What goes in the buns in spring

We do not run a seasonal menu in any formal sense. Things appear on the board when they are good and come off when they stop being good, and the changeover in March is the biggest of the year. Here is what to expect on the counter over the next few weeks.

Going out

The apple and cinnamon bun goes first. We have been using stored Bramleys since September and by March they have lost most of what made them worth cooking. The root vegetable fillings follow, and the heavier braises stop being what anyone wants once it stays light past six.

Coming in, roughly in this order

• Wild garlic, for two or three weeks only, in a filling with new potato and a lot of butter. It is the one thing on this list with a hard end date and it goes when it goes.
• Spring onions, first in the rolls and then through most of the savoury steamed fillings.
• New season potatoes, which need much less cooking and hold their shape, so the curried filling changes texture noticeably.
• Peas and broad beans from about May, usually with feta, sometimes with mint if the mint is behaving.

Why spring fillings get cooked harder

Young vegetables hold a lot of water. A filling that would be perfect on a plate will open a bun in the oven, so everything gets cooked further down in spring than it does in November, and it is still the most common reason a batch fails here. There is more about that in folding a bun.

Two things we are trying

A rhubarb and ginger filling, which is currently too wet and too sharp, and may not make it. And a cold steamed bun with pickled vegetables intended to be eaten at room temperature, for the warmer months, which is going better than expected.

If either works you will see it on the board before you see it written down anywhere. That is usually how it goes with the filled buns and the steamed buns both.