About The English Pantry
I grew up in a Victorian house in Ely, near Cambridge. At the back of the house there was the traditional scullery kitchen, living room and - the most enticing of places - a large square pantry.
My mother kept the pantry stocked with jams and pickles, cakes and bread - and all the foodstuffs for her cooking. And on the floor sat my father’s bottles of fermenting wine and beer which gurgled away, releasing gas through a strange glass bottle top - and occasionally exploding!
On the very top shelf of the pantry there was always something made of chocolate. And when I thought it was safe I would take a chair into this little square room and stand on it to see what goodies were hidden away up there.
Many of us don’t have a pantry these days. I myself have a wooden pantry cupboard. But we can still live by the principles of the pantry. Making preserves for the winter using the bounty of the summer, making our own cakes and breads - and filling our homes with tasty, nutritious and heart-warming things.