Lewis Carroll
was the pen name of Oxford don and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
Though Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland wasn’t his first published work, it was
by far his most popular. Children and adults alike were enchanted by
Wonderland’s fanciful imagery, anthropomorphic animal characters, and
nonsensical language. Though Dodgson’s literary legacy has been marred by
debate concerning the true nature of his relationship with Alice Liddell, the
youngest daughter of Henry Liddell, dean of Oxford’s Christchurch College, his
work is arguably even more popular today thanks to the 1951 Disney cartoon and
Tim Burton’s 2010 pseudo-gothic movie Alice in Wonderland. Aside from the
arresting visuals provided in both the book and its many film versions, some
of the most famous scenes are built around some very British traditions: The
infamous Mad Hatter’s tea party, the depiction of the royal court, and a game
of croquet. A number of traditional British foods are mentioned as well, but
there is one that causes an uproar:
The King and Queen of Hearts were
seated on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled about
them--all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards:
the Knave was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to
guard him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand,
and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court was a
table, with a large dish of tarts upon it: they looked so good, that it made
Alice quite hungry to look at them--`I wish they'd get the trial done,' she
thought, `and hand round the refreshments!' But there seemed to be no chance of
this, so she began looking at everything about her, to pass away the time.
Later on the Duchess’
cook (and pepper aficionado) is being questioned about the tarts:
Alice
guessed who it was, even before she got into the court, by the way the people
near the door began sneezing all at once.
'Give
your evidence,' said the King.
'Shan't,'
said the cook.
The
King looked anxiously at the White Rabbit, who said in a low voice, 'Your
Majesty must cross-examine this witness.'
'Well,
if I must, I must,' the King said, with a melancholy air, and, after folding
his arms and frowning at the cook till his eyes were nearly out of sight, he
said in a deep voice, 'What are tarts made of?'
'Pepper,
mostly,' said the cook.
'Treacle,'
said a sleepy voice behind her.
'Collar that Dormouse,' the Queen shrieked out.
Behead that Dormouse! Turn that Dormouse out of court! Suppress him! Pinch him!
Off with his whiskers!'
Treacle tart has long held a place in British literature and is even mentioned as Harry Potter's favorite dessert. It would seem
that nothing could be more aptly named than the syrupy sweet treacle tart. It turns out that anything from pancake syrup to dark
molasses are, in fact, referred to as treacle in the UK, but traditionally golden syrup is used for the tart. I turned to 19th century housekeeping Goddess Mrs. Beeton for a classic recipe:
Treacle
Tart
Ingredients:
450g golden syrup
4 oz soft white crumbs
1 tsp lemon juice
8 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz unsalted butter
flour for rolling out
Directions:
1) Set the oven at 400ºF
2) To make the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a bowl, then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add enough cold water
to make a stiff dough. Press the dough together with your fingertips.
3) Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use just over
three-quarters of it to line a 20 cm / 8 inch pie plate. Poke with a fork several times over.
4) Melt the syrup in a saucepan. Stir in the breadcrumbs and lemon juice, and
then pour the mixture into the prepared pastry. Bake for 30 minutes.
I can see why this would be a popular British dessert--it is ridiculously SWEET, and if there was one take away from my time spent in London, it was that the Brits love their sweets. When my mom came to visit me, she commented that this was why their teeth were so bad.
I served this with some vanilla ice cream, which is obviously historically inaccurate, but I needed something to balance out the sweetness. There are a lot of modern takes on this recipe that include cream, which probably make it more palatable to today's taste buds. I will say though, that this all butter crust is delicious. Some things just stand the test of time.
