Biscuit Cake Recipe

By Caitlin Creegan and Lisa Highet

Recipe Transcription:

Take 14 eggs and after you have taken 4 of the whites out add 1 ½ tb of flour, sugar, pounded very thin and the rind of a lemon beat these together ¾ hour; then add an ale glass of Rose Water and ¾ of a ale rind and mix it well with the above

Bake it in a slow oven

For the purposes of our project, we decided to half the number of eggs and add one cup of sugar (as no measurment was given). We decided to add one stick of butter as most modern cake recipes call for butter.

General observations about the recipe:

The recipe we chose for this project is a biscuit cake, which likely was used as a breakfast dish or a desert dish in an early modern home. Due to the use of ingredients like rose water, which was likely harder to find in the early modern period, we can assume that this recipe was used in a wealthy family's home. We located this recipe in the 18th century cookery book located on the Wellcome Library's website. What struck us most about this recipe was the number of eggs it required (fourteen). We question whether this recipe was intended for a large group of people (as early modern homes often had many people in them) and that is why so many eggs were used. However, even though we used seven eggs in our recipe (half the normal amount) the cake had the consistency of a fritata. Additionally, the original recipe did not specify the amount of sugar to be used. We think that it is likely the owner of the recipe book was familiar with the biscuit cake recipe, or the amount of sugar to be used was common knowledge as it seems odd to not specify it.Additionally, we decided to add one stick of butter to the recipe as other cakes normally call for butter.^[1]The recipe's author make have decided to leave out butter because it was harder to acquire in the early modern period than it is today. Overall, the recipe was relatively easy to complete. This may be because we decided against beating the mixture for 45 minutes as this labor seemed to be excessive. However, in an early modern household that had a lot of servant labor, this would have likely been a task attributed to a servant.

^[1]“Chocolate Biscuit Cake,” Food Network, accessed November 2, 2020, https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/chocolate-biscuit-cake-4664361.

Video:

What we learned from this project:

Before this project, we were unaware of the level of labor that was needed to complete early modern recipes. Specifically, we found that the recipe took a lot longer to make than modern recipes (which can be completed in a matter of minutes). This can be attributed to the fact that early modern households often had servants who were tasked with cooking and spent much of the day laboring in the kitchen. We both also noticed that because the recipe took longer to make, we had ample time to talk while we were cooking and discuss our days and share any gossip we may have. Dr. Herbet discussed the relationships formed between women in the domestic sphere in early modern europe in her essay," Females Alliances: Gender, Identity and Friendship in Early Modern Europe". Towards the beginning of her essay, Herbet states that "Household labor often necessitated female collaboration.."It was through this collaboration that alliances were formed between women in the home(81).^[1]Additionally, Herbet discusses that early modern kitchens were often not pleasant spaces to spend time in as they were "hot smokey and uncomfortable places to work" (82). ^[2]Some kitchens, which were in tropical climates in the British colonies, were located outside and could have unpleasantly humid temperatures. The differences between modern and early modern kitchens makes it difficult for us to accurately recreate how a recipe was made by the people of early modern europe. However, we can imagine that much labor would have to be put into a recipe, with slower ovens and uncomfortable working conditions.

^[1]Amanda E Herbert, Female Alliances (Yale University Press, 2014).

^[2]Herbert.

Bibliography:

Food Network. “Chocolate Biscuit Cake.” Accessed November 2, 2020. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/chocolate-biscuit-cake-4664361. (Used as a reference for a modern biscuit cake)

Herbert, Amanda E. Female Alliances. Yale University Press, 2014.

Wellcome Library. “Cookery-Books: 18th Cent.” Accessed November 2, 2020. http://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b19366863.