D. ENGLAND .sx FOCUS ON ENGLISH FARE .sx AT an old-established hotel in an East Coast resort there is an unusual notice on the bottom of the menu card :sx 'Epicures agree that English food well cooked is the best in the world .sx For this reason , this hotel specializes in the finest English cooking , and nothing canned or twice cooked is ever served .sx ' An admirable and unexpected statement which is to be backed by a twelve-month campaign to promote British Food , launched by the British Farm Produce Council .sx It includes staging four large-scale exhibitions at major urban centres throughout the United Kingdom , twelve displays in stores in regional towns and joint ventures with such organizations as the Townswomen's Guilds , the Gas Council , Electricity Boards and the Scottish , Welsh and Northern Ireland Development Boards .sx The first large-scale show is to be held in London from 11-16 September .sx The Council's chairman , Mr. W. R. Trehane , commenting on the campaign , said :sx 'British shoppers should certainly be well aware of the quality food that comes from their own farmers and growers by the end of the year .sx ' And the farming community should be especially pleased that its products are to get such a tremendous boost just where it would be most effective- on the customer's doorstep , he added .sx The British Farm Produce Council was launched in the autumn of 1960 .sx Its basic aims are to tell the buying public more about British food , how to choose and how to cook it , and to let farmers and growers know that the shopper thinks about their products .sx The Council has plenty to go upon for the range of English foods is amazingly wide .sx A restaurant in the West End offered its customers a choice of no fewer than 500 recipes of Old English fare , and these were selected from as many as fifteen hundred recipes .sx The first menu included a milk soup from Sussex , a star gazy pie from Cornwall , herrings , beef olives from Cheshire with dumplings and green peas , and a Welbeck pudding from Nottinghamshire .sx These merely touch the fringe of the possibilities , as was evident when a Folk Cookery exhibition was staged , for there were to be seen eatables with the most delightful names .sx They included Yule cakes eaten in Yorkshire between Christmas Day and New Year's Day ; Sedgmoor Easter cakes ; 'Tyneside Yule Doos,' childish figures supposed to represent the Infant Jesus , and made by Tyneside mothers for their children on baking day ; 'Checky pigs' from Leicestershire ; Lardy cakes and wafers for Mothering Sunday , from Devizes ; Devonshire applecake ; Bakewell tart from Derbyshire ; Deddington pudding pies ; Cornish 'black cake' ; Burying cake , from an old English recipe ; Yorkshire oatcake , made in strips ; Melton Mowbray pork pie ; gilt gingerbread from Bute ; parkin from Yorkshire ; Grasmere gingerbread , which looks like shortbread ; Congleton gingerbread with rice-paper underneath ; and Coventry 'God Cake' , which dates back to the fourteenth or fifteenth century , given when a godchild was christened or made its first communion .sx It is a pastry cake after the style of a Banbury cake and in the shape of an isosceles triangle .sx It is slashed across the middle and ornamented with sugar .sx One of the most delightful exhibits ever put on was seen in the Gothic Hall of Lacock Abbey , four miles from Chippenham .sx Local dishes from all over the British Isles were displayed in rich profusion , and some of the most interesting were seen in the making .sx Dainties still made today , like Welsh bakestone loaf , Selkirk bannocks , and Dublin barm brack , were shown in company with more strictly period exhibits such as Queen Henrietta Maria's morning broth- for in Charles =1's day they took chicken broth for breakfast- and salmagundi , a favourite supper dish in the eighteenth century and obviously the ancestor of 6hors d'oeuvre .sx Dishes similar to those displayed must have been cooked and eaten centuries ago at Lacock Abbey .sx Some ancient kitchen implements belonging to the abbey were also on show .sx A great pestle and mortar seen were said to have been there since the time of Sir William Sharington , the first lay owner of Lacock Abbey after the Dissolution .sx A venerable mould , in the form of an elephant , was used to make a cake exhibited .sx Among loans from elsewhere were a set of fine moulds for gingerbread from the Pump Room at Bath .sx Gingerbread figures properly gilded , proved that the moulds are as good today as ever they were .sx River crayfish , boiled as scarlet as any lobster , came from the river in the grounds of Lacock Abbey .sx The late Miss F. White , who founded the English Folk Cookery Association prepared a unique gastronomic map .sx She used to go about the country collecting information concerning food much as Cecil Sharp used to go about in his work of research for folk-songs and dances , and she plotted her discoveries on a Gastronomic Map .sx Looking over this one noticed such names as Coventry Godcake mentioned above , and Stuffed Chine at Clee in Lincolnshire ; and found that Melton Mowbray is as famous for curd cheese-cakes as for its pork pies .sx Stuffed Chine , by the way , is a famous old dish at Clee for Trinity Sunday , the custom being for a chine of bacon stuffed with herbs to form part of the dinner .sx The curd cheese-cakes of Melton Mowbray are a great dish for Whit-Sunday .sx It is said that there are enough of these cakes made for the festival to pave the whole town .sx Every county is , rightly , jealous of its folk-cookery tradition , and there is no doubt that the north of England is strong in this respect .sx A list of inns , hotels , and restaurants where good local dishes could be enjoyed mentioned for Yorkshire alone :sx Barnsley chops , curd cheese-cakes , oven cakes , sly cakes , Doncaster butterscotch , oatmeal fritters , bilberry pies , Yorkshire batter pudding , brandy snap , spiced bread , Sheffield polony , potted shrimps , frumenty , Wensleydale cheese , apple cheese-cakes , primrose vinegar , fish pie , turf cakes , bakestone cakes , parkin , and gingerbread .sx References were made to the Yorkshire practice of eating cheese with cake , and there was a consensus of opinion that ham and eggs as served in the county is a succulent dish .sx Scotland is too often neglected or overlooked , and so it is good that a little book of Scottish recipes has been compiled 'primarily for visitors to Scotland , " lost " Scots and others' .sx The recipes range from soups , puddings and pies , cakes and shortbreads , to many other intriguing items such as Parlies or Scottish Parliament Cake , Athol Brose , Cranachan or Cream-Crowdie , and Tatties an' Herrin' .sx It has been asked :sx what are the predominant characteristics of Scottish cookery ?sx The answer :sx simplicity , good sense and an instinct for dietetic values , and what more could one ask ?sx One of the most historic of country dishes is dumplings .sx One recalls that celebrated farmhouse dinner described in Cranford , which Miss Matty only half-enjoyed because the delicate young peas would drop between the prongs of the old-fashioned two-pronged forks , and gentility forbade her to imitate her host and shovel them up on the blade of her knife .sx Mr. Holbrook , her old suitor , was right to be unceremonious with his peas , and he was right also , in his blunt way , about the use of dumplings to stay the appetite .sx 'When I was a young man , we used to keep strictly to my father's rule , " No broth , no ball :sx no ball , no beef , " and always began dinner with broth .sx Then we had suet puddings , boiled in the broth with the beef ; and then the meat itself .sx If we did not sup our broth , we had no ball , which we liked a deal better ; and the beef came last of all , and only those had it who had done justice to the broth and the ball .sx ' Being a Cheshire man , Mr. Holbrook was probably unacquainted with the Norfolk dumpling , which goes one step further in the direction of economy by dispensing with the suet .sx This recalls that brave and manly eighteenth-century Norfolk incumbent , the Rev. James Woodforde , whose diary has only one rival , that of Pepys .sx On one occasion , after a good dinner and a bad night , he noted :sx 'Mince pye rose oft .sx ' If this is not literary style- the expression of meaning with a minimum of words and a maximum of effect- one would be interested to learn of a better example .sx Woodforde's life was humdrum in some respects , but it had its difficulties .sx Of these , along with the smooth , he made the best , taking life as it came , without repining or vain hopes , and contriving to get a good deal of satisfaction for himself and others out of it , not least from his food .sx His meals were like himself , good and honest , and one quotes this typical meal :sx 'st .sx Course :sx boiled Tench , Pea Soup , a Couple of boiled Chicken and pigs Face , hashed Calf's Head , Beans , and roasted Rump of Beef with New Potatoes etc. 2nd .sx Course :sx roasted Duck and green Peas , a very fine Leveret roasted , Strawberry Cream , Jelly , Puddings etc. Dessert- Strawberries , Cherries and last Year's nonpareils .sx ' English cooking at its best .sx ANNE MORRIS .sx MUSHROOMS- WILD AND TAME .sx 'THE steak is excellent , but the mushrooms don't taste like mushrooms !sx ' This was the comment , heard during dinner in a restaurant , which sent me off in search of Psalliota Campestris- the common white field mushroom- and the reason why 'mushrooms don't taste like mushrooms .sx ' The first thing I discovered was that the common white field mushroom is common no longer .sx In fact , it is in danger of disappearing completely .sx Present-day farming methods are to blame- or so I was told by a local farmer , who explained that all the mushrooms had disappeared from his 'home' field since he had treated the grass with a chemical fertilizer .sx A botanist at our local museum agreed with the farmer .sx He said , however , that this was not the only reason why there were so few mushrooms in our fields today .sx Mushrooms , it seems , like old pastures , where the soil has lain undisturbed for decades .sx Such pastures are becoming increasingly rare .sx The preference is for 'ley' farming in which grasslands are ploughed and re-seeded every few years .sx This process breaks up a complex underground rooting system , which takes many years to re-establish .sx Yet another contributory factor is the disappearance of the horse from our farms .sx Indeed , if it were not for the numerous riding schools and racing stables throughout the country , mushrooms would be an ever greater luxury than they already are .sx For , even in these enlightened days , mushroom growers have not found a perfect substitute for stable manure on which to base their hot-beds .sx Even so , cultivated mushrooms are booming .sx Their popularity has increased enormously during the last ten years or so .sx For instance , in one small part of Nottinghamshire alone there are eight flourishing mushroom farms , and , according to a grower I talked to , they have no difficulty in disposing of their crops .sx From that , it would appear that mushroom-growing is an attractive proposition .sx Alas , there are snags .sx The first is that it is expensive .sx The cardboard baskets , for instance , in which the grower packs his mushrooms for the wholesalers , cost him sixpence each !sx In the 'off' season- the summer months- he may only receive two shillings a pound which , when the costs of spawn , manure , etc. , heat , labour , and depreciation of buildings , etc. , are taken into account , doesn't leave a very great margin of profit !sx Moreover mushrooms are a very risky crop .sx They may appear in abundance- or they may not appear at all .sx Or they may become diseased .sx If that should happen the entire crop is lost and the beds must be rested for some months to clear the infection .sx 'But why don't they taste like mushrooms ?sx ' I asked the grower .sx He laughed .sx 'I suppose you mean , why don't they taste like field mushrooms,' he said .sx 'And the answer to that is , they are a different variety .sx You don't expect a Cox's Orange Pippin to taste like a Grannie Smith , do you ?sx It's the same with mushrooms .sx Even in the wild varieties there are at least two well-marked kinds .sx