(upbeat music plays) (background chatter)
- [Ben] Okay boys.
They won't all fit under a cloth today,
so you're blindfolded. But you can remove,
and see the first one in 3, 2, 1.
- [Barry] A frothy Milkshake.
- [Ben] All right. Give your milk a shake.
- [Jamie] Oh.
(guys chuckling)
- It doesn't move.
- Oh that's brave.
(indistinct mumble)
No, right.
(laughing)
- [Ben] So this is the dish.
The ingredient is something traditionally used
in the British Isles.
(glass clanging on table)
(spoon tapping glass cup)
- Nope. Not that easy. - [Ben] Use a spoon.
Like you normally would use a spoon, not like a hammer.
- Oh it's Mousse'.
Oh, but it's also-
- Oh, it's also custardy inside.
- Yeah. Count of three.
Cheers.
- Three.
(lips smacking)
- I'll tell you exactly what that tastes like, Ebbers.
That tastes exactly like,
rice pudding, without the rice.
- [Ben] So you're getting the milkiness of it.
Does it remind you of a flummery or a blancmange?
- I dunno what the first one you said was.
- Um, But a blancmange,
no, not really.
- No, it's too, it's too,
firm for a blancmange.
- It's predominantly just milk,
enriched with a little bit of egg,
yolk and white.
- [Barry] Okay. - [Ben] And a little vanilla.
- So a custard?
- [Ben] But, it's set with something
and that's what we're talking about.
- Gelatin.
- [Ben] Nope.
- [Barry] Benito flakes.
Nope.
- [Jamie] I mean, it looks sea weedy,
but it doesn't smell it.
Are we eating it? We're gonna eat it, aren't we?
- We have to eat it. - We have to eat it.
- It looks like it could be like a dried mushroom.
- [Ben] Hmm. I've never tried it like that.
- No. It's like eating plastic.
- Yeah. Don't eat that.
- This is often harvested
off the coast of Yorkshire or Southwest England.
So, so Dorset.
And it goes by the name of Dorset Moss,
or,
Irish Moss.
- I've heard of that. - (Jamie mimicking)
No, no, I've heard, (Jamie mimicking)
I've heard, I've heard I've heard of it
I've never heard of it being used for, a gelatin substitute.
- So essentially boil it up,
and what it releases is a trio of carbohydrates,
that gives it a really gloopy, gelatinous consistency,
very different, like a corn flour, thickened milk dessert.
- Mm.
- [Ben] Like a blancmange, and also very different
to a gelatin based, set dessert.
Kind of unique, but used quite commonly,
nowadays.
- Really? - Wait, What?
- You'll often find this also known as Carrageen.
I.E. the seaweed,
in things like fat-free yoghourts.
That,
is Dorset Moss.
(Whimsical music)
- [Barry] When it comes to ingredients based in the UK,
I wasn't expecting something that foreign.
- Well, if you think about it, if we're talking
about the British Isles,
you know, the second part of that suggests
a lot of coastline.
- It's novel as ingredients that
could have been grown on my pavement by that fungi,
with the spice we used.
- Oh if it's a very high tide. (laughing)
- Okay. Okay (laughing)
Oh yeah.
I'm a little bit lost of words on it,
because very rarely we get an ingredient
in front of us that,
tastes of absolutely nothing.
- But is doing a job.
- Yeah.
- It's an odd consistency.
As it's prepared.
It literally is very, very gloopy and glue-like.
In fact, in olden days
I think they also used to use it to fix false teeth.
Had you heard of it before?
- No.
- I'd seen it in the wild.
Never in million years thought that was edible.
- [Ben] So this gelatinous seaweed or Dorset Moss,
has very much fallen out of fashion,
because other alternatives have stepped in,
like gelatin and, and corn starch.
However,
given it's from our British Isles and
most the world thinks our food is terrible.
Should we make Carrageen go global?
- As a vegan gelatin alternative.
If it can be grown sustainably in Dorset,
why wouldn't we share it with the world?
- I'd agree.
I think it needs to go global.
(upbeat music)
- [Ben] Okay, boys.
Number two,
another absolute delight.
Lift the blindfolds in 3, 2, 1.
- [Barry] Is that honeycomb?
- You always get to the reveal
a couple of seconds before I do.
- (laughing) - Oh!
Has it got seaweed? - Oh! it's soft.
It's soft, It's soft - Is it soft?
- Oh, it is soft.
Is it like the seaweed?
- Don't stick your finger in it!
- It looks like a treacle tart,
but with a foamy top.
- We've precut it for you, you can take a slice out.
- [Jamie] Whoa. Oh. - What is this
- What is that?
- Is that chocolate?
- Is it chocolate?
Or is it treacle? Or is it -
- It's very shiny.
- [Barry] Oh my. Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my.
- [Jamie] It's got that treacle-y looking texture to it,
with like the kind you get from um,
ah, condensed, - [Barry] Dulce de leche
- [Jamie] Dulce de leche, but that's not very British
is it.
I was gonna say condensed milk, but
cheers.
Oh, alright.
- [Barry] Oh, this is okay.
Well I know this.
Good, nice textures.
Incredibly sweet, indulgent, creamy middle,
and a creamy foamy top.
- With a flavour of,
- Oh what is it.
- It's a, it's a, the ba da the ba ba ba.
- It's a three ingredient tart.
- Three ingredients.
- One of those is pastry.
As in, pastry's got a few ingredients in it,
but we bought some ready-made buttery pastry.
The filling is made from just two ingredients.
- Is it a bit yeasty?
What is it?
- [Ben] I'm so confused by your tasting notes.
- It's very sweet. It's all sugar.
- But also, it's very sweet to the point
where it's a little bit bitter.
- Have you eaten it or something similar before?
If so, where?
- What sort of ingredients are causing that and that.
- That's what I mean.
You might be right with like condensed milk.
Just when you take a tin of condensed milk,
- Yeah. - And you cook it.
- Or evaporated milk.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- What's the difference.
- One's evaporated.
- Yeah, I know, but it's still there.
- (chuckles) It is still there like a cream, what?
- I don't, I don't get it.
- [Ben] This, is gypsy tart.
Originates from the Isle of Sheppey,
just off the coast of Kent,
that is made from staple ingredients.
Evaporated milk and muscovado sugar.
- Oh! That's the flavour, yeah! - Oh, really?
- [Ben] Yeah.
Brown sugar, almost- - [Jamie] Dark brown sugar.
- molasses' richness treacle-y flavour.
- That's the flavour. - Yeah.
- It is believed that it was cooked by a lady.
Who was trying to cook for,
some Romany or Gypsy children who were malnourished.
And she brought them into her home,
and she didn't have much, so she made them a tart
from things she had in the cupboard.
And it had a lot of sugar in it.
It's got the dairy from the evaporated milk,
and she was able to give them literally a slice of life,
as they were hugely malnourished.
- Right. Once and for all.
What is evaporated milk?
- Evaporated milk.
And I just had to check,
60% of the water has been evaporated from milk,
but it is unsweetened.
So it is a very thick, sticky, often comes in tins,
is shelf stable.
Condensed milk is that but with added sugar.
- Oh okay.
- Aha. - Right.
- That makes a lot of sense.
- We kind of cheated by buying in a really rolled pastry,
which we just lined a tin with,
blind baked,
and then,
you literally just blend up sugar and evaporated milk,
for a long time so you get lots of air in it,
and then you bake it very slowly,
like a hundred degrees Celsius.
And you kind of get a little bit of separation
from those bubbles, but essentially it sets.
The sugar,
in it,
sets.
- I ate quite a lot of it, Barry.
(laughing) - You did, that was a slice.
That was a-
- [Ben] And you are not a malnourished child.
- (laughing) Not anymore.
- That was a big slice.
Wow.
It does remind me of childhood,
even though it's a childhood I, I,
I apparently forgot.
- It's definitely a slice of nostalgia.
It's got a great backstory and name to it.
Can the Gipsies keep their tart,
or should we take it Global?
(laughing)
- [Barry] I like it.
- I think we should keep hold of this one.
I don't think we should share it 'cause-
- One of those things that only we can really appreciate.
- Yeah. I don't think other people around the world
will understand it.
- It's fair to say. - [Barry] Yeah.
- The world is battling against sugar at the moment,
and maybe that's not the answer.
- Delicious. - Loved that.
- But let's keep hold of it. - Love it.
(saxophone music playing)
- Okay.
Something else,
from the British Isles,
that I don't think you'd have tried before.
Take blind folds off, in 3, 2, 1.
(saxophone music continues)
- Oh. I have had a bit. Not a whole one. But I've had one
- Fooled. Fool- (laughing)
- I'm gonna guide you through a recipe,
because I'd like you to,
Huckle my buff.
(music continues)
- Huckle my buff.
Trying work out what term means what.
- I don't, I don't - And where to put it.
- I don't, I, (laughing)
- Huckle my buff,
- Stop saying it.
- Huckle my buff is,
a cocktail,
from Sussex.
All you need to do is follow my instructions.
Pour two of those cans into the sauce bin,
and heat it up, with six beaten eggs.
(music continues) (cans cracking open)
- [Ben] When you crack them in,
- Beat them in there good.
- [Ben] Give them a whisk. - These are big eggs.
(eggs cracking) - Sorry, beer.
- [Ben] Whisk as you go so you don't scramble.
- Barry we might have to multitask here.
- Scrambled beer
- Ow. - (laughing)
I don't think I'll do that.
These are the biggest eggs ever.
- I don't want the mixture to boil,
but I do want you to heat it up with the eggs,
until the eggs start to thicken the beer.
(music continues in background)
- [Ben] This is thought to be,
the world's first cocktail.
The tasty drink was originally made,
with smuggled French Brandy.
Have you ever had hot beer drinks before?
- Uh yes. Harry Potter world. - (laughing)
- Yes. - [Jamie] Yes.
- [Barry] Butter beer. - [Jamie] Like butter beer.
- Yes.
- That not beer though.
- [Ben] It's like a beer custard.
- It is a beer custard isn't it.
- What do you think you're making?
- Beer custard.
- Huckle my buff!
- [Barry and Jamie] Stop it! (laughing)
- [Ben] Once it's nice and warm and thickened,
so that it coats the back of a spoon,
but isn't lumpy and scrambled,
you're gonna remove it from the heat,
whisk in the rest of the beer.
- [Barry] Oh. - [Ben] Lots of nutmeg,
and a splash of Brandy.
- [Barry] I don't get the flavour combo.
'Cause like, if I was making an omelette,
I wouldn't serve it with a beer.
- And what other drinks at what time of year,
might involve warm egg and nutmeg.
- Christmas, eggnog. - Eggnog.
- This is eggnog, which would often have a booze through it.
- French Brandy, smuggled.
- [Ben] Ah, about 50 mil.
- Yeah, it's about two shots.
- And then serve it up.
(Jazz type music playing)
- Why did you never make it as a barmaid?
- [Barry] Right. Stop it.
- [Jamie] Ebbers, one thing you haven't explained, is,
what's the relevance of Huffling your puff.
Oh no. Right. - [Barry] Is it? No.
- Huckle your bum. - Huckle your gum, bu,
- A buff. - Buff.
- Huckle my buff.
The name, I mean, we're talking back
in the early 17 hundreds, so,
the origins of those various words mean different things.
It sometimes goes by the name of Huckle my butt.
- Oh it's much better.
- Essentially, I think Huckle was to do with corn and hay,
and therefore, - Hey!
- [Ben] and kind of like a, a collection of it,
and buff, meaning naked.
Therefore it was kind of like a,
I don't really, know the origin stories are confusing, but.
- It, it looks a bit like pancake batter now.
(glasses clank together)
- It does look like pancake better.
- [Ben] Huckle my buff.
Should it make it to the Global cocktail menu?
- I'm gonna be honest with you Ebbers,
it doesn't smell great.
- Try it.
(Jazz type music continues)
(laughing)
- Oh.
- I'm tasting egg and beer.
- That is . - If that's not tasty,
I don't know what is.
- That, Like, hot beer, (laughing)
with omelette. (gagging)
- Arguably the world's first cocktail.
Should it be left in the past,
or should we wack it on top of the next cocktail menu,
and take it Global?
- Yeah I'm thinking like,
warm drinks that you'd have around Christmas time.
Warm, alcoholic drinks
- Nope doesn't get better.
- Egg nog - Nope.
- Mulled cider,
mulled wine,
gluhwein, you know, all those kinds of things.
That needs to go back in the butt.
(laughing)
- Behind. Leave it behind us.
- Yes. - Back in, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Back in the butt.
- I'm never gonna huckle your buff again.
(drum beat playing)
- [Ben] I am so excited for this one,
'cause I've known about it for a long time
and never had the opportunity to shoehorn it,
into fridge cam.
- (chuckling) Oh God. Great.
- Boys. Lift your blindfolds in 3, 2, 1.
- Oh! - Oh!
- No. - Oh.
- Oh. And why does it look so famili- oh, it looks like,
(snaps fingers) - Star gazing pie.
- Stargazy pie.
- [Jamie] Yes! - This,
is Stargazy pie.
This is a Cornish classic.
Traditionally served once a year,
and it has such a wonderful story behind it.
- I was thinking, "When the pie was opened up,
- Bird-
- fish began to sing, - "fish began to sing,
- wasn't that a dainty dish,
to set before the - to set before the
- [Barry] King." - [Jamie] fishy King."
Does this head attach to one of these tails?
(laughing)
- Portion up, let's enjoy it.
- Portion up?
- [Ben] And then let's talk about it.
- Head or tails.
(glasses clanking)
- [Ben] Inside is a pie base.
We're talking like bacon lardons with usual kind of mirepoix
but essentially leaks and onion and carrot,
cream bases with some parsley, (laughing)
bulked out with egg, hard boiled egg.
- I'm more of a tallow man myself bas.
- [Barry] Oh my goodness. It's very sloppy.
Oh. Somehow the tart of the,
- Oh. You made me touch it. - Sorry.
(laughing)
- The saucy bit looks delicious.
- [Ben] This is like the original surf and turf.
It's got little lardons of bacon,
and a little bit of fish. - [Jamie] I prefer the
non original version. (chuckles)
- I don't know what's what. Cheers.
- [Ben] Pilchard just being another name for Sardine,
but perhaps an old fashioned one
we don't use so much anymore.
That is so good.
- Oh my goodness.
Sometimes fish pies can be surprisingly not very fishy,
but very meaty, because the pilchard.
It's got the, the, the right amount of sea in there.
- The oily fish. - [Barry] Mm.
- So, so often with fish pie we would use white fish,
sometimes smoked fish, sometimes some prawns.
- Pastry is unusual as well.
It was more like a, I don't know,
it was more of a,
Cornish pasty pastry,
than a traditional top, pie topping.
- This is from,
Mouse hole.
In Cornwall, South Coast.
- Never heard of it. - [Ben] Just down,
- Just down from Penzance.
And there is a wonderful story attached to it.
And it goes, that in the 16th century,
there was a Cornish fishing village,
that in December was undergoing lots of storms,
and none of the fishermen could get their boats
out of the little Harbour. And as a result,
the entire community was, really hungry
in the run up to Christmas.
And there was one brave sailor,
Tom Bawcock, who decided he was gonna jump
into his vessel anyway, and off he went.
And he fought the raging winds and waves,
and managed to,
keeping all his fingers crossed, and gazing to the stars
for good luck,
come back with a ship full of fish.
And it was enough to bake into one pie,
and feed the whole village.
And on the 23rd of December in Mouse hole,
every single year,
they bake this pie in his name.
- Tom Bawcock.
Take a bow. (upbeat music)
- So it's absolutely steeped in legend,
it's gone down in history, and yet it's still only a dish
that's cooked once a year to celebrate that fine story.
There was a poem, which was written in Cornish
and has been translated.
I'll give you the first few lines,
a merrier place you may believe,
was Mouse hole on Tom Bawcock's Eve,
to be there then, who wouldn't wish,
to suck on seven sorts of fish.
When Morgee brath had cleared the path,
come lances for a fry, and then us had a bit of scad,
and starygazy pie.
- I love it. (laughing)
I love it. I love the story.
- I love the story.
- I lo-, I actually really love the dish.
But it's a typical British dish.
In terms of like, it's gonna split opinion.
You need a story behind it again.
- Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it's a spectacle to look at, isn't it?
First of all, - Mm.
- and then it's a spectacle to eat,
and either you're gonna really like it because it's so fishy
or, you are not going to like it because, it's so fishy.
But the story is what brings it all together.
- [Barry] If we had a gastro pub.
- Yes.
- That we chose to take Global.
I think that would have to be the menu.
Because it's so out there. It's so ridiculous.
And I think it is delicious.
If you're brave enough to give it a go.
- [Ben] will you be having it this Christmas?
Should we take it global?
- Okay. It's not to my taste.
But,
as a concept and as a story,
I think it's fantastic.
I think if it went Global, it would get a good reaction.
- I'd be happy without the star gazers,
and just eating the delicious pie.
I think it should go Global. I love that.
I mean, it's ridiculous. Come on.
But that's why we're proud to be British.
- ^As always, we would love to hear your opinions
in the comments down below.
British food or certainly traditional British food
can get a pretty bad rep.
Tell us, would you have wanted to try any
of those four dishes today?
And if so, which ones.
(beep)
- After a hot eggy beer, that is the last thing
I want to eat. (laughing)
It really is. (laughing)
(laughing)
- That is, that is a lot, that is all, that is all,
that is all, that is all bone. Bacon, cream,
creamy sauce.
Yeah it's a bit of fishy.
- It's not a bit fishy Barry.
- It's well fishy.
- It look, it's like I'm living inside a fish.
(laughing)