Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A Little More on Mint.

I got carried away with mint beverages last week (here, and here), but hope you are not bored with the topic, because I found a couple of rather unusual ideas for eating the herb too. There are more creative ways of adding mint to your diet than simply using it to sauce on your lamb, you know.

Mint Sandwiches.
Brown bread, cream cheese, and freshly minced mint leaves make extraordinarily good sandwiches. Steam the brown bread in baking-powder tins so that it will make neat round slices. Soften 3 ozs cream cheese, adding cream to make it a good consistency for spreading, season with salt and a little pepper, and add 1 tablespoon of minced mint leaves. Use as a filling for the buttered brown bread.

[I have unfortunately forgotten to note the source of this recipe!]


Yorkshire Mint Pasties
Yorkshire Mint pasties ‘are still made in old-fashioned Yorkshire farm-houses, and very good they are. The pasties are made by mixing equal quantities of chopped-up mint, brown sugar, and currants, and putting this mixture, instead of apple, into a turnover.
[Garden-craft in the Bible, and other Essays, by Eleanour S. Rohde (1917)

P.S You can find out a little about the famous English Kendal Mint Cake in a previous post here.


Quotation for the Day.

… mint is not cultivated in French gardens. I did not know then that there are many kinds of mints, and that one which is used for the sauce does not grow wild.
Myself, My Two Countries, X.M. Boulestin (1920’s)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the York Peppermint Patty isn't a random brand name. (Are these part of your experience, Janet? It's a soft mint candy covered in chocolate.)

The Old Foodie said...

Hmmmm. Interesting. I dont know the chocolate mint patty of which you speak, but I will look out for it on my next visit to the Old Country. I wonder if there is a history of prolific mint-production in Yorkshire?