T is for Traditional Foods
Traditional foods, eaten for generations, nourish our sense of national identity and increase the pleasure of what’s on the plate. They matter. But do we pay enough attention to them? And what exactly is traditional?
Slow Food UK has now put 44 British foods into an ‘Ark of Taste’, from South Downs sheep to Yorkshire forced rhubarb and Shetland cabbage. This international Slow Food project seeks to protect traditional foods and its website goes into detail about each one. The aim is to keep biodiversity on the menu and eat such produce into a secure future. More UK foods are heading toward the Ark and a logo will be used to draw attention to their special status.
The initiative feeds into a debate about what a ‘true’ tradition is and how you protect them. The EU has legal categories of ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ (PDO) and ‘Protected Geographical Indication’ (PGI) which seek to keep produce distinctive to its place and traditions. But critics say the definitions spread the net too wide. A PGI Cornish pasty can be mass-produced, for example, which could make it very different from a proper pasty.
An interesting case is the Stilton and Stichelton discussion. The PDO for Stilton doesn’t allow unpasteurised milk to be used. Stichelton is a delicious blue cheese made like a Stilton, but not allowed to use this name because it is made from raw milk. Slow Food’s Ark of Taste entry on traditionally made farmhouse ‘stilton’ (with a small s and inverted commas to show the difference) says the cheese was originally made from unpasteurised milk and is distinctive from creamery Stiltons. Such definitions may sound like a storm on a cheeseboard, yet they are an important part of keeping real traditions alive.
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