The search for the Colston Bun!

Posted on May 23, 2017 by thetravellinggourmet

Story and photos by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet TM

Copyright all rights reserved

On a gastronomic safari in Europe, the tenacious and audacious Travelling Gourmet TM embarks on a search for the classic bun of Bristol, the…

MARVELLOUS Colston Bun!

BRISTOL, Gloucestershire

Latitude 51.454513      Longitude -2.58791

Yeast-raised sweet bread plump and round with sweet spices, lemon and a little dried fruit and candied peel. Made in a large size with (typically) 8 division markings and a small, individual, form known as a starver.


Children eating Colston Buns


Edward Colston

Named after Edward Colston, 2nd November 1636 to 11th October 1721, a Bristol merchant and Tory Member of Pariament who endowed a school and almshouses, and who is commemorated each November at a service in Bristol Cathedral where schoolchildren are issued with the buns…

Alas, Colston is now in disrepute in this crazy time of asinine politically correctness…for being a successful slave trader. People forget that in his day slave trading was perfectly respectable like buying and selling motor cars today! However, Colston was also a philanthropist who helped a lot of people, and gave great sums of money to the city of Bristol. How about Jardine Matheson of Hong Kong selling Opium to China in the days of “gunboat diplomacy” then??? Do you want to close down Jardine Matheson??? They were the original drug lords lke the Medillin Cartel of Colombia.

Truth be told, Edward Colston is like a “cult figure” in Bristol. There is Colston Street and Colston Tower is on Colston Avenue. There is the Colston bun, which you are meant to eat on Colston’s Day. There is Colston’s Girls’ school where statues abound everywhere and three ceremonies are held every year to celebrate his life.”  There will be one less Bristol institution bearing his name in 3 years time. The concert venue Colston Hall will reopen in 2020, after its refurbishment, with a new name. The asinine politically correct Libtards fail to take into account that Colston Hall was built almost 150 years after Colton’s death, and was actually named after its address, which is Colston Street. I for one, to be brutally frank am not into political correctness aka hypocrisy. To me it is a load of Balderdash! I digress…so..

Where is the Bun?

The position of Power…where I like to sit…
 
 
Where are the Riff Raff??
 
All the customers were very normal, respectable people drinking tea and Flat Whites and Cappuccinos and eating cake. Not one single drug crazed Hippie smoking “Pot” in sight! It was an anticlimax. I was prepared to Keep Calm and Use Krav Maga but now I saw that everything was cooool…Café Revival serves local, fairtrade and organic produce and sandwiches…and there is FREE Wi-Fi! No wonder I observed quite a few business executives inside working on their laptops.
 
 
I like SNUG!
 
Built in the 1780s, Café Revival has three floors. To reach level 2, you climb 23 steps. I climbed all the creaky stairs to explore all three floors. I especially liked the 3rd floor called SNUG which has an excellent view of Corn Street. An excellent spot for audio-visual surveillance. It also has a very peaceful and quiet ambience. I liked the three wall clocks on the wall with the time in Paris, London and New York…almost like a C4I center. On the ground floor I checked out the cakes and pastries on display…but I could not see anything remotely resembling the Colston Bun. I went to ask the Proprietor, a friendly gentleman of medium height, “Have you got the Colston Bun?” Mark Rind replied with a bewildered expression and bemused smile, “What’s that?” I explained to him all about the Colston Bun and he said with a bemused expression, “I’ve never heard of it. I don’t know what it is!” Mark added helpfully, “…perhaps you can ask the other bakeries and cake shops around the market…”
 
I decided to have a frothy Cappuccino to revive myself. After all…I was in Café Revival!
 
 
 A really nice view…
 
Plan B
 
 
Right, mate, it was time for Plan B.
Accordingly, I went to explore St. Nicholas Market which was very near the oldest Coffee House in Bristol…The market is a fascinating place with many shops and stalls and lots of my favourite things in life…FOOD, glorious FOOD! Like Mike Hammer, PI, I went to ALL the pastry shops, cake shops and bakeries in the vicinity asking politely, “Have you got the Colston Bun?” The answer was invariably, “Colston Bun? Never heard of it???” So, loyal readers and friends and food lovers…there you have it. You cannot get the Colston Bun in Bristol where it originated!
 
The only way to get the Colston Bun is to make it yourself!!!
 *****
 
 
Fear not. Here is the Recipe…Food lovers, this is for you!
 
The Travelling Gourmet TM’s  politically incorrect COLSTON BUN
 
Recipe by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet TM
Copyright all rights reserved
 
Ingredients
600g Flour
1 Packet of Yeast
 
3 Tbp Muscovado or Demerara Sugar from Mauritius
300ml Full Cream Milk
40g Butter
Pinch of Salt
1 Egg
80g Raisins
50g Dried Cranberries
60g Dried Apricots
20g Dried Pineapple
20g Dried Papaya
20g Dried Mango
2Tsp Ligurian Honey
Zest and Juice of 1 Orange
1/2 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Mixed Spice
1/2 Tbsp Nutmeg
1 Tbsp Grand Marnier
 
Put the raisins, cranberries, diced apricot Paysanne, diced mango, diced papaya and diced pineapple in a mixing bowl. Combine Orange juice and Orange zest and Grand Marnier. Mix well. Add honey and stir well to combine all ingredients.
Melt the butter under low heat and add in the milk.  Let it cool.Now mix the sugar, yeast, flour, salt and spices in a big mixing bowl. Drain the orange juice from the fruit mixture. Keep the juice to add to the dough.
 
Add the fruit mix to the flour mix  and combine well.
 
Make the Dough
 
Add the saved Orange juice and Grand Marnier to the flour mix. Then add the milk and butter emulsion and egg to the flour mix. Mix well by hand or by machine to make a dough! On a floured worktop press and knead till the dough achieves a bouncy consistency.
 
Now put the dough in a bowl and cover with cling film. Let the yeast work so the dough will become bigger in size! Takes about 2 hours.
 
Punch, Tettsui and Karate chop the dough for awhile! Now shape into a round cake shape. Gently and lightly cut about 2mm into the top of the dough with a ceramic knife. Four cuts is enough. Brush egg wash over the top and leave for 30 minutes.
 
BAKE in a pre-heated conventional oven at 170C until golden brown. Takes 20 to 30 minutes. Cool and enjoy with Ronnefeldt Earl Grey Tea! 🙂 You can also spread Oxford Marmalade on it before eating! OMG! Yummie! Bon appetit from The Travelling Gourmet TM !
 
I have baked my own Colston Bun and it was absolutely fabulous!!!
Below is a photo of my Colston BUn soon! Yummie! Yummie!
I let my  affable pal, Simon Hirst the General Manager of the iconic Raffles Hotel try my Colston Bun…and he told me, and I quote, “…excellent Colston Bun!” It made my day!
 
 
Colston Bun 20170527_233950_resized
 
 Postscript: I decided to make an enquiry to Bristol Cathedral and got a reply from their very politically correct Press Officer…Wendy Matthews
 
Here is their official reply:
 

Dear Dr Lim

Good afternoon.  I am glad you enjoyed your visit to the Cathedral.  In terms of your queries:

–       Yes – the Cathedral is an Anglican Cathedral and its Dean is the Very Revd Dr David Hoyle.

–       The buns are provided by the Merchant Venturers who commemorate the day they received their Charter from the Crown every November.  See http://merchantventurers.com/society-of-merchant-venturers-celebrates-charter-day/ for further information.  They are provided for school children and are not available to the public.

It is important to note there is no ‘Colston Day’ in that sense, and his life is not celebrated as part of the Merchant Venturer service. 

 

Yours etc.

 

Wendy Matthews

_______________________________________________________________________________________

 
 I have emailed the Head of the Merchant Venturers, one Callum McAlpine to make further enquiries (just like a Scotland Yard Chief Inspector) but to date NO reply has been forthcoming…even after 3 enquiries to date (Friday 30 June 2017) NO REPLY! Tja, Tja, Tsk, Tsk…not very nice…discourteous to say the least.
 
As The Travelling Gourmet TM I am against excessive asinine political correctness. In the words of Francois, Duc de la Rochfoucauld,  
“We find very few ungrateful people when we are able to confer favours.”
 
 
I hasten to add, “A quickness in believing evil without having sufficiently examined it, is the effect of pride and laziness. We wish to find the guilty, and we do not wish to trouble ourselves in examining the crime.” This was also one of the maxims of Rochefoucauld.  🙂
 
 
 
 
 
Café Revival
The oldest coffee house in Bristol
56 Corn Street, Bristol, BS1 1JG
United Kingdom

Mon to Fri: 8am till 5pm, Sat: 9am till 5pm, Sun: 10am till 4pm

OPEN 7 days a week! Maybe the owner Mark Rind who has been running Cafe Revival since 2012 has Chinese blood? 🙂 Mark, please make the Colston Bun! It will be a best seller! You can call it Bristol Bun to be politically correct…wahahahah! 🙂

I also went up in a hot air balloon up to 2000 feet ASL in Bristol…but that is another story…

Das Leben es ist unbestimmt, isst erst den Nachtisch!

 

Bristol is a port city hence the intrepid Royal Marines Commandos playing “A life on the ocean wave”. Per Mare Per Terram

 

 

HERE IS A VERY NICE LETTER FROM BRISTOL…

from the MAYOR of Bristol, the Right Honourable Marvin Rees.

 

 

  • Jul 4 at 3:55 PM

 

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On 6 Jan 2019, at 11:47 AM, Coulston, Charles H (Bluegrass)

I was most delighted and inspired to receive this from wahrscheinlich (probably) a relative of the famous Colston (or infamous if you are a wimpo libtard crackpot)

As The Travelling Gourmet Tm, Travel, Food and Wine Writer/Editor, Vlogger, Blogger, International Wine Judge and Educator extraordinaire I say (inoffensively and respectfully)
To hell with political correctness!
Original quote by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet TM:
Those who believe in absurdities,
commit vile atrocities.

Vis a vis midget malevolent hitler and nitwit napoleon bonaparte who was actually Italian from the island of Corsica…

Thank you for the background and recipe for the Colston bun. My friend and house guest Pierre has made the buns to send home with our guests who are coming to a 12th Night dinner tomorrow. 

He and I were in Bristol in the fall of 2017. My attention was drawn to all the instances of the name everywhere, the favorite was Colston Public Toilets. We saw the Girls School, Tower, and Music Hall while we were there. My family name is Coulston, and I have found many variations of the spelling in various places and records. I have no idea if there is a connection to Edward or not.

Thanks again for the information. We’re putting it to good use.

Charles H Coulston 
Lexington, KY

 

 

Colston Statue

Sunday 7 June, 2020. The statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled from its plinth and pushed into Bristol Harbour docks by frenzied protesters, has long divided opinion in Bristol. The 5.5-metre (18ft) bronze statue had stood on Colston Avenue since 1895 as a memorial to his philanthropic works. He developed Colston Avenue after divesting himself of links to a company involved in the selling of tens of thousands of slaves. His good works in the city included money to build and sustain schools, almshouses and churches.

About thetravellinggourmet

As a renowned Travel, Food & Wine Writer he has travelled the world in a keen & indomitable pursuit of exotic delicacies & fine wines. His articles have been published in over 20 prestigious publications, both local & international. Dr. Lim has toured and trained in Wine Evaluation & Oenology in most of the world's top wine producing areas from France to Australia. The Travelling Gourmet says, "Gastronomy has no frontier. These are the gastronomic voyages of The Travelling Gourmet. My unending mission. To explore strange new cuisines, to seek out new wines and new culinary experiences, to boldly go where no gourmet has gone before...." Have pen, will travel. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any other information storage & retrieval system, without permission from Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet and/or MSN. Material may be works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents may be true but may also be products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance whatsoever to actual person or persons, either dead or living, events, or locales may be entirely and purely coincidental and unintentional. No part of this website may be used to villify others or for criminal purposes. Interests: Travel, Food, Wines, Cooking, Wine Appreciation, Parachuting, Languages, Music, Reading, Swimming, Hunting, Ballet, Fencing, Archery, Anthropology and more... The Travelling Gourmet is a copyrighted trademark. All rights and photos reserved. No part may be reproduced without permission.
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4 Responses to The search for the Colston Bun!

  1. Rob Brown says:
    January 25, 2019 at 07:34

    Baker just up from St George park STILL sells them & still called “Colston Ring”

    Like

    Reply
  2. Stuart says:
    June 8, 2020 at 04:19

    Bet you’re fun at parties.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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