British Cooking 101

When my husband and I were living in South Africa one of our favorite Christmas desserts was the South African, Traditional Fruit Cake. Pam Mitchell-Innes, the mastermind behind this delicious dessert, is an amazing cook and we always looked forward to dining at her beautiful home on Blanerne Farm. Now that we're back in America, we've thought much about South Africa, especially this time of year, and wanted to have a taste of South Africa here with us this Christmas. Pam was gracious enough to send me the recipe and I've had a very good learning curve the past few days as I've tried to figure out what most of the ingredients are! Goodness, have I learned a lot. 

 Maybe I'm still new to this "cooking" world, call me nieve, but I had no clue what any of the things on this list were:

Currants

Sultanas

Mixed Candied Peel
Glacé Cherries

and

Black Treacle

So, the searching began and my education was heightened! I think in the end it was simply the different countries calling food my different names. 

Dried Fruits used in British Cooking

Raisins: dried, black grapes. They are dried to produce a dark, sweet fruit. 

Sultanas: dried white grapes but from seedless varieties. They are golden in color and tend to be plumper, sweeter and jucier than other raisins. Also referred to as Golden Raisins in the US.

Currants: dried, black, seedless grapes. They are dried to produce a black, tiny shriveled - yet packed with flavor - fruit.

Candied Mixed Peel: is the thick peel of citrus fruits preserved in sugar

Glacé Cherries: cherries, again preserved in sugar solution, as the cherry usually loses color in the process, coloring is added making them a distinctive, bright red.

Black Treacle: any syrup made during the refining of sugar. Used chiefly in cooking as a form of sweetener or condiment.  

(I could not find any in the stores surrounding, so the substitute for Black Treacle is Molasses, Excellent! I have that). 

-There you have it! Hopefully everybody learned something new today. xoxo