[Sca-cooks] Shortbread was A little article I wrote on Le Menagier's sausages...

[Johnna Holloway]

But of course we have had a short cakes recipe since
earlier than 1597. It's English and it is labeled a cake, and not a bread.
(Those contrary Scots carry forward to this day with the habit
of calling a cake (or cookie) a bread in certain circumstances.)
/The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchen/, published in 1594, 
includes a recipe /To Make Short Cakes/.

We recognize it as a short bread or cake
because the recipe ends with that helpful admonishment:
“and so make your Cakes, your paste wil be very short,
therefore yee must make your Cakes very litle: when
yee bake your cakes, yee must bake them vpon papers,
after the drawing of a batch of bread.”
(Short means friable or brittle with a crumbling texture.)
Another recipe that created a “short” product was that of the Shrewsbury 
Cakes."
See also the
Or we can drop back to these cakes from John Partridge:

/Here's another recipe that describes the finished cakes as
//short as in "so make your Cakes the paste will be very short, therfore 
//make them very little, lay paper vnder them."
//
//To make fine Cakes.
//TAke a quantitye of fine wheate flower, and put it in an Earthen Pot 
//stoppe it close and set it in an Ouen, and bake it as longe as you 
//woulde a Pastye of Venison, and when it is baked it will be ful of 
//clods, then serce your flower through a fine Serser, then take Clouted 
//Creame or swéete Butter, but Creame is best: then take Suger, Cloues, 
//Mace, Saffron and yolkes of Egges, so muche as will seeme to season your 
//Flower, then put these thinges into the Creame, temper all together, 
//then put thereto your flower, so make your Cakes the paste will be very 
//short, therfore make them very little, lay paper vnder them.
//
//Partridge, John, fl. 1566-1573. The widowes treasure plentifully 
//furnished with sundry precious and approoued secretes in phisicke and 
//chirurgery for the health and pleasure of mankinde… Publication Info: At 
//London : Printed by Edward Alde, for Edward White, 1588.///


We discussed this back in 2007:
/Sat Feb 10 14:40:27 PST 2007/
where I answered you then with what will surely be your objections again 
this time--
that a shortbread cannot contain spices...
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually there are a number of modern shortbreads that contain other 
ingredients. An article of mine back in 1981 noted that
The Brides Boon of the Shetland and Orkney Islands contain caraway seeds 
while some Edinburgh shortbreads
contain silvered almonds and fruit peel. McNeill mentions that Hogmany 
shortbread might contain candied citron and almond comfits.
Taking a look today I can find that Lizzie Boyd in British Cookery 
includes a recipe for Ayrshire shortbread that contains cream and eggs!...
Catherine Brown notes that Pitcaithly Bannocks contain almonds  and 
caraway seeds, and are decorated with
orange or lemon peels and blanched almonds. Brown mention that Mrs. 
MacIver in 1773 used 3 pounds of melted butter
to four pounds of flour. This melted butter was a method apparently used 
into the 20th century. This kind of ruins
the old adage about your hands not being too warm and melting the butter 
when working the dough. There are
a number of other variations.

This was in response to:

David Friedman wrote:
>/ I have three problems with labelling this shortbread, a label that 
/>/ suggests that it is more or less the same as what we now call 
/>/ shortbread.
/>/
/>/ 1. It is spiced--cloves, mace and saffron.
/>/
/>/ 2. While no quantities are given, the sugar is in the list of spices, 
/>/ which suggests to me that you are using a lot less sugar than flower 
/>/ and cream. Looking over a few modern recipes, the ratio of sugar to 
/>/ butter seems to be in the range 1:1 to 1:2.
/>/
/>/ 3. Clotted cream is preferred to butter. I have never cooked with 
/>/ clotted cream so don't know how much difference that would make.
/>/
/>/ Incidentally, does anyone have a good explanation of why you bake the 
/>/ flour first?
/

And oh flour is baked first to dry it out before it is sifted. A number 
of recipes employ this technique.

Johnnae


David Friedman wrote:
>> Cool
>> (Oh and we can date shortbreads dated to 1597 now.
>> The DSL includes a quotation dated 1597 for:
>> Four schort breid and ane buist of confeitis; )
>>
>> Johnnae
>
>
> That tells us that there was something called "schort breid" in 1597. 
> It doesn't tell us what it was. We can date "gingerbrede" back to the 
> 14th century--but not what we call "gingerbread." At least not so far 
> as I know.
>
> What's the earliest actual recipe for shortbread that we have?