British Cooking Part 2

Today we cooked Egg Custard in the third Zenrinkan British Cookery Class. My house in England is in East Anglia, a region that is famous for this dessert, so I often ate them growing up.


Custard tarts were first served in Britain in Medieval times when they were known as doucets. Henry IV is said to have eaten them at a meal when he became king in 1399. Now we make them with milk, but long ago they used almond milk when they weren't allowed to eat rich dairy products on religious fast days.


This dessert was exported to many places in the world. It is the basis of the French Creme Brulee and a similar product has been eaten in Portugal since 1800. If you visit China now you will find Egg Tarts (Dan Ta) at many dinner tables. These were brought from Britain in the mid 17th Century, probably via Guangdong.

English cooking

Today was the first of five lessons about British cooking. Today we made a popular English dish called Cobbler. The casserole base is made from sauce, beef and three kinds of vegetables, then scones are placed on top and cooked in the oven.

After we finished making it, we enjoyed eating it just as much!