大象传媒

This week The Food Programme is all about yeast, the mysterious fungi that play an essential yet often overlooked part of our food production. The programme explores yeast in brewing and baking, and reveals how the original method of making yeast bread in Britain was a听by-product of ale-making. When traditional ale is made, a yeasty froth appears on top of the fermenting liquid, . This used to be scooped off, washed and added to bread dough in order to leaven it. Bread made this way is sweet tasting, and the leavening yeast used to be called . Its unpredictability gives us the word 'barmy'. This short picture-film explains the process:

In the 19th century, the process was refined and industrialised, manufacturing it on a large scale which we know today as 'yeast', and used world-wide as THE method to leaven bread. The barm method appears to be an ancient method developed by Gaelic peoples in the mists of time, and听was quite different to that used in Europe, which is to leaven bread with a sourdough or leaven (the French call it 'levain'). When the Romans first conquered Gaul, modern day France, they were astonished by the light sweet bread made by the Celtic inhabitants. Barm bread survived with the Celtic peoples in Britain, Scotland and 脡ire, but was not common in Europe, being condemned during the 'Enlightenment' as 'unwholesome'. In England noblemen's bread, was always made with the barm method, whereas the commoners' bread was a sourdough. Barm bread survived until World War Two and even later in the North of England largely as . Curiously, the old method of making a sponge, or thick batter of flour and water with the barm was still used with the new industrially produced yeast, and was re-introduced to Europe from Vienna where the first yeast factories were established. This became popular in France as a '', the favoured method of making crusty bread such as a baguette. It is interesting that the old method survived the invasions of Romans, Saxons and Normans. It couldn't be ignored really as it made the sweetest lightest bread in the right hands. As with all of these archaic breads, it was highly digestible and nutritious because the ferments were never pure strains like they are today, but included lactic bacteria which also gave the bread good flavour.

Barm bread is so worthy of revival because it is a characteristic ancient bread of Britain, a true heritage. Even today it hasn't been forgotten as some will still add ale to bread dough to give it the ancient flavour, so appreciated in Britain and distinct from other bread cultures. It's just a shame that the process was to produce the unwholesome yeast breads of today. Nevertheless, there are bakers using the new organic yeast which is virtually the same, and employing long ferments to ensure the bread has flavour, character and is digestible.

听Are you a keen home baker? Have you tried sourdough starters or making ale-barm bread? Share your experiences of making unusual breads.

John Downes is a baker and food writer who pioneered the sourdough 'revolution' in Australia in the 1970s. He is interviewed in this week's The Food Programme. Picture-film made by George Casey.

I won鈥檛 beat about the bush: a lot of scrofulous old tat masquerading as food has passed my lips. You see, I鈥檓 happy to taste pretty much anything whether rotten, radioactive or simply unlikely. You may think that this is an unwise way to live your life, but I honestly relish the adventure of tasting something new and unusual - mainly because I have dedicated my life to discovering the next potato. Not literally the next potato, you understand 鈥� I believe they sell them down Tesco鈥檚 鈥� but rather the next foodstuff that might support generations of people to come. I鈥檓 fascinated by the fact that when the potato first arrived in Europe it was viewed with great suspicion, but that some nutter persevered with it, and since then it has sustained billions of lives. I鈥檇 like to be that potato-discovering nutter, and that鈥檚 why I will taste anything 鈥� just in case it turns out to be the next potato. Or the next pasta. Or the next Wotsit, for that matter. Who knows what culinary revelations await the curious?

Tatty hi: the hunt for the 'new鈥� potato...

In my experience the worst foods on earth fall into several categories, and I鈥檇 like to share this important knowledge with you:

Badly named recipes
This is by far the most amusing category of 鈥榦rrible food. Often the meal is pretty decent, but its name (lost in the murk of etymological dead-ends) makes it sounds repulsive: ; bacon and cow heel pudding (actually, this one tastes pretty grim too); (an oatmeal pudding made chicken-shaped); (a sponge fool); wet nelly (suet roly-poly made with stale bread); slot (cod roe dumplings); Pope's posset (someone told me that this sounds a little gynaecological, but as female Popes are few and far between, I鈥檓 not sure I agree), (a delicious mash of potatoes and turnips).

Horrifying foods
These are foods that I often enjoy, but which I accept that others find bizarre or offensive (by the way, there鈥檚 a fair amount of video around of me eating these, much of it mildly amusing): , , palm weevils, , human cake, lambs鈥� testicles, fish bladders, desiccated frog tea and silk worm pupae鈥�

Disgusting-tasting foods
Much as I love the adventure of ANY mouthful, I鈥檇 be obtuse if I didn鈥檛 acknowledge that sometimes the odd mouthful is horrendous - such as (Swedish rotten herring), liquorice (how you people can eat that filth, I don鈥檛 know), (rotten walrus) and deer penis juice (that is, deer penis steeped in rice liquor).

Bad recipes
These are foods that often contain decent ingredients yet have been so badly and blindly constructed that they have been rendered disastrous in combination. is THE WORST RECIPE EVER 鈥� made of all the odds and ends of starchy foods and stale rubbish swept from the bottom of your cupboards. I鈥檝e tried to make this taste good and it鈥檚 impossible. I served it once to my friend Ewan, and he pronounced it ** ****. He鈥檚 right.

Hopeful combinations
I accept that the path to culinary greatness is fraught with the corpses of recipes that have flown too close to the sun and cooks who have mixed their metaphors as badly as their ingredients. The following DO NOT WORK. I have tried them so you don鈥檛 have to: chocolate-covered olives (which is odd, seeing as chocolate-covered gherkins are actually pretty good), fizzy milk (as in milk with carbon dioxide added using a Sodastream), and garlic and corned beef ice cream.

Tat
This is simply rubbish food made gruesome by laziness, ineptitude, economic greed and ignorance. You know the offenders: flabby pizzas that are basically snotty melted cheese on toast, tasteless burgers containing onions fried too quickly, under-crusted bread, cold pasta salads, over-grilled fish, and above all green peppers. I know that they are the cornerstone of Creole cuisine but, like exclamation marks and herpes, no-one ever thanks you for giving them a green pepper.

So tell us - as James Martin asks every week on Saturday Kitchen - what鈥檚 your idea of food hell?

Stefan Gates is a 大象传媒 presenter and food writer.

Most traditional baking and processed food relies on a natural protein called in some form. Found in most baking flours and foods made from them, gluten helps foods stay solid without crumbling, keeps it soft, holds moisture, and adds chewiness to the texture. It鈥檚 essential to most baking recipes but a right pain if you鈥檙e allergic or intolerant to it.

If you have or have a problem with gluten, you know what I mean. But if you don't, just think of it this way: imagine you鈥檙e diagnosed with physical condition way beyond 鈥榝ussy鈥� that meant that you couldn't eat most prepared food on sale, had to plan for every meal and not just casually wing-it, had to say no to most treats like birthday cakes and puddings, couldn't have most beers, and of course, never eat a slice of everyday bread.

To be honest, most of us eat way too much wheat flour in our diet compared to the energy we exert, so adding more fresh vegetables, meat, fish, beans and pulses to your diet is no bad thing. But it would be a grim life without the occasional cake or sandwich, so I鈥檝e been spending time in my kitchen experimenting with ideas that making gluten-free baking that bit easier.

Dan Lepard鈥檚 adaptable gluten-free bread made with olive oil, yoghurt and psyllium husk powder.

• I鈥檝e written a foolproof gluten-free bread recipe for the 大象传媒 Food website that should please even the most critical bread addicts. It鈥檚 dead-easy to make and bake. But it takes more than one recipe to turn a gluten-free life into a free and easy one, so here are my steps to easier baking:
  
  
• Use the internet and seek out the experts as the recipes you need are just a few clicks away. My friends Shauna James Ahern's and Sarah Phillips' will give you the practical help and inspiration to make it all the more trouble-free. (Many of the best recipes use US cups, so you might want to pour 240ml of water into a teacup, mark the outside, and use that to measure.)
  
  
  

  Who needs gluten when you鈥檝e got this much chocolate and eggs in a cake? Try Sophie Dahl鈥檚 divine flourless chocolate cake

• Gluten-free really does mean just that, so don't be swayed by some of the myths out there and know what you're buying. Sourdough bread isn't gluten-free by nature of the process, though can be if made with gluten-free ingredients. Baking powder needs to be labelled 鈥榞luten-free鈥� otherwise it isn't, whereas bicarbonate of soda (called baking soda in the US) always is. Cornflour and icing sugar are safe, while suet might not be (check if it contains wheat flour).
• Bookmark essential recipes. Some ideas to start with could be...
  * That intense chocolate brownie: Karina Allrich at has a Belgian chocolate, rice flour and almond recipe that鈥檚 delicious.
  * A classy thin gluten-free pancake recipe: this one by blogger Seamaiden from her site did it for me.
  * Shortbread: this recipe from is both crisp and rich with butter. A little orange zest helps to lift the flavour.
• When you're starting out, stick to recipes that use very little wheat flour, or don't require the flour to do very much except bind things like cookies, shortcrust pastry, pancakes and batters, brownies and any of the heavier tray-bake bars.
• Prepare your expectations. Pastry made from gluten-free flour will feel crumblier and more fragile as you roll it: it will tear and fall apart but will patch together and bake just fine.
• Work a little faster. Cornflour (cornstarch) typically makes up the bulk of the gluten-free flour mixes you buy, and it and most other gluten-free starches absorb moisture much faster than wheat flour. So mixtures need to be worked together a little more swiftly if you want them to be smooth and even-textured.
• As a general rule, keep the flavours quite strong as cornflour, tapioca and rice flour have no flavour at all.
• For most simple baking the prepared gluten-free flour mixes sold by some millers will do the trick but sometimes you will need to seek out specialist ingredients. Here are some that will help you tackle any baking challenge:
• Try using linseed in place of in recipes. When ground or roasted then soaked in water, linseed (sometimes called ) releases a gum that is very good at holding the texture of cookies and cakes together - as long as you don't mind brown specks in your baking.
• For an extra moist crumb add tapioca starch. It鈥檚 typically found in most gluten-free flour mixes. It gives cookies and cakes a chewier texture, and stops them drying out too quickly. But use it sparingly, say 25g/1oz for every 200g/7oz cornflour or rice flour, as it swells up with moisture and can make cakes slightly gummy if overused.
• One of the trickiest things to make is a wholemeal flour type result, as it's hard to find replacements for wheatgerm and bran. Brown rice flour is very helpful here, especially if combined with ground linseed. It has a slightly nutty flavour, important as so many of the main flours are flavourless.
• Buckwheat flour, not actually a wheat but a type of seed, has a rich nutty flavour that's also useful for "wholemeal" style gluten-free baking, and using 25g/1oz for every 500g/1lb 2oz of rice flour or cornflour helps to make bread loaves bigger and softer.

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What have your gluten-free successes been? Or any recipes you've found trickier? I'll try and help. Do let us know if you've found a website that's been helpful, or if you know of some tricks to improve all our gluten-free baking.

Dan Lepard is a food writer and baking expert.

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It was a mistake to use my beloved campervan on the new series of Rick Stein鈥檚 Spain. It will never be the same again. We were thinking of getting a little SEAT 600, the type of car used in the film of Graham Greene鈥檚 novel starring Alec Guinness, but it was far too small to carry Rick and the crew, plus all the equipment. In the end it was the man who composes all of our lovely music, Malcolm Ironton, who suggested my campervan would be the perfect vehicle for such a journey.

Rick regarded the VW camper as his after the tired old nag that Don Quixote rode on his famous adventures in La Mancha. He got very excited about the prospect of cooking in it. We were at the start of our journey near when he discovered numerous tins of beans, stewing steak and corned beef in the camper鈥檚 larder.听 鈥淲e won鈥檛 be needing these,鈥� he said in a slightly superior way, 鈥淣o, I鈥檓 planning to go to markets and cook real Spanish food鈥� not tins of beans.鈥澨� In fact, as it turned out cooking would be the easy bit 鈥� it was driving that proved to be a bit of a nightmare.

The brave Don Quixote had more chance of discovering the Holy Grail than Rick did of finding first gear in the campervan鈥檚 forgiving gearbox. 鈥淐runch! Scrawnch! Kerrang!鈥� would be the sounds that greeted us after breakfast as we set off for a new leg of the journey. My spirits plummeted 鈥� how could I let this happen? After all, I鈥檝e had this lovely old vehicle for over fifteen years.听 Memories of happy holidays, a sense of freedom and delicious meals are all wrapped up in the persona of this very special campervan.

鈥淭his ***ing gearbox is crap!鈥� Rick would shout fairly often as he shifted gears, taking pot luck on which one to choose. This amused the film crew no end and sometimes they鈥檇 clap when he found the right one. I鈥檇 give them my 鈥榮tare of a thousand deaths鈥�, but they still continued to giggle like naughty children. In the end I decided not to travel in the camper, it was more than my nerves could take and instead I chose to go in the crew car. Please don鈥檛 think Rick and I fell out about this, he鈥檚 still my second best friend and I really do think he鈥檚 the best cook on television by a very long way 鈥� but driving the campervan or 鈥楥ampy鈥� as she鈥檚 affectionately known, caused us a few headaches.

Sometimes we in the crew car would go ahead and find a vantage point to film Campy. I remember seeing the camper as a little white speck in a vast valley in the . The warm air would be full of birdsong and bees going about their business until Campy got closer to the camera. 鈥淪crawnch! Kerrang! Kerrunch!鈥� could clearly be heard as she bravely huffed and puffed up steep mountain passes. Sometimes Rick would surprise us and leave the handbrake on, leaving pretty trails of white smoke as Campy did her best to speed through the landscape of Rioja. If that wasn鈥檛 bad enough finding reverse proved to be the impossible dream.听 Another nail in Campy鈥檚 coffin but that鈥檚 another story...

Tune in tonight and see Campy in all her glory. Let us know what you think of the show - recipes from the first episode are online now.

David Pritchard is the Producer of Rick Stein鈥檚 Spain.

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This week鈥檚 edition of The Food Programme investigates the issue of in our food (artificial fats which are formed during a process called hydrogenation, which turns liquid oil into solid fat).听 A key part of the government鈥檚 public health policies are the - voluntary agreements with the food industry on the 鈥榟ealthiness鈥� of their products. Partners include a wide range of big companies, including听 KFC, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Pret A Manger and McDonalds. One of their aims is to get rid of trans fatty acids in their foods by the end of the year. But is that decision sufficient to get rid of a substance that, according to Professor Simon Capewell on this week鈥檚 The Food Programme, kills 35 people in the UK every two days?

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Vegetable oils are turned into solids or semi-solids by pumping them with hydrogen. The process creates artificial trans fatty acids. It鈥檚 a technique , but these fats didn鈥檛 become a big part of the mainstream diet until after World War Two. It then really took off in the 1970s when they were promoted as the answer to : margarines and spreads = good; butter = bad. And the food processing industry loved them - they were cheap, produced foods with a long shelf-life and anything made with them could be sold with the golden glow of healthiness.听

There were always farsighted sceptics, but the heavy duty evidence about the dangers of trans-fats didn鈥檛 begin to surface until about 20 years ago. Now they鈥檙e directly linked to heart attacks, the calls them toxic and . Evidence is also accumulating on the way they promote general inflammation in the body and on their .听

That鈥檚 enough evidence for in the UK. A ban needed, they say, because, as we saw recording on one of the main streets in West Bromwich with public health director ,听 voluntary agreements don鈥檛 cover thousands of takeaways and food shops in the poorer parts of Britain. There, and in similar streets all over the country, cheapness is what sells - and there are no fats quite as cheap as industrial trans-fats.

As we heard in the programme, in a recording made for us by the 大象传媒鈥檚 Asian Network, you don鈥檛 have to be poor to ruin your health with trans-fats. Thirty-something music producer told the story of how he lived happily on takeaways until he found himself in hospital on stroke alert, diagnosed with the arteries of a 70-year-old. You can get up-to-date information about health and nutrition on contributor Dr Alex Richardson鈥檚 .

The says a ban would be a sledgehammer to crack a nut. What do you think? Is a voluntary agreement by the food industry enough? Or do you think trans-fats should be banned as they are in Denmark, New York, California, Switzerland and Austria?

Sheila Dillon is the presenter of Radio 4鈥檚 The Food Programme.

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The very idea that I am to be featured as a cook on television - and on 大象传媒 One no less - is a bit surreal to me. I had always said, 鈥渘o - never! I just can't look into that terrible black hole!鈥� (the camera lens), addressing bewildered folk who thought I might be quite good at this kind of carry on, and quietly reassuring myself that no one with any sense would ever approach me anyway.

Then, quite suddenly, it was April 2010 and I was in a meeting with the 大象传媒 and I talked for England. The TV folk couldn't get a word in edgeways. I find when asked to talk about food. I can sprout forth with much enthusiasm - and rude opinion, let it be said - on the subject which is closest to my heart. And so, it began... The Good Cook series starts this Friday.

Although I am still involved in the restaurant where I was the inaugural chef in 1987, I hung up my apron for the final time in 1995, and haven't toiled in a professional kitchen since then. Quite simply, I like to cook and I like to cook well. I do it every day at home, often just for me and, occasionally, for one or two lunch guests. I never cook dinner parties, nor do I enjoy going out to them. There are one or two exceptions, but I will usually help with the cooking or take a dish I have made at home. When I stay with close friends in Kent, and also in Somerset, both of whom have especially nice kitchens, I always cook a lot. This is not expected; I just enjoy making something delicious for my hosts.

I will also shop anywhere. I know there are certain things I rely on at my local supermarket (boned and rolled breast of lamb for example; it鈥檚 tasty and cheap), or at my Saturday (fabulous, untreated Guernsey cream). I also love my very local Thai shop, not-quite-so local Iranian stores and a huge, very expensive organic emporium (extraordinarily delicious Italian butter in tins).

What I really wanted to achieve from this television series was to show how it can be so enjoyable and worthwhile spending a little time on cooking. As an end result you produce something utterly delicious. Making good food is not necessarily always easy (this has never fooled me!), and practice will always make perfect. You'll find a mixture of recipes drawn from my childhood, my restaurant career, and my most memorable meals - from coq au vin and baked pappardelle with pancetta and porcini to sticky toffee pudding and everyone's favourite, chocolate pot [coming to the website soon]. But I would be quite happy if just an occasional dish may catch your eye and cause you to think, 鈥測es, I think I would like to cook that too.鈥�

Cooking is my life. It is what I do. And you know what? I had a ball staring into that terrible black hole. I look forward to hearing what you think of the series and recipes.

Simon Hopkinson is a food writer and presenter of The Good Cook.

Catering your own wedding is often cited as an example of a , but if you鈥檝e got a burgeoning guest list and you don鈥檛 have much experience catering large events, think hard before you attempt it. If however, you fancy a challenge, are organised enough and have the right people around to help on the day, it鈥檚 not such a crazy idea. These three stories from share the highs and lows of doing it yourself (high: keeping within a budget of 拢10 a head; low: stress and emotions running high).

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First figure out if you have the work top, oven and fridge space to cook for all your guests. You also need to think about cutlery and crockery. Disposable is easiest, so try to source biodegradable tableware. It鈥檚 a good idea to look for deals in the supermarket on meat, and stock up your freezer in the months before the wedding to get ahead. On the day, if you are short of fridge space, you can hire fridges from catering companies.

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Chef Merrilees Parker catered for her wedding and she says, 鈥淒on鈥檛 attempt anything technically difficult. Concentrate on lovely ingredients, especially if it鈥檚 a summer wedding. I bought a selection of unusual tomatoes and potatoes to make two simple salads served with and slow-cooked beef. Shop for beautiful, seasonal ingredients and concentrate on stunning presentation. Think simply and visually鈥�. Look at this collection of wedding recipes for inspiration.

Do get your friends to pitch in if they can; say have someone make some p芒t茅 or a soup to start with. At a wedding I went to last year, my friend asked selected guests to bring a homemade cake as a replacement for a traditional wedding cake.

My other friends were conveniently both food retail store managers at the time they got married, so knew the cost price of their ingredients and how much they could save in catering. They pieced the food together from lots of individual suppliers - pork pies and quiches from the local butchers, olives from their shop supplier and massive vats of hummus were a wedding gift from a friend who made them herself.听 A glorious spread of asparagus, broccoli, cheese, Spanish cold meats and French bread laid out on each table also saved on serving staff.

Another option is to ask your guests to bring a dish each - although this can be tricky if they have to travel far. I know someone getting married this summer who has organised her seating plan by the dish each guest will bring to the table. It鈥檚 a slightly risky method as you鈥檙e relying on other people鈥檚 organisation (and cooking skills), but at least it means you don鈥檛 need to put a cap on the guest list.

As for drinks, if the venue allows you to bring your own drinks, you can save quite a bit of money. Here鈥檚 a to work out how much to buy - or there is always the option of making your big day !

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There are other ways to be involved in the food you serve, even if you don鈥檛 wish to cater the whole event. You could try making your own wedding cake, but remember you鈥檒l probably need someone else to assemble it on the day. Meringue makes a cheap, crowd-pleasing dessert dish. My food store manager friends had a massive pavlova as their wedding cake. The meringue came from a local cake maker and they decorated it themselves in the morning.

As for me, I wasn鈥檛 brave enough to face catering the whole event, but I did serve a selection of cheeses late in the evening and brought out some homemade chutneys. I was happy to add a personal touch, including .

Have you catered your own wedding? Or do you know anyone who has? Share your tips here. And even if you haven鈥檛 catered your own wedding, what would you make if given the chance?

Ramona Andrews is the host of the 大象传媒 Food Q&A blog and messageboard.

When the last crumb of office cake has been snaffled, there鈥檚 nothing quite like a picture of a mouth-wateringly beautiful (or just completely out-there) cake to bring a smile to our faces during a long afternoon on 大象传媒 Food.

From a baked 'Jarvis Caker' to an amazing asparagus creation, we present the best cakes to come through our virtual doors this month, in our 'cake wall of fame'.

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Put together by work experience whizz-kid Richard Wiltshire, and featuring...

• I am baker鈥檚
• Zoe Fletcher from 6Music鈥檚 Jarvis Caker (Zoe says, 鈥淚t was a Victoria sponge courtesy of Mary Berry, but with a bit of lemon zest and marmalade instead of jam. It went in two minutes flat - the gannets at 6Music were queuing up for a piece!")
• Call me cupcake鈥檚
• 叠补办别谤别濒濒补鈥檚
• 厂飞别别迟补辫辞濒颈迟补鈥檚 (two pictures)
• Crumbs and doilies鈥�
• Whisk kid鈥檚

We鈥檙e always on the look out for cakes to drool over. If you'd like to feature on our next cake wall of fame send us a link to your blog in the comments section below.

Ramona Andrews is the host of the 大象传媒 Food Q&A blog and messageboard.