- Welcome back to another
video where we ask ourselves, is British food- - Wonderful!
- worthy of four stars? - Ah.
- Ah. - [Ben] Asterisk, asterisk,
asterisk, asterisk. - Are we gonna do it properly this time? - We found a wonderful regional dish. All you guys gotta do
is work out what it is and how to cook it. - [Barry] I can't wait. - I've got PTSD from the
last time we did this. - Yeah, we-
- Not from making it, but from the comments afterwards. - We did British food a favour, but we didn't do ourselves any. - This is from a very
regional county in the UK. (upbeat music) - [Barry] Interesting. So we have bacon lardons. Suet? - [Jamie] Suet. Egg.
- Sage. - Water.
- Water. - Flour.
- We haven't got a lot. - [Jamie] Pepper,
mustard, potatoes, onions. - Interesting. - We're making a pie, Ebbers. - Or a pasty. - Yep. - Boys?
- Yeah? - We would like you to cook a
Buckinghamshire Bacon Badger. - I love this country so much! - (laughing) A Bacon Badger? - Right, so Buckinghamshire
isn't far from where we grew up. - [Jamie] No, it's not. But have you ever heard of a- - Nope!
- Bacon Badger? I've been to Milton
Keynes quite a few times. I've never had a Bacon Badger.
(Barry laughing) - The city of Buckinghamshire
is indeed Milton Keynes, known for many, many wonders. - Roundabouts.
(Barry laughing) - Ski slopes.
- Ski slopes. - Ski slopes.
- Ski slopes, yeah. Formula One.
- Formula One. Lots of formula One.
- Lots of One teams. - And it's essentially
a city that was built based on American cities. It's on a grid. - Basically, we know too
much about Milton Keynes. - But nothing about a Bacon Badger. - Double checking. There's definitely no badger involved. - Bacon is the meat. There is no badger. - Right, okay. - I'm gonna give you the
recipe in a few simple steps. Step one, make the pastry. To slightly confuse things, eggs, they tend to roll around and move. So I placed it on the suet to stop it rolling around and moving. It doesn't mean it's necessarily
required for the pastry. - [Both] Egg wash! - Egg wash. - Now ratios wise, have
you been kind to us? - Fairly.
- Okay, cool. - Dry stuff's weighed out. Wet stuff's weighed out. - [Jamie] There's one
thing I know about pastry. It's wet into dry. - And one thing we know
about great British food is that suet crops up in an awful lot of sweet and savoury dishes. It's basically beef fat with
a pretty long shelf life. It's very, very cheap
and highly nutritious. - Do we need this bit of flour? (breath blowing)
- No. - Nope, fine. - What texture are you looking for? - It's got to be pliable
because you're gonna have... We're gonna have to shape it somehow. It's either gonna be going into balls like dumplings.
- Yeah. - Or it's going to be encasing something. - [Ben] Not dissimilar to the
texture of a scone batter. - Okay.
- A scone. Oh, okay, yeah. - So not tacky.
- No. - [Ben] We've done our research
and we are not entirely sure why it's called a Bacon Badger, but there are a few theories. - You get, um-
- The stripe. - The stripe, yeah. - Stripes.
- Yeah. - Because you get badger
haircuts, don't you? When you're grey and then
you see the dye on top, which yours might be coming through soon. - You reckon?
- Yeah. (both laughing) - In the kitchen, I feel
like it's a combination of badger and salt and pepper. (Jamie and Barry laughing) - They're a nuisance. - To some people. - To farmers.
- To farmers. - TB. They carry TB. - They carry TB, yeah.
- Does this? - No.
- No. - They dig holes. - [Jamie] Yep. - Right, you can leave that to one side and come back to that-
- Okay. - while you make your filling. - The live in sets. - Yeah.
- Ooh, ooh! - Oh, yes, yes, yes.
- Knowledge. Milton Keynes and badgers. Who knew that's your expertise. - All right, let's leave
over there for a sec. - Okay. - [Mike] If you are enjoying this, there are some small things you can do that make a big difference to us. Like the video, subscribe if you aren't, click the notification
bell and select all. Thanks. - So, yeah, the thing with the UK, and we had a lot of comments
before from U.S. viewers. Obviously in the U.S. you
have multiple, multiple states that make up the country. We have multiple, multiple counties. Next instruction, make your filling. I'm gonna give you a clue. It all ends up a similar
chopped size to the bacon. And you might wanna give
your bacon a headstart by frying it off.
- Gotcha. Yes, chef. This is very simple. - Some of the best foods are. Now I think this is probably
quite a generous version of this dish, 'cause
that's a lot of bacon. But this was a dish that whilst
it existed before the war, it became popularised in the
war when there was a ration on things like bacon and therefore potato, and onion, and suet would bulk it out into quite a filling, I'm not gonna say stodgy, but filling dish with
a little bit of bacon. - It is a more northern
version than a Cornish Pasty. Middle England,
- A Buckinghamshire pasty. - A Buckinghamshire pasty. - Middle England. Sound like it should
be trolls and dragons. - [Jamie] Definitely not Middle England. - [Barry] It's more north than Cornwall. - Yes, but lots of places... Everywhere else in England is. - Yeah, I know exactly. - So you can't just
call it Middle England. - But it's not north, is it? It's not south. - It is south. - Is Milton Keynes South? - Yes. So Ebbers, is there
anything about this dish that centres it in Buckinghamshire? Like is it because anything's
particularly grown there, or? - I don't know why this was
so iconic in Buckinghamshire. But Buckinghamshire is
next to Bedfordshire, and there is a similar
dish, not to be confused, which is called the Bedford Clanger. - [Jamie] Oh, see, I feel like I've heard of a Bedford Clanger. - 40% of all of the
London Underground stops that sit outside of the
M25 are in that county. - No way!
- Yeah. - [Ben] Fun fact. - Met line.
- Not that fun. (all laughing) - I think understanding regional
food is really important when you look at a nation's food. Because we often say, "Oh,
we're having Indian food, or we're having Chinese food,
or we're having Italian food." And those are so phenomenally regional. Why don't we think the same
when we think British food? - How wrong can we get the
Buckinghamshire Bacon Badger? - I've seen a few recipes, and there seems to be
two ways of cooking it. - Oh no.
- Oh no. - Oh no.
- Oh no. - Once you get your finished
product, you can steam it, or you can bake it. - Ooh!
- We are going to bake it. So you might wanna preheat
an oven to about 190. - A baked badger. So for those of you at home
who are looking at us going, "You don't bake a
Buckinghamshire Bacon Badger." We know that you can also
steam it, but we are baking it. - Most of the recipes we found, which are more recent online, were baked. But some of the original
ones were steamed. So you can go either way. Steaming takes about three hours. Baking takes about an hour. Which one do you think we're gonna do? - Right.
- Right. - This is being done for efficiency. - Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah. - What's the usual eating scenario for a Buckinghamshire Bacon?
- Yeah. Is it on the go, or do
we stay sitting down? - No, I think this is a family-style dish. There might be some veg on the side, often served with a dollop of mustard, which is why we've given you a jar. But it could also have a sort
of salty gravy thing going on. It's put in the middle of
the table and sliced up. And the slicing of it gives
you potential stripes, which might imply badger. - Might.
- Right, might. - [Ben] Combine your potato,
onion, fried bacon, sage, salt and pepper in a bowl. So remember when I said,
"Try and cut your fillings to the same size as the bacon lardons?" - [Jamie] Yep. - How's that looking, Baz? - They're smaller when you get up close. Okay.
- Oh, they've shrunken... They've shrunk in the pan. That's what's happened.
- That's what's happened. - Yeah.
- Yeah. - This could take a while, isn't it? This is more what I'd associate with the British Isles though. This type of food. the parmo did catch me
by surprise a little bit. - You think in centuries gone by the sign of great hospitality and wealth was putting on an absolute feast. So whole hams, and boars, and capons, and turkeys, roast beef and a huge, great big feast of a spread. And then came along like
haute cuisine from France, which was more about
having different courses and having stuff plated and perfect. And I feel like we still
have the reputation of the big roast meats, and
meat and two veg basics. - That's what most families in the UK still rely on most weekends. - That's potentially the only time that families get around the
table together, isn't it? - [Barry] It's smelling
simple, but it's smelling good. - Regional dishes have
lots of different versions, because every family has
their own way of doing things. Some families put tomato sauce on a parmo. - Let it go, Jay, let it go. Do you wanna know another
Buckinghamshire fact? - A badger fact. - A badger fact.
- A badger fact. - So we've said that it might
be called a Bacon Badger because when you slice it later on, you have kind of stripes in it. But it might also be called a badger because a badger was
someone who used to trade. That's a barter.
- Specifically flour. - Ooh.
- Oh, okay. Is that the same as badgering? Like, is that where you- - [Barry] Where you're badgering someone! - Badgering someone.
- I'm gonna badger you. - Yeah, stop badgering me. Leave me alone, Ebbers.
(playful music) He doesn't know. He's looking it up.
- To badger someone. - He's looking it up.
- Is it to bother someone? - He doesn't know, look. - Origin of the phrase,
"To badger someone." - Oh dear. Not urban dictionary. (laughing) I'm not sure
what that might mean. - A sense of satisfaction
having found the answer. That was just a badger, that was. - Just a badger.
- Just, you know, I've got it. I've got it. That's just, like, done just the job. - He's badgered it. - [Barry] He's gone and badgered it! - That hit the spot. It's like, "That was the
right badgering, that." (both laughing) - Oh, thank you, that was
such a good badgering. (both lauhging) That's exactly what I needed. (both lauhging) - So here's the thing
you might recognise more. A jam roly-poly. - Yes! - Yeah.
- Classic. - Absolutely.
- Why are we doing that? - Because we're doing a Bacon Badger. - We're gonna roly-poly it though. Is that what we're gonna do? Do you roly-poly it? - Suet pastry.
- Yeah. - Filling.
- Yeah. - Roll it up. - Yes!
- No way! - We're making a badger roly-poly. - Badger roly-poly. Now we're talking.
(Ben laughing) Now we're talking. (upbeat music) - How thick are we looking? - [Ben] You certainly don't
want your chunky potato to poke through a thin pastry. - Are we not serving
this with mashed potato? (record scratches) - No, the potato, a bit like a pasty. The potato's inside. - If there's one thing badger's
love, it's mashed potato. - Mashed potato?
- Oh, I see. - Exactly.
(all laughing) - [Ben] All right, Bodger. (all laughing) - Well, I mean that's a... - That is a throwback. How many people remember,
"Bodger & Badger?" - Cut it to shape and then roll? Or do you think just leave rubbages? - Rough and ready and
then shape it at the end. Remember, this is a dish
that came out of austerity and therefore you wouldn't
wanna waste anything. - [Jamie] You wouldn't
be throwing it away. - [Barry] I kind of wanna throw some apple sauce at this now.
- Don't! - Do you know what I mean? - Why don't you throw tomato sauce at it? - I wouldn't do that.
- No? So this end is thinner. So do you wanna start at this end? - [Barry] Oh, that does, that's quite. - [Jamie] Yeah, yeah. - [Barry] Okay, let's get
some egg wash in there to make it a bit more sticky. What are you doing? Interesting. Eggy glue, tuck in.
- Tuck it in on itself. You want it sealed in so the potato inside is cooking in its own kind of sealed oven. It looks good. You seasoned the filling quite nicely. I think you might have forgot
salt in the pastry, but. - 190 degrees for about an hour. - Tender badger every time. (Jamie lauhging) That's impressive. - An hour in the oven and it didn't leak. - No! - Suet pastry is phenomenal,
baked or steamed. You're always gonna have
a bit of a nuggety end. - See what happens, by baking it, you've got a crispy outside,
but it steamed the inside. - And the suet is soft in the middle. - Ah, yes. - [Jamie] I'm not picking
up on the stripes, Ebbers. - Layers.
- Yeah, but- - I mean, I'm not saying
a badger is a zebra. (upbeat music) Right, lovely. - Dollop of mustard on
the side and we are done. Oh, Baz. - That might be a
Buckinghamshire Bacon Badger. (Barry laughing) Should we get the sexies? - Yeah.
- Yeah. (upbeat music) - Mike, in front of you is
something rather special. Lift cloche A. - Here we go. Okay. - A very regional British delight. - You've done a mustard
smear, like, that is so bad. - It needed a flourish.
- Okay. So we've got some pastry,
we've got some bacon. Hang on, it's got a Swiss roll shape. (all laughing) It's a British roll. - This is from Buckinghamshire, and it's called a Bacon Badger. - Great. I love it. - And if you want to lift cloche B, you can see what the whole
thing was before we sliced it. - Oh, great. It's like a Wellington, but a Badger. A mustard schmear. - Now we've seen how well it sliced. We think perfect picnic attire. - [Jamie] Yeah - That tastes amazing. It's, like, got the texture of stuffing- - Yeah.
- when you bite into it. - The outside nice and
golden with an egg wash. The inside is kind of steamed. So you've got mashed
potato meets steamed suet- - Mm!
- with bacon and sage. - I was gonna say, outside
of just a bacon flavour, it tastes really meaty inside. And I guess that's the suet. - Have you ever had a Bacon Badger, or from neighbouring
Bedford, a Clanger before? - Never, and that's what I love about this is that in the isles in which I live, there is some really weird food. And I'm glad I've had it. And I think you need to
get in here and try some of your creation.
- Yes. - There you go, lads. - Thank you very much. - Either side. - Aside from, like, 45 to 50
or maybe an hour in the oven of passive cooking, really easy to do. Cheap ingredients. - And keeping with the format, I have to rate this out
of four stars, don't I? - [Jamie] Mm-hmm. - And I'm gonna give this three. I think this is a proper British dish. It's very British in ingredients. It's British in name. I think it tastes cool. - I mean that's strong. Well done, boys. Stick to what's good. It turns out wartime fare
should be brought back. (record scratches) - Well, let us know. Did we do well? Did we get it right? - What, what, what, what, what? - I think we're currently living
in a cost of living crisis where actually, ingredients
that are close to home have a really responsible outlook. Potatoes are one of the most
sustainable ingredients. I think, bring back a
few wartime classics. - Good, I'm glad that for your sake, I gave you the opportunity to clarify what you were talking about. - I like it so much, I
think we're gonna write it as a Hero Recipe and put it on Sidekick. - [Mike] Ah, that's a great idea. Definitely go and get that
and try it for yourself, 'cause it is great. And I assume it's quite easy
because you didn't nos it up. - Also, comment down below,
let us know which other British classics should we be reviving. - I missed what you said, so I'm confused. - He said something about he loves war. - He said bring back wartime
because the food's good. - Right.
(all laughing)
