Pickled Primroses! - Making and Tasting A Recipe From 1615
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2024
- Here's a recipe for Primrose Pickle that I have been looking at for many years, wishing for an opportunity to make it. This week, that opportunity presented itself...
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:15 Recipe Background
3:43 Picking
7:55 Pickling
15:43 Tasting - Jak na to + styl
Been spending this year taking long walks every single day to fulfil an uncharacteristically successful New Year's resolution and I've been challenging myself to identify as many plants (including edible fruiting plants) as possible, I've now found a double-digit number of currant bushes within walking distance of where I live. It's amazing how easily these things jump out at you once you know what to look for. Cheers for sparking this interest.
Fun extensions of this activity:
Try to identify roadside plants from the passenger seat of a moving car (never do this as the driver of course). It's easiest when they are in flower, but after a while, you start to get to know the exact shade of green that relates to specific plants.
Try to identify trees from the aerial imagery in Google Maps - I've done this successfully with walnut trees, which have a very distinctive yellowish-brown tinge to the green of the leaves - I spotted one walnut tree while we were out walking (the one in the middle of this map link: www.google.com/maps/place//@51.046687,-1.3126824,37m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu ) and it was possible to scroll around and find a lot more walnut trees in the same vicinity. The dark green rings in grass that often indicate edible fungi can also sometimes be spotted on Google Maps - here's an example: www.google.com/maps/place/Whiteley/@50.884942,-1.250029,150m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
(clearest ones I could see are on the lefthand football pitch, bottom right quarter - there's a pattern of three rings next to each other - from experience of being in that place at exactly the right time once, I can tell you those are field mushrooms)
@AtomicShrimp I thought you'd April foolsed us there with the centre circle on the football pitch
Mike, thank you for this amazing comment. I also credit you for sparking my interest in foraging.
Again, I'm mightily impressed by the ideas you come up with for your videos and curious as to how these ideas formulate when going about your everyday life. You must be the most interesting person I've never met. What I'm in awe of is the fact that you go from A -Z in order to wring out every ounce of detail; sleuthing, cooking, dismantling, trying-out, researching, every "ing' in the book to come to a conclusion about the subject in hand.
Long may you continue and thank you for your wonderful contributions to my enjoyment of CZcams.
You're very kind to say so. I don't think there's anything particularly special going on - I reckon most other people also have a million thoughts that fly through their heads every day. I just have a habit of grabbing onto mine and chasing them down.
fiddley recepies: my granny told me in the old days before tv and cars, people would sit down on a bench in front of the houses late in the day, do extra fine work that was not hard but tedious. Like removing all the little seeds and fine hairs from rosehips to prepare rosehip jam. This is great fun if you sit outside, enjoy the sunshine , rest your feet and chat with the neighbours. Doing this work standing up inside the house and alone is much more exhausting and less fun. I don´t think its a prank. Its the haste with wich we do things, and that we work alone all the time.
That's wonderful.🥰 My grandmother always said to find a way to make work fun.
I have put a bench in front of my house for just this reason. I may be the only crazy guy sitting out in front of his house like this, but all the old grannies walking past stop and talk. It's great!
What lovely imagery of past times. Thank you!❤
It sounds like a more practical version of food crafts that people do as a hobby today. Instead of making your own gummy bears and lollipops, making rosehip jam and pickled primroses etc.
Exactly!
Even in the factories people worked long, but not as stressed, until someone thought.. hey girls how about you do the work within 8 instead of 10h. You get the same money.
Soon after, the women wanted to go back to do the 10h shift instead of 8 because it was more stressfull, even though they could go home earlier but the situation at work wasnt as social anymore
Well we know how it went. Not long after the slowest workers had to go and then piecework was introduced.
Of course this explanation is very simplified
I'm 68 years old, and this is the first time I've heard of a field of primroses. What a fabulous video.
close
one more year...
Back in the 1970s I was kayaking around Lismore Island near Mull . I stopped for a rest on one of the small grassy islets to the southeast of Lismore. Before I arrived from quite a distance I noticed the islet was a light creamy yellow colour. When I arrived I could see the whole islet was completely covered in primroses. How wonderful to rest for a few minutes there!
"I hope that was interesting. " Yes. Yes, it really was. Thank you!
That's when you need a few little kids running around that love picking flowers
Watching shrimp dutifully pick, then cut the tubes off, then layering and pickling the flowers, makes me think about that thing where they say that if you fold 1000 origami cranes you'll achieve some sort of inner enlightenment.
For those struggling to find 'A Country Harvest' due to it's rarity, it was first published as 'All Good Things Around Us'.
"don't ask me how I know what eating a paper towel is like"
really, who _hasn't_ accidentally bitten off a chunk of paper towel when they were using it to hold food?
I'm pretty sure that I've accidentally eaten the paper they often put on ice cream cones. It happens.
At least paper towel disintegrates easily.
When we make siopao [Filipino steamed meat buns], we often place the bun on wax paper squares before putting them in the steamer, with the idea that the wax paper will keep the dough from sticking to the steamer itself.
Though it works, it has the unfortunate side effect of making that wax paper stick to the bottom of the bun, which would then need to be peeled off of the bun while it's still hot. [Tried to peel them on a cold/refrigerated bun. Tears apart rather than peels away]
Sometimes when reheating them, we'd forget that paper is there or we don't peel it all off. >.
@@Shenoraitry flouring your paper it should prevent that sticking.
when i was in reception i used to eat all sorts of paper because people gave me attention for it. never done it as an adult tho lol
Don't assume it was 'accidentally'. In some cases it's not 'accidentally' neither 'voluntary'. Yep - world sucks.
When you're eating a hearty bran muffin, what is a chunk of muffin paper except extra dietary fiber?
That pickle tong, though. Now I feel like a barbarian, for just rudely stabbing mine with a fork 🫣
how would you feel if someone stabbed you with a fork instead of a tong?
@@vitamins-and-ironOffended by the audacious classlessness.
My mum and dad had a long barbed fork with an elegant handle for stabbing pickled onions, I missed it the other day when I was stabbing around with my fork😅
The fact that it uses a fair quantity of sugar, and is from 1615, makes this a very fancy recipe indeed; it wasn't until the middle of that century that Britain started to abuse slave labour in the Caribbean and sugar started to slowly become more available in the UK as a result. So most likely your idea that it would be something for people with servants is probably pretty spot on, confirmed again by the fact that it recommends distilled vinegar to keep the colour; this is the kind of thing that I'd imagine would be a near miraculous and extravagant garnish in the winter time for a rich aristocrat to bring out to impress guests; forsooth, the lord hath brought forth bright spring flowers though it be the depth of winter!
That'd be corroborated by the fact that the recipe was written down at all; almost no written recipes exist from that time period for "poor" food, since almost no one of a poor background could read anyway, let alone afford a printed recipe book.
If the recipe continued into later centuries, I imagine it eventually was picked up by peasant folk. The flowers were free to pick, after all. I suspect it would be the children's job to pick and prepare the flowers. Good way to keep them out of trouble while contributing to the family pantry.
Can't speak for the UK, but in Germany most sugar was and still is made from sugar beets. Not sure how common white sugar used to be back in 1615, but treacle definitely was.
@@rolfs2165 sugar from sugar beets only really became a thing starting around the late 1600s to early 1700s
The English Huswife, was written by the Earl of Markham, and went into 9 printings. Its contents was very popular with both the gentry and the poor. The recipes were heavily adapted for English tastes at the time, sweet and sour being the main flavour profile, because of the recent proliferation or sugar across England making sweeter dishes possible and easier. The book was popular across many incomes. Women of the gentry, were expected to work while their husbands lived lives of leisure and the book makes it very clear these are the recipes for fine gentlewomen to make for themselves and their husbands, they are not servant dishes. Later editions aimed at regular, poorer individuals removed the first etiquette and sports section and printed only the later recipes section.
A century later, it was used as the basis for "The Compleat Housewife", which shrimps book mixes it up with.
This makes me wonder if it’s worth a whole series called “worth the faff?” Where you make these complex curiosity-satisfying experiments and then judge whether you’d do it again.
Hello Mr Shrimp, I am a chartered Horticultralist and I wanted to let you know you are correct, many spring weeds can go from Germination to spreading their own seed within just 2 weeks!
These are known as Ephemeral weeds. However, most of the primrose family (Primulaceae) are woody herbacious plants, there are a handful that grow as annuals Thought that might be usefull information
He is picking Primula here (most probably Primula vulgaris = common primrose) which is a perennial. Don't know how fast they germinate though.
Oenothera biennis is *evening primrose* completely different kettle of fish
@@psychedelikchameleon I knew there was one that was outside of the Primulaceae family and inevitabley that would be the one I highlight.
Absolutely love that you are looking after the beetles and promise to take them back home. You're a good human.
Yes !! 🥰 We can help shape the evolution of our species through setting healthier and happier examples.
I wish all of our fellow Earthlings peace and prosperity. ❤🌍🌎🌏🌐
I really enjoyed that, thank you. This may turn into a new spin-off series of foraging unusual items for Ye Olde recipe testing by Sir A. Shrimp of Wessex.
We still have "Gallipots" in operating theatres. Stainless steel or plastic now, but they come in the instrument sets along with a kidney dish.
I will live in the belief that a kidney dish refers to the shape and not a vessel into which kidneys are placed.
Any dish is a kidney dish, if you think about it
Thanks so much for the tip off with the book. You bought back some childhood memories as my late mother had this book and made some recipes from there, including the blackberry ice-cream, which was so voluminous it took up the whole freezer for months. The book was lost over time, but following your video, I found a cheap second-hand copy on Amazon marketplace which was advertised as a paperback. It arrived today, and it is the same beautiful hardback edition that you have here, so I'm really pleased. It's such a lovely book both in content and illustration.
Sometimes, especially with something like these flowers, I often think " who would have thought of doing that first? " Who thought, pickling primroses would be just what a salad needed? Thanks for doing it, so interesting.
I imagine somebody was just hungry enough to try it.
Thank you to the neighbour for letting our friend pick flowers from your lawn, that we might experience vicariously the treat that is primrose pickle.
Interestingly enough, this is the first time I've ever seen primrose, even though I've heard of the name before.
About 40 years ago I made Cowslip wine. From a recipe in "Living off nature" published in 1980s. I was told the plant was protected, but they were growing in extreme abundance that year. I took only a small quantity of the crop on a railway Embankment. The two litres of wine was exceptional, like a top quality Muscat. Yes, we should not decimate these plants, but if no-one experiences what can be produced, our lives become meaningless. Sorry if this sounds selfish.
Decimation-in the original sense, meaning reduction by a tenth-seems like a good guideline: don’t take more than 10%.
It's a superb book that, like you, made me wonder, seriously, as to what 'real' food tastes like. It's similar, but different from Richard Mabey's seminal 'Food For Free' (which gave me a lifelong taste for Pignuts), as it has a host of lovely old recipes (which work) and plentiful information and lore about various plants, fungi, and seaweeds. It struck me that this recipe (or 'receipt') would have been made for the very rich in the 17th century - using sugar - which would have been chipped off of a 'Sugar Loaf', to make exotic items like this, would have been out of the reach of most people of the time.
Even if you don't cook, this is a fun and interesting read.
Wild primroses are actually protected here, as they are one of the first food plants for bees, even though they are quite abundant. (We are on limestone, which they like.)
ETA: I need to be more precise: The wild species common here (which are protected) are primula elator (Waldschlüsselblume or hohe Schlüsselblume, I don't know any English trivial names), they grow mainly on wet forest ground and have quite tall a stem, and p. veris (cowslip), which grows in pastures.
Primula vulgaris, also known as "Englische Primel" (English primrose) I know only as a garden plant here. They are abundant in lawns. And with self-cultivated flowers you of course can do as you damn well please.
It also has to be said that nobody will stop you from picking a small bunch to bring spring into your home. But collecting them commercially or for a prject such as this might be prosecuted.
I love hearing this. More countries should protect primary pollinator resources!
I remember the strikingly beautiful Alpine meadows in Switzerland when I was there as a teenager in 1996, buzzing with bees and birds and filled with meadow flowers. We visited the Gruyere cheese factory. Just wonderful. You're so lucky to live there.
Hey Papa, hadn't heard, or seen, Waldschlüsselblumen. (Down south in B-W). I'll have to keep my eyes open. I've managed to collect seeds of (some sort) of Schüsselblume and get them growing in my front yard. Bullslips is the English name I know them as. With the longer stem.
Wild primroses are yellow and smaller than these garden primroses.
I bought this book secondhand on eBay and I absolutely adore it. It’s so beautiful. I have a collection of wild food, foraging and old knowledge type food books and you are right that this one is especially lovely.
second hand gang yesss
While I don't know that book, it was nice to see Christabel King's illustrations. Reminded me of being a kid on a rainy day copying the pictures as I was learning to draw.
I only really photograph plants and flowers these days but I might just have to practice and draw/paint them again!
The book also says it included beauty treatments... I'd like to see how surprisingly successful that would be too.
The difference between the kvetching during preparation and the end made me smile.
Primrose always reminds me of my grandmother, her favourite moisturiser was always oil of evening primrose. They are such delicate little flowers, ive only seen the odd one or two in the wild but loads people's gardens in beds and tubs. I tried something similar myself last year with cherry blossom but not a pickle, i fermented the blossom in just sugar alone over a period of afew months, topping up the sugars lightly through way of a stopper abit like brewing beer. This makes a Japanese style cherry blosson yuzu syrup, you can use the method for most things to make allflavours of syrp but my favourite one ive tried has been cherry blossom.
Hi! I just did a video about the natural history of primrose that I found on a trail in switzerland! A viewer comment that you had just done one on pickling P! Awesome video...great to find your channel! Subscribed!
I have to say that I'm really glad the pickled primroses are so good, because boy, do they look pretty all through the process!
Now how interesting was that! I had no idea that there were wild primroses. Always thought the were simply the commercialised version of cowslips. My front garden, in between the snowdrop, and other native plants, is overrun by the commercialised version of primroses - I may have to to try a multicoloured pickle. I have managed to introduce native cow and bullslips. Hopefully in a few years I'll have enough to pickle them! (Disclaimer ... I *will* check the edibility of everything ahead of time). 😊 Thanks, Mike, for this video. I would never have thought to pickle primroses.
As a (very) amateur gardener, I had no idea these were primrose. Strangely most of ours are the violet/purple/pink variety, with few yellows. They grow wild in our back garden, again in or near the lawn, and I do my best to mow carefully around the larger clumps as they're beautiful. Some of the stronger plants I've transplanted to the front garden and they thrive, with maybe three or four dozen individual flowers per plant this year...
Spring in a jar. What lovely flowers, what a lovely video. Thank you.
This seems a nice activity to do when you have a good podcast to listen to.
A friend introduced me to pickles in salads a few years ago. It really adds a nice touch of tang and crunch - and that was just regular dill pickle slices. I bet these were really good.
*googles diaphanous*
"(especially of fabric) light, delicate, and translucent."
You learn something new every day.
A perfect pre work video! Thank you Generous Shrimp!
Maybe not a prank, but more of a hobby/time occupier for sitting by the fireside in the evenings. Especially since it turned out to be a flavorful treat! Probably a nice addition to a very bland winter meal.
Really enjoyed this video. I also purchased the book that was suggested and will enjoy reading it and trying out the recipes.
My entire garden is infested with primroses. They are all over the veg area, between paving slabs and paths, in the borders, in the gravel drive as well as the lawn. Every year i just have to dig up most of them and dispose of them as no-one around me wants any.
Very interesting video. I learn a lot every time I watch your videos. Being a scientist, I always get excited to learn new things about preserving food, especially wild edible plants. Wisdom that should never go lost.
That was very interesting, I'd be curious to see more videos with old recipes like this
Was the prized pickled primrose paper towel particularly pungent? Perhaps previous palatable primula preparations paved the way for a perfectly pleasant piquant preserve?
I'm guessing back in the day those tedious, repetitive tasks like cutting off the stems were done whilst watching the TV.
Or, given the time, sitting around the fire and gossiping.
Especially considering there wasn't much light since they had to watch TV by candlelight
These are so gorgeous! What lovely flowers! We buy primroses to plant in early spring here in Oregon, but I’ve never heard of wild ones. We have little blue flowers that show up each year in our lawn & I look forward to enjoying them. It’s fun to think of old-time recipes with flowers! 🌸
What a lovely idea! I'd never have thought primroses would make anything more than a pretty addition to a meal, but they actually taste nice too. I doubt I'll ever find enough to make this though.
Would you be able to do a similar thing with other edible flowers, say nasturtium or borage?
Also the root is edible
I just love your vibe. We have our bluebells blooming here in Texas. Pretty flowers your primroses.
I want to try this now and I found the book. Hopefully, I can find enough Primroses. Thanks for sharing.
Dude you have the best channel. I love your foraging and cooking stuff (and 😂😂😂😂😂 at the scambaiting)
No better surprise than a pleasant surprise. Never thought a flower pickle would be more than the sum of it's parts.
I like that you knew you would never make it again. Even before you tried it.
In my neighborhood (in Cluj-Napoca, Romania) around almost all the apartment buildings there are primroses. Most of them yellow, but also light blue or light pink.
Hi Shrimp, thanks for all you do on this channel. I always look forward to your videos and seeing where your latest adventure takes you (and us). Are there any books in print that you'd recommend for identifying flora here in the UK?
Interesting! We don't have wild primrose here, but maybe something like lilac or violets would also be interesting.
I just realized you never told us if you reached your neighbor with some of the pickled primrose! 😂 I hope you brought over something as a thanks for letting you mow his lawn lol
Primroses always remind me of the book Watership Down, by Richard Adams. 🐇 The first words and the final words are all about primroses signaling the end of spring and then the rebirth of it by the end of the book.
That was very interesting. Thx
I owned A Country Harvest for a number of years, recently gave it to my youngest daughter.
Two videos in one day - woohoo Saturday morning!
Interesting to see a sort of pickled cheong with flowers!
I've made this quite a few times as an inti-inflammatory condiment for my arthritis. It's quite nice when mixed with dandelion and marigold flowers in the jar (dried from last year for those tho).
I enjoyed watching while I got ready for work. Finished up, got home and saw the thumbnail again on my CZcams screen, and finally got the pun. "Pick all" the flowers😅😅
Eating shrimp while watching Shrimp, what a combo! :)
I have that book...it was my mum's and she loved it too...I'll have to dig it out and have another look through it. Thanks for the interesting video.
Never heard of pickled flowers -- interesting! A couple suggestions/wishes for future foraging vids: cooked/pickled scarlet elf cup & cattail pollen (e.g. in pancake batter).
I love your videos. Most are educational and really interesting. When are you going to do another grocery-cooking video?
Very enjoyable Mr. Shrimp. 👍
Primrose pickle looked interesting & a very pretty colour 🌼Thanks Atomic shrimp 🦐😊👍
Friday. A warm drink and a Shrimp video. Perfect 😊
I associate primroses with spring too, Mike. I was surprised to learn they can flower from December to May.
13:56 there is a little buggy friend that crawled across the top right most pedal. :O
I haven't tucked into a Primrose for many a year.
I finished a jar of home made pickled walnuts the other day that I'd made in July 2022, they were inspired by your video. I found they took all this time to develop a superb flavour (I tried them at Xmas 22 and they were just OK). I'll definitely make a couple of small jars this year and leave for a year or year and a half again.
I like the idea that some of these really old recipes were a prank!
There's some lovely references to old recipes and practices in the semi autobiographical story A Country Child by Alison Uttley, I recall a wine made from primroses (I think?) There was a scene where they all sat around with bowls and bowls of flowers of some sort and pulled out the stamens. I'll have to look it up...
I wonder if they could've had saffron crocuses? Because that's how you get saffron, picking the lovely little violet flowers and pulling out the red stamens. Or if other flowers work the same way?
Considering we have a cost of living crisis here in Australia and our supermarkets are hiking prices for more profit to the point where food is hard to afford, knowing some foraging knowledge from being a bush kid is really helpful
sobbing .. we just had a couple more inches of snow .. sniffsniff .. spring is just around the corner here in Ontario, Canada .. isn't it? please?
Rose petals also taste apple like, maybe that is a general taste of flower petals.
16:29 that’s a scary looking contraption!
To me sorting is dandelions coming up! I have a field of dandelions outside my door. People say weeds, I say stunning
The pheasant sounded like Pingu noot-nooting. 😂
Probably needed a jaunty song and some family assistance while preparing this to make the time pass quicker. ☺️
I am guessing you could grow a patch,I've seen cultivated types in catalogs.Over here,at least in the Southwest, the wild primroses are oenothera which have medicinal properties.Oenothera speciosa ,the Pink Evening Primrose native in Texas is one of my favorite wildflowers.I have put sliced gherkins in salad,I need strong flavors to enjoy a salad. I am one of few Americans that doesn't care for Ranch Dressing on salad,I prefer a powerful Catalina (non creamy red French)or vinaigrette dressing.Acids and alcohol do draw out flavors you can't get otherwise.You always put a little vinegar in Cuban Black Bean Soup or Collards and wine to deglaze or add to certain foods for that reason.
I've got some in our garden - not enough to pick for this purpose though
I'm curious about the recipe for agrimony which I saw when you were flicking through that lovely book, I have some seeds but haven't planted them yet as I'm not sure what to do with it.
Pheasants always sound like the old car horns! 😀
At first I thought “what is this madman going to pickle next?” But then I thought about the history of pickled foods, most of which weren’t used to perk up salads or sandwiches. Pickling is a great preservation method for foods that are prone to wilting or rotting quickly.
Pickled flowers? Why not?
At around 13:55 when you show off one of the "passengers" (lol) I think you can see another one in the jar crawling inside the rim. RIP
I can't see it. Might be a trick of refraction in the glass. I didn't find any bugs in the finished pickle
Also, at 13:49, if you watch closely while Mr. Shrimp lifts his fingers, you can see a tiny beetle crawl under a petal, and then a couple seconds later you can see it move around after he puts the sugar in. I suspect it's the same one you're seeing. Not that there is anything wrong with a bit of a pickled beetle lol. Either that, or it courageously made its way out of the jar before pickling
I see a tiny flying insect of some kind (a small gnat maybe) wandering across the far side of the petals in the jar just after the sugar goes in. Hopefully it left of its own accord before the vinegar went in.
@@AtomicShrimp Maybe that's what gave the pickle it's flavour! (Perhaps you should do the experiment: 2 jars, one with and one without insects....)
There are some fabulous old recipes. My favourite is "Pykkel pour le Mallard", which comes to us via a 15thC cookbook, and it's one of those sweet and savoury meats with flavours that blend very nicely. There are several recipes out there now; I prefer the whole duck rather than the pieces.
I'd love to get back into cooking ancient foods again but my oven is wrong for it. Would be brilliant with an Aga or similar!
Do you watch Tasting History with Max Miller? @TastingHistory
@@splendidcolors Used to but not in a couple of years probably
Very nice video, thanks Mike. I have never seen pickled flowers before! Would it have been better to keep the stalks on the flowers? would they have adversely effected the texture? It would give you more volume of pickle and save you all that effort!
I once made some sort of syrup out of spruce shoots in a similar fashion.
Layer sugar and spruce shoots and place the jar in a warm place and wait.
Or cook it up to make a "real" syrup. Also helps with preserving it.
Ps ok forgett what i said, 🙈 forgott you added vinegar. Of course you wouldnt add it to the spruce shoots thoughits not THAT similar 😅
Well done !
I feel crushed- I genuinely thought you had plates printed with crackers and cheese, and desperately wanted such a thing!
no doubt it was the maids in the large kitchens that did the "fiddly work"....they probably enjoyed it, having a good natter while preparing the primroses!! you might have to make a couple of jars as a treat.
Lovely of your neighbor to share with you. Thanks for the video, have a wonderful weekend.
Regarding pheasant cries, I agree with you. There are some that live near my sister's house, and I heard them today
What a fantastic book.
Re-listening to pheasants, since seeing this video confirms that they really do sound 'a bit broken'!
Long time subscriber here and your knowledge continues to astound me may I ask was it upbringing or just something that you have somehow picked up over the later years or a combination? Many thanks
My parents used to buy me reference books full of facts and information. Might have been an attempt to get me to shut up...
Mike's on a journey to pickle anything and everything
Perhaps these old recipes are somewhat intentional in their approach to long preparation times, due to having a plethora of free time.
There is another book by Pamela - All good things around us.
What you're making here Mike is a cheong. Koreans do this with fruits and flowers to get a syrup whilst preserving said fruit and flower at the same time. However, they don't use vinegar with it.
Not a scam at all. Just think of what has to be done to harvest saffron. It was always very very labour intensive & hence expensive.
When I saw the claw with which you tried to get the out of the jar my immediate thought was Dalek! Exterminate!