Year of Food and Drink 2015
Award-winning food is April's theme for the Year of Food and Drink Scotland 2015.
Top-quality Scottish food and drink is something to celebrate, and the annual Scotland Food and Drink Excellence Awards recognise the very best across retail and food services.
Inventing and cooking award-winning recipes created celebrities for many decades before modern television chefs existed.
Recipe of the month from the Library's collections: Adelaide sandwiches
The Victorian era produced celebrity chefs like Charles Elmé Francatelli, chief cook to Queen Victoria and the author of a range of recipe books.
Sandwiches are said to have been named after the Earl of Sandwich who, in about 1760, asked for meat between two pieces of bread as a convenient way to eat at the gaming table without using cutlery.
Sandwiches at society events
By Francatelli's time, sandwiches were a popular light evening dish for society events. Francatelli's small round Adelaide Sandwiches were 'a very delicious appetiser [which] may also be prepared with equal success by using any kind of cooked fish or shell-fish.'
Adelaide sandwiches appeared in Francatelli's 1861 book 'The cook's guide, and housekeeper's & butler's assistant', which became a standard reference work for many.
In Mrs Anstruther's 19th century manuscript recipe book, she tells us her Adelaide sandwiches recipe came 'from Lainshaw' — possibly Lainshaw House in Ayrshire — but it owes much to celebrity chef Francatelli.
Adelaide sandwiches
Cut chicken & ham in proportion two-thirds of chicken to one third of ham. Mince fine. Put three tablespoonfulls of food sauce [see note 1] in a stewpan, add the chicken & ham with a little minced onion and pickles and salt to taste. Mix well together. Prepare thin round slices of bread fried in butter. Spread the mixture between two slices of the bread. Upon the top of each sandwich put a ball of cheese and butter pounded to a paste. Place in a brick oven and fire for five minutes [see note 2].
Note 1: it is not clear what 'food sauce' means, but it could be a common condiment such as ketchup, mayonnaise or brown sauce. We suggest choosing your favourite.
Note 2: the recipe does not specify an oven temperature. We suggest a pre-heated oven at a high temperature, for example 220°C.