Day 212 - Cornwall vs Devon Cream Tea

Today I was called out by the owner of the bakery in Cawsand when I chose to prepare my scone the Devon way when I had my cream tea. From a previous blog you would know by now that at one time the twin villages of Cawsand and Kingsand sat in different counties: Cornwall and Devon respectively. Today, of course, the boundary has been moved to the River Tamar. So now Kingsand, Mt. Edgecumbe Park, Cremyll and surrounds are part of Cornwall. This extends to the manner in which one prepares their scone and obviously one does not challenge the local convention! 

As you can see from the picture posted here, the Cornish cream tea requires that you first layer the strawberry preserve onto the scone and then the clotted cream. Well, the clotted cream can sometimes be a bit thick, so you find yourself hurling the spoonful of cream onto the preserve with a quick flick of your wrist. However, if the clotted cream is especially sticky, then one needs to use a knife to scrape it onto the scone, running the risk that the preserve doesn't act like a lubricant and your batch of clotted cream slides off the scone.

Before the folks in Devon get to carried away with their approval of my assessment of what makes the Cornish way too difficult, the approach taken in Devon can sometimes be just as disastrous. Case in point -- if the scone is too crumbly, then trying to spread a thick clotted cream onto it can result in the scone breaking apart and then you find yourself putting the strawberry preserve onto smaller pieces of the scone.

So the lesson learned is that neither method may be appropriate as it depends on the firmness of the scone and the viscosity of both the preserve and the clotted cream. Accordingly, before you choose your approach to preparing the scone as part of your cream tea, please stick to the formula:

if  Qf + Vcc > Qf + Vsp use the Devon Method, but if Qf+Vcc<Qf + Vsp then use the Cornwall Method

with Qf being the quality of the scone in terms of firmness measured on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being very firm and 1 being very crumbly, and Vcc and Vsp being the viscosity of the clotted cream and strawberry preserve respectively, as measured on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being very thick and 1 being quite extremely pliable.

Of course, in the end, you may have to remember where you are so as to avoid being called out!

Ale of Day: Gem Amber Ale, Bath Ales, Bristol