How To Make Authentic Victorian Scottish Shortbread | Royal Upstairs Downstairs | Absolute History

[Music] just what do you have to do when a queen decides she's going to pop in to see you and not just any old queen victoria like a pair of obsessed victoria group is we're pursuing her around the country to the posh pad she visited we'll be delving into her personal diaries to reveal what happened behind closed doors today schoon palace we've come north of the border to the gateway of the highlands in the steps of queen victoria when she journeyed to scotland in 1842 oh you're right there pets and as someone who's spent a lifetime getting excited by antiques i'll be upstairs exploring just what would have excited victoria on her visit here these scott have got our chair and as a chef who's passionate about all sorts of food i'll be going downstairs to the kitchen where i'll be rediscovering a fantastic 19th century recipe that was served to victoria give it a really good breathe get breathing on there and letting tim take the biscuit queen victoria victoria [Music] here we are in scotland and what a wonderful setting it sure is it's nearly 140 years since victoria and her almost newly wed husband set out on their groundbreaking tour of this northern outpost which started a lifelong love affair with scotland for the young married couple this was a pleasure trip now they'd left their two young children at home but they didn't know how this visit was going to be received that's because it was less than a hundred years since the english massacre of the scots at coludon so victoria had to find a way of reconnecting with the scottish people and what better place for this charm offensive than schoon palace as it was here that all the ancient kings of scotland were crowned what a fascinating place i can't wait to have a look and see what it looked like when victoria arrived in 1842 so i'm going to be heading upstairs well i'm heading downstairs to see how the servants go north of the border for the queen's visit victoria and albert who'd been married for two years travelled from edinburgh and arrived here on the evening of tuesday september the 6th this was a whistle-stop tour of scotland and they had to leave the very next morning for birth amazingly their host the earl of mansfield had been planning the trip for two years but ended up with just 12 hours to impress the queen no pressure then well it would have been just like this for victoria because she too was piped into schoon except by masses of bagpipers you can imagine the scene her carriage majestically driving up this driveway through that rather quaint archway behind me well you'd be wrong because actually that archway was too small for her carriages and the earl of mansfield had especially constructive a massive new driveway into the palace so that schoon palace would have looked like this in her diary victoria recalls a fine looking house of reddish stone and that was it [Music] the poor old earl of mansfield might have been hoping for a slightly better write-up given the incredible diy job he did on the place he not only laid a new driveway he completely renovated the palace of course it wasn't strictly a do-it-yourself job he was far too posh for that the architect william atkinson was charged with reestablishing the gothic style based on the original medieval building but there were one or two problems along the way his clerk of works misunderstood instructions and as a result a lot of those original medieval features were lost forever a great shame but strangely reassuring that even in the early 19th century there were cowboy builders let's hope the earl had enough dosh left for the inside [Music] today these corridors lead to the offices that keep the modern palace running but in 1842 they would have been bustling with maids housekeepers and butlers one room does remain downstairs the kitchen where all the royal food was prepared our own head chef food historian ivan day has been researching just what schoon served up for victoria and albert [Music] hello ivan rosemarie i'm so excited to be in scotland so what have you got scottish cookery for me today well it's very very scottish and it's something that was actually served to queen victoria we're going to be making shortbread and what's so exciting about it is that an italian confectioner was brought up from london a man called william jarrin yeah very famous and he produced a wonderful ornamental shortbread in the form of the thistle so very very simply we've got butter flour and sugar which are the main elements we've got two ounces of self-raising flour which we're going to put into 19 ounces of plain flour and then two ounces of rice flour that goes in and it was specifically told in this victorian recipe to put half of sugar in so i'm going to put about four ounces there's eight ounces there all together and then the next job which i'm going to give to you because that's what i've just rolled my sleeves up if i cut the butter in for you you can start to to rub it in that's holding together nicely so what we do now is i'd like you to stop you nowadays would not moisten this with an egg no i wouldn't what would you eat well what i would do now i'd bring it together and get it into the ball and then i would literally just put it mount it around and press it down we're going to add an egg because that's how it was done how interesting yeah can't wait we're going to put the sugar in right we're going to break the egg into that okay you rub the egg into the sugar and then gradually work it with the tips of your fingers until you have it completely evenly amalgamated throughout the bowl okay i'm gonna do a bit of clearing away rosemary while you do that this is what it's all about preparing real scottish fair just as they did for the queen in 1842 and in this very same kitchen apparently victoria was very fond of her shortbread and i can't wait to try it out on the nearest i'm going to get to roger today tim queen victoria and her party would have descended from the carriages outside and come into this delightful space called the octagon and i bet you a quid she would have noticed this table which is a particular treasure of schoon palace and is of course octagonal to fit this room it was created by the regency cabinet maker george bullock who is a specialist in cut brass and most appropriately the border running around the outside is inlaid with the quintessential scottish element a thistle in cut brass one thing that victoria would not have done though i promise you is to hunker down like this and sniff the drawer lining not many visiting queens go around sniffing drawer linings in stately homes but if she had her nose would have told her that that's made of solid cedar and i reckon that a cedar will have fallen in the park and george bullock will have taken that timber away and crafted this extraordinary object many of the trees on the schoon estate ended up as beautiful furniture made just for victoria's visit and most of it was produced by a local company called baling calls who formed a close alliance with the earl it was a bit sticky all this for the earl of mansfield he knew two years beforehand that victoria was due to visit but yet he was sworn to secrecy he wanted to upgrade the facilities inside the palace and he writes i have been obliged to take balingall into my confidence otherwise my furniture would not be ready we know that the earl spent the equivalent of seventy five thousand pounds with balon gall doing re-upholstery in the palace before victoria arrived and it's also known that he provided this suite of dining room furniture there's one interesting thing that i've loved finding out from the family papers and that is that the earl when writing to his mother on the 8th of august 1842 so barely a month before the queen's arrival he's saying that the visit is very inconvenient yet impossible to decline but such is his pride in playing host to her majesty that he simply couldn't say no here at eight o'clock just an hour after she arrived with the porcelain crystal and silverware gleaming in the light of candles and lamps victoria died with her loyal subjects the guest list carefully chosen by the earl included the duchess of norfolk the alabama dean of liverpool even the prime minister robert peel was here balingall the interior furniture makes another appearance here in the drawing room because no doubt is a part of his 75 000 pound re-upholstery bill he provided for the earl all this silk for the panels in the drawing room walls specifically for victoria's visit now they look somewhat de chabier which is a french word for clapped out that's because the brilliant sunshine streaming into this room has faded them and made them brittle but originally when victoria walked through this room they would have been as blue as blue [Music] as blue as my eyes as victoria was being ushered through the drawing room downstairs the kitchen would have been in full swing i'm making an original shortbread recipe with food historian ivan day which was actually served to the queen during her stay it looked wonderful so far we've mixed sugar butter and flour next we press and roll the dough ready to place in the mold we're going to start off by making a very traditional shortbread right which will be in this form here which i'm sure everyone has seen it's a shortbread mold this is a 19th century one probably from the time of victoria's visit and it has another bit of kit which is absolutely essential which is this this is called a docker yes and you you know the little holes you get in biscuits well that's a biscuit docker or a shortbread docker so what we've got to do is to ensure that we can get this out of the mould so we're going to do two things we're going to dust it with some rice flour and we're also going to put a little bit on the board so this is the traditional way of dusting your your board we're going to take a little bit more than half a pound off it's gorgeous i have to tell you this is absolutely beautiful i'm going to make it into a round i'm going to pop it onto the mold like that and then with a great deal of care again with our hand we're going to push it in and using the knife we first of all trim a little bit off from one side and we can then and get the excess off which i'd like you to just gently roll up into a little ball and we can make some smaller ones and now i'm going to separate the edges out can you see so that they're not actually touching and i'm going to push that in like that the next thing is to make sure that this is going to come out and we can guarantee that by banging it and then it's a very swift and careful movement and there is our perfect shortbread that is brilliant and then you take your document yeah now be very careful because the first one will be able to test the quality the dough if we put it in like that you go right to the bottom you go right through the docking is essential because it stops the shortbread from puffing up so any air that gets trapped actually is released when you put the holes in so the next thing is to really get it onto the baking tray it's just a case of just letting it go on so you've got room for another one i'd try and have a go um yeah definitely why don't you make one in the form of a thistle like jaren look fantastic pat that out into a round i need to do my flour dough exactly it exactly in the middle and make sure that it's even okay now gentle push stop take it off just cut it carefully it should fit exactly that's perfect lift it off look at that that is beautiful just a quick slide underneath it okay perfect and again just gently next to the other one isn't that beautiful i think that it's absolutely stunning the shortbread now goes into the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees celsius or in those days a moderate oven and when it's ready ivan and i will be adding some right royal decorations the queen didn't want to sleep upstairs so requested ground floor apartments instead just what the cash-strapped earl didn't want to hear so once again in came the builders to create a new suite fitted with a private dressing room for albert and of course the royal boudoir all this work for a 12-hour visit about six of which would have been spent in this bed which victoria and albert shared pretty unusual for the monarchy but victoria was not straight laced she was on her hulls after all and the kids were at home imagine i just say no more on arrival in her rooms victoria would have been on a mission i mean on most women having been in an open carriage all day on a mission where do they go when they're on a mission well logically not to a bookcase but this is a bookcase with a difference if you reach around here to that secret button and press it the jib door which is this bookcase itself opens up and victoria would have headed inside to her other throne at least what's left of it the earl had thought of everything even a secret ladies room but it wasn't just the renovations upstairs that he had splashed out on the house archivist sarah adams has a revealing account of exactly what he spent on the catering and the staff downstairs hello i believe you've got a very special book to show me yes that's right we have a book of expenditure from the time that the queen was at schoon so it shows us what was spent on foods and groceries and also on servants as well for a flying visit of just 12 hours it's remarkable how much food was ordered in some paid for butcher and meat 38 pounds 14 shillings and nine and a half pence that's about 1 700 pounds in today's money when we compare it what was paid in preceding weeks we've got 14 pounds the week before and six pounds the week before that so there was quite a significant jump the total for that week was 69 pounds eight shillings that would be in today's figure about three 000 pounds the earl spent all this money on food but it looks like victoria might have been on a detox plan skim milk were they worried about skim milk in those days green tea that's quite sort of a healthy and organic something you get into healthy shops if they all push the boat out on all the meat and groceries you should see the booze list something else that may be of interest was how much they spent on wine and beer so 7th of june they spent 1 pound 8 shillings but in september they spent 52 pounds and 6 shillings it's no wonder they had to save up for this particular visit yes and um i think when it was done it was a big relief i would imagine and then they spent the next few years trying to recover man who served up the booze to victoria was the butler it was said in all establishments it was his duty to rule derrick brown knows all about the man in charge on that special day in 1842 tell me about this buckler what was so special about him well his name was matthew glogg and he was the butler and sellerman here and gained quite a degree of experience in in good fine fine wines and spirits and and food he he was at a young age in charge of the cellar here and he's probably his late teens and he at the same time started a family business in perth the globe family were from the area and he utilized the experience gained here at the palace to um to set up this business selling good food fine wines and spirits before victoria's visit matthew glogg had stopped working here to concentrate on being an entrepreneur but his food and wine business grew such a fine reputation that the earl called him back into service for the queen's stay this was the ultimate honor during victoria's visit what exactly was his role here he would have done everything from polishing the plate and the entrance into the palace to making sure that the uh everything was was in the right place in the bedrooms to the pre-dinner drinks to the service at dinner and coordinating the position in which the queen would sit at dinner you know in these days the queen would never sit with her back to the windows for example so it would be matthew's job to make sure that all of those little details were looked after it's amazing just how much effort went into this visit especially as it was only 12 hours long on the morning after victoria arrived she wrote in her dairy we walked out and saw the mound on which the ancient scotch kings were always crowned and they were crowned on top of this the stone of schoon except this one's a fake here for the tourists where the original is is a bit of a mystery we know that after edward the first was crowned here he decided to have the stone shipped down to westminster but many scots still cling to the belief that the stone that was moved wasn't in fact the original the story goes that the abbot of school knew that edward was heading to the monastery with the precise intention of nicking the stone so he had a quick one knocked up as a replacement and it's that that he gave to edward to take away whilst preserving the original safely if it's true this would mean that the stone that's been used in london for the coronation of generations of monarchs including victoria is bogus i wonder what victoria's take on all this was after all she was on somewhat of a charm offensive in scotland and yet she surely would have liked to have sided with edward's story of course no one really knows the absolute truth but in 1996 the stone in westminster was returned to scotland and it now stands in edinburgh castle but somebody around here is taking the mickey because have a look at this inside the old shed i've got edward the first coronation chair which has been nicked from westminster abbey these scots have got our chair and in this box back here we've got the stone of schoon ready to tuck underneath what's going on then it's a disgrace the truth of the matter is that this is a film prop a replica made for a movie that's been left behind in this shed least i think it is this is all very confusing [Music] what a saga while victoria was admiring the stone of schoon downstairs the royal shortbread was baking away after 20 minutes in the oven it's left to cool and just as schoon's master confectioner maitre jerome would have done it's time for ivan and me to add a very special bit of decoration we're going to use some of the techniques that gerund used to ornament foods like shortbreads i thought the most appropriate thing to do for victoria is to use a mold from his time and you press sugar paste into these and this makes a crown and you build it you build a crown build it together yeah and i've made one earlier let's have a look and there it is oh that is amazing look at this the traditional symbol of the crown was a crown on a cushion so shall i put that on top on the cushion but we're going to gild this so it looks like gold oh how incredible i've actually got some gold leaf and it's on what is called a gilders pad which is this soft chamois leather pad it's very delicate stuff isn't it the technique that i'm using is one that jaren tells us about he tells us the day before you gild your sugar to paint gum arabic and sugar solution onto it so i did that yesterday and i've let it dry for 24 hours well because if you feel that it doesn't feel sticky does it but it's covered with gum arabic you used to get them on the stamps and you licked it instead of licking it we have to breathe on it i want you to do that on that area there while you're doing that i'm going to cut a little bit of gold leaf and then with a great deal of care i lift it up from the pad [Music] like that if you can let me have that rosemary i think it's sticky enough we'll concentrate on that bar there and we'll just drop the gold onto it like that and then using a very fine brush we will tap it down and then we're going to brush it off can you see what happens so it only goes on to the actual yellow bit okay i'll get you to do the auburn cross on the top so give it a really good breathe get breathing on that and i'm going to cut you a piece of gold [Music] okay pick up yep right now thank you just let it sort of go of its own volition and so now go a bit lower can you see it will go to it yes yes yes okay you got it perfect and fold it down the other side yeah don't worry too much right now just sort of damp it down so it goes into all the little creases of the design and on the back as well lovely it's just a little tap tap tap tap and then once you're sure you've got it all attached you can then gently brush the excess off and it will shine like real gold that's a very good attempt that's brilliant first that's nine out of ten that is perfect thank you very good nine out of ten i'm pretty chuffed with that it's time to present our gilded treat to our own lord of the manner himself and what better way to wash it down than a glass of scotch whiskey now rosemary i thought you'd be cooking scones here at schoon and you've been doing shortbread well i think it's very appropriate shortbread actually because first of all have you ever seen anything quite so grand in terms of shortbread well the array of shortbread i am i have to say knocked out by this tell me about this joker with a crown on there well this is gold leaf is it really yeah you wouldn't have eaten it you would have just presented and i think queen victoria would have been absolutely thrilled now i don't like to break this because it's your special creation but i am longing to taste it here we go i'm going to give you that bit oh yes there we go for my nibble for your nibble okay i'm going to take a little bit off here hmm it's buttery it's crumbly i love this i absolutely adore it i think ivan's very clever i really do i think you're both very clever almost as clever as queen victoria here we are seated underneath this tree a tree that she referred to in 1842 and she wrote before our window stands a sycamore tree planted by james vi and this is the very tree don't you think that's extraordinary i think this is a magnificent tree it really is but the most remarkable thing is that the earl spent two years planning this fleeting visit despite all this work and effort the new driveway all this cookery that you've been doing the expenditure on the furniture the whole flimflam for this visit and victoria was only here for 12 hours it's incredible and therefore i think we need to have i think definitely a drink a toast to queen victoria victoria cheers ah yes next time on roll upstairs downstairs wonderful walmart castle in kent like victoria and albert we're going to take in the sea air as they try to escape the glare of the royal spotlight for a romantic getaway by the coast

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 83,388

Keywords: history documentaries, absolute history, world history, ridiculous history, quirky history

Id: _3rLwstBwA0

Length: 28min 23sec (1703 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 05 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/13thJen]

That just showed up on my homepage and I had the same thought- Max needs to do a series on Scottish recipes so we can see how to make a haggis.