Take halfe a peek of fine Flower and halfe a pound of fresh butter, a quart of Milk, Rosewater, four eggs, some salt as big as an egg of leaven, lett it stand half an hour, then make it up and bake it.
Recipe Amounts Used:
3 cups of flour
1 cup / ½ pound of butter
4 eggs
Salt as big as an egg (1/4 cup)
4 cups of milk
1 tbsp of Honey
Procedure:
There were not many instructions on the recipe other than to “make it all up” (mix it up). Let it sit for half an hour, then to bake it!
However, I measured and put all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and used a whisk to mix the ingredients all together. I then let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes. I heated the oven to 350 degrees, and placed it in to bake. There was not a set time for the bread to bake, so I just watched it for about an hour and then took it out of the oven! With the left over batter that was made, I was actually able to make pancakes!
Step by Step French Bread!
Final Product and comparison to other recipes:
The final product of my French Bread after following Elizabeth Jacobs recipe, I found that the bread did not quite rise as normal. It had much of pound cake and thick and moist consistency. However, it did not taste bad. It tasted very much like pancake batter. Had I been able to add rose water like the original recipe called for it may have tasted differently. As well as if it had something like yeast or baking powder to make the bread rise, then it would have been much more bread like than cake like. I looked up a few other recipes done from similar time spans and both of the recipes that I did find, included a reagent that allowed the bread to rise such as yeast. In those recipes, there were other steps involved such as kneading or letting the bread dough rise prior to cooking. The recipes I found were much more thorough with more instructions and ingredients. Below are the recipes that I was able to find.
References:
Elizabeth Jacob, Physicall and chyrurgicall receipts. Cookery and preserves (1654-1685).
In my college class, HSCI 3243 The History of Science, Women and Medicine we have been working on a research project having to deal with recipe books written by early modern English women. We have been working in groups to transcribe the recipes in various different recipes books. My group was assigned to transcribe and research Elizabeth Jacobs’ manuscript book “Physicall and chyrurgicall receipts Cookery and preserves.” Throughout this project I have gotten to learn about many different ways that women in early modern times concocted medicines and remedies for different ailments. I have also gotten to see how compared to this time period we have grown and evolved in much of our medicines. I will be transcribing and recreating a recipe from this book and I am excited to share this with you.
The Transcription of this recipe is as follows: To make Lemon Cream by Madam Bean Take the juice of 2 Lemons let the rine of one sleep in the Juice all night then add a quarter of a pinte of fair water beaten with the whites of 4 Eggs and one of the yolks. Strain all through a strainer then have ready half a pound of double Refined Sugar west with a quarter of a pinte of water and the white of one Egg beaten to Clarify it when it is sound and Clear put the Juice of your Lemon and Eggs to it keeping it stirring till it is of a good thickness like Cream and then put it into your Cups and Glasses to Cool.
The Same way may be made Orange Cream
Measurement Conversion: 1/4 pint of water –> 1/2 cup of water 1/2 pound of double refined sugar –> 1 cup of cane sugar
So I chose to do both Lemon Cream and Orange Cream for options and if I really messed up on one. I wanted to make it as authentic as possible. With that being said, I did not want to use anything that would have been unavailable during this time period. So in an effort to keep this true to the time I hid away my precious mixer and other kitchen products that I have come to know and love. I can’t wait to tell you about my adventure in recreating this recipe but first you have to know about the ingredients and instructions.
Ingredients
2 Large Lemons
2 Large Oranges
A carton of Eggs (I got 18 just in case)
water
1 pound of double refined sugar
Instructions:
Juice two lemons
Let lemon juice sit overnight with the peel of one in the juice
Add juice to 1/4 pint of water beaten with 3 egg whites and 1 whole egg
Strain this mixture
On the side add 1/2 lb. of sugar to 1/4 pint of water and wait for the sugar to dissolve and the water to appear clear
Beat one egg white and add to the sugar water mixture
Combine the juice mix with the sugar mix slowly while stirring
Keep stirring
Keep stirring
Oh yes, keep stirring
Once it is thick like a cream put it into your glasses or cups to cool
Enjoy!
Let’s Begin!
These are all the ingredients you need! As you can see I already juiced my Lemons and Oranges and let them sit over night.I took the whites of 3 eggs and one whole egg as well as 1/2 cup of waterOnce the egg whites and water were beaten together it was time to ass the lemon juiceyou have to have the sugar and water mixture ready so I combined that on the side as to let the sugar dissolve properlyafter the sugar was dissolved a bit and combined with a beaten egg it was time to add the lemon juice egg white mixture to it and JUST KEEP STIRRING
After this was completed I did the whole thing over again with oranges! It did not come out as I would have imagined because of the amount of water. The mixture immediately separated and I was confused about how beaten did “Beaten” mean. So once this was over I decided to test this recipe another way. The way of the post modern kitchen and some new knowledge of beaten egg whites. I beat the egg whites first without a yolk and I added sugar slowly without water. Then I added some of the lemon/orange juice mixture from my previous tries. It came out like lemon flavored and orange flavored whipped cream and I had previously imagined! Below are a few images of my first attempt in comparison to my second or rather my first and second attempt in comparison to my third and fourth attempt. It tastes great but I don’t think it was the same “cream” I was thinking. It seemed like like it would be a drink rather than the dessert I had in mind.
The recipe I recreated was from a recipe book by Catherine Cotton that contains both culinary and medical recipes. The book has its origins from 1698 England.
Recipe Transcription for Almonds jumbals Almonds jumbals Beat a pound of blanched almonds small in a mortar and put in a litle orang-flower-water or rose-water to keep them from oyling, dry them aganst the fire till they crumble like bread then boyl as much sugar to a pretty thick syrup as will make it up like balls. keep it by you to make some when you please, half a pound of the balls into a mortar with three quarters of a pound of sifted sugar, and as many whites of eggs as will make it soe stiffe as not to run out when tis spouted with a syring for that purpose, and if you have not that instrument lay them on papers in what shapes you please, but the sugar alomnds and eggs must be well beaten togather, and if dos not taste enough of the orang flower-water you may put in more as you beat it. set them into an oven as hot as for biskett.
Beat a pound of blanched almonds small in a mortar and put in a little orange-flower-water or rose-water to keep them from oiling. Dry them against the fire until they crumble like bread. Then, boil as much sugar needed to make a pretty thick syrup as will make it up like balls. Keep it by you to make some when you please. Then, place half a pound of the balls into a mortar with three-quarters of a pound of sifted sugar, and as many whites of eggs as will make it so stiff as to not run out when it is spouted with a syringe for that purpose. If you have not that instrument, lay them on papers in whatever shapes you want to, but the sugar almonds and eggs must be well beaten together. If the mix does not taste like it has enough orange-flower-water, you may put in more as you beat it. Afterwards, set them into an oven as hot as for making biscuits to bake them.
I found this recipe interesting and wanted to recreate it for multiple reasons. One reason was that I clearly understood the recipe when I read it, and that the ingredients were simple. I would only need almonds, sugar, eggs, orange-flower-water, and rose-water to make it. The steps of the recipe are also straightforward for the most part, as you simply have to first toast a mixture of ground almonds and orange-flower-water/rose-water, add sugar and egg whites to it, and make them into balls/interesting shapes before baking them.
The orange-flower-water, almonds, and rose-water I used
However, one thing that I did not fully understand when I was looking at the recipe was what exactly I was going to be making. Precisely, I did not know exactly what a “jumbal” is. From what I could gather, it was some sort of a baked good, like a cookie or pastry. I did some research, and found a definition for it in the Oxford English Dictionary which helped me understand exactly what a jumbal is.
It states that a jumbal is a “kind of fine sweet cake or biscuit, formerly often made up in the form of rings or rolls; now in U.S. ‘a thin crisp cake, composed of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs, flavored with lemon-peel or sweet almonds.’”
Another interesting thing I found in the Oxford English Dictionary page for “jumbal” was that it cites the word as being first used in the year 1615, in a recipe for “jumbles” in The English Housewife by Gervase Markham. One indication that can be drawn from this is that the word “jumbal” was a concept or word that was relatively new compared to others used in recipes during this time period, especially compared to other terms used in recipes in this time period. These include words such as “biscuit” or “cake”, which the dictionary cite as being used for the first time in 1330 and around 1230, respectively.
Recipe for “jumbles” from The English Housewife by Gervase Markham
After researching about “jumbals” in general, I went on to try and find other recipes for almond jumbals created during the early modern period. I was able to find a recipe for them from the Folger Manuscript V.a.429, fol. 52v, created around 1675-1750.
Recipe for “Almond Jumballs” from the Folger Manuscript
After reading this recipe from the manuscript, I realized how similar it is to that of Catherine Cotton’s, not only in the wording, but also in the ingredients and techniques used. The manuscript has multiple handwritings, as well as ownership inscriptions on the front, including those of Rose Kendall, Ann Cater, and Anna Maria Wentworth. This suggests that both the author of the “Almond Jumballs” recipe from the manuscript and Catherine Cotton may have based their own recipes on the same source recipe because of how similar they are to each other. Afterward, they likely just made their own, individual adjustments to their recipes.
I then compared the different jumble recipes from Gervase Markham’s book, the folger manuscript, and Catherine Cotton’s book. It was interesting to note the similarities between all of the recipes, as they all use egg whites and sugar as ingredients. They also use similar techniques, like beating the egg whites, shaping the jumbles in whatever shape one wants to, and then baking them on paper in an oven. Keeping in mind these similarities, it is reasonable to speculate that Catherine Cotton, and the writer of the “Almond Jumballs” recipe from the Folger manuscript could have both gotten ideas for how to make their recipes from Markham’s recipe for “jumbles”. It is also possible that Cotton or the manuscript author got their ideas from a newer source who pulled ideas for their own “jumbal” recipe from Markham’s book.
After researching the different recipes for jumbals, I prepped to recreate Catherine Cotton’s recipe. While doing so, another recreation for “Almond Jumbals”, done on the “Cooking on the Archives” blog was helpful when deciding on things like ingredient measurements and cooking times. After doing so, I came up with the following recreation recipe for “Almond Jumbals”
Almond Jumbals
Ingredients
1/2 lb of almonds
1 Tablespoon of orange flower water
1 Tablespoon of rose Water
1 and 1/2 Cups of sugar
1/2 Cup of Water
2-3 egg whites
1 Cup Flour
Makes close to one dozen jumbals, more or less depending on the shape of jumbals made.
Steps
1. Begin by blanching your almonds. Do this by bringing a pot of water to a boil, and then adding your almonds in (no longer than 60 seconds, otherwise they will start to soften). Afterwards, strain the almonds and rinse them under cold water. Dry them, and then remove the skins.
Blanching the Almonds
2. Next, grind the blanched almonds. Catherine Cotton’s recipe says to do so with a mortar, but for time purposes, I used a blender.
Ground Almonds and Rose Water
3. Mix the ground almonds with 1 tablespoon of Rose Water. Orange-flower-Water, however, may be used instead. Afterwards, toast the mixture until it is brown. I did so for 5 minutes at 450°F using a toaster oven, but if using a large oven, make sure to keep in mind the longer preheating time.
Almond and rose water mix before and after toasting
4. The next step is to make a “thick” syrup using sugar and water. This can be done by boiling a mixture of half a cup of sugar combined with half a cup of water. This is done until the sugar dissolves, which took around 3 minutes at high heat.
5. Afterwards, I added the sugar syrup to the toasted almond mix in a large bowl. Cotton’s recipe says that you can make balls out of the mix after adding the syrup, but I found it easier to do so after adding more sugar and the egg whites.
Sugar Syrup Mixed with Toasted Almonds
6. Afterwards, stir in 1 cup of sugar.
7. Next, obtain your egg whites, and mix them together well with the almond mixture. I added enough egg whites (around 2) until I felt the dough was moist. I also added 1 tablespoon of orange-flower-water at this step.
Runny dough before adding flour
8. It was at this point where I realized that the dough was too runny and I knew, would not stay together enough to bake into jumbals. As a result, I had to deviate from Cotton’s recipe and add around 1 cup of flour to the mixture, which made it less runny and much thicker, more like traditional dough used for other baked goods.
Almond Mixture with added flour
9. I did not have a syringe I could use, like in Cotton’s recipe, to pipe the final almond mixture through to make the shapes of the jumbals. Instead, I shaped the dough into different shapes like letters, as Cotton’s recipe says.
10. Afterwards, I baked the jumbals for 15 minutes at 350°F in a toaster oven. Adjustments may have to be made to cooking times and temperatures if using a larger oven.
Results
The jumbals came out much better than I expected, both in texture and taste. They were crispy, chewy, and to me, closely resembled the texture and taste of a sweet biscuit. I felt like the cooking time for them was nearly perfect, only a bit overdone. This could be fixed by baking them for 2 or 3 less minutes in the future.
Baked Almond Jumbals
When tasting it, I felt that at the beginning of eating it, it was sweet and nutty. At the end however, there was hint of rose. However, there was not really much of the orange flavor from the flower water coming through, so in the future I would add maybe 2-3 tablespoons of it instead of 1. After the cookies cooled, they tasted much more strongly of rose flavor, which I enjoyed. If others making this recipe do not like rose flavor as much, however, I would maybe use 1/2 tablespoon of the rose water instead.
Inside of one of the Almond Jumbals
Overall, making the almond jumbals and researching about the origins of jumbals and the many recipes for them was an interesting experience, and I thought it was excellent that they turned out so well.
Take your carrots and cut them in long little pieces and take a pretty many onions ad cut them small. A bunch of sweet hearbes. A little whole pepper and a little nutmeg, and put on much water as will lower your sauce pan. A good piece of butter lower them close and let them on. Allow the fire stir the from times and when they are enough serve them.
Ingredients:
Onions
Carrots (long pieces)
Sweet herbs (I used basil)
Nutmeg
Pepper
Water
Butter
Procedure:
I gathered all the ingredients needed which was pretty easy to obtain. The only thing I had to improvise was the sweet herbs, so I used basil. First, I cull the onions and carrots. While I was cutting, I put pot full of water on the stove on low heat. Next, I added everything to the stove, including the rest of the ingredients. The recipe never specified the amounts for each so I guesstimated and put however much I felt was normal. After leaving it on boil for about 8 minutes and let it cool to serve.
Afterthoughts:
It smelt horrific and made me gag because the thought of nutmeg and carrots did not sound appealing. My sister tasted it and she said it was pretty bland but nothing she would ever make again. The recipe itself was not difficult to make, but it was confusing on how much of the ingredients I needed. Unfortunately, I did not find much as to why this recipe was used but I assume it was used for as soup and something to eat/drink when someone had a minor illness like the cold.
Pictures of the process:
The stew before the water started to boil, Almost all the ingreiedets are in there. Pepper being put into the stew. After all ingredients are in the pot. The water is starting to boil.All the ingredients used in this recipe, Not very many!The final product! Does not look yummy at all. It in fact, was not.
From Elizabeth Jacob’s book Physicall and chyrurgicall receipts. Cookery and preserves
Transcription: To Make Ginger Bread: madm: Sandcroft’s Take 2 pound of 6 peny suger, and A pint of butter, and put them into A Skillet With as much milk as will wett the suger, Sett them on the fire, and keep them stiring till all the butter is melted, and then take as much flower, as will make it into A Stiffe past, and poure it in, then take all sorts of spices, but most ginger, with A little caraway, coriander, and anyseeds, make it into past, and then put in Cittern Orange, and lemmon peele, A little of Each, you must be ruled by your Tasting the past whether hott enough of the Spice, make it into what fashion you please, and bake it not in to hott an Oven
I chose a recipe in Elizabeth Jacob’s book for gingerbread. The basis of this recipe includes combining sugar, butter, and milk over a skillet on top of the stove. The next step is to add flour to this mixture until it forms a thick paste. When it comes to adding spices, there is a bit of freedom because the author only lists caraway, coriander, anise, and ginger and the rest of the spices used is left up to the reader. The interesting part of this recipe is that there are three different kinds of citrus fruits used. These fruits include citron (I’m going to interpret this as lime), orange, and lemon. The measurement of these is also left up to the reader. The last step is to put it in the oven and bake it (neither the temperature of the oven or the length of time is specified).
In order to gain some insight on how others made gingerbread during this time, I used Early English Books Online. I found a couple of other recipes for gingerbread during the 17th century. Thomas Johnson wrote a book in 1630 called ainty conceits with a number of rare and witty inuentions, neuer before printed. Made and inuented for honest recreation, to passe away idle houres in which he gave his recipe for gingerbread. The recipe goes as follows:
How to make Ginger bread.
TAke two pound of scummed hony, twelue peund of flowre, put thereto ginger beaten in powder, pepper, cloues, and mace, in pow|der, and make into what fashion you will, and bake it as you would dee bread.
This recipe by Thomas Johnson is a bit more simple than Elizabeth Jacob’s version of gingerbread. However, Johnson also put pepper and cloves in his gingerbread so I’m going to add those spices into the gingerbread that I make since I can chose what spices to put in.
Another recipe I found for gingerbread during the 17th century is by Gervase Markham in hisbook called Countrey contentments, or The English husvvife Containing the inward and outward vertues which ought to be in a compleate woman. As her skill in physicke, surgerie, extraction of oyles, banqueting-stuffe, ordering of great feasts, preseruing of all sorts of wines, conceited secrets, distillations, perfumes, ordering of wooll, hempe, flax, making cloth, dying, the knowledge of dayries, office of malting, oats, their excellent vses in a family, brewing, baking, and all other things belonging to an houshold. A worke generally approued, and now much augmented, purged and made most profitable and necessarie for all men, and dedicated to the honour of the noble house of Exceter, and the generall good of this kingdome. This book was written in 1623. In his recipe, Markham uses honey which is an ingredient than is not mentioned in Jacob’s recipe. Markham also uses pepper which I will be adding to Jacob’s recipe. Some similarities between Markham and Jacob’s recipes are the use of anise and ginger.
To make course Ginger bread, take a quart of hony and set it on the coales and refine it: then take a penny worth of Ginger, as much pepper, as much Licoras, and a quarter of a pound of Aniseeds, and a penny worth of Saunders: All these must be beaten and sarsed, and so put into the hony: then put in a quarter of a pint of Clar|ret wine or old Ale: then take three penny Manchets finely grated and strow it amongst the rest, and stirre it till it come to a stiffe Past, and then make it into Cakes and drie them gently,
After looking through different 17th century recipes for gingerbread, I finalized my recipe into the following:
Ingredients:
4 cups sugar
2 cups unsalted butter
1 cup whole milk
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon clove
½ teaspoon pepper
½ tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon caraway
½ teaspoon coriander
½ teaspoon anise
Zest of 1 lime
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350º
Grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan
Combine sugar, butter, and milk in a skillet over medium heat and stir until all the butter is melted
Take the flour and slowly incorporate it into the skillet until the mixture becomes a thick paste
Add the clove, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, caraway, coriander, and anise to the skillet and mix it together
Add the zest of the lime, lemon, and orange into the skillet and mix
Once everything is mixed, pour the mixture into the greased loaf pan and bake it in the oven for 30-40 minutes
After following the steps, this is what my gingerbread looked like before baking it in the oven. I was a little concerned at the amount of butter I had to put in the recipe and I wasn’t sure if this was going to turn into bread at all. I tasted a tiny bit of the batter just to make sure it tasted like gingerbread and it did!
After 30 minutes of baking, this is what the “gingerbread” looked like! I was horrified by the layer of butter on top. I decided to drain as much butter as I could from the pan and try to remove most of the butter from the bread with paper towels. I stuck the bread back into the oven for 10 more minutes to see if maybe I would be able to eat it!
After another 10 minutes of baking (total of 40 minutes altogether), this is how my gingerbread turned out. It was extremely greasy and had the consistency of pumpkin pie. The outside edges were more consistent with bread but when I tried to cut a slice, the bread just fell apart. There was way too much butter in this recipe and it could’ve possibly worked if I hadn’t used a whole pint of it like the recipe called for! In conclusion, this recipe did not go as planned. I was hoping for moist gingerbread but instead I made slop! With some adjustments made to the measurements I believe this could have turned out a lot better. But hey, at least my apartment smells like Christmas now.
References
Elizabeth Jacob, Physicall and chyrurgicall receipts. Cookery and preserves (1654-1685).
Gervase Markham, Countrey contentments, or The English husvvife Containing the inward and outward vertues which ought to be in a compleate woman. As her skill in physicke, surgerie, extraction of oyles, banqueting-stuffe, ordering of great feasts, preseruing of all sorts of wines, conceited secrets, distillations, perfumes, ordering of wooll, hempe, flax, making cloth, dying, the knowledge of dayries, office of malting, oats, their excellent vses in a family, brewing, baking, and all other things belonging to an houshold. A worke generally approued, and now much augmented, purged and made most profitable and necessarie for all men, and dedicated to the honour of the noble house of Exceter, and the generall good of this kingdome (1623).
Stephen Schmidt, English Gingerbread Old and New (2012).
Thomas Johnson, ainty conceits with a number of rare and witty inuentions, neuer before printed. Made and inuented for honest recreation, to passe away idle houres (1630).
Group One's Recipe Recreations 