Afternoon Tea Week – the best time for a scone?
Henry James wrote in The Portrait of a Lady that “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” The novel, published in 1881, reflects the popularity of afternoon tea in the late Victorian era. Over 150 years later, the British custom is now part of our culture and is celebrated during Afternoon Tea Week in August each year.
Overview
Tess Warnes, allmanhall’s Registered Dietitian, is a member of the British Dietetic Association, supporting allmanhall’s care home clients to provide the optimum nutrition for their residents. What does this have to do with afternoon tea?
Eating together is a core human activity and is important for building social groups. Eating with others can also help increase appetite and food intake. Food is often an important part of living with purpose for older adults, including those resident in care settings.
Rachael highlights that “Afternoon tea, with its tradition of eating dainty snacks together, is the perfect occasion for care homes to bring together their residents and provide an appetising selection of treats to encourage both their appetites and their social interaction.”
It also gives care home caterers a great opportunity to provide residents with, or who are risk of, malnutrition, with those vital extra calories through simple, nutrient-dense (so providing more than just calories) snacks.
Tess and Rachael uncover the origins of afternoon tea and then give practical tips for boosting the nutrition of the traditional ingredients for your residents.
How did afternoon tea originate?
Afternoon Tea was introduced in England by Anna Maria Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, sometime around 1840. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at nine o’clock, thus leaving a long period of time between lunch and dinner. The Duchess, one of Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting, would become hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon and wanted something small to see her through until dinnertime. Anna asked for a tray of tea, bread and butter and cake to be brought to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit, and she soon began inviting her friends to join her.
During the 1880s more and more aristocratic and society ladies began to adopt Anna’s custom, and afternoon tea was served in their drawing rooms between four and five o’clock. This more intimate, home-based occasion allowed women to entertain mixed company at home without their husbands and was therefore liberating, both socially and practically. This freedom continued into the dresses they wore, which were made with less constricting corsetry and more light, flowing fabrics. Who would have thought that a simple snack could revolutionise the role of women in society?
The tradition of afternoon tea continues to this day with a selection of finger sandwiches (including thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches), scones served with clotted cream and jam, miniature cakes and sweet pastries.
Why are cucumber sandwiches part of a traditional afternoon tea?
The tradition of the cucumber sandwich dates back to 19th century India when, due to the extreme heat, British Army officers were served refreshing, crisp cucumber sandwiches in tea houses. Cucumbers have a high water content, so were both hydrating and cooling.
The snack returned to Britain with the officers and then became popular as part of afternoon tea in their high society homes. However, as cucumbers weren’t available year-round then, and were difficult to procure, they were only available to the upper classes.
Cucumber sandwiches have even become a part of our literary history. In Oscar Wilde’s comedy of manners, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Algernon, one of the main characters, famously eats all the cucumber sandwiches that were prepared for his Aunt Augusta (Lady Bracknell) before her arrival. Wilde uses the sandwich as a symbol of upper-class social convention.
Do you put jam or cream first on your scone?
Scones are an integral part of afternoon tea. Baked plain or with sultanas, scones are usually enjoyed with strawberry jam and clotted cream.
Clotted cream has a butterfat content of 55%, while semi-skimmed milk’s fat content is 2%, but how is it actually made? The cream is gently baked and then the crust starts to appear as the richest bits rise to the top in the cooking process.
The mild climate in Southwest England encouraged the creation of thick or ‘clotted’ cream, and Devon and Cornwall have now become intrinsically linked with clotted cream.
The most famous clotted cream is Rodda’s which has been made in Cornwall since 1890 and is supplied to allmanhall’s clients through our largest supply partner. Their ‘Cornish clotted cream’ has been registered as a PDO or Protected Designation of Origin, for a guarantee of quality and authenticity.
Once the scone has been split in two, the all-important question is in what order should the clotted cream and strawberry jam be added. In Devon, cream is put onto the scone first before the jam, while in Cornwall, the jam always goes on first.
allmanhall should obviously be neutral as we’re based in Wiltshire but… definitely jam first!
For a traditional scone recipe, you can use Rodda’s Claire’s School Scones, but for something a little different to update your seasonal menus as we move into Autumn, go for Bidfood’s Chocolate Cherry Scones.
And the icing on the cake...
Why is this of interest to care home caterers?
Catering for people who are at risk of malnutrition or who are malnourished is a big part of food provision in care homes.
When working in a care home setting the most important guidance to be aware of is the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 14 Meeting nutritional and hydration needs. This makes it clear that care homes must meet the nutritional and hydration needs of service users and states that.
“A variety of nutritious, appetising food should be available to meet people’s needs”.
How can you fortify afternoon tea for your residents?
Tess has some great care home menu ideas for fortifying all the key elements.
Savoury
– Add cream cheese to cucumber sandwiches for more protein
– Provide cheese scones as well as traditional plain or fruit varieties
– Offer egg mayonnaise sandwiches – one egg has 6g protein and 75kcal
Sweet:
– Add nut butter (peanut, almond or cashew) to banana sandwiches on wholemeal bread for added protein and fibre
– Peanut butter cookies or almond florentines work well alongside traditional sponge cakes
Drinks:
– Add dried skimmed milk powder to dairy milk to add to tea or coffee
– Offer fortified milkshakes with added dried skimmed milk powder and nut butter
– Fortify fruit juice by adding egg white powder
By encouraging your residents to share afternoon tea together, and celebrate Afternoon Tea Week, you not only increase their nutrient and calorie intake, but give them the opportunity to share memories of their own afternoon tea experiences and recipes.
If you need more nutrition and dietetic advice, not just for afternoon tea but other mealtimes, get in touch with the allmanhall team now.