Bath (England) is primarily famous for Jane Austen and the Roman baths, but there’s another (tastier) side to Bath’s history. It’s also famous for Bath buns, Bath Oliver biscuits, Sally Lunn bunns, and Bath Soft Cheese.
I tried all of them on a recent visit and found my favorites were the Sally Lunn bunns, the Bath Soft Cheese and some random fudge that was spectacular.
But let’s talk about the history of each. The Bath Bun was ‘invented’ by Dr. William Oliver, born in Cornwall in 1695. He came to Bath in 1728 and started a practice specializing in rheumatic diseases. He’s credited with creating the Bath Bun (similar to a hot-cross bun), which originally was laced with dried fruit and included a lump of sugar in the middle. It even had candy-coated caraway seeds on top and could include saffron (grown nearby in Saffron Walden). It was so popular that a machine-made version was served at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and sold almost 1 million of them in just under 6 months!
He came to feel that many of his rich and famous patients were suffering because of their equally rich diets (thanks in no small part to his popular Bath buns), so he set out to create something easily digested but healthy and nourishing. In 1750, he created the recipe for Bath Oliver biscuits (crackers) incorporating flour, milk, butter, malt and hops. The dough was fermented, then twice-baked into a flat, thick round cracker.
If you look carefully at the biscuit (or more easily, at the wrapper), there’s a pin-pricked silhouette of Dr. Oliver on each biscuit. The story goes that when Dr. Oliver died in 1764, he left the recipe to his coachman, who promptly set up in business and became rich. Since then, several bakers have claimed to make the original recipe.
http://www.thebathbun.com/our-history.html
The Sally Lunn bunn (their preferred spelling) has a more romantic history, and the people at the Sally Lunn Eating House claim that it predates and inspired the Bath bun. The story goes that a young French Huguenot fled to Bath to avoid religious persecution in Catholic France, arriving in 1680. The Sally Lunn bunn is eggier and richer (like a French brioche) and is a softer dough that requires baking in a hoop in order to keep its shape. It’s also much larger than the Bath bun and half of one serves as a base for sweet or savory toppings, including stews and even curries.
I had lunch at the original eating house and found the bunn to be very much like a giant fluffy hamburger bun. They slice the bunn in half horizontally and generally serve the toasted tops with butter or jam for breakfast and the bottoms (also toasted) with savory toppings for lunch. The popular Welsh rarebit bunn was quite filling and very enjoyable.
Sadly, authoritative sources say none of these origin stories are true, but who wants to listen to experts throwing cold water on our buns?
The origin of Bath Soft Cheese is somewhat less in doubt, according to the current producer, the Padfield family of Park Farm. The local Bath Cheese was well known in the 18th and 19th centuries and features in a letter to Admiral Horatio Nelson from his father:
My dear Horatio, – On Tuesday next I intend (God willing) to leave Bath and tho’ not very strong, yet, hope to reach Lothian on Thursday, as I must remain a few days in London, let me not interrupt any of your engagements.
Recollecting that Sir William and Lady Hamilton seemed gratified by the flavour of a cream cheese, I have taken the liberty of sending 2 or 3 cheeses of Bath manufacture.
I am my dear Son your most affectionate Edmund Nelson
After starting up the family farm’s cheese production again in 1990, “Graham Padfield tracked down the recipe for Bath Cheese in an old grocer’s recipe book. It stipulates that the cheese must be made with full cream milk, that salt be sprinkled on the young cheeses with the aid of a feather, and that the cheese was soft and covered with white mould.”
The cheese is soft like a Brie but with a stronger flavor. As it ages, it becomes even creamier until it is spreadable like butter, but with a pungent smell and taste. (My sample stayed in my suitcase, unrefrigerated, for several days before I got to a refrigerator. Next time I go through Customs, the food-detecting dogs are going to have a field day.)
Now to a non-traditional but delicious finish… fudge. I don’t generally like fudge… it’s too sweet, too grainy and tastes of nothing but sugar. Fudge from The Fudge Kitchen, on the other hand, is smooth and rich and not tooth-achingly sweet. I had the Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt fudge. If you like fudgy brownies, it’s like eating the gooey center, but in concentrated form.
https://www.fudgekitchen.co.uk/
SF Food Concierge 