Beetroot (2004)

Stephen Nottingham

© Copyright: Stephen Nottingham 2004

Contents

7. Cuisine Beet Leaves / Beet Roots / Borsch / Salads / Hot Vegetable / With Meat / With Fish / Pies and Gratin / Risotto and Pasta / Pickles and Chutney / Ice Cream and Jelly / Drink / Home-made sugar / The Beetroot Revival / Bibliography   The different cultivated forms of Beta vulgaris have been bred for different culinary uses. Leaf beets have been selected for their edible leaves and their roots are not eaten, while both the leaves and roots of beetroot or table beet are edible. This chapter surveys beet cuisine, from traditional dishes to the creations of a new generation of enterprising chefs. The food is discussed in an historical and cultural context. Although ingredients are given, the reader is referred to the cookbooks listed in the bibliography for detailed recipes with exact measurements and cooking times. However, for those who enjoy experimenting in the kitchen as much as I do, the following should provide enough guidance and inspiration for some creative cookery. Beet Leaves The leaves of wild sea beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. maritima) have been collected from European coastlines and consumed since at least ancient times. Richard Mabey, in Food For Free, notes that domestication has not greatly altered the appearance of leaf beets, although cultivated forms have lost much of the strong tannin-and-iron flavour of sea beet. Small leaves of sea beet can be used in salads, while the larger outer leaves are best steamed or boiled. Mabey recommends picking sea beet between April and November, dispensing with any substantial stalks, and washing the leaves well. If boiling, add a little water (1 cm) to the bottom of a large saucepan. Cooked should take a matter of minutes with a lid on, until the leaves turn a dark green. The leaves can be chopped and pressed down at intervals. After draining, the beet can be tossed with a knob of butter. Mabey suggests that sea beet cooked in this way goes well with diced tomatoes and chopped hazel nuts. A maritime marriage of Mussels with sea beet is described in Mabey's book. Sea beet is boiled, pressed to drain, and mixed with a bechamel sauce containing Parmesan cheese and a pinch of nutmeg. The mussels are cooked with white wine and garlic, mixed together with the sea beet and sauce, topped with further cheese and breadcrumbs, and baked in an oven for ten minutes. Wild sea beet can be used in any recipe calling for spinach. A recipe dating from the seventeenth century, for example, uses sea beet as an alternative to spinach in a pastry tart, with hard-boiled eggs and a sweet sauce containing raisins and cinnamon. Spinach beet or perpetual spinach is the domesticated beet that most resembles wild beet. It is usually cooked like spinach: steamed, stir-fried or boiled. Although often described as being like spinach, it is a little coarser in texture. Beet leaves generally have a more "earthy" taste than spinach. Like spinach, beet leaves are best boiled in a small amount of water, so that it is evaporated or absorbed at the end of cooking. This keeps the iron and other minerals with the leaves and ensures they are eaten rather than being wasted. Alternatively, the cooking liquor can be used in stocks, soups or gravies. Spinach beet can be used in recipes instead of spinach. The leaves can be mixed with ricotta cheese, for example, to make stuffing for pasta or layers in vegetarian lasagne. Tortelli di Erbette is a kind of ravioli from the Parma region of Italy, which is filled with young beetroot leaves, spinach beet, chard or spinach. Since the Middle Ages, whenever sorrel and dock (Rumex) leaves have been consumed, beet leaves have often been mixed with them to lessen the acidity of sorrel and dock in soups and other dishes. This is still the case, for example, where French sorrel and beet leaves are eaten like spinach in France. In Turkish cookery, beet leaves can be stuffed, like vine leaves, with a range of ingredients. Nevin Halicic describes a Sarma of beet leaves (Pazi sarmasi), with the beet leaves being blanched, plunged into cold water, and wrapped around a stuffing containing minced lamb, ground wheat, onion, tomato, green peppers, parsley and other ingredients. These parcels are tightly arranged in a shallow pan with a little hot water, some butter and sumac (sour berries native to Anatolia). The pan is covered, with a plate pressing down on the parcels, over a low heat for about 40 minutes. Chard is often treated as if it was two vegetables. The leaf blade is used as beet leaves or spinach, while the succulent leaf midribs and stalks are cooked independently. However, the leaves and midrib can be cooked together in the same pan, with the midribs being cooked for longer. Swiss chard and other chard varieties all have the same taste. Chard can simply be cooked in a covered pan with olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning. Ingredients such as capers, garlic, raisins, olives and pine nuts can be added to the pan. Chard is often prepared with ingredients like raisins and pine nuts, in dishes with Arabic origins. Swiss chard and rice soup is an Egyptian speciality, for instance, which includes chickpeas, onion, garlic, cumin and yoghurt. Chard (midribs) is probably at its most interesting when it is cooked like asparagus, being steamed, stewed, baked or boiled, and served with melted butter or a range of sauces. Chard can be used in most recipes that call for asparagus. White sauce, cheese or tomato sauce can be poured over cooked chard. Sauces that are used for celery and cardoons are also good on chard. Sophie Grigson, for example, describes a recipe for Chard in a curried cream sauce. Chard is popular around the Mediterranean, especially in Provence and Catalonia. In France, chard is called cardes de bette or blettes. Many recipes for chard, such as Poirée à carde (stewed chard), originated in France, where it is often cooked with cheese in tarts, gratins and quiches. Elizabeth David gives a recipe for Blettes à la crème (chard with cream sauce) in French Provincial Cookery. In Italy and Spain, chard is sometimes used in pizza. Its leaves are also incorporated into soups, pancakes, and meat products such as pâ´©s, pies, black pudding and faggots. Sopas Mallorquinas is a popular chard dish from the Balearic Islands. It is a vegetable and bread stew - solid peasant fare - that exists in many versions. Sophie Grigson presents a recipe using dried bread, the shredded greens of chard (the midribs are used for something else), garlic, leeks, tomatoes, olive oil and herbs. The stew is poured on top of the bread in a serving bowl. Beetroot leaves are a little coarser and stronger tasting than the leaves from beets cultivated exclusively for their leaves. However, fresh bright beetroot leaves should not be overlooked in the kitchen. They can be lightly cooked and are rich in vitamins and minerals. Young beetroot leaves with crimson-veins add colour when mixed with other green vegetable leaves. Beetroot leaves do not keep as long as beetroots after harvest, and are only of value when fresh. Leaves from traditional varieties, such as Bull's Blood and Early Wonder, which tend to have more abundant foliage, are often better to eat than the leaves of many modern varieties, where plant breeders have concentrated on traits relating to the root. Beetroot leaves are commonly eaten in many parts of the world. Young leaves are treated like leaf beet and spinach, for example, in Indonesia and Japan. The first delicate leaves of beetroot can be eaten raw in mixed salads, where they provide colour. Beetroot leaves can be lightly steamed and flavoured with a little freshly-ground black pepper or they can be stir-fried with garlic and soy sauce. The dark green foliage and purple veins of beetroot leaves can be a colourful addition to stir-fried or steamed spinach, chard or other green-leaf vegetables. Chopped or shredded beetroot leaves are often added to soups and stews. Botvinya is a traditional cold sweet-and-soup Russian soup made from beetroot leaves, spinach and sorrel. It is garnished with cucumber or small pieces of fish. Beet Roots When buying, look for beetroot that are firm to the touch and have unblemished skins. The leaves should ideally be attached or twisted off around 5 cm (2 inches) above the root. When preparing, roots should be gently washed to remove soil particles, for example, using a sponge. Heavy scrubbing may damage the skin and cause bleeding. A bleeding root is messy to handle and is losing colour and nutrients. The roots should be undamaged and unpeeled before cooking, unless the intention is to make soup or to colour a dish with beetroot juice. Peeled beetroot can also be grated and eaten raw, but it is usually cooked before being peeled and used in salad and as a vegetable. The two main methods of cooking are boiling and baking. To boil beetroot, the roots are placed in a pan of lightly salted water, covered and simmered for between 45 minutes and two hours, depending on their size. Jane Grigson recommends a tablespoon of salt for 1 Kg (2 lb) of beetroot, although the trend now is to use less salt when cooking vegetables. Small beets and minibeet varieties may cook in as little as 30 minutes. Large mature roots may take at least two hours to cook, although such large roots are rarely sold in shops. Cooking small or medium-sized beets for over two hours, by any method, will cause the roots to go hard. After boiling, beetroot can be refreshed in cold water, which also cools them enough for the skins to be easily removed. Aluminium pans should be avoided when boiling beetroot. Chemicals in the beet react with the aluminium, discolouring the pan and causing them to taste bitter. Although boiling is often given as the cooking method in recipes, I prefer to bake beetroot. Baking retains the flavour of the beetroot better than other cooking methods. The roots develop a sweeter, fruitier, and richer flavour when baked. To cook beets relatively quickly, they can be individually wrapped in aluminium foil and placed on a baking tray in an oven (160°C to 180°C) for around 45 to 90 minutes, depending on size. An hour at this temperature is usually sufficient for small to medium-sized roots. Small beetroots may be cooked in as little as twenty minutes. Very small beetroots or minibeets, however, can easily become overcooked in an oven, and boiling may be preferable in this case. Temperatures above 180°C (350°F) should be avoided when baking, as beets need time at a lower steady temperature to cook evenly and develop their full flavour. If time permits, oven temperatures of 140-150°C and longer baking times give beetroot an excellent flavour. Beetroot is therefore a good vegetable to cook when the oven is being used for other slow-cooked dishes. When cooking several beetroot, they can be placed closely together (almost touching) in a covered baking dish, with a little water to prevent them drying out. Even-sized beets give the best result, as they cook to the same degree. As an alternative to cooking in foil, beetroot can be wrapped in their own leaves, to preserve moisture, and baked in a moderate oven. In Italy, it is considered traditional to cook beetroot slowly in the embers of a dying fire. Some cookbooks suggest the microwave oven as a method of cooking beetroot. Beetroot are placed in a bowl with a few tablespoons of water and covered with a microwavable plastic film. The advice for medium to large-sized beets is something like full power for five minutes, rest, and power again for five minutes. However, I am not a fan of microwave ovens and consider this is a waste of good beetroot. Rapid cooking by microwaves can easily lead to rubbery flesh texture, unappealing skin charring, a depletion of nutrients, and an undeveloped flavour. If time is a limiting factor, pre-cooked beetroot can be bought. The skin of cooked beetroot is easy to peel off. If the skin does not budge, the beet is not cooked. A skewer or fork is sometimes recommended to test whether beetroot is cooked, but piercing causes bleeding of the root. Once cooked, beetroot can be cooled a little before rubbing with the finger and thumb to remove the skin. Kitchen gloves can be worn to prevent temporary staining of the hands. To speed the cooling process, a running cold-water tap can be used. Peeled cooked beetroot are then ready to use in a wide range of dishes. Borsch Borsch or borshch is the Russian name for a collection of Eastern European beetroot soups. These date back to at least the fourteenth century, when beetroot was first introduced into this region. Borsch is particularly popular in Russia, the Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. Beetroot is the principal ingredient, giving borsch its distinctive colour and flavour, although no two recipes for it are the same. It probably originated as a hearty one-pot meal in countries where maincrop beetroot was a staple in the diet of the rural population. It has provided winter sustenance, for instance, to the Russian peasantry for many centuries. Borsch can be served hot or cold, or hot and then subsequently cold. It is at its most complex as a lavish Ukrainian speciality, and at its most modern as an elegantly clear and chilled consommé. Borsch is of great cultural significance in Central and Eastern Europe. In Poland, for example, beetroot soup is one of twelve Lenten dishes eaten during the period of fasting leading up to Easter. Borsch is a traditional dish of the Ashkenazi Jews, who took it from Eastern Europe to countries around the world. In Sergei Eisenstein's classic film Battleship Potemkin (1925), Soviet workers eat borsch, which symbolises their roots in Russia's soil, in contrast to the aristocracy who consume imported and frivolous concoctions. In the nineteenth century, a French influence entered the cuisine of Poland and Russia. The influence was felt first in Poland, where sauces started to become richer in wealthier homes. The Russian aristocracy then imported French influences into their cooking by employing French chefs. One of the original celebrity chefs, Antonin Carême cooked for Alexander I, the Tsar of Russia from 1801 to 1825, at his court in St. Petersburg. The French fashion in Russian cuisine continued until the Russian Revolution of 1917, when there was a backlash against foreign influence and a patriotic return to traditional foods. Ironically, it was at this time that borsch became one of the first Russian dishes to become popular in France, due to the arrival of emigres in the 1920s who were departing Russia in the wake of the Revolution. Borsch may have originated in the Ukraine, and Ukrainian borsch is borsch at its most extravagant. It can take several days to prepare, is made in large quantities, and is a dish fit for a feast. Numerous borsch recipes exist in cookbooks (e.g. Food of Eastern Europe, Russian Cookery, The Good Cook's Encyclopaedia and Larousse Gastronomique). The Larousse recipe is based on one handed down by Careme and based on his time in the Russian court. Butter is first melted in a large pan, although lard would have traditionally been used for frying in Eastern Europe. Chopped onions are fried in the butter, with the beetroot being added next. Beetroot is the main vegetable and it is usually uncooked to start with, being peeled and either sliced or grated. Stewing steak (as in Carême) or other meat such as streaky bacon, cooked ham or sausage can be added at this stage, although meat can be cooked and served separately. The stock or water, typically a rich beef or chicken stock is added to the pot, along with a selection of other vegetables. A fresh stock is often made, for instance using shin beef, as the first stage of cooking borsch. The vegetables added can include shredded cabbage, carrot, celery, celeriac, parsnip, Hamburg parsnip, potatoes, tomatoes or tomato puree swede and garlic. These vegetables tend to be root vegetables, as this is traditionally a winter dish. Shredded beetroot leaves can also be added. Herbs including parsley, peppercorns and a bay leaf are often tied in a muslin bag, and added along with salt and pepper. Flour, or a roux made from lard or butter and flour, is added to thicken the soup. Borsch is simmered for a couple of hours, or until all the vegetables are tender. Towards the end of cooking, either reserved beetroot juice or kvas is usually added to a classic borsch. Kvas is a fermented beetroot juice that gives the soup an intense ruby colour and adds a sour tang or tartness to its flavour. The fermentation is started several days in advance of cooking. Raw grated beetroot is steeped in warm water, along with stale rye bread and some sugar. It is covered, left for three or four days, and strained before being added to the soup. Where kvas is unavailable, boiling grated beetroot in stock with lemon juice and straining can produce a similar effect. Some recipes suggest adding red wine vinegar, cider vinegar, malt vinegar, dry sherry or lemon juice, with or without sugar, at the same time as the stock to impart a tangy component to the flavour. The addition of kvas or fresh beetroot juice toward the end of cooking is important to achieve a vivid red colour. The colour needs reviving because prolonged cooking causes the pigment in beetroot to fade and to take on a brownish tinge. Borsch is served in bowls and topped with a garnish of soured cream (sour cream or smetana), swirled on its surface, usually with chopped chives or other herbs (e.g. dill or parsley). Ukrainian borsch is traditionally served with a range of accompaniments. Bowls of smetana (soured cream) or fresh cream are the most common side dish, to spoon into the soup according to taste. A selection of fresh meats often accompanies borsch, which can include roast beef, bacon or game. Claudia Rosen notes that if meat accompanies borsch at a Jewish meal in Eastern Europe, it is traditional to thicken the borsch with egg yolks and serve it without sour cream, in keeping with dietary laws. In Russia, Poland and the Ukraine, piroshki or pirozki are served with borsch at feasts. These are little dumplings made from various types of dough, or pastries, which can be stuffed with various meats, cabbage, rice, mushrooms or curd cheese. They are traditionally crescent-shaped. Buckwheat kasha is also traditionally served with borsch. Kasha is a type of porridge or gruel popular in Eastern Europe, which is made with crushed or powdered buckwheat. Roasted buckwheat kasha is baked with water and butter. It can sometimes be spooned into soup bowls before the borsch. Alternatively, blini (buckwheat pancakes) might be served. Borsch can also be served with white kidney beans or mushrooms. Garlic cloves are optionally eaten between mouthfuls of borsch. Numerous variations of borsch and its accompaniments exist. Larousse Gastronomique even lists a fish borsch and a green borsch; the latter made with sorrel or spinach. In vegetarian versions, mushrooms can be used for the stock. Summer borscht recipes, featuring greens rather than root vegetables, are an intermediate step in this direction. Borsch recipes from Eastern Europe that include sorrel, celery, leeks, apples and dried fruit were geared toward summer feasts. Jane Grigson's Summer borsch includes courgettes, spring onions and beetroot leaves. Borsch is generally cooked in large quantities, and may be eaten hot initially and cold on subsequent occasions. Cold borsch is usually chilled. An early Lithuanian recipe, cited by Claudia Rosen, is for Sour iced beetroot soup. Iced borsch stands comparison to the chilled fruit soups (e.g. cherry, plum) characteristic of Hungarian cuisine. Versions of chilled borsch have become popular outside of Central and Eastern Europe, for example, in the Mediterranean where it can be considered a distant cousin of Spanish gazpacho (chilled tomato soup). There are many other beetroot soups, utilizing a wide variety of ingredients. Zuppa Ebrea (Hebrew Soup) is a chilled beetroot soup made with eggs and served with potatoes. Swekolnik is an iced Russian soup, made using the leaves and roots of beets, cucumber, tarragon, chives, mint, fennel, cream and vinegar. Beetroot and caraway soup is a Hungarian speciality. Parsnips and beetroot make good companions in soup. Consommé is a clear soup made from clarified meat stock, which often includes vegetables. Delia Smith presents a summer-orientated recipe for Chilled beetroot consomme for her British audience, in which diced raw beetroot is boiled with chopped spring onions and a bouquet garni for one hour. Diced peeled cucumber is added towards the end of cooking, when the soup is sieved and red wine vinegar, lemon juice and seasoning are added, along with a garnish of yoghurt and chopped chives. Clear versions of beetroot soups have fewer vegetables, tend not to include potato, and are well strained before serving. However, they are still typically garnished with soured cream and chopped herbs. Elizabeth David gives a recipe for a clear Iced beetroot soup in A Book of Mediterranean Food. She makes it with aspic jelly and spoons it over cooled poached eggs. She suggests that the method of serving is important, to "avoid it looking like nursery jelly". Jellied beetroot consommé was a feature of the menu at Bibendum, Michelin House in South Kensington, London, when Simon Hopkinson was the chef in the 1990s. It was restaurants like this that helped beetroot to become fashionable again. The jellied consomme is served with sour cream and chives, with (optional) caviare. Alastair Little gives a recipe for Chilled borscht with baby vegetables, which is also made with a jellied consomme. It is served in his restaurant with chopped chives or chervil leaves, creme fraiche and horseradish, although a small amount of harissa is suggested as an alternative to horseradish. A beef gelling agent is considered to work best in these dishes. Salads When beetroot is eaten raw, it is usually grated and served in a salad. It has an appealing crunchy texture. The grating can be done wearing gloves or in a food processor to reduce staining. Marinating raw grated beetroot in a little vinegar can enhance its flavour. In one version of Russian salad, grated beetroot is marinated in cider vinegar, along with celery, chopped fresh herbs and spring onions, seasoning and apple juice. Russian salad can also include diced potato, green beans, peas, carrots and boiled eggs. Grated beetroot can also be lightly fried in butter, then tossed with lemon juice and chopped herbs. Raw beetroot goes well with oranges in salads. In a typical recipe, grated raw beetroot, orange segments and a little raw red onion are mixed together with red wine vinegar and topped with a dressing that includes yoghurt, olive oil and wholegrain mustard. Cooked beetroot can be sliced, diced or quartered and placed in a serving dish with a range of ingredients to make salad. Baked beetroot can simply be skinned, sliced and served with vinegar, sugar and a little water. An old Eastern European recipe calls for cooked and diced beetroot to be mixed with chopped mild onion, sugar and sour cream, and dressed with salt, lemon juice or vinegar. In many beetroot salads, the red colour of beetroot is compartmentalized by assembling the ingredients at the last moment before serving. This lets the different components retain their identity, rather than being infiltrated with beetroot juice. Jane Grigson describes a Beetroot and orange salad, for example, that is assembled so the ingredients keep their intrinsic colour. A touch of sharpness counteracts the sweetness in beetroot, making wine or malt vinegar, lemon juice, mustard or horseradish ideal ingredients to add. A little raw shallot or onion is often added to beetroot salads. Capers are also sometimes included for their saltiness and complementary flavour. One of the simplest salads is small beets served with lemon juice or vinaigrette dressing (oil and wine vinegar), salt and milled pepper. Beetroot salad a l'alsacienne, given in Larousse Gastronomique, is a combination of sliced baked beetroot, vinaigrette dressing with mustard, and finely chopped shallots and herbs, marinated for one hour. Elizabeth David describes a Salade de céleris et betteraves (celery and beetroot salad). This winter salad is traditionally served with turkey at Christmas in parts of France. Cooked and diced beetroot are tossed in highly seasoned oil and vinegar dressing, with garlic and chopped parsley. Strips of celery are separately dressed with seasoning, oil and lemon juice and scattered on top of the beetroot just before serving. Vinegar is a frequent accompaniment to beetroot. In Britain and Germany, for instance, most people know beetroot primarily as boiled beetroot steeped in malt vinegar. During my childhood in the 1960s and 1970s in England, I can't remember encountering a beetroot that was not pickled and in a glass jar. Pickled beetroot is fine in moderation, but its ubiquity has given beetroot a bad name. Malt vinegar is too strong a taste for many people, who may be put off beetroot for life through only eating it pickled. Beetroot is too interesting and versatile to deserve this fate. A more subtle acidity is often best, to counter its sweetness, while the addition of something creamy or oily further enhances its flavour. Beetroot is now being served in a wider variety of vinegars than ever before. Wine and cider vinegars, flavoured vinegars and balsamic vinegar, for example, are all alternatives to malt vinegar. Yoghurt (or sour cream) is often used in chilled beetroot salads. Grated carrot and sliced onions often feature as additional vegetables. The fruits most frequently added to beetroot salads are apple, orange, pear and grape. The herbs most commonly used are chives, dill, marjoram, mint and parsley. Walnut is the nut most commonly added to beetroot salads. In addition to salt and pepper, cumin or other ground spices are sometimes used. In recipes for beetroot, variety or cultivar is rarely mentioned. Beetroot recipes usually call for generic beetroot. An exception to this is salads that exploit the different colours of beetroot. Slices of white beetroot (e.g. Albina Vereduna, Blankoma) can be alternated with orange-yellow beetroot (e.g. Burpee's Golden) and deep red beetroot (e.g. Detroit, Boltardy). The red and white bullseye pattern of sliced Chioggia is also striking, although it fades with cooking. To use it in a colourful salad, the peeled root can be cut into thin slices that are boiled in salted water for around seven minutes or until tender. This short cooking time leaves the distinct pattern intact. Chioggia does not bleed like most red beetroot. Chioggia slices can therefore be neatly arranged, for example, with sliced hard-boiled eggs, olives and fresh dill. The flavour of Chioggia is distinctive, being an old variety with an unimproved flavour. It appears to be an acquired taste, because descriptions of its flavour in the literature range from "insipid" and "horrible", to "delicious when baked" and "generally very tasty". The variety of beetroot used is also significant where size is important. Beetroots range in size from minibeets, to golf and tennis ball size, to mature roots the size of cannonballs or large parsnips. Minibeets are good pickled and in salads, large roots are ideal for making large amounts of borsch or casserole, but medium-sized beets tend to be best when serving beetroot as a hot vegetable. Hot Vegetable Baked beetroot can be served simply in their skins by slicing them open and adding butter and seasoning. Alternatively, a sauce of creme fraiche, creamed horseradish and chopped fresh dill can be used to fill baked beetroot. This works best with larger globe-shaped roots. There are, however, numerous other ways that beetroot can be prepared as a hot vegetable dish. The Italian regions have their own traditional ways of preparing beetroot. Beets are parboiled and baked in cream in the Valle d'Aosta, for instance, while in Emilia-Romagna they are baked in a béchamel sauce topped with Parmesan cheese. Antonio Carluccio describes an Italian beetroot and red cabbage dish (Barbabietola e cavola rosso), in which the vegetables are baked in stock with cumin seed, a bay leaf and red wine vinegar, for serving with game or roast beef. Beetroot á la Lyonnaise is a French recipe, listed in Larousse Gastronomique, which calls for parboiled beets to be peeled, sliced and cooked until tender in butter with thinly sliced onion. The dish is finished, over heat, with the addition of a little brown stock or bouillon and additional butter. Beetroot and potato are combined in a recipe from Mrs. Conrad's Home Cooking. The beetroot is cooked with onions, cream, sugar, white wine vinegar and dill; then served inside a ring of hot mashed potato. This red and white, sweet and sour, beetroot dish originated in Poland suggests Jane Grigson, who reproduces the recipe in her Vegetable Book of 1978. The red and white zones are suggestive of the Polish flag, while the author's husband Conrad was from that country. Joseph Conrad, the famous author of Heart of Darkness, wrote in the preface of his wife's first cookery book that of all books, only cookery books are morally above suspicion because their one aim is to increase the happiness of mankind. Jane Grigson also gives a recipe for Polish braised beetroot with stuffed eggs, which combines the interesting textures of a creamy egg stuffing, a crisp outer egg coating, and grated beetroot flavoured with horseradish and lemon juice. Russian beetroot casserole resembles a thickened borsch, but with less liquid and a sweet-and-sour flavour. Onions are fried in melted butter, to which stock, chopped vegetables, including beetroot, and mushrooms are added. After simmering for about an hour, lemon juice, chopped mint with other herbs, seasoning and paprika are stirred in or used to garnish, along with the inevitable soured cream. A traditional Dutch method of preparing beets is to simmer them in water thickened with cornstarch, along with butter, vinegar, sugar, onions, cloves and seasoning. The influential French cookery writer La Varenne describes the frying of slices of pre-cooked beetroots in butter with chopped onions and a dash of vinegar. Beetroot became popular in Turkey during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and a recipe for beetroot casserole from that time advises cutting up peeled roots and cooking them with butter, parsley, chopped onion and garlic, with flour being added to the water to thicken the sauce. A recipe for Glazed beetroot is given in a traditional British cookbook (Good Housekeeping Cookery Book). Sliced cooked beetroot is added to melted butter in a saucepan, along with lemon rind and juice, sugar and seasoning. The beetroot is stirred and heated, while capers and chopped chives and parsley are added, before serving hot. Sophie Grigson gives a recipe for Beetroot with apple, in which slices of dessert apple are first pan-fried in oil and butter, followed by sliced cooked beetroot. The apple and beetroot are transferred to a serving dish. Lemon juice and horseradish sauce are added to the pan and mixed with the juices, and then poured over the apple and beetroot immediately before serving. A modern British recipe for Roast balsamic beetroot, from a book by Nigel Slater, involves cutting cooked beetroot into wedges, and tossing them into a roasting tin with onion segments and olive oil. This is covered and the dish roasted for 30 minutes, after which a little balsamic vinegar and salt are added. It is then roasted uncovered for 30 minutes longer. Cooked sliced beetroot can also be given a roasting in an orange sauce (orange juice, flour to thicken and vinegar or lemon juice to sharpen), with orange segments being added near the end. Another modern treatment for beetroot is to cut them raw into thin strips and stir-fry them, with the later addition of beetroot leaves and spinach. Stir-fried beetroot can also include garlic, ginger, soy sauce, spring onions, chilli or mushrooms. Hot beetroot goes well with double cream, soured cream (smetana), crème fraîche, fromage frais, buttermilk or yoghurt. A simple way of serving, for instance, involves heating cream with the beetroot cooking liquor and pouring over hot baked beetroot. Baby beets and spring onions stewed in cream is a version from Alastair Little's Keep it Simple. The first recipes for Beetroot fritters appeared in early British cookbooks. John Nott, in his 1723 cookbook, dips slices of baked beetroot in a batter of flour, white wine, cream, egg, crushed cloves and nutmeg, and seasoning. He then coats them in flour, breadcrumbs and parsley, and fries them. The fritters are served with lemon juice. Beetroot fitters were popular in British cookbooks of the 1930s. Gary Rhodes has recently updated beetroot fritters, with wedges of floured and seasoned beetroot being deep-fried in a thick batter of flour, salt and lager beer. They can be served with salt and vinegar, like French fries or chips. Thinly sliced beetroot can be deep-fried in hot oil to make Beetroot crisps (chips in the USA). Along with parsnip crisps, beetroot crisps are an alternative to potato crisps. They are gaining in popularity. At least one international sandwich bar chain is now stocking beetroot crisps. Gary Rhodes gives a recipe for Beetroot bubble and squeak, substituting beetroot for the brassicas (e.g. Brussels sprouts) traditionally used in this British recipe, but retaining the potato, onion and butter. Beetroot can be mashed, like potato. It can never be made as smooth as mashed potatoes, but the rougher texture lends itself to recipes containing toasted seeds (e.g. poppy seeds) and roasted nuts. A dash of red wine vinegar and a generous spoonful of double cream enhance a bowl of mashed beetroot. Mashed beetroot found its way onto fashionable restuarant menus in the 1990s. Sabodet with beetroot and horseradish mash, for example, has featured on the Bibendum menu in London; sabodet being a traditional French sausage made using pigs? heads. Beetroot biscuits were in the past made by mashing boiled roots and beating them with sugar, butter, eggs, spices and a little water and lemon juice. The resulting paste was flattened and patted into small cake shapes, before cooking slowly in an oven. With Meat Beetroot is a good accompaniment to meat, particularly game, sausages and cold roast meats. Pickled beetroot is popular served with cold meats, especially sausages and hams. However, beetroot can be served with a wide variety of meats, in many adventurous ways. A recipe for Kidneys with beetroot is given by Sophie Grigson, who adapted it for home cooking from one by Pierre Koffman (who used veal kidneys). Lamb's kidneys are first saute in oil and butter. The kidneys are set aside when cooked, while shallots and diced beetroot are added to the pan, along with white wine. When the wine has evaporated, stock is added and the vegetables are cooked until the stock has reduced by half. Cream is then added, followed by wholegrain mustard and the cooked kidneys. Alastair Little gives a recipe for Calves' livers with beetroot, based on one by Michel Guérard. The French chef Edouard de Pomiane produced a much-copied recipe for hare served with hot beetroot in the 1930s. Michel Guérard gives a more recent version, Râble de li&egarve;vre à la betterave (saddle of hare with beetroot), in his influential book Cuisine Gourmande. He describes it as "tender rosy hare with a Russian flavour". The meat is marinated for several days in red wine with onion, crushed juniper berries, cloves and herbs. It is then roasted in an oven. The sauce is made by first saute thin slices of beetroot and shallots in fat from the roasting dish. Wine vinegar and marinade are added and the liquid boiled to reduce. Finally, cream is stirred in to give the sauce a delicate pink colour. The sauce is poured over the saddle of hare, along with a sprinkling of chives, while thin slices of beetroot are served around it. The organic restaurant of the (Lost) Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall sometimes serves a hearty Casserole of beef, beetroot and beer. This sweet, meaty and colourful casserole also includes chunks of onion and a couple of teaspoons of horseradish sauce. Meatballs with sweet and sour beetroot (Kofta shawandar hamudh) is a classic Jewish dish that originated in Iraq. The meatballs are made with beef or lamb, onion, parsley, lemons, cinnamon, sugar and seasoning. Beetroot are simmered for an hour and placed into another pan to cook with the meatballs. It is served with rice, and according to Claudia Rosen, has a very individual taste. She notes that the red colour of the beetroot and meatballs looks extraordinary against the white rice. Beetroot purée in the Dutch style is cooked with apples, onion and grated nutmeg. It is traditionally sprinkled with chives and served in ramekins with duck, ham or sausages. A beetroot puree with wine vinegar is described by Michel Guérard as a "deep rose-coloured sweet-sour puree; that goes well with game, as an alternative to chestnut puree". A wide range of meat is served with beetroot in modern restuarants. Beetroot goes well with pork and lamb chops (e.g. Lamb chops with beetroot souffle ). A beetroot sauce with blackcurrants or redcurrants and port is recognized as an ideal accompaniment to duck and game. Scottish restuarants serve venison with beetroot. Rye-gratinated fillet of reindeer with dark boletus mushroom sauce and smoked beetroot is served at the Hotel Merihovi in Finland's Lapland. Meanwhile, South African chef Bruce Robertson has developed a speciality dish of Beetroot and warthog biltong. A popular recipe from the USA is Red flannel hash. This is made from beets, corned beef, butter, onions, beets, potato, Worcestershire sauce, parsley and seasoning. The vegetables are cooked, mixed with the corned beef, and stacked on a plate. It can be topped with a fried egg. In a different vein, the American humourist F.H. Curtis wrote in 1891 that, "dead beets should be served in summary manner. Winter beets in a wintry manner. Boil them, and having obtained a supply of hearts, serve two hearts but with a single beet". With Fish Beetroot has enjoyed a long association with fish. Scandinavian beetroot salads often include fish. These are among the earliest beetroot recipes. Herring is the most common fish used in salads with beetroot in Norway and around the Baltic Sea. The herring can be sweet and smoked, unsmoked, or salted (matjes herring). Herring, sliced hard-boiled eggs, onion, parsley and vinaigrette are typically used as a garnish with cooked beetroot. Cooked potatoes, apple, and a cream dressing can also be used. Anchovy fillets and radish, in addition to beetroot and potatoes, are ingredients in a typical Flemish winter salad. Beetroot with an anchovy dressing (Betteraves a la Provencale) is a related French dish. Cappon magro, from Liguria in Italy, is a type of Russian salad with beetroot and other vegetables layered up with fish and covered in a green sauce. Baked beetroot is one of the vegetables dipped into the traditional Piedmont garlic and anchovy sauce Bagna cauda, which is traditionally served in a huge copper pot that is dipped into communally at harvest festivals. The Jewish community in Poland developed a version of the classic dish Gefilte fish with chrain using beetroot. Gefilte fish is poached fish balls; chrain is a sauce made with horseradish and, in this case, beetroot. Both fish and sauce are served cold. Claudia Rosen, in The Book of Jewish Food, describes the preparation of this appetizer, in which a slice of carrot is traditionally placed on top of each fish ball. Not all chrain recipes include beetroot, although grated horseradish is essential. The version developed in Poland has a sauce made using either beetroot juice or grated cooked beetroot, which is sweeter than most recipes for chrain. The beetroot softens the piquant flavour of the sauce and gives it a bright-red colour. The amount of beetroot added to chrain can vary from very little to around three times the amount of horseradish. Salt, sour cream, lemon juice, sugar and vinegar are other typical ingredients. In Adam's Luxury and Eve's Cookery, an English cookbook of 1744, beetroots are fried as a garnish for carp and other fish. More recently, Jane Grigson offers a recipe for Sole with a beetroot gratin (Sole au betterave), which "rings with brave affrontery". She also suggests trying the recipe with brill, cod, haddock or whiting. The Good Housekeeping Cookery Book has a post-WWII British recipe for Sardine and beetroot salad, using cans of sardines (mashed), grated apple and diced pickled beetroot, served with salad cream and lemon juice on a bed of lettuce leaves. Gary Rhodes gives beetroot an updated East London feel in a recipe for Fillets of smoked eel on a warm potato, onion and beetroot salad. Modern British restaurants serve beetroot with a wide range of fish, in dishes such as Beetroot mould with turbot tartare and Loin of tuna with beetroot and red onion comfit. Nina Planck provides a recipe for Wild salmon, couscous and marinated beetroots with greens, in which sliced beetroot is boiled, making a pink stock that is absorbed by the couscous, and served with briefly-boiled beetroot leaves alongside seared salmon fillets. Pies and Gratin An Elizabethan pie containing beetroot features in Lorwin Madge's Dining with Shakespeare. Grated beetroot, cheese, carrots, cinnamon, brown sugar, ginger, egg yolks and butter are cooked under a rustic piecrust. Ingredients listed for pies of this period give the impression that whatever was at hand was chucked in. Few recipes for beetroot cooked in pies feature in modern cookbooks. Recipes for Beetroot au gratin occur in British cookbooks of the 1930s. It is a dish that has undergone a revival in recent years, and can be served with meat and fish. Beetroot gratin benefits from being made simply, with lemon juice, cheddar and Parmesan cheeses, and breadcrumbs. Nevertheless, elaborate versions occur on restaurant menus. A recent celebrity chef dish is Beetroot tarte tatin, basically beetroot and apple stewed under a pastry crust, which is served upside down with, say, coriander crème fraîche. Another dish from the menu of a fashionable restaurant is Gratin of plums and apricots with beetroot sauce. Risotto and Pasta There are many variations on Beetroot risotto. In one recipe, red onion and fennel are first added to butter, followed by beetroot, tomatoes, Arborio rice, stock, lemon juice and parsley. Pancetta or smoked bacon, carrots, mushrooms, peas and Parmesan cheese are also common ingredients. One version includes a dash of vodka with lemon. In another, half of a raw finely-shredded beetroot is cooked from the start, while the other half is added towards the end of cooking. This has the advantage of reviving the red colour of the risotto. Beetroot juice is a common way of making red-coloured pasta. Jamie Oliver gives a recipe for Beetroot pasta, using pureed beetroot (in a little water), flour and eggs. He suggests serving this red pasta with pesto sauce or mussels and white wine. Beetroot can be can also be added to basil to make a red pesto sauce, or included in the ingredients that make the stuffing for ravioli. Pickles and Chutney Pickling is a good way of preserving beetroot. Pickled beetroot is usually preserved in malt vinegar, although white wine vinegar or other vinegars can be used. Boiled or roasted beetroot are skinned and packed into wide-mouthed sterilized glass jars. The vinegar is boiled with salt and a range of spices, which can include allspice, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. The vinegar is passed through a sieve into the jars, which are sealed and stored for up to six months. In Eastern Europe, pickled vegetables have been popular for centuries, with their strong flavours providing a pleasing contrast to the blandness of potatoes and bread. Pickled beetroot, cabbage, cucumber and gherkin, for instance, have been staple items in Poland, Lithuania, Russia and the Ukraine for many centuries, being stored in barrels for winter consumption. Early German recipes for preserving beetroot can be straightforward, but also include horseradish, anise, coriander or caraway, and various vinegar and wine mixtures. There are numerous recipes available today for beetroot pickles. Jill Nice in her book Home-Made Preserves gives several, including Küemmel's beetroot pickle. The name is misleading and may be a mistranslation, as she explains, because küemmel is German for caraway, which gives the pickle its distinctive taste. In addition to cooked sliced beetroot and caraway seeds, the pickle contains soft brown sugar, sea salt, ground pepper and malt vinegar. A Spiced beetroot pickle contains malt vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, mace and allspice. A Hot beetroot pickle contains malt vinegar, allspice, green ginger, horseradish and cayenne pepper or dried chilli. A Sweet beetroot pickle contains extra soft brown or white sugar. Pickled beetroot in the USA is often sweet; for instance, the sweet-and-sour version called Harvard beets. After six months, all types of beetroot pickle will start to become soft. Jill Nice gives a recipe for Beetroot chutney made from beetroot, onions, white wine vinegar, cooking apples, sultanas, pickling spices, ginger and white sugar. Oranges can also be included in beetroot chutneys. Madhur Jaffrey gives a beetroot chutney recipe from Tamil Nadu in her book Flavours of India. Sweet beetroot chutney (Beetroot pachhadi) contains grated beetroot, sugar, ground cardamom and honey. This chutney keeps for about a week. The Middle Eastern turnip pickle Torshi lift contains beetroot, which gives it a characteristic colour and sweetness. Ice Cream and Jelly Beetroot juice can be used to make ice cream. At least one British restaurant has Beetroot ice cream with cardamom on its menu. This is the type of food that modern chefs delight in when challenged the expectations of diners. If someone is told they are eating ice cream, they expect something made from sweet ingredients. Heston Blumenthal has written on this subject and tested various dishes to confirm that the brain predisposes the palate to register more sweetness than is actually present when desserts like ice cream are served. At his restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray, England, Heston Blumenthal serves savoury ice creams, such as smoked bacon and egg ice cream. A crab risotto is topped with crab ice cream, rather than, say, frozen crab bisque. The restaurant also serves beetroot jellies. Beetroot jelly first became (briefly) fashionable in England in the 1950s, when moulds of salad containing pickled beetroot were set within blackcurrant jelly. The Fat Ducks jellies, however, are served with petits fours and are modelled on traditional pate de fruits. If tartaric acid is added to beetroot to make jelly it becomes very much like eating blackcurrant, in colour and taste, especially when glucose, sugar and pectin are added. One consumer when told that a beetroot jelly they were eating was blackcurrant said it was delicious, but when told an identical dish was beetroot they said it was disgusting! There is nothing unusual about beetroot in ice cream, however, because it is commonly added to commercial ice creams, in the form of beetroot red colouring or E162. Strawberry ice cream and numerous other processed food products contain the red colour of beetroot. Beetroot has a relatively high sugar content for a vegetable, and can be used in a number of dessert dishes instead of fruit, including Beetroot sorbet. This is made from boiled beetroot, heated and blended with apple juice, caster sugar, lemon juice, double cream, salt and pepper. This mixture is chilled and mixed to freezing in an ice cream maker. Drink Beetroot juice is consumed as a health drink. It can be purchased from health food shops or made at home in a juicer. It is renowned for its medicinal properties, as noted in Chapter Six. Fermented beetroot juice (kvas) was encountered earlier in this chapter, as an addition to borsch that gives it a tangy flavour and revives its colour at the end of cooking. A considerable amount of alcohol can be obtained from the distillation of beet roots, due to their high sugar content. Home-stills in Eastern Europe have, on occasion, included beetroot, fodder beet or sugar beet as an alternative to potato. Home-brewed ales can be made from mangolds. In Southwest England, beetroot is sometimes added to cider-apples during pressing to give cider a rich golden colour. Beetroot is made into a robust wine. Beetroot wine is popular among amateur winemakers worldwide. Yorkshire in England is particularly associated with beetroot wine. Recipes for beetroot wine usually involve boiling up sliced beetroot, with lemon juice and zest, white and/or brown sugar, yeast and yeast extract or nutrient. In traditional British recipes, the yeast is often spread on a slice of toasted bread (toast), which supplies the nutrients, and this is floated on top of the liquid prior to fermentation. Ginger, raisins, cloves and other ingredients can also be added at this stage. Fermentation takes around three weeks, after which the wine is placed in dark bottles, in a dark place, so its red colour is not compromised. Beetroot wine can be drunk after about three months. However, young beetroot wine can sometimes have an earthy flavour that is not to everyone?s taste. Ageing the wine, for between one to two years, mellows its flavour. The term "beetroot" can be used to describe a note in the taste of wines from the vine. It is listed in Michael Broadbent's Wine Tasting, alongside such terms as farmyards, geraniums, goats, petrol, rubber and sweaty mangoes. In his book on the River Thames, Peter Ackroyd notes that the riverside town of Buscot, upriver from London, was once known for its brandy distilled from beetroot; he further notes that the beverage was not universally popular. Home-made Sugar Sugar (sucrose) is extracted from sugar beet in factories. However, you don't necessarily need an industrial refinery to get sugar out of a sugar beet. You can do it on your kitchen table, if the urge takes you. Richters Herbs in the USA have supplied details, based on home experiments. You will need an orange juicer, a percolator top, a large pan and a meat slicer, grinder or grater. Firstly, take two washed sugar beet, each weighing around 4-5 Kg (8-10 lbs), and put them through a slicing, grinding or grating machine. Then boil the processed beet in ample water in a large pan until soft and mushy (around one hour). Strain off the juice and reserve the pulp (it can be fed to animals). The next step is to purify the juice. For three quarts of liquid, add half a cup of milk of lime (a suspension of calcium hydroxide with a milky constituency) and a shot of seltzer water. Let the juice stand for about two hours, after which time the semi-solids should have settled to the bottom. The water is then carefully poured from the top. The semi-solid sugar mass obtained after the liquid has been poured off is cooked carefully and slowly. It takes around an hour and a half to reduce it to a molasses-like thickness, stirring frequently. When boiling is complete, around a cup and a half of a viscous black liquid should remain. This reduced sugar mass is poured through a percolator top into an orange juicer. The fast-spinning juicer separates the molasses from the refined sugar. The juicer should be covered as the spinning throws the white sugar onto the bowl of the juicer, while the molasses drips through the spout into a waiting container. This should produce around a cup of sugar, and half a cup of black-strap molasses (treacle). The damp white sugar can be air-dried before use. The Beetroot Revival This survey has shown that Beta vulgaris has been central to many culinary traditions, including Slav and Flemish cuisine. Beetroot is likely to continue being an important staple in Central and Eastern Europe. Its fortunes have fluctuated, however, in other parts of the world. Cooks in eighteenth century England made innovative use of beetroot. However it subsequently suffered many years of neglect. In British cookbooks, from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Cookery and Household Management (1861), to Good Housekeeping (1944), and even to the books of the 1960s, beetroot recipes tended to only call for the root to be boiled or pickled. Beetroot has therefore primarily been associated with jars of pickled boiled beetroot in Britain and a number of other countries. Many people claim not to like beetroot, based solely on the experience of having encountered pickled beetroot. To others, as Alastair Little puts it, the perception of eating beetroot in acid vinegar has become so deeply imbued that "many actually grow to love the sensation of putting something in their mouths which causes involuntary pursing of the lips and a sudden inhalation of air". However, things have changed. Beetroot has undergone a revival, especially in Western Europe. It has started to sever its connection with the malt vinegar bottle and is being appreciated more by lovers of fine food. Tangentially, Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany lists a hierarchy of gastronomy, descending from the gastronome (a judge of good eating and drinking), to the gourmet (a connoisseur), to the epicure (with fine tastes), to the gourmand (takes pleasure in eating), to the goulu (glutton) to the goinfre (greedy-guts). Beetroot has risen up this hierarchy in recent years, being consumed once again by gourmets and epicureans. Cooks updating traditional cuisine or searching for new flavour combinations have rediscovered beetroot. The trend to mix refined foods with humble foods has worked to elevate beetroot to new respectability. You can eat beetroot in risottos, gratins, casseroles, in innovative ways with meat and fish, in an ever-increasing range of vegetarian dishes, in myriad salads, in a wide range of soups, as fritters and crisps, mashed, moulded and souffle and even in jellies and ice cream. The culinary uses for beetroot have become more diverse than ever. The trend towards beetroot during the 1990s in fashionable restaurants, however, may not have entirely been a good thing. A number of novelty dishes appeared that had more style than substance. Antonio Carluccio for one thought that the use of beetroot to impart an unusual colour to risottos and gnocchi was a nonsensical fad, producing dishes that appealed to the eye but not necessarily to the palette. The fashion for beetroot in restuarants may have peaked, but it is unlikely to go into a steep decline. The times when beetroot was only eaten boiled or pickled are long gone. In dishes with an honest and rustic air, to those with sophistication and depth, beetroot is starting to again realize its potential. However, beetroot still tends to be sold generically in markets and supermarkets, while the cultivars of other vegetables are clearly indicated. Moreover, the cultivars sold have largely been those developed for ease of processing, rather than for distinctive taste. It is to be hoped that beetroot's revival will continue and lead to consumers being able to purchase globe, tankard and long-rooted varieties; minibeets and mature roots; and golden, white and red beets. Beetroot is being appreciated as a wholesome vegetable with health-giving properties that can be prepared in many different ways. It is a vegetable with attitude. Bold in colour and brash in style, it demands attention. It is also now widely consumed around most of the world, from North America, throughout Europe and the Middle East, to Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. New approaches to beetroot are arising from its spread into new cultures and culinary traditions. Its future in the kitchen appears rosy. Bibliography for Chapter Seven Ackroyd, P. (2007) Thames: Sacred River. London: Chatto & Windus. Barnes, J. (2003) The Pedant in the Kitchen. London: Grove. Carluccio, A. (2000) Antonio Carluccio's Vegetables. London: Headline. Chamberlain, L. (ed.) (1999) Food of Eastern Europe. London: Lorenz Books. Curtis, F.H. (1891) The Comic Cookery Book. Beeton, I. (1992) Mrs. Beeton's Book of Cookery and Household Management. Revised Ed. (originally published 1861). London: Ward Lock. Bernaedin, M.P., G. Beullac et al.. (eds.) (2001) Larousse Gastronomique. London: Hamlyn. Broadbent, M. (2003) Wine Tasting. London: Mitchell Beazley. Blumenthal, H. (2003) The Science of Food, http://www.fatduck.co.uk/ David, E. (1955) A Book of Mediterranean Food. London: Penguin. David, E. (1960) French Provincial Cookery. London: Michael Joseph. David, E. (1963) Italian Food. London: Penguin. David, E. (1965) Summer Cooking. London: Penguin. Davidson, A. (2004) The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press: Oxford. De Pomiane, E. (1930) Cooking with Pomiane. Reissued by Modern Library Food. Edden, G. (ed.) (1978) Good Housekeeping Cookery Book. London: Book Club Associates. Grigson, J. (1978) Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. London: Michael Joseph. Grigson, S. (1993) Eat Your Greens. London: Network Books. Guérard, M. (1978) Michel Guérard's Cuisine Gourmande. London: MacMillan. Halici, N. (1989) Nevin Halici's Turkish Cookbook. London: Dorling Kindersley. Jaffrey, M. (1995) Flavours of India. London: BBC Books. La Varenne, F. (1651) Le Cuisinier Français. Paris. Little, A. and R. Whittington (1993) Keep it Simple: A Fresh Look at Classic Cookery. London: Conran Octopus. Lorwen, M. (1976) Dining with Shakespeare. New York: Atheneum. Lovelock, Y. (1972) The Vegetable Book: An Unnatural History. London: George Allen and Unwin. Mabey, R. (2001) Food For Free. London: HarperCollins. Nice, J. (1982) Home-made Preserves. London: William Collins. Nott, J. (1723) The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary. London. Olney, R. (ed.) (1997) The Good Cook's Encyclopaedia. London: Quadrille. Rhodes, G. (1995) More Rhodes Around Britain. London: BBC Books. Richters Herbs (2000) Instructions for home refining of sugar beets. Richters InfoSheet D1340, http://www.richters.com/ Rosen, C. (1997) The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day. London: Viking. Schott, B. (2003) Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany. London: Bloomsbury. Siegel, F. (1974) Russian Cooking. Moscow: Mir. Slater, N. (1997) Real Cooking. London: Michael Joseph. Smit, T. and P. McMillan Browse (2000) The Heligan Vegetable Bible. London: Cassell Illustrated. Smith, D. (1978) Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course. London: BBC Books.

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