive thing to serve. "As it is, this is more interesting than turkey, but not very practical. "I think a better result could be achieved by simply taking the four most distinctive-tasting birds - the goose, the Aylesbury duck, the turkey and either the pheasant or partridge. But I found that although the game has some powerful flavours, it's difficult to distinguish-which is which because the flavours mingle together.
All the citrus stuffings cut through the strong gamey flavours really well. "It was very moist and had an interesting mix of textures and flavours. Something of this size is difficult to cook because it could get very dry, but in the end, I was surprised.
To put the True Love Roast to the taste test, we took it to the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London - home to a mammoth convection oven capable of cooking our monster.Ĭhef Phillip Corrick said: "I was taken aback by the sheer bulk of meat. "These sorts of things used to be made with great bustards and swans, but they are protected birds now." But I still think that next year we'll have something even more spectacular, perhaps a 21-bird roast. "It was only when I was halfway through the first prototype that I realised what a crazy idea it was. "We've been making smaller multibird roasts for a while, but I wanted something with a real wow factor. However, it takes at least three hours before that to bone the birds and another couple of days to make all the stuffings. The roast contains turkey, goose, chicken, pheasant, partridge, pigeon squab, Aylesbury duck, Barbary duck, poussin, guinea fowl, mallard-and quail with herb and fruit stuffings.Īnne added: "It takes about 45 minutes to build the roast. "It uses skinless breast meat from several birds of each species with flavours that work well together." It contains about 50,000 calories and takes more than eight hours to cook in an industrialducksized oven.Īnne, who runs the Heal Farm shop near Kings Nympton, said: "The True Love Roast has a bird for each of the 12 days of Christmas.