Friday 16 December 2016

Good King Wenceslas last looked on the Feast of Stephen …



I had absolutely no idea about Good King Wenceslas (907 – 935AD) – I have heartily sung his carol every year, without being aware of his story …




Another of those Bohemian tales … of intrigue, cruelty, murder and power struggles in the medieval period.



He was a good man … not a king, but a duke - who was murdered in AD 935 by his brother Boleslav: to whom he had generously given lands and status.



Boleslav town where Wenceslas lived

A mass burial site at Budec was found in 1982 … it is north of Prague … the Budec massacre is not mentioned in history, but it is speculated that it was part of “the wave of violence that reportedly followed the murder of the Duke”, while Boleslav secured the area.  The younger brother was more of the time and place in history: cruel and power hungry …



St Peter and Paul Church, Budec, Kladno
 ... a prehistoric place of settlement

The martyrdom of Wenceslas I, Duke of Bohemia … quickly gave rise to a reputation for heroic goodness, resulting in his being elevated to sainthood, posthumously declared king, seen as the patron saint of the Czech state, and who today comes down to us as a man of peace and goodwill.




St Wenceslas Chapel, St Vitus
Cathedral


Let us bring peace to our fellow citizens … helping make our world a better place for everyone – give and receive a smile, live and give hope ….





So let the last two lines of the carol ring out:


Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.




Have blessed, peaceful, generous Christmases, New Years with remembrances into 2017 …


I'll be back in the New Year and around otherwise ... 


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories 

Saturday 10 December 2016

Cinnamon – homely and exotic …




… definitely a spice … I will, anon, add a Cinnamon post into my Herbs, Spices and Herbalists series – for now let’s celebrate its festive attributes …

Cinnamon with apple

 We are into that Christmassy spice … oh aroma! wafting from the homely domestic kitchen … the pervading spicy scent inhabiting all corners …



Share mulled wiine while making
Christmas cookies, pomander oranges


Christmas is a-coming … and what better way than with some cinnamon dishes to tempt you to try old favourites, or new ones …






Cinnamon Roll
… share the kitchen with one or two friends, relatives near and dear … try new recipes out … entice, laugh and remember days gone by, look happily to the future …





Cafe de Olla
(see the Piloncillo cone)
Cinnamon – use a stick to stir your coffee … giving it a delicate, elusive flavour … or the Mexican speciality … CafĂ© de Olla – flavoured with cinnamon and piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar, typically found in the shape of cones) …



Or how about Persian Rice with Cinnamon ...
this version has lentils instead of pistacchios


Southern Fried Chicken – one of the best known of all American dishes … uses flour mixed with cinnamon as coating before frying … I’m not sure it would go with our Christmas turkey …



Choose the best - it comes from
Ceylon and is not the 'rougher' Cassia



So let’s use our ‘pudding stick’ the old English name for cinnamon … like a wand to transform all manner of foodie delights …






Stir the pudding ... add the cinnamon
Then settle down with some mulled wine, cinnamon sticks included of course … thinking about the baked apples with cinnamon, the Christmas cake, mince pies … some exotic Mexican flavoured chocolate …



Cinnamon Apple Tart - make some to
share at a community event


What more could one want in the build up to the festive season … a few kind words for everyone, a smile, food bank donations, charitable thoughts and pennies, and a good laugh …





Early Medieval Wassailers


Good King Wenceslas visits this blog next … and then it’s relax, chaotic preparation, and down time til the New Year … see you all in a few days …




An Anglo-Saxon greeting … Wassail: Be Thou Hale …:

A wassail, A wassail, A wassail we begin,

With sugar plums and cinnamon, and other spices in;


Sugar Plums and Cinnamon cake

    With a wassail, a wassail, a jolly wassail,

    And may joy come to you and to our wassail



    With a wassail, a wassail, a jolly wassail,

    And may joy come to you and to our wassail.




Please Remember Others ... and our Environment ... 


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Marmite v Bovril ...




Love it – or hate it … or both … when we were growing up after the War – we would have Bovril as a drink when we were ill in bed or recovering, or Marmite as a spread to help us get better or later on … just because that’s what we liked …






So ours were two distinctly different kitchen items … now I have just one: Marmite.




Marmite is the vegetarian version … as I’ve just been told this by the Chairman of our local Astronomical Society … I’m fairly certain it is true?! 


We don't get these at our meetings ... coffee and
biscuits: this would make a good student lunch -
perhaps x two slices!  Marmite and cheese on toast.
We were at our local Geology meeting – where we’re discussing galaxies and stars … the precursors to ‘us’ … and life on earth.  Don’t ask … posts will appear one day!  Dark Matter will be first …




Back to the subjects of this post …


It appears that Bovril has the longer history … in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1), Napoleon III ordered one million cans of beef to feed his troops.


Strangely, well I find it strange, this task went to a Scotsman living in Canada (John Lawson Johnston).  Transport and storage were problematic … and thus Johnston created a product known as ‘Johnston’s Fluid Beef’ …


Early poster - about 1900 AD




In less than 20 years (by 1888) over 3,000 UK public houses, grocers and dispensing chemists were selling Bovril.  The name coming about from the Latin bos for “ox”. 






Sci-Fi fans ... se my post


Johnston took the vril suffix from Bulwer-Lytton’s then-popular novel, The Power of the  Coming Race (1870), whose plot revolves around a superior race of people, the Vril-ya, who derive their powers from an electromagnetic substance named “Vril” … thus we have Bovril … and a Sci-Fi link …




Now to Marmite … ‘Marmeet’ … this is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing … a way of cutting down on one’s pint perhaps … or increasing said drinks because of the salty nature of Marmite.


A stylised French Marmite pot -
casserole or stock pot

It’s not obvious why it was named ‘Marmite’ – but could have been because of the earthenware pot, similar to the French ‘Marmeet’ cooking pot, that the product was originally sold in.



A German scientist, in 19th C, discovered that brewer’s yeast could be concentrated, bottled and eaten.  By 1902 the Marmite Food Extract Company was formed in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England near the Bass Brewery, which would supply the essential yeast by-product.

Edouard Manet:
 a bar at the
Folies-Bergere: 1882 a bottle of
Bass Beer on the table


At the turn of the 20th century, there seemed to be an ‘exponential’ expansion of its popularity ... when it was distributed around the world.



By 1912, the discovery of vitamins was a boost, as the spread is a rich source of the vitamin B complex … eight water-soluble vitamins essential to good health.  The British troops in World War One were issued with Marmite in their rations.


Copied from "The Week" ... but many would like
a marmite well!
It is a valuable source of Folic Acid … a supplement during pregnancy, and now many countries require it to be in certain foods as a measure to decrease the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease.  It is exceedingly helpful in overcoming beri-beri, wherever it is prevalent.




The company, Bovril, took over Marmite, but now both brands have been subsumed into Unilever …


Puff Pastry cheese and marmite wheels
The choice probably is … the one you’ve grown up with … I would drink Bovril, but smear or spread Marmite … while both can be added to savoury dishes to bring some zing …



Marmite on toast … Marmite with Cheese … both would warm the cockles of my heart – normally called tummy!  Cheese Straws or Cheesy puff pastry rolls – good for party snacks …. Marmite soldiers for young children (or old for that matter!) …


Toasted Cheese and Marmite sandwich
with pickle
Bovril apparently is an icon of British culture … it is commonly associated with football culture … that’s put me off somewhat!  Still I don’t own any Bovril now … but a flask of Bovril would be put to good use if caught in a winter storm …


We have Mandela featuring again … in his book “Conversations with Myself” in 1980 he mentioned he’d like some marmite!



But …. a hundred years ago the Pope had the last laugh … Bovril holds the unusual position of having been advertised with a Pope – as you can see Pope Leon XIII seated on his throne, bearing a mug of Bovril … see the slogan:

“The Two Infallible Powers – The Pope and Bovril” : a 1900 poster …





Well now it’s lunchtime and this has got me very hungry … I’d better round this off and disappear to my kitchen larder and rustle up a marmite sandwich!!


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories