ROCK hard, riddled with woodworm and munched by mice, it can’t have looked like the most appetising of hot cross buns. Yet, 23 years ago, Bill Foster—a baker from Tavistock, Devon—bought the stale pastry for a Guinness World Record-setting £155. It might sound rather barmy, except that the bun was an antique. It had been baked in Stepney, London, in 1829 and superstition had ensured it would survive to go under the hammer at Birmingham’s NEC nearly two centuries later: it was found tucked under a house’s rafters, where it had been stashed to bring good luck.
Perhaps it’s because of their association with Easter or because they don’t go mouldy as quickly as bread does, but hot cross buns have long been seen as miraculous. Their very origin is steeped in myth. ‘Institutions have decayed, empires have crumbled away, monuments have disappeared like scenes in a pantomime, and this hot cross bun is apparently the only thing that has survived them all,’ wrote The Illustrated London News in April 1855. Many Victorians, such as author Charles Hindley, drew a parallel between the buns and the ‘sweet cakes of flour and honey’ offered to the goddess Astarte of the ancient Levant and the bull-stamped rolls of the Classical world—he even launched into an audacious explanation linking the word bun to the Greek boûs, for bull (today’s etymology favours a proto-Germanic origin).
Denne historien er fra April 05, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 05, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
