Glorious, glorious desserts
Thanks to a table full of cooks and tasters on Saturday, the Regency Gothic dessert mix is almost there. We tried almond custard (a bit gritty for most people), almond jumbles (nice and crunchy), burnt almonds (dangerously more-ish - three people said so), ginger drops (intense), heart cake (”very strong flavour” said one tester, “I like” said another), icecream (”yum”, “apricot and creamy”), macaroons (”popcorny”, “crunchy”), moonshine pudding (delicious and elegant - possibly the best bread and butter pudding I have ever eaten), raspberry cream (comments ranged from “different” to “Great mate”), savoy biscuits (”good but bland”, “strange texture”), rice cake (”nice”, “good with raspberry cream”), rice custards (”comfort food”, “nice spice element”), royal cake (”a bit exotic”, “plainish” and “moist and flavoursome”) and Windsor syllabub (”Creamy, spicy, alcoholic”). There was, alas, no negus, because the negus-maker gave his apologies at too late an hour to secure a replacement.
The first dish to drop from the final list was negus - it couldn’t be tried with the others, so I had to reluctantly let it go. There are two more courses to work out before we put the menu to the hotel and then we wait to hear from the chef - and that’s when I announce the final menu. The list of dishes that make it through to the final stages will have to suffice you for a bit. I can tell you though, that the final course will have some total delights. And if you’re truly impatient, I can give you that negus recipe we won’t be using.
What I couldn’t work out on Saturday, though, is if icecream was so near perfect in the early nineteenth century, why isn’t it all as simply wonderful now?
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