SC - Old News - Maid of Honour Cakes

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I'm in the Guild of St. George, the nobles' guild, at the big 
Renaissance Faire in NoCal. We're having a pot-luck lunch in our 
Guild yard Saturday. We don't have to have period food. Frankly, life 
has been stressful lately, so i really don't want to work out a 
recipe from an old original in the next day and a half (i drive up to 
fair Friday night and camp there).

The following recipe has some humor value at Fair, since a number of 
Queen Elizabeth's maids of honor are in our guild, and they don't 
have a lily white reputation. I might be able to work up a gig around 
these.

I found the recipe on the web and i do not assume it is historically 
accurate. No doubt it has been dissected and desiccated here already, 
but, well, i'm dragging this dusty corpse back again. Parts of it are 
medievally familiar - making it with bread crumbs, for example, 
instead of flour. And parts are either just wrong, or seriously badly 
written. I've made a few comments in [brackets].

If there is a more accurate recipe - with the modern version worked 
out - i would welcome it. Or if anyone can improve this, i would 
appreciate that, too.

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MAIDS OF HONOUR CAKES
Serving Size  : 4

1/2 pint Milk [hmmm, that's one cup, right? Or is an English pint 
different from an American pint?]
2 tablespoons Bread crumbs [i understand that an English tablespoon 
is one American teaspoon bigger than an American tablespoon]
4 oz Butter
2 oz Almonds, ground
1 oz Sugar
3 Eggs
1 Lemon Zest (the grated rind of one lemon)
Puff Paste [ok:  how much? some particular shape? what the heck to i 
do with this?]

Boil [for how long] the milk and bread crumbs [or does it really mean 
"bring to a boil"]...
...and let them stand for 10 minutes.
Add the butter, almonds, and sugar. [mix well, i assume]
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. [i'll take care here not to curdle them]
Put a dessert spoonful of the mixture in the center of the puff 
pastry, ... [then what do you do with the rest of the mixture? I 
assume there are some number of puff pastries, not just a single one, 
enough of the little buggers to use up the bread crumb mixture. From 
notes below, i am guessing that maybe this is supposed to be like vol 
au vents or something similar, and so make a number of little 
tartlets]
...bake until golden brown. [at what temp? 350° F?]

Notes and Credits

>From "The Good Fare and Cheer of Old England" by Joan Parry Dutton. 
Published by Reynal & Company, Inc., 1960.

"It is said that Maids of Honour cakes date from a day in 1525 when 
Henry VIII saw Maids of Honour for one of his six Queens eating a 
platter of cakes with such joyous relish that he tried one himself, 
and found it very good.  Another tradition says they were named for 
Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honour when she lived at Richmond Palace."

>From "The Cooking of the British Isles, by Adrian Bailey. Published 
by Time-Life Books, 1969.

"Several towns in Britain make small, delectable tarts known as Maids 
of Honour, but none are so rich in flavor and therefore so famous as 
Richmond Maids of Honour, which come from Richmond, a suburb of 
London, and are said to have been invented for the court of Henry 
VIII in the 16th Century."

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Thanks for comments and commentary.

Anahita
aw, heck, mebbee i'll just bring a pumpkin pie :-)