Son’s Favorite Scones Made By His Mom, Another Betty Crocker

“In the north of England there’s no grocery the equal of Lewis and Cooper,” declares my mother with monotonous frequency.

Needless to say, I have never listened. All my life I’ve enjoyed visiting the store to watch the thin curls of York ham fall delicately from the slicer, or to choose my own wedge of Wensleydale cheese, fresh, aged or blue as I prefer.

But it simply did not occur to me that a world-class gourmet store could be hiding in my birthplace of Northallerton, a little country town of 15,000 inhabitants.

Not until a search of the acknowledged world-class store of Fauchon in Paris failed to yield such ethnic items as sun-dried tomatoes in oil, dark sesame oil, tahini paste and whole buckwheat (which is actually grown in France). In frustration I looked in Lewis and Cooper, which turned out to stock them all.

“How do you do it?” I asked Tony Howard, who is only the fourth store manager this century.

“We keep on top of it,” he said. “We’re constantly looking for new items and we stock about 26,000 just now. There’s something for everyone.”“We have a search program. Just last week we were asked to find South African biltong (dried beef) and an American pasta sauce. The sauce was good, too. I took some home.”

Lewis and Cooper has been keeping on top of it since 1899 when the partnership was signed.

Free tea and scones were offered on market day, a treat enjoyed by my great-grandmother, who would take live chickens to sell in the marketplace, carrying them by the feet to lessen their squawking.

The grocery stock book from those early days reflects the needs of the farming community for such essentials as soap, flour, “cheap rice,” paraffin and health salts.

Crushed cockle and oyster shells were sold by the hundredweight for poultry grist. Here are the first breakfast cereals (including Post Toasties), Lucky Strike cigarettes and large orders for the liquor and bottled beer stocked in the Spirit House.

No bottles were discarded, and records list both a Bottling Store and a Bottle-Washing Store for the returns. A truck with solid rubber tires did the rounds, backed up by errand boys based at the Cycle House.

Today, Lewis and Cooper must work hard to be different from the supermarkets. The farming community (which is still primordial around Northallerton) used to be largely self-sufficient, but now it comes to Lewis and Cooper for the cakes and preserves that mother used to make.

Last year, the Lewis and Cooper Christmas puddings won a prize, and 6,000 proved insufficient to fill all the orders. They are baked by Reginald Bush, a bachelor who does nothing else all year. He starts to steam the first batch of puddings in early spring so the flavor mellows by December.

“Our customers come for something special,” Howard says, “and if a product is too widely distributed, we have to look elsewhere.”

So what is Lewis and Cooper’s secret? “We play on our customers’ senses,” he explains. Indeed, the heady aroma - a mixture of wellaged ham, unpasteurized cheese, spices and roasting coffee - hits me as I open the narrow storefront door (the simple window with its gilded lettering is a protected landmark). White-coated assistants beam a smile.

“Personal service, undivided attention and a thank-you are what we teach,” says Howard. “Our customers are regulars; 60 percent come from within 35 miles.”

With his cheery Dickensian face and country courtesy, Howard epitomizes his own precepts.

I ask him to name a favorite recipe and he sighs with nostalgia. “Well, I always loved my mother’s scones. When she married again, her name became Betty Crocker. Can you believe it?”

Betty Crocker’s Yorkshire Scones

The key to a light scone is gentle mixing, plus the low-gluten flour found in Britain. In the United States you should look for Southern biscuit flour, of the type marketed by King Arthur and White Lily. If you use regular unbleached all-purpose flour, to cut the gluten replace cup of the all-purpose flour with cake flour, or cup of the flour with cornstarch. Scones are best served warm, split and filled with clotted cream or butter and strawberry jam.

1 3/4 cups flour plus more for shaping

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons dried currants

2 tablespoons golden raisins

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 cup buttermilk (more if needed)

Sift flour into bowl with sugar, baking soda and salt. With fingers, work butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in currants and raisins. Make well in center.

Stir cream of tartar into buttermilk and add to well. Using fork, stir lightly just until dough clings together. (Dough should be soft and almost sticky, so add more buttermilk if necessary.)

Turn out dough on lightly floured work surface and knead lightly 30 seconds so texture remains rough. Do not overwork or scones will be tough. Pat dough out to 3/4-inch thickness. Use biscuit cutter or drinking glass to cut out 2 1/2-inch-diameter scones. Transfer scones to greased baking sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees until lightly browned and wood pick inserted in center comes out clean, 15 to 18 minutes.

Yield: 6 to 8 scones.

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