An 1829 Recipe

[Ann]

I love my antiquarian books and especially the old cookery ones. I've just bought one that was handwritten by Elizabeth Roylance Child. From the preface, it looks as though she gave it as a wedding present to someone called Agnes. (Thanks to the internet and her very unusual middle name, I've already been able to find out quite a bit about Elizabeth's family.)

Today I decided to try out a recipe for "Excellent Cakes for tea" using the following:

I put 3 ozs plain flour, 3 ozs granulated sugar, 1 oz butter and a small egg (minus a bit of the white) into the food processor and mixed it all together.

I then made 10 finger sized rolls as described, brushed them with the egg white I'd saved and put them in the oven. I guessed Mark 4 (350F/180C). 20 minutes later they came out looking like this.



They're rather too sweet for my taste and more like a biscuit than a cake (as you'd guess from the ingredients), but the recipe definitely worked.

This is the original. Isn't the handwriting beautiful. (She was 18 at the time of writing.)

[SaffiandJasmin]

Looks lovely....( cakes and handwriting!) any savouriy recipies?? x

[Ann]

There actually weren't that many savoury recipes when you take out the ones for preserving and pickling.

I've got a fair selection of antiquarian cookery books now, mainly from the 17th and early 18th centuries and they're all much the same in that they went in for a great deal of plain boiled meat and pies. In addition, all the meat recipes seem to start with "Take a leg of beef and a leg of lamb...." or something similar. You'd need to take out a second mortgage to afford the ingredients and then cook them in the bath nowadays!

This is the only one that looks do-able (unless you'd like to know how to stew eels!) if a little ordinary.



Ressols (Rissoles)

May be made of any kind of meat. Mince the meat very fine and put on the fire with butter, parsley and shallots shred fine. Shake in a little flour and moisten it with broth. Add pepper and when it is quite thick let it cool. When cold form the meat into balls dip them in an egg and crumbs and fry them a fine brown.

I'm finding out more and more about the writer, and her family could have stepped straight out of a Jane Austen novel. There are knights, churchmen, army officers, an admiral and an uncle practising law. No clues at all about the recipient though.

[SaffiandJasmin]

Could try the rissoles, but I think I'd give the eels a miss! x

[Cathrin]

I love stewed eels, Mark isn't keen on them though .... must be an East End thing

[gill]

Every time I look at these I get a craving for biscuits ;D Sadly my oven has broken down so I cannot make some for myself