With three games played and three to go, we’re at the halfway point of the rugby and it’s going to take something of a miracle for Ireland to make history and hold onto the trophy for a third successive year. However, speaking of history, we’ve decided to delve into the recipe archives and see if we can find any forgotten gems from each competing country.

1. Ireland – Lamb and Oyster Sausages

We start at home and discover a weird and wonderful sausage recipe from the early 19th century. Lamb and oyster sausages may have you recoiling in horror, but back then, oysters were plentiful around the coast and cooks would make use of them in much the same way modern cooks use anchovies today.

Until now, this interesting oyster recipe could only be found on the shelves of the National Library of Ireland in Dublin. The book, written by Mary Ponsonby in the early to mid-nineteenth century contains ‘Cooking Recipes and Medicinal Cures’.

Ingredients	Equipment
400g lamb	Meat tenderiser
400g suet	Sharp cook's knife
Dozen oysters	Non-stick frying pan
Salt, pepper & allspice
Flour
Butter

Method:

1. Take 400g of lamb and 400g of suet and pound together using your meat tenderiser until very fine. Season generously with allspice, salt and pepper.
2. Shuck your oysters and chop them into small chunks. Add them to your dry mixture together with all of the oyster liquor.
3. When you’ve mixed this all together, form into sausages and then dust with flour. In your non-stick pan, fry them up using plenty of butter.

2. Scotland – Fatty Cutty Recipe

Our search for a quintessentially Scottish recipe beyond the obvious led us to the moreish Fatty Cutty biscuits. South of the border in England, these buttery biscuits are referred to as singing hinnies, but, as you would expect, the Scottish version wipes the floor with the English.

Ingredients	Equipment
500g self-raising flour	Mixing bowl
200g butter	Rolling pin
100g caster sugar	Pastry cutters
150g currants	Frying pan
2 eggs

Method

1. To make your own fatty cutties, combine your butter and self-raising flour as if you were making pastry until it begins to resemble breadcrumbs.
2. Add your currants and caster sugar and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, beat your eggs together and add them slowly to the mixture until it forms a doughy texture. Add a drop of water to achieve this if necessary.
4. Roll out the dough until about 1cm thick and use your cutter to cut out your biscuits.
5. Fry up in a dry frying pan until the biscuits are nicely toasted and mottled on both sides.

3. England - Traditional English Eccles Cakes

Okay, we know – Eccles cakes are sold in supermarkets everywhere, how can they be a forgotten recipe? Well, they’re not quite, but as with most popular dishes, has the much loved traditional recipe been lost to the cheaper, mass produced versions? Perhaps!

The first reference to an Eccles-like recipe was found in a book called ‘The Experienced English Housekeeper’. Published in 1769, it was listed as sweet patties and the meat of a boiled calf's foot, oranges, apples, nutmeg, currants and French brandy. Whilst all those things sound great in their own right, combined our taste buds may have moved on a touch.

Instead, we present Winnie Swarbrick’s recipe tried, tested and approved by many of the world’s greatest chefs and food critics alive today.

Ingredients	Equipment
225g plain flour	Rolling Pin
175g unsalted butter	Sieve
125ml cold water	Mixing Bowl
Pinch of salt	Pastry Brush
115g currants	Dessert Spoon
15g caster sugar	Oven Tray
40g unsalted butter
Grated nutmeg
Milk, to glaze

Method

The Pastry

1. Sift the salt and the flour into a bowl. Chop the butter into 4 equal chunks and add a quarter of it to the salt and the flour. Rub together until a breadcrumb-like consistency is achieved. Add water bit by bit until the mixture forms elastic dough.
2. Roll the dough into a rectangle. Take another portion of butter, grate and spread evenly across two thirds of the surface.
3. Take the left edge and fold to centre then take the right edge and fold to centre, so that no butter remains exposed. Press the layers together and allow to rest for an hour. Repeat steps 2 & 3 twice.
4. After the last resting, roll out the dough until it is about ¼” thick, then cut out with a round 2 ¼” cutter.

The Filling

1. Mix together the currants, caster sugar and nutmeg in a bowl. Meanwhile, melt the butter and stir into the mixture before allowing to cool.
2. Once cooled, take a dessert spoon and place one spoonful in the centre of each pastry disc. Draw the edges of the pastry together, gently pinch to seal, flip them smooth side up and flatten slightly. Slice the top three times to expose the delicious filling and allow steam to escape whilst cooking. Brush with milk and sprinkle with an even coating of sugar for that gorgeous finishing touch.
3. With your oven set to about 180°C, bake the Eccles cakes for 15-20min, or until golden.

4. Italy – Old Italian Pollo Alla Cacciatore

Often found in Nonna’s kitchen, Alla Cacciatore is a typically delicious Italian recipe. Rich in flavour with hearty ingredients, it’s perfect for pub and restaurant-goers, yet rarely seen on our menus in Ireland.

Unlike modern Cacciatore, the traditional recipe does not call for tomatoes and would have been made using a mixture of veg foraged in the garden or the local woods.

In the method below, one whole chicken will produce four good servings, so add or take away depending on how many you’re cooking for.

Ingredients	Equipment
1 Whole chicken	Crockpot
1 Large onion	Chef's knife
3 Cloves of garlic	Red chopping board
300g / 11oz Mushrooms	Green chopping board
150g / 5½ oz Dry cured meat
To Taste
Rosemary
Sage	Wine
Thyme	Brown Vinegar

Method:

1. Chop up your chicken into large sized chunks, leaving the skin on and bones in for flavour at this point. Lightly dust with salt and pepper before browning in a pan big enough for your entire dish. Set the browned chicken aside and leave all of those tasty oils in the pan for step two.
2. Crush your garlic, slice the onion and dice the cured meat however fine you like it. Pop all of this straight into the pan and sauté.
3. Once all of your ingredients are sautéed nicely, turn up the heat on the pan and deglaze with a little brown vinegar.
4. Add your rosemary, sage and thyme and place your chicken back in. Coat with a good quality wine of your choice (white would traditionally have been used in Northern Italy, red in the south).
5. Cook until the chicken is falling off the bone.

5. Wales – Traditional Snowdonia Pudding

Eliza Acton was one of Wales’ first writers to compile a cookbook and in 1845 she provides us with a glimpse of the original Snowdonia pudding recipe almost two centuries ago.

The title of Eliza’s book has been shortened today to Modern Cookery for Private Families but in 1845 looked more like this: Modern Cookery, In All Its Branches: Reduced to a System of Easy Practice, for the Use of Private Families. In a Series of Practical Receipts, Which Have Been Strictly Tested, And are Given with the Most Minute exactness. The last few words of the original title are most telling, for Acton’s book was one of the very first cookery books that provided cooking times, lists of ingredients and exact quantities to use to achieve best results.

Acton’s Snowdonia Pudding is listed below, making use of simple ingredients to extract maximum flavour.

Ingredients	Equipment
2 Tablespoons melted butter	Mixing bowl
250g finely grated fresh beef suet (this can be swapped for vegetable suet but was not in the original recipe)	Dariole moulds
250g White breadcrumbs	Egg whisk
Six large eggs	Mixing spoon
45g ground rice	Aluminium foil
180g black sugar	Cooking string
80ml Lemon marmalade	Gastronorm tray
225g raisins	Weighing scales
Zest of two lemons
A pinch of salt

Method:

1. Line your dariole moulds with melted butter, beat your eggs and simply mix all of your ingredients together.
2. When mixed, spoon the batter into your moulds and create an air tight lid to ensure your puddings are beautifully moist. A double layer of foil held in place with cooking string should be strong enough.
3. Place your darioles into a pan or shallow gastronorm and fill with water until they are 2/3 full. Cook in the oven at 160 ° C or on the hob with the water bubbling nicely. After two hours, your Snowdonia Puddings should be perfect and ready to serve.

6. France – Onion Soup

Okay, so this is by no means a forgotten recipe, but in this modern world of instant gratification, how often do we cook our food for long enough that it develops all of its delicious flavours and textures? So our final recipe from the six rugby nations is exactly that: we’re encouraging you to place your onions in the oven and simply forget about them (for a while!).

For a truly deep and hearty flavour, set your oven to 160°C and grab your onions and your garlic. Chop your onions in half and generously toss them in oil leaving the skin on. With your garlic, chop 1cm or so off the top – again, leaving the skin on – and do the same with the oil. Season with crushed salt and pepper before wrapping in kitchen foil and placing in the oven for at least 40 minutes.

The edges will char and the consistency will turn to a gorgeous thick paste. Continue as you would normally with your favourite onion soup and you will have a wonderful roasted flavour that you will come back to time and time again.