When is an apple not an apple?

It looks like an apple, all shiny and crisp, like a Golden Delicious. But it's anything but. In Tudor times, they didn't eat raw fruit - they were actually worried it was poisonous or carried disease. So if you walked into a banqueting hall and saw these Pommes Dorres on the table, you would have been quite shocked. IT was actually the chefs having a little medieval-style joke.

Because that's no apple - it's meat!

In olden times, the cooks would have boiled meat down to a squidgy pate, then moulded it into shape and painted it. Nowadays, as recreated by Heston Blumenthal, it's a duck liver foie ball, dipped in apple gel and served as a starter. This picture comes from his kitchen, courtesy of head chef Kevin Love.

Pretty convincing, ain't it?