[Sca-cooks] Scones

[Terry Decker]

It's been a while, so we'll try putting up a post.

I like the occasional cream scone for breakfast and my interest was piqued by the difference between English and American scones, so I went researching.  I haven't run any trials using oatmeal and a griddle, but when I do I'll post the results.

The first reference to scones is found in Eneados, a 1513 translation of Virgil's The Aeneid into Middle Scots by clergyman and poet Gavin Douglas.  Middle Scots is the Anglic Lowland dialect used between the end of the 15th Century and the beginning of the 18th Century.

The particular quote is from chapter three, line 15:

"The flour-scones were set in, by and by,
With other messes;
Syne braid trenchers did they fill and charge
With wilde scrabs and other fruits large:"

The earliest actual recipe I have been able to locate is from a handwritten note added to Isabella Beeton's copy of her "Book of Household management" not appearing in the original printed edition.  That would likely date it to sometime after the original publication in 1861.

The recipe calls for flour. eggs, butter, castor sugar, sultanas, baking soda, cream of tartar and (probably, as the recipe is damaged) buttermilk.  Just as an aside, the baking soda and cream of tartar produces a single action baking powder.

There are the basics.  More research to do.



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