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

[Terry Decker]

> Bear wrote:
> >Ammonium carbonate and sal ammoniac (AKA hartshorn or salt of hartshorn) 
> >were originally derived from red deer (Cervus elaphus) horn by dry 
> >distillation.
>
> That's what I found, too, on Wikipedia. However, I wonder if that was done 
> in period. There was a query on a Twitter account (@tudorcook) that I 
> follow where someone asked how hartshorn was prepared for use.
>
> Tudor Cook mentioned that "most of the recipes seem to call for boiling 6+ 
> hours or...overnight before letting cool, straining then..." There also 
> was mention of rasping, perhaps before boiling. The inquirer was Dr. Annie 
> Gray and I don't know what the results of her experimentation were. If an 
> actual answer to the experiment is wanted, I could try to find out."
>
> Alys K.

As I understand the process, antler is heated in a sealed container 
producing charcoaled antler and an oily byproduct (oil of hartshorn).  Burnt 
hartshorn appears as an ingredient in some late period drug compounds, which 
suggests to me that the process may have been used in period to produce oil 
of hartshorn.  The process was certainly known in period since it is 
essentially the same process used to create charcoal.  The oil of hartshorn 
is then distilled to produce a condensate that evaporates to make salts of 
hartshorn.  Simple distillation has been known in Europe since at least the 
2nd Century CE.  I am not certain if one can cook the antler and extract the 
condensate in a single process.

The first question is were these processes were used on hartshorn in period? 
I tend to think they were.  We know that Heironymus Brunschwig performed 
simple distillation on antler before his death in 1512 and we have evidence 
of further distillation of antler in Italy around 1568 (IIRC).  The fact 
that hartshorn is most commonly found as a leaven in German and Scandinavian 
baking suggests that there was continued work on distilling hartshorn in 
Germany.

The second question is when was hartshorn first used as a leaven?  Possibly 
1590.  Definitely 1888 (Federal cake).  And almost certainly somewhere in 
between.

The third question is was it produced at home or purchased from an 
apothecary?

Fourth question, when did it come into general use?

I don't have the answers and they aren't easily researched.

You can find Brunschwig's work here:

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/97061#page/1/mode/1up

Bear