SC - My first attempt at a period(ish) recipe. (Very Long!)
WyteRayven at aol.com
WyteRayven at aol.com
Mon Jan 29 17:07:48 PST 2001
Hi all,
I just made my first attempt at two period(ish) recipes, and would like some
feed back if you will. :) What I did wrong, ect.
Both recipes are out of Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery.
The first recipe is on page 320, recipe 155 in the section of "A Booke of
Sweetmeats".
'To Make Little Cakes'
Take A pound of wheat flowre twice sifted, a pound of currans, A quarter of a
pound of sugar, A little nutmeg grated, A little saffron, ye whites of 14
eggs beaten, A little salt, some rose water. mingle ye flowre with a little
sweet and thick cream, and put it into yr saffron, eggs and sugar finely
beaten. when ye paste is made, beat it well with a rouling pin, and roule out
part of it thin, then take your currans, nutmegg and rosewater, and lay them
on your paste, and strow on them a little fine sugar. then roule out ye other
piece of paste thin, and lay it on the top. then close it together, and cut
ye superfluous past with a Jagg. thus you may make yr past all into one, or
into severall little cakes according to yr pleasure. when they are baked,
you may Ice them over with a little sugar and rosewater wash'd over on ye
top, and ye white of an egg beaten with it, and after set them a little into
ye oven againe, and soe you may Ice your great Cakes.
This is my interpretation.
3 cups flour
1 lb currants
1 / 2 cup sugar
15 medium egg whites
1 tsp nutmeg
3 strands of saffron
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp. rosewater
1 / 4 cup heavy cream.
Sift the flour and the salt twice. Beat 14 of the egg whites, saffron and
sugar until foamy. Mix the flour with the cream and then add it to the egg
white mixture.
Mix it into a paste. Spread the paste onto a cookie sheet. Mix the currants,
nutmeg and 3 tbsp. of the rosewater and place on top of the paste. Sprinkle
with sugar. Spread the rest of the paste on top of the currant mixture. Bake
at 375 F. until brown.
Wisk 1 tbsp rosewater with 1 egg white and 3 tbsp. of sugar. When the cakes
are brown, remove from the oven and paint with the mixture then return to the
oven until glazed.
The original recipe says to beat the paste with a rolling pin, then role out
part of it thin. What does it mean "beat it with a rouling pin"? I ended up
with a paste, more the consistency of muffin batter. There would have been no
way to roll this out without adding a lot more flour, but that would make it
a dough, rather than a paste. Am I interpreting this wrong?
I used the measurements for flour that was suggested by the author of the
book. She says that a pound of flour amounts to about 3 cups of American
flour. So I was reluctant to use the amount that I would have to have used to
be able to roll this out.
The end product is ok.....its a bit on the tough side, and more bisquity or
bready than I had anticipated. It certainly isn't what I would consider
cakelike, though I suspect that a cake in period is not at all what I
consider a cake.
It was also very very sticky. Since I couldn't roll it out, I used a spatula
to spread it onto a cookie sheet layered with tin foil. When it was
finished, I had to lift it out off of the sheet with the foil, turn it over,
and with the aid of a sharp knife, peel the foil off. Should I have greased
the cookie sheet?
The second recipe I made, I made because I couldn't bear the thought of
throwing 15 egg yolks away.
The recipe is on page 202; recipe number 206 in the section listed as "A
Booke of Cookery"
To Make Almond [Butter ?]
Take a pinte of cream and ye youlks of 15 eggs and beat them well together.
then let them boyle, and stir them continually till they are thick. then put
them in a cloth and hang them up to let ye whey run from them, then take
halfe a quarter of a pound of almonds and beat them well in 3 spoonfulls of
rosewater. then take ye butter out of ye cloth and heat ye almonds therwith
upon a soft fire with a quarter of a pound of beaten sugar.
1 pint heavy cream
15 egg yolks
2 ounces almonds
3 tbsp rosewater
1 / 2 cup sugar.
I was able to follow the recipe on this pretty closely, and I think I got
what the recipe intended. It is very much like sweetened very finely
scrambled eggs, with almonds and roses. I had been envisioning something with
the texture of yogurt. But the author's description of the recipe does say
"It is properly a recipe for curds with almonds". I am a little at a loss as
to what to do with it. I had been thinking that it would be good as a spread,
but the texture isn't right for that.... and a little goes a long way. Its
not something that you would want to make a meal of.
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