[Sca-cooks] Reasons why period cakes aren't modern cakes

[Terry Decker]

Ammonium carbonate and sal ammoniac (AKA hartshorn or salt of hartshorn) 
were originally derived from red deer (Cervus elaphus) horn by dry 
distillation.  Hartshorn makes a limited appearance in German baking toward 
the end of the 16th Century, but it in more common in 17th and 18th Century 
baking.  It was largely replaced by baking soda.

Bear

> Are you saying that Ammonium carbonate was used as a chemical leavening in 
> SCA period? I wasn't aware of it.
>
> David Friedman