'Mrs Avis Crocombe' working in the Audley End Service Wing kitchen

EXPERIENCE the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian cookery during this February half-term.

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Audley End House and Gardens is inviting families to come and see how a members of a country house cooked with pork in the 1880s during ‘Everything but the Squeak Week’.

Visitors can watch Mrs Avis Crocombe – the resident chef at Audley End – working on an entire pig in the kitchens, cooking her way through parts that we are all familiar with and some parts that we aren’t.

From trotters to snouts, animals were devoured entirely during Victorian times. Using authentic Victorian recipes, Mrs Crocombe and her team will re-create historical dishes that would have regularly featured on the menu in times gone by and demonstrate how, even in aristocratic households, no food was put to waste – and delicious fare was produced.

Lucy Hutchings, events manager for English Heritage in the London and East region, said: “This really gives visitors the chance to experience historic cooking up close, and get an insight into life in a grand Victorian household.

“With thriftiness on many people’s minds these days, the event really shows you how Victorians made full use of leftovers and every part of a pig possible.”

• Everything But the Squeak Week runs Sat Feb 11 and Sun Feb 12, Wed Feb 15 to Sun Feb 19, 11am-5pm.

Prices: Adults £8.70/concessions £7.80/children £5.20/ family £22.60 (ticket price includes entry to event plus entry to the service wing, stable yard and grounds). Free to English Heritage members.