Spit cakes go back earlier. See Ivan Day's Trayne Roste and other Spit Cakes http://www.historicfood.com/Trayne%20Roste%20Recipe.htm Coming up with an authentic pre 1600 or pre 1700 printed or manuscript recipe would be the hard part. Conrad Hagger's Neues Saltzburgisches Koch-Buch is 1719. Johnna