SC - A Dilemma on what to cook for Dinner-HELP!

[Sheina Yeheskal]

H B wrote:
> 
> This version is adapted from Sallets, Humbles, and Shrewsbury Cakes,
> and Dining With William Shakespeare.
> 
> 1/2 cup sugar
> 1/2 cup butter (margarine must taste like butter)
> 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
> 2 tsp rosewater or orangewater (vanilla works)
> 2 cups sifted unbleached four

Hmmmm. We seem to be mixing and matching here...

Both sources give different redactions for the same primary source
recipe. 

One (SH&SC) calls for 1/2 cup (1/4 lb or one stick) plus two Tbs. (1
ounce) butter, softened, and 1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 cups mixed whole
wheat and unbleached white flour and around an ounce of _fairly_
insignificant flavoring liquids, insignificant inasmuch as they don't
drastically affect the moistness of the dough.

The other (DWWS) calls for the same 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar, and
_one_ cup unbleached flour, plus the rosewater (1/2 Tbs.), nutmeg (1 1/2
tsp.), etc.

Clearly the second recipe has almost twice as much butter per ounce of
flour, and would make for a somewhat moister, less crumbly cake than the first.

The original recipe is from John Murrell's "A Delightfull daily exercise
for Ladies and Gentlewomen", 1621.

"Take a quart of very fine flower, eight ounces of fine sugar beaten and
cersed, twelve ounces of sweet butter, a Nutmegge grated, two or three
spoonfuls of Damask rose-water, worke all these together with your hands
as hard as you can for the space of half an houre, then roule it in
little round Cakes, about the thickness of three shillings one upon
another, then take a silver Cup or glass some four inches over, and cut
the cakes in them, then strowe some flower upon white papers & lay them
upon them, and bake them in an Oven as hot as for Manchet..."

Followed by a whole lot of instructions on how to bake them without
letting them brown, as they're supposed to be white. I could post the
rest if it were really necessary, but if not...well, you know.

So Murrell calls for approximately 4 cups of flour, one cup of
probably-not-very-white sugar, and 1 1/2 cups butter, plus an unknown
quantity of rosewater (Hillary Spurling has some calculations about the
Jacobean English spoon measure, but I don't recall what conclusion she
reached; see Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book), and a nutmeg.

All in all I'd say the first recipe (SH&SC) is a little closer to
Murrell's, but still a little shy on the butter. You might try Murrell's
proportions (possibly halved), and just add enough rosewater to make a
moist enough dough for your purposes. BTW, Murrell does say to work the
dough for half an hour; while that's less than the instructions for
Prince-Bisket, it probably does build up as much gluten as you're going
to get in this dough, and then obligingly breaks it down again. You may
find that if you work/knead the dough by hand for a long time, the
texture may change, both as the flour absorbs moisture and the gluten
levels change.  

HTH,

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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