How to Make Splits and Scones — The Victorian Way

Today, Mrs Crocombe is making a classic teatime delicacy: scones to go with jam and cream. She's also preparing Devonshire Splits, a lesser-known dessert from the county of Devon where Mrs Crocombe herself was born.

INGREDIENTS (Splits)
• 1 tbsp dried yeast
• ½ tsp sugar
• 225ml / 8floz warm milk
• 115g / 4oz butter (salted) plus a little extra for finishing
• 1oz / 25 g lard
• 675 g / 1 ½ lb flour

METHOD (Splits)
Combine the yeast, sugar and half of the milk in a bowl with 1 tbsp of the flour and leave until bubbly. Heat the remaining milk with the butter and lard. Make a well in the centre of your flour, and add the milk and the yeast mixtures and work into a soft, supple dough. Rise, covered, for 2-3 hours until doubled in size. Shape into small rolls and rise for a further 30-45mn. Bake at 200C for around 25-30mn. Remove from the oven and rub each roll with butter before wrapping in a clean cloth until cool. Serve split in two with cream and jam on the side (and butter, if you like).

INGREDIENTS (Scones)
• 450g / 1lb flour
v55g / 2oz butter
• 5g / 2oz caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cream of tartar
• ½ tbsp bicarbonate of soda
• 300ml / ½ uk pt milk

METHOD (Scones)
Rub the butter into the flour and then add the sugar and raising agents. Add the milk and mix it into a very stiff dough. Roll it briskly and gently on a cold slab and either cut into single scones or make into several larger ones which you should divide nearly through in quadrants (so that they pull apart into four triangles when cooked). Bake at 200C for 15-20mn. Serve warm or cold. If intended for breakfast or savoury toppings, leave out the sugar.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:47 For these recipes...
01:29 Splits
04:12 Scones
08:24 Presentation

[EnglishHeritage]

We hope you enjoy today's recipe with Mrs Crocombe! As always, we asked our resident food historian Dr Annie Gray to answer some questions you might have...

Q: What is compressed yeast?
A: In 1881 Mrs Crocombe would have had access to two main types of yeast: brewer’s yeast and compressed or German yeast. The former was exactly as you’d imagine, a liquid form of yeast which came from the brewing industry. It wasn’t very reliable, and so most bakers used the imported compressed types instead. Today these are sold as ‘fresh’ yeast. They are best mixed with a little water and sugar to activate them before use. In 2024 we’d recommend using dried yeast instead because it is very consistent.

Q: What is the trough Mrs Crocombe is using to work her dough?
A: This is Audley’s bread kneading trough. These – and much bigger versions – were commonly used to make bread and kept just for that purpose. They were scraped rather than washed, and acted as a reservoir for yeasts, meaning that every dough benefitted from the flavours of the previous batch. It was a way of getting a little extra complexity into the dough without veering down the dreaded sourdough route, since in the nineteenth century English worldview this was associated with the poor or people who didn’t make beer – i.e the Scottish and the French.

Q: Why was fine white flour expensive when Mrs Crocombe was young?
A: Until the advent of roller milling in the 1860s, flour had to be milled using stones powered by water or steam, and then ‘bolted’ through cloths. Mechanisation had helped streamline the process, but it was still pretty onerous – plus the flour went rancid after about six months. With roller milling, the wheatgerm could be removed (along with much of the nutrition, incidentally), and a much finer grind achieved much more easily. Add to that high quality imports from Eastern Europe and North America, and a quiet flour revolution took place during Mrs Crocombe’s early life.

Q: I thought teabreads had tea in?
A: Nope, they are just an ill-defined category of baked goods which were eaten with tea. It’s everything from fortified breads like a Sally Lunn, to curranty cakes and griddle scones.

Q: So is it SKON or SCOHN?
A: The Scots say SKON, and scones have Scottish roots, so we’re going with SKON. Mrs Crocombe possibly would have said SCHON, as she was a southerner, but she would have worked in enough houses to pick up the latter, and everyone on the crew (and Kathy) says SKON, so SKON it is.

Q: Baking powder…baking soda…cream of tartar…I’m confused.
A: Baking soda is what we in England call bicarbonate of soda. It’s an alkali, and can be used as a raising agent when something acidic is in the mixture to activate it – like milk, sour cream or soured buttermilk. Otherwise, it needs an acid adding to it – normally cream of tartar. Baking powder is the cream of tartar and the bicarb ready mixed in the ratio 2:1. (There’s often some starch in there as well). It was commercialised in the UK by Alfred Bird in the 1840s.

Q: Jam first or cream first?
A: Surely the question is ‘what about the butter?’ The jam/cream debate we’ll leave to you (and the Devon/Cornwall tourism industry). But if you insist on an expert view, Annie says the important thing is get as much cream on as you can, and the jam makes it slide off.

Q: Can we see Mrs Warwick make jam?
A: Unfortunately, the still room is now an admin office and has none of its original fixtures left, so we don’t have a suitable interior. However, we do have some recipes from the time in the Victorian Way book if you want to try them yourselves. See the link in the video description to get hold of your copy.

[hummus_exual]

9:34 Girl don’t look at me like that, you can take a bite, it’s ok we won’t judge

[psammiad]

I always have to explain scones to foreigners who get confused: they are intended to be vectors for getting as much jam and cream into your mouth as possible. They're not intended to be eaten alone.

[fmilton]

Mrs. Crocombe must be protected at all costs!

[lanieleigh]

I still say Mrs. Crocombe needs her own channel strictly for recipes and we need more videos of her recipes. I would even be happy with other things from the kitchen and dining room like that video that showed how to set a proper table. I would love to see videos of how to care for the silver and copper table wares and cookware.

[kirstenpaff]

The Queen has graced us peasants with her presence.

[Windjammers]

Let's have an episode where Mrs. Warwick makes some of her marmalade and Sylvia makes bread.

[pedrogama]

And then after much shade, she took one for herself. Buckle up, Lady Braybrooke’s guests

[kellywhite]

I think a demonstration on how to make clotted cream is in order. Most Americans will be confused about what it actually is -- unless they have seen Victorian Farm with Ruth Goodman, the episode during strawberry season.

[kcvinwehoLA]

I’ve always made scones by scoring rather than rolling. Now I’m chuffed as that’s Mrs C-approved!

[raraavis]

Oh....finally! Please add clotted cream to the list, as well 😊

[knownothing]

The brief look at the camera before walking off to snack the split is ICONIC

[rbardapurkar]

Two things that faced more heat than the scones themselves: the Cornish (2:55), and baking powder (4:50). Also, yes, ofcourse we will buy Mrs. Warwick's jam.

[Aurora-qndx]

Clotted cream recepe next please! And jam too.

[kcvinwehoLA]

I gasped when I saw this in my feed! Mrs AND SCONES!!!

[debmacie]

Mrs. Crocombe is not just an English treasure she’s totally a global treasure at this point. Has she received an MBE yet?

[lalyoral]

I do not remember when this serie started, but please please please never stop! I absolutely love everything about this, to the voice of Mrs. Crocombe, to the costumes, and the kitchen! I love this little peek into the past.
I think it would be amazing if we saw a little more of the other servants in the manor, like some more episodes focused on them, or a bitmore of their presence here
Anyway, i just love everything about this, please i want to keep on expecting and watching episodes for years to come!

[aishanif]

It would be enjoyable to read a novel with Mrs Crocombe as the main character, about her interactions with the family she serves, her fellow colleagues and the peasants 😊

[eirxd]

Now we need a Fanny making a clotted cream video and I don't mind if she flexed about how she's besties with Mrs. Crocombe.

[neilmckenna]

They look delicious. I notice that, as she offers no other alternative, Mrs Crocombe's pronunciation of "scone" must be the only correct one. Woe betide any maid, footman or gardener's boy daring to correct her