Corned Beef and Branston Scone

This recipe is not for the gourmets. It's an unsophisticated, easy-to-make, comfort-food dish, using store-cupboard ingredients. Your first reaction when you saw the title of this post was probably "Corned beef and Branston (pickle) -- bleearrgh!" But trust me, it's actually very nice.

Jane has made this dish many times over a period of about 25 years. She originally found the recipe in promotional leaflet from a corned beef company.

Ingredients:
(Makes two generous portions)

1 small tin of corned beef
1 tin of tomato-flavour condensed soup
2 tablespoons Branston pickle
200 grams self-raising flour
50 grams hard vegetable fat, butter, or margarine
1 egg
A small quantity of milk

Method:
Set oven to 170degrees C.
Cut the corned beef into small pieces, place it in a large bowl, along with the Branston pickle and 2 tablespoons of the soup. Mash the whole lot together.
Rub the fat into the flour, stir in the egg and a small quantity of milk, then form the mixture into a soft dough.
Tip the dough onto a greased baking sheet, and roll it out into a rough rectangle.
Spread the corned beef / Branston mixture over the dough base, leaving a decent margin all around the edges.

Bring the scone dough together to form a "sausage" shape, enclosing the meat / pickle mixture. Brush the surface with some milk, particularly around the edges, which will help to seal them. Score a few slashes in the top to allow some of the steam to escape.

Bake in the oven at 170C for approx 30 minutes, until the dough has risen and taken on a nice golden colour.
Shortly before the scone is due to be ready, make the sauce by heating the remaining soup with a little added milk.
The finished dish will look something like this. Don't worry if it cracks open -- this is not meant to be a pretty dish!

Pour the sauce over the dish. Serve immediately, accompanied preferably by a green vegetable, such as Brussels Sprouts.

So there you are... unglamorous maybe, but certainly yummy!