Cornish Recipes > Cornish Fairings

How to make Cornish fairings:
These are the old type of gingerbread which was sold at fairs and markets. It is more of a flat biscuit and sometimes it was even gilded with gold leaf. Please remember that this is an old recipe and therefore the quantities listed below are far too large for modern day cooking. The quantities can be reduced proportionally to a more manageable amount.



Ingredients

24 cups flour
6 cups caster/superfine sugar
4 cups butter
1 cup lard
2 1/2 cups lemon peel
3 cups golden syrup
3 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda
1/8 pint water
1 1/4 tablespoons ground ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons mixed spice
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method

- Rub the butter into the flour.
- Mix the spiced with the sugar.
- Put the syrup into a basin on its own.
- Mix the water with the bicarbonate in saucepan and bring it to the boil.
- Pour the bicarbonate and water into the syrup.
- Add the lemon peel.
- Pour this mixture into the flour and butter that was rubber together.
- Add the spices and the sugar and mix to a soft dough.
- Roll out on a floured surface to 1" thickness.
- Cut into strips or rounds.
- Bake in warm oven (see temperature conversions) until cooked.


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Land For Food Production

Sat May 15, 2010 9:18 pm // 8 comments // granny_nuts


I wonder just how much land it would take to feed a family of, say, 4? I know that if my family didn't buy fruit and veg we wouldn't have enough to eat but is self sufficiency down to amount of land or method of growing? Last year I overcrowded my small veg plot with counter-productive results like mildew and snail infestation that went unnoticed until we came to pick the tomatoes (all holes!). I wonder if anyone has ever been totally self providing or whether the local market and barter played...