[Sca-cooks] carrot cake or the likes

[Johnna Holloway]

There are lots of websites that recite the same story that carrots  
were used as sweeteners
in the Middle Ages. Then all the accounts skip ahead to shortages  
during WWII and the popularity of carrot cakes in the 1960's.

The source appears to be
"In the Middle Ages in Europe, when sweeteners were scarce and  
expensive, carrots were used in sweet cakes and desserts. In  
Britain...carrot puddings...often appeared in recipe books in the 18th  
and 19th centuries. Such uses were revived in Britain during the  
second World War, when the Ministry of Food disseminated recipes for  
carrot Christmas pudding, carrot cake, and so on and survive in a  
small way to the present day. Indeed, carrot cakes have enjoyed a  
revival in Britain in the last quarter of the 20th century. They are  
perceived as 'healthy' cakes, a perception fortified by the use of  
brown sugar and wholemeal flour and the inclusion of chopped nuts, and  
only slightly compromised by the cream cheese and sugar icing which  
appears on some versions."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University  
Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 141)

see http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#carrotcake

---
There is this rather nice 17th century recipe for candied carrots.
CLII. To Candy Carrot Roots.

Take of the best, and boil them tender, then pare them, and cut them  
in such pieces as you like; then take fine Sugar boiled to a Candy  
height with a little Water, then put in your Roots, and boil them till  
you see they will Candy; but you must first boil them with their  
weight in Sugar and some Water, or else they will not be sweet enough,  
when they are enough, lay them  into a Box, and keep them dry; thus  
you may do green Peascods when they are very young, if you put them  
into boiling water, and let them boil close covered till they are  
green, and then boiled in a Syrup, and then the Candy, they will look  
very finely, and are good to set forth Banquets, but hath no pleasant  
taste.

The queen-like closet; or, Rich cabinet ...By Hannah Wolley. london 1670
---
for the cheese
http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cheese/cheese2/whey/2006-10.asp#history

Johnnae

On Nov 19, 2010, at 9:36 PM, otsisto wrote:

> Out of curiousity, has anyone come across a recipe that comes close to
> carrot cake? And for those that know cheese. When did marscapone  
> come about?
> Thank you, De