
Inside the Factory (2015)
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Tony Graynoth — Editor
Episodes 3
Sausages
How a factory in North Yorkshire produces 625,000 sausages a day, using machines that can fill 600 sausages in a minute. How low and slow shallow frying delivers the best combination of flavour, moistness and succulence. How veggie protein is created from a tiny speck of natural fungus. How a 'meat sock' is the secret to wrapping a Scotch Egg every three seconds. How German bratwurst became top dog in America, and how German immigrant Charles Feltman originated the hot dog. Cooking up a 2,000-year-old recipe for sausages. How the Romans contributed by importing pepper, bay leaves and other spices that spike modern sausages.
Read MoreCroissants
How a factory in France produces 336,000 croissants every day - from the 21 tonnes of butter, to the 83-year-old strain of yeast that packs a flavourful punch, to the layering of very thin slices of butter between sheets of dough to create the famously flaky texture. How croissants are best served - and eaten. How 'concentrated' butter produced in north Wales enhances the shelf life of croissants. The history of the croissant, thought to originate from 17th-century Austria, and emerging in its modern French form as late as 1906. How bread played a vital role in the French Revolution.
Read MorePasties
How a bakery in Cornwall produces 180,000 Cornish pasties a day. There are rules: A Cornish pasty must be made in Cornwall; the filling can only contain onion, potato, swede, beef and some seasoning; and each ingredient must be cooked from raw within the pastry parcel. The versatility of onions, and how they make us cry. How anaerobic digestion turns food factory waste into electricity. Challenging the pasty's origin story. How importation of pepper eventually transformed it from a precious commodity to a spice that everyone could afford.
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