A Proper English Wedding [watching party]

My Bride and I are planning to get up early on Saturday to watch the Royal Wedding.

We would love to set the proper mood and serve appropriate food as well as forgoing the usual coffee and serve tea.

The traditional scones are not an issue as they have become quite popular but tea sandwiches appear to be more of a challenge.

I did check several area English pubs but they are geared more towards lunch and dinner items.

Russian Tea Time has a few items
http://russianteatime.com/afternoon-tea-service/
77 E Adams St, Chicago

Serenitea Tea Cafe also appears to be a possible source.
1046 Pleasant St, Oak Park
http://www.sereniteaoakpark.com/menu.html

I am sure there must be a deli or bakery that will also be able to supply our needs?

Suggestions welcome as I am sure we are not the only ones with this need.

Thanks in advance!

Wouldn't sandwiches be soggy by the time you ate them?

Serve the scones and pots of tea.

The night before have ready egg salad, curried chicken, softened butter, smoked salmon. Have cucumbers to hand.

With guests at party slice loaf of white sandwich bread removing the crusts and assemble curried chicken and egg salad sandwiches (extra decadence,and no vegetarians, top with a bit of fish roe), take butter and smear on white bread and top with cucumber discs.

Grab a loaf of dark bread , and a small biscuit/cookie cutter and remove discs from the center of the slice. Add a smidge of softened butter, a bit of salmon, a sprig of dill.

You can also go all out with lobster or crab for sandwiches. Serve crustless quiche made in muffin tins also and muffins w/potted cream.

Good quality tea is at Tea Gschwendner (sp). If you aren’t doing a pot for each guest, get a good black ( I adore Earl Grey # 69) also consider a Darjeeling and then do a non-black, maybe hibiscus/jamaica makes sense.

Oh and ask Cathy2!

pairs4life wrote:Serve the scones and pots of tea.

The night before have ready egg salad, curried chicken, softened butter, smoked salmon. Have cucumbers to hand.

With guests at party slice loaf of white sandwich bread removing the crusts and assemble curried chicken and egg salad sandwiches (extra decadence,and no vegetarians, top with a bit of fish roe), take butter and smear on white bread and top with cucumber discs.

Grab a loaf of dark bread , and a small biscuit/cookie cutter and remove discs from the center of the slice. Add a smidge of softened butter, a bit of salmon, a sprig of dill.

You can also go all out with lobster or crab for sandwiches. Serve crustless quiche made in muffin tins also and muffins w/potted cream.

Good quality tea is at Tea Gschwendner (sp). If you aren’t doing a pot for each guest, get a good black ( I adore Earl Grey # 69) also consider a Darjeeling and then do a non-black, maybe hibiscus/jamaica makes sense.

All this sounds spot on to me, except that there might be some watercress missing.

Just wrote a piece about staging a "proper" English tea. I interviewed the GM (Andrew Pike) at a London hotel. Here's the essence of his direction:


“Sandwiches are easy to make but the most likely to disappoint,” Pike says, a slight frown creeping across his otherwise jovial countenance. “People put in too little. The filling — meat, cheese, and so on — must be just about the thickness of one slice of the bread.”

“The classic tea accompaniments are cucumber sandwiches, with the cucumber sliced thin, on buttered bread,” says Pike, “as well as ham and mustard, egg salad with watercress, and salmon. It’s traditional to make the sandwiches with a few different breads (light, dark, wheat, etc.). Making sandwiches for tea is very like making sandwiches for a toddler — cut off the crusts and then cut each sandwich into three thin slices.”

At the Milestone, scones are served as a bridge between the savory and the sweet courses. They come right from the oven, “because we want our guests to enjoy the scones warm,” explains Pike, “and you should never serve the savory and sweet items together. That would be boorish.”

Pike suggests that “the host traditionally serves the guest, and everything is usually presented on a three-tiered plate rack, not a buffet.” Such formalities, however, are flexible, particularly in the former colonies.

Pike recommends breaking or cutting the scone in half and applying jam before you layer on the Devonshire cream. “That way,” he says, “the cream doesn’t melt on the hot scone and become little more than butter. The jam forms a barrier between the warm cake and the cream, and you can enjoy the texture and richness of the still cool cream.”

After the savory sandwiches and scones come the sweet items. Macarons are “a must,” says Pike, as are tarts and cupcakes.

A high-quality restaurant or tea room will give guests the option of several different teas. Darker teas, like Assam or Earl Grey, are served with the savory items, and fruit-forward teas are served with the sweeter ones. Just as you would serve different wines with different courses of a dinner, you can serve teas at different points in the tea service.

The British, unlike many in Asia and other tea-drinking nations, prefer milk in their tea, a carry-over from colonial days when much of the tea coming into the country was harsh and needed milk’s creaminess to take the edge off. All of which raises the big question: Does one add tea to milk or milk to tea? “In Georgian times,” says Pike,” the china cups were very thin, and it was thought that they might break when hot tea was poured into them. So, they poured in milk first, then hot tea.”

You can find the article here: http://makeitbetter.net/dining/how-serv ... ing-party/

Hi,

I had a reply to this thread yesterday, then accidentally closed the window.

First course: Those fun little sandwiches. At our tea this year, we served:
Scottish Smoked Salmon Pinwheels
Beef Tenderloin Triangles
Roast Turkey Triangles
Cucumber & Watercress Leaves
Egg Salad Rounds
Chicken Salad
Open Face Asparagus Rounds
Open Face French Brie & Cranberry Chutney

Second course:
Raisin Scones with fresh lemon curd,
Strawberry preserves & Devonshire cream

Third course: Pie with a bit of whipped cream, I think a bakery apple slice would be perfect.

Fourth course: An assortment of Elegant Petit Fours & Pastries

The caterer I use serves a mixture of English Breakfast and Earl Grey tea.

I hope you will send us pictures of your feast.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:I hope you will send us pictures of your feast.

Regards,
Cathy2

What she said.

Oh and if you are really feeling posh do Lapsang Souchong for the black tea. https://gph.is/2Etmmmu

pairs4life wrote:Lapsang Souchong

Used to add it to a court bullion and poach salmon in it.

This is awesome.

Thanks!

Updated!!!

Looking forward to Saturday and thanks again for all the suggestions!

There are a few items hopefully that there will be suggestions on where to buy...

Devonshire Cream
Found it at the local Whole Foods but it was out of stock

Cornichons
Found it at the local, better Jewel...


I liked Cathy’s sequencing of...
1) Savory
2) Scones (and bakery)
3) Sweet Bakery
4) Sweets

Also, the variety of tea sandwiches is overwhelming! Since this is my first foray into this I will start with one simple sandwich supplemented with some store bought (it is just the two of us).

Here is a list of sandwich ingredients recommended on this thread...

egg salad
curried chicken
Chicken Salad
smoked salmon
lobster
crab
Beef Tenderloin
Roast Turkey
Ham
Brie
Asparagus
watercress
cucumber
softened butter

On salads sandwiches add extra decadence top with a bit of fish roe

Here was an awesome online resource for other tea sandwiches...

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/art ... sandwiches

Thanks again! You guys rock!

It was a wonderful morning!

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1 ... 1025679231

If the link doesn’t work I will repost the pictures here

What kind of tea and sandwiches?

Looks lovely.

pairs4life wrote:What kind of tea and sandwiches?

Looks lovely.

We had Assam tea for the savory course and then Earl Gray for the sweet.

I made a chicken salad with mustard and tarragon and out local tea shop was more than gracious to provide unassembled watercress and cucumber, roast beef and provolone, and another creamy chicken salad. I was able to quickly assemble in the morning.

Serenitea Tea Cafe
1046 Pleasant St, Oak Park

They also supplied scones with toppings, cupcakes, cookies and the teas.

Once the primary event was over My Bride did have a little trouble napping but by the time for her second nap she was fine.

I did look into the Lapsang Souchong as recommended but that had a strong, smoky aroma that would of overpowered many of the items. Looking forward to an occasion to give it a try!

I think folks either love it or hate it. I can drink it anytime and if you add cream it is always perfect.

pairs4life wrote:I think folks either love it or hate it. I can drink it anytimr and if you add cream it is always perfect.

I am very interested in giving it a try as it smelled heavenly!

I am thinking, with a curry dish or maybe an American bent, with BBQ.

Thanks for introducing me to it.

Panther in the Den wrote:overpowered navy

That's impossible! Britannia rules the waves!

Katie wrote:

Panther in the Den wrote:overpowered navy

That's impossible! Britannia rules the waves!

>many

Hi,

Has anyone seen a description of the 'dirty hamburger,' served at their evening party?

I did a quick search to find there are many 'dirty burger' variants. I'm curious what they may have actually eaten.

Regards,
Cathy2