A Luncheon Prepared for

TRM Alasdair & Guenievre

Coronation

20 September 2003

 

Menu

Oatcakes and Barley Cakes, Assorted Breads and Manchets,

Honey, Marmalade, Preserves, Butter

Selection of Artisan and Imported Cheeses


Feather Fowlie Soup


Salat


Grilled Beef Steaks and Roasted Beef on a Platter

Peas with Mint, A Dish of Barley


Roasted Assorted Fowl on a Platter

Spiced Carrots, Rice Florentine


A Sideboard of Various Sweet Fare

Shortbreads, Wafers, An Arrangement of Autumn Fruits, Tarts of Autumn Fruits, Candied Fruits, Lady Anne’s Cheesecake, A Cream, Something Chocolate! Marchepane, and Numerous Other Sweets


Drinks of Various Sorts


Presented by


THL Johnnae llyn Lewis with the Assistance of Lady Anne Stevenson

 

 

 


The Coronation Luncheon

for

TRM Alasdair & Guenievre

 

 in the Barony of Cynnabar

in the Village of Chelsea

20 September 2003

 

 

Notes on the Foods and Sources

by THL Johnnae llyn Lewis

2003



Notes on the Foods and Sources

by THL Johnnae llyn Lewis



          In 1608 William Douglas, The Earl of Angus and his Countess, Elizabeth, were internally exiled for political and religious reasons to Glasgow. Five months of their household expense accounts from that period of time can be found today in the National Library of Scotland. These accounts, along with numerous other sources, form the basis for today’s luncheon of fare that might well have been served in Scotland in the reign of James VI, later to become James I of England. The following brief notes concentrate on the associations and context of the foods served here today. Sources and original recipes are noted. It’s the story and not the a list of ingredients or recipe instructions that I offer here.


Brief Notes on Individual Dishes


Oatcakes and Barley Cakes—


Alexander Fenton, among others, has documented the long association of the Scottish hearth with these characteristic flatbreads of oats and barley. Traditionally baked on a stone before the fire, they often don’t bake as much as dry out before the fire. Even when the “stone” of a bakestone gave way to an iron griddle surface, this manufactured iron griddle may still be called a “bakestone.” I bought mine at Covent Garden in 1984. Historical accounts date back to at least the 14th century when Froissart recorded the making of oatcakes by Scottish soldiers. The Earl’s Glasgow accounts mention them of course early in the 17th century. A quick read on the subject is Lockhart’s The Scots and Their Oats. Although he’s talking about Yorkshire and not Scotland, Brears’ The Gentlewoman’s Kitchen also includes a good account of regional hearth breads, as does Elisabeth David and also McNeill. I have made use of stone ground barley meal and imported oats.



Assorted Breads and Manchets—


The Earl’s household in 1608 ate a variety of breads. Purchases including “forty menschotts” and twenty-one loaves of oat bread were made. These are yeast raised breads of fine wheat and oat flour. Bread, perhaps of finer quality, was also an item that was purchased in Edinburgh and transported to Glasgow upon occasion. The Countess also distributed bread to the poor and the destitute of the city. Markham in The English Housewife speaks about manchets, as does the account of William Harrison. See also Brown’s various works, Elizabeth David, and Karen Hess.


Marmalade—


While I did candy Seville Oranges last winter, I did not make marmalade at that time. Folklore associates it with Mary, Queen of Scots of course & there’s a recipe for the original quince version in Alessio. For a definitive account, the best book on the subject remains C. Anne Wilson’s authoritative volume The Book of Marmalade.



Cheese—


Cheshire cheese is mentioned in one of the 17th century menus as being purchased and served at a noble’s table. Otherwise cheese might be made and consumed as a local product from the estates or made within individual households on a local basis. We are reminded that it was a feminine activity when we read the instructions given in Dowe’s A Dairie Booke for All Good Huswiues in which a man instructs a woman in how one might make cheeses and whitemeates. Being served today are a selection of imported cheeses purchased from Zingerman’s and the Four Season’s Market in Ann Arbor. The selection includes a farmhouse artisan Cheshire, fresh Sharon Hollow artisan cream cheese, double Gloucester, a Scottish mature Cheddar, and a Golden Cheshire.



Feather Fowlie Soup—


Clarissa Dickson Wright traces this soup back to the white soups of the 16th century and says in this version it was a beloved soup of Mary, Queen of Scots but I have yet to locate another or her source for saying so. I do know that as a dish McNeill thought it was older than the more well-known Cock-a-Leekie. What I do know is that I served this soup at the Scottish Crown Feast for TRM Hugo and Caitlin in 1981 and my article on it appeared later in Tournaments Illuminated.



Salat –


Under the entry for September, John Reid mentions: “Varieties of Pot-herbes and Sallades.” This recipe is based in part on that given by Gervase Markham’s The English Housewife where he wrote about “of wholesome herbes… as lettice and many others.”


A Dish of Barley—


Robert May gives a recipe for barley made with mutton broth. This is a dish of barley made with a piece of lamb.



 

Roasted Beef and Grilled Beef Steaks on a Platter--


It’s noted in the aforementioned accounts that the Earl of Angus and his family consumed three beef “staiks’ on 19 July 1608. It’s also recorded that some of the meat served to the Earl was brought on the hoof from his own estates to Glasgow. The manner of preparation for this beef would most likely have been roasting on a spit. Less tender cuts would have been placed in a cauldron to simmer before being served as a dish of “sodden beef.”


Peter Yeoman notes in his article for British Archaeology that contrary to Scotland’s long association with sheep, it was in fact cattle that were the most numerous species found in the medieval urban markets of Scotland. “They were,” he notes, “giant abattoirs, supporting a network of industries for the processing of hides, meat and bone.” Later the traditions associated with the driving of cattle south to England for sale and slaughter developed, and the romantic image of the drover of song and story took hold in popular culture. The beef served here today was either grilled or roasted with smoke.



Peas with Mint—


The buttered peas o’ Lauderdale

Are better than the best o’ Kail

When Tammie’s pith begins to fail Old Rhyme Cited in McNeill


John Reid mentions peas under the month of September. Recipes for “grene pefen” are scattered throughout the early English culinary canon.



Spit Roasted Assorted Fowl on a Platter—


The Earl of Angus’s July meal that included the beef “staiks” mentioned above also included “six chickens and two ‘powts’ ” or pullets. Chickens were served often, either roasted as here or served in a soup as in the dish of Feather Fowlie.

Chickens were often used to pay rents in kind, and substantial numbers of “kain hens” were still being recorded in lieu of rent well into the late 18th century. Those served here today were spit roasted using a rotisserie spit and Weber grill.


Spiced Carrots—


Carrots are another vegetable associated with September and are even mentioned as being purchased in September in the Earl’s accounts. John Reid mentions carrots throughout his book, as well as placing them under the month of September in his Kalendar. “Cold beif wt carits” appears in other 17th century Scottish household accounts. Here I serve them with the poultry. Robert May, among other authors, includes an excellent recipe for them.



Rice Florentine—


Annette Hope includes this 17th century recipe in her article on the cookery of Scotland’s Glamis Castle which appears in Traditional Country House Cooking.



A Sideboard of Sweet Fare

A Table of Drinks with Ice


The “Sweets” Table contains a mix of Jacobean era ‘Banqueting Fare,’ classic Scottish favourites, and additional special sweets as requested by TRM Alasdair and Guenievre. Their Royal Majesties requested fruit tartlets, marzipan, chocolate, and cheesecake. We have done our best to comply with their request and offer a selection of dishes.


In 1608 the Earl drank French wine and local ales. “Canerie” and “Malaga” wines are mentioned, but ale seems to have been the most common drink. John Reid for September writes: “Make Cyder, Perry, and other Wines.”


We have today supplied a variety of soft drinks as requested including regular Brisk iced tea, plain water, Diet lemon "Brisk" tea, Diet Dr. Pepper and Raspberry Brisk, along with lemons.


Shortbreads—


Shortbreads have always been popular and due in large part to Walkers and other companies have been the classic gift from Scotland for many years. They are now exported around the world, in varying degrees of freshness. Finding an authentic early recipe labeled as “shortbread” is not as easy as buying and enjoying them. There are no recorded early recipes and the traditional sources often contradict themselves. I can safely now date shortbreads back to the Earl of Angus’s dated household accounts of 1608. In one instance shortbreads were purchased; in another flour was sent out for their baking. See also my article in Tournaments Illuminated, issue 61, Winter 1981.


An Arrangement of Autumn Fruits


James V’s Queen, Mary of Guise, the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, wrote in 1538 to say that she was served with local Scottish apples, pears, and plums. She so missed the variety that her French homeland offered that trees and cuttings of different varieties were dispatched from France in short order to her gardens in Scotland. A 17th century manuscript from Dunrobin Castle mentions pippins, currants, apples, quinces, cherries, raspberries, gooseberries, and plums being preserved. John Reid’s The Scots Gard'ner lists “Aples, Pears, Apricocks, Peaches, Nectarines, Quince, Grape, Barberries, Filbeards” under the entry for September. We are serving the best of the local markets.


Tarts---


Per Request of TRM and based on the seasonal fruits listed by John Reid in the entry directly above. The baking of pastries was an activity for which the Earl paid some eight shillings in 1608. His pastries might or might not have contained fruits and could well have been meat pies. A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye includes numerous recipes for tarts and pies as well as a recipe for a short paste. The only surviving copy of the original 1545 edition titled A Propre New Booke of Cokery may be found in the University of Glasgow’s Library, by the way. Did it find its way north of the border in the 1540’s and remain in Scotland to this day? We sadly don’t know.



A Compote of Autumn Fruits---

Based on the seasonal fruits listed by John Reid in the two entries directly above. Fruits might be candied as in the entries that follow or lightly cooked in a syrup and served as in this dish. ‘Compote,’ according to John Evelyn, ‘was fruit stew'd in Sugar, after a manner peculiar to the French. ‘ A Compote has come to mean fruit preserved in syrup or the dish in which such a dish is served.


Candied Apples---


There are recipes in Sir Hugh Plat and the Tudor-Jacobean era Booke of Sweetmeats edited by Karen Hess for preserved apples. This is a variation. These were cut into matchsticks and boiled in a syrup of water and sugar, lemon juice, and a cinnamon stick until soft. Then they were dried in a low oven. They resemble fruits found in some of the Dutch and Flemish artworks of the early 17th century.


Candied Oranges and Peels—


During the past year and a half I have been exploring confectionary and culinary manuscripts and books to more fully document the method and processes that were used in the candying of oranges and citrus fruit in past times and places. A description of the method of prolonged soaking that I use is found in Olivier de Serres’s work of 1600 Le Theatre d'Agriculture. A full account of my work on this topic appears in my “Candied Oranges” book dated Spring 2003.



A Confection of Quince


Quinces appear in dozens of late 16th and early 17th century recipe books, including Plat and Alessio. This is a quince confection made by boiling down the liquid leftover from candying the actual fruit pieces. I first wrote about this method in my work Delayed Desserts.


Something Chocolate!


Per Request of TRM. This dessert or possibly desserts demonstrate I watch too many hours of the Food Network and own too many chocolate cookbooks. For details, ask. As of this writing I am unsure what the final dessert or desserts will be.


Cheesecake—

 

Per Request of TRM. A splendid classic Cheesecake as prepared under the able hands of Lady Anne Stevenson.


A Cream with a Dish of Raspberries--


There are many recipes for boiled creams, but this is a simple heavy cream whipped with sugar. Served along with fresh Autumn Raspberries.



Wafers—


I am at work (slowly) on a re-examination of my initial work on “Wafers” which appeared in Tournaments Illuminated back in 1982. This new research already fills a notebook and includes a multitude of new references and recipes. Having made wafers off and on for most of my thirty years in the Society, I have found that almost everyone prefers the sweeter and richer wafers made with butter and sugar. My recipe for this type was posted to the SCA-COOKS List in December 2002 and may be found in their archives.



A Great Cake with Icing—


This is a yeast leavened cake made with currants. I perfected the recipe for The Rose Tourney of June 2002. Such cakes are found in the Tudor-Jacobean manuscript published as Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery. My working version of the recipe for a “Great Cake” with original notes and original recipes was posted to MK Cooks List and SCA COOKS List in June 2002. It’s appended to the end of this booklet.



If the weather cooperates, sweets of marchepane, sugarpaste, and possibly sugar confections will also be served.



Marchepane or Marzipan Sweets--


There are numerous recipes for marzipan or marchepane, including Sir Hugh Plat. Karen Hess includes much commentary on the topic in her notes to Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery. I have been using almond paste sent from the Kingdom of Atlantia by Her Ladyship Olwen the Odd who has gained much notoriety for her works in marzipan. I also use her recipe because it works well. My molds are from House on the Hill and a variety of cake and confectionary stores. Her Ladyship Olwen and I are currently at work on new publication on marzipan.


Sugarpaste and also Sugar Confections—


The earliest English printed recipe for sugarpaste appears in The Secretes of the Reverende Maister Alexis of Piemont which was first published in England in 1558. In general for a working recipe, I recommend Countess Alys’ published accounts. I modify this often into a “flower paste” due to changing weather pattern with storms. See my article on “Alessio” in Tournaments.Illuminated. Summer 2003. For information on sugar confections, see Laura Mason’s Sugar-Plums and Sherbet. and Brears’ All the King’s Cooks.


Purchased Items:


The marmalade, preserves, butter, and honey served today were purchased for today’s luncheon. While I did work with Seville Oranges last winter, I did not make marmalade at that time, nor have I made any preserves for this luncheon. While preserving recipes and stillroom manuscripts have long been an interest of mine, due to my left knee being torn out, I just can’t pick fresh fruit at the moment. Maybe again someday, but not this year. Likewise the Jordan almonds, drinks, steak sauces, and modern salad dressings were also purchased.


 

A Note on the Menu and Choice of Recipes


           Recipes for the luncheon fare served today are drawn from the sources as cited in the brief notes given above. I supplemented the historic Scottish sources as needed recipes drawn from a number of later Scottish works. I also verified ingredients and recipes with a number of early English printed sources. Most of my regional collection is boxed at the moment awaiting more room and shelving space. While I make it a practice to note sources, amounts and methods in rough handwritten notes while cooking, I normally never spend the time during the creation of a luncheon or feast to formally type the working recipes up. Unless I am doing a strict authenticating or replicating based on a specific text or certain recipe, I use a wide range of sources when researching and recreating dishes such as these and will at times combine what I find to be the best elements of many recipes. My main interest these days is the commentary associated with the recipe or its context and place in history. I have enough experience these days to simply pick up an Elizabethan or Jacobean text and cook from it in many cases. It should be noted that one item missing from today’s menu is that of fish, due to the allergies of a guest. Typically fish and shellfish would have appeared on a menu of this type. As a Roman Catholic, the Earl and his family observed the various fast days of the church calendar. Also I found it odd that sauces, found so prominently in the English culinary records, seem unmentioned here, but this may just be the accounts not mentioning them. Lastly, I should mention that I tend to wait until the last moment to select the freshest fare or produce of the market these days. I also have enough baking sheets and equipment that I don’t do a lot of planning with regard to what to bake or roast when. I just simply retire to the kitchen with my notes and cook.




Background Reading—


Sources On Scottish Cookery


          As a Librarian, it would be remiss of me not to talk about sources and bibliographic problems regarding foods in Scotland and their sources. The topic of Scottish Cookery has always been popular within the Society, but for most of the Society’s early days and feasts, cooks were forced to make do with a combination of “traditional” cookbooks supplemented by scattered remarks in various historical, biographical, and descriptive texts. It was extremely hard to document with any clarity or accuracy what it was that they actually ate in Scotland during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It’s still extremely frustrating to read that James VI forced his troublesome nobles to walk hand in hand into a noble feast in May 1586 and have no idea of what they ate upon that occasion. [Even in 2002 the text that talked about this banquet failed to give us a menu, or even a footnote to go by.]


          It was to those traditional and general sources that featured this mix of history, folklore and oft-times fanciful stories and to what true historical accounts that could be found, that I turned to a generation ago when researching the Scottish Crown Feast that I prepared for TRM Hugo and Caitlin in 1981. A far different level of authenticity and style was expected at Society Feasts during those early days and while I would like to think that feast was one of the best of its day, it’s not the feast that I would serve now, given what I know now. At that same time I was also engaged in writing a series of articles for Tournaments Illuminated; several of those articles also featured Scottish dishes. Those articles with their heavily edited texts and bibliographies were at best quick overviews of research with a working recipe. Largely to answer questions I had when researching that 1981 Crown Feast, I also began to develop a collection of the more serious texts on the foods of Scotland. I tracked down a number of little known and largely unavailable household accounts and other works and eventually purchased over time all that I could afford of those I could locate. Most of these works were late 19th or early 20th century; no one, it seemed was up to the task of updating F. Marion McNeill’s classic The Scots Kitchen of 1929.


          To my great delight, in the late 1980’s, the situation as regards new publications began to change. Spurred in part by a growing awareness and demand for more works on food history within the United Kingdom, Annette Hope published A Caledonian Feast in 1987. Among the number of facsimiles that were published in the U.K., there appeared a small paperbound volume entitled Mrs. McLintock’s Receipts for Cookery. This book was a facsimile of the earliest printed Scottish cookery book as originally published in 1736. During this same time in the 1980’s, newspaper columnist Catherine Brown began to publish a series of volumes that dealt with Scottish fare. Her work to date has resulted in such publications as Broths to Bannocks. Cooking in Scotland: 1690 to the Present Day, A Year in a Scots Kitchen, Scottish Regional Recipes, and Scottish Cookery. Brown also served as a co-author on the massive encyclopedic volume Traditional Foods of Britain. An Inventory which describes hundreds of British regional dishes and products. She combines historical research with authentic, workable recipes, and her volumes are a joy to read and work with in the kitchen. Her newest Classic Scots Cookery is due out here next month. Reviews of it in Britain write: “Catherine Brown has sourced a working, tried and trusted recipe with the story behind it, and presents a recipe book for our time.”


          Last but not least, Olive M. Geddes with the cooperation of the HMSO and The National Library of Scotland released The Laird’s Kitchen in 1994. This work looks at what can be learned about the eating habits of the past three centuries based on actual documents owned by the Library, including those accounts of the Earl of Angus. Geddes notes that food history in Scotland is handicapped by a number of factors. (One feels in fact that Geddes found researching her earlier work on golf in Scotland was easier than researching this work on foods in Scotland.) Archives in Scotland are simply not as rich in culinary materials as those in England. The first printed Scottish cookery book is dated 1736. (The first in England is dated 1500.) This leaves less of a distinctive printed record that can be studied. There are fewer surviving recipe manuscripts in Scotland. Household accounts vary in detail as to how they recorded food purchases or noted agricultural rents paid in kind. Many are incomplete or have been lost over time. Geddes, in summary, was forced to admit that “Scotland has not been as fortunate as her European neighbors in the compilation and survival of records, relating to food history. Indeed little at all exists before the late sixteenth century”


          Nearly a quarter century has passed since I sat down to research that Scottish Crown Feast for TRM Hugo and Caitlin. I now find myself with a collection of over 10,000 works on cookery, gastronomy and food history. Unfortunately 9000, including many of the 100 plus works on Scotland and its cookery are boxed, due to lack of space and shelving. This forced me to scramble once again in the research for this menu and recipes. Normally these days I make extensive use of Early English Books Online which allows me to read and make use of pre-1700 printed English language books online. I searched “Scotland” and “descriptions” and found once again few references to foods. I read through numerous Coronation accounts on EEBO and quickly discovered that while long and involved ceremonies were written out, the menus weren’t. I did find and make great use of John Reid’s work on gardening which is dated 1683. Given these difficulties this is why I have described the menu as being “fare that might well have been served in Scotland in the reign of James VI later known as James I of England.” One could say that it’s grounded in facts; it’s just not described in fact! Yet, despite all these difficulties and using only a part of my collection, I feel that it is possible and very rewarding to do more with the fare of Scotland beyond kale, haggis, and oats. I hope this feast helps prove that fact.



Bibliography


Original Works [including Historical Recipes & Dietaries] dated prior to 1750:


Reid, John. The Gard'ners Kalendar shewing the most seasonable times for performing his hortulan affairs monthly throughout the year, and a catalogue of such dishes and drinks as a compleat garden can afford in their seasons : published for the climate of Scotland. Edinburgh : Printed by David Lindsay, 1683. Wing / R763


Reid, John. The Scots gard'ner in two parts, the first of contriving and planting gardens, orchards, avenues, groves, with new and profitable wayes of levelling, and how to measure and divide land : the second of the propagation & improvement of forrest, and fruit-trees, kitchen hearbes, roots and fruits, with some physick hearbs, shrubs and flowers : appendix shewing how to use the fruits of the garden : whereunto is annexed The gard'ners kalendar / published for the climate of Scotland. Edinburgh : Printed by David Lindsay and his Partners ..., 1683. Wing (2nd ed.) / R764


Just as we turn to John Evelyn’s later 17th century works when discussing salads and gardening in England, thanks to EEBO, we can now turn to John Reid for Scotland. The latter title is the earliest printed gardening book dedicated to the art of gardening in Scotland. It’s dated 1683, meaning that it comes after John Evelyn’s Kalendarium Hortense; Or, Gard’ners Almanac of 1664 and well before his Acetaria A Discourse of Sallets of 1699. The Gard'ners Kalendar which was printed both under its own distinct title and also included in The Scots Gard'ner shows how one ought to prepare the produce of the orchard and garden. Some say it is the first culinary work printed in Scotland. In it, Reid lists the “Garden Dishes and Drinks in Season” allowing us to determine that carrots and peas are properly served in September along with a salad. Reid left Scotland and sailed to America in 1683 to settle in New Jersey. He was 28.


Sutherland, James. Hortus medicus Edinburgensis, or, A catalogue of the plants in the Physical Garden at Edinburgh containing their most proper Latin and English names : with an English alphabetical. Edinburgh : Printed by the heir of Andrew Anderson and to be sold by Mr. Henry Ferguson ... and at the Physical Garden by the author, 1683. Wing / S6206. Another interesting book on Scotland and its plants.


See also:


Moryson, Fynes. An itinerary vvritten by Fynes Moryson Gent. First in the Latine tongue, and then translated by him into English: containing his ten yeeres trauell through the tvvelue dominions of Germany, Bohmerland, Sweitzerland, Netherland, Denmarke, Poland, Italy, Turky, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. London. 1617 STC (2nd ed.) / 18205 Classic often cited account.


Dawson, Thomas. The Good Huswifes Jewell, 2 Parts. Norwood, NJ and Amsterdam: Walter J. Johnson and Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1977. [series entry: The English Experience. Number 865. It consists of a 1596 first part and a 1597 second part. Both works were first published in the mid 1580’s.]


De Serres, Olivier. Le Theatre d'Agriculture et Mesnage des Champs. 1600, 1605. Geneva: Editions Slatkine, 1991. [First edition 1600. Edition consulted was a 1605 facsimile.]


Harrison, William. The Description of England. Edited by Georges Edelen. Washington, D.C. and New York: Folger Shakespeare Library and Dover Publications, 1968, 1994. [original publication 1587.]


Markham, Gervase. The English Housewife.1615, 1631. Edited by Michael R. Best. Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1986.


May, Robert. The Accomplisht Cook. 1685. Totnes, Devon, U.K.: Prospect Books, 1994. [facsimile with glossary and introduction; earliest edition 1660.]


Nott, John. Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary. 1726. London: Lawrence Rivington, 1980. [Facsimile edition with Introduction and Glossary by Elisabeth David]


Plat, Sir Hugh. Delightes for Ladies. 1609. Edited by G.E. Fussell and Kathleen Rosemary Fussell. London: Crosby Lockwood & Son LTD., 1948. [Earliest edition is 1600.]


A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye. Margaret Parker’s Cookery Book. Edited by Anne Ahmed. Cambridge, U.K.: Corpus Christi College, 2002. [Facsimile by of the undated complete text of the Corpus Christi copy. Earliest edition is 1545 & is on EEBO.]


Rabisha, William. The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected, Taught, and Fully Manifested, Methodically, Artificially, and According to the Best Tradition of the English, French, Italian, Dutch, &c. 1682. Totnes, Devon, U.K.: Prospect Books, 2003. [facsimile with glossary and introduction; earliest edition 1661.] [EEBO access to original 1661 text also possible.]


Dowe, Bartholomew. A Dairie Booke for All Good Huswiues STC 23702.5 is annexed to and may be found in: Tasso, Torquato, The Housholders Philosophie Anexed a Dairie Booke for All Good Huswiues. Translated by Thomas Kyd. London, 1588. Norwood, NJ and Amsterdam: Walter J. Johnson and Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1975. [series entry: The English Experience. Number 765.] STC (2nd ed.) / 23703



References and Sources for the Menu and Commentary. Several also include recipes.


Brears, P. C. D. The Gentlewoman’s Kitchen. Great Food in Yorkshire. 1650-1750. Wakefield, Yorkshire, U.K. : Wakefield Historical Publications, 1984.


Brown, Catherine. Feeding Scotland. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 1996.


Brown, Catherine. A Year in a Scots Kitchen. Glasgow: Neil Wilson Publishing, 1996.


Brown, Catherine. Scottish Cookery. 1985. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1999.


Brown, Catherine. “A Scottish Dinner.” Public Eating. Proceedings of the 1991 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. London: Prospect Books, 1992.


Cherniavsky, Mark. “The Dowager Queen’s Closet Opened.” Petits Propos Culinaires. 27. October 1987. pp. 17-19.


Fenton, Alexander. “Hearth and kitchen: the Scottish Example.” Food and Material Culture. [Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium of the International Commission for Research into European Food History.] East Linton, Scotland: Tuckwell Press, 1998. pp. 29-47.


Food in Change. Eating Habits from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. Edited by Alexander Fenton and Eszter Kisban. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1986.


Geddes, Olive M. The Laird’s Kitchen. Three Hundred Years of Food in Scotland. Edinburgh: HMSO; The National Library of Scotland, 1994.


Hope, Annette. “Scotland. Glamis Castle.” Traditional Country House Cooking. Edited by C. Anne Wilson. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993. pp. 48-83.


Innes, Mary McLeod. “Scottish Student Fare in the 16th Century.” Petits Propos Culinaires. 28. April 1988. pp.40-43.


Jaine, Tom. Baking Bread at Home. Traditional Recipes from Around the World. New York: Rizzoli, 1995.


Lockhart, G. W[allace]. The Scots and Their Fish. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, 1997.


Lockhart, G. W[allace]. The Scots and Their Oats. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, 1997.


McNeill, F. Marion. The Scots Kitchen. Its Traditions and Lore with Old-Time Recipes. 1929. London: Granada, 1976, 1983.


A Scottish Feast. An Anthology of Food and Eating. Edited by Hamish Whyte & Catherine Brown. Argyll, Scotland: Argyll Publishing, 1996.


Wilson, C. Anne. The Book of Marmalade. Revised Edition. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.


Wilson, C. Anne. “The French Connection: Part II.” Petits Propos Culinaires 4. February 1980. pp.8 -20


Wright, Clarissa Dickson. Hieland Foodie. With Henry Crichton-Stuart. Edinburgh: NMS Publishing, 1999. If you are looking for a funny anecdotal work that includes both recipes and comments on such classic fare as haggis and deep fried Mars bars, this book by the surviving member of the “Two Fat Ladies” is worth seeking out.


Scottish and General Cookery Books Consulted.

 

Asala, Joanne. Celtic Folklore Cooking. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1998.


The Complete Farmhouse Kitchen Cookbook. Edited by Mary Watts. London: Collins, 1984.


Dabney, Joseph. E. Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine. The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking. Nashville: Cumberland House, 1998. Scotland’s traditional foods transported to and transformed in the highlands of America. An Award Winning Text.


David, Elisabeth. English Bread and Yeast Cookery. 1977. New York: Viking, 1980.


Glasgow on a Plate. Edited by Ferrier Richardson. Volume One. 1999. Edinburgh: Black and White Publishing, 2001.


Lorwin, Madge. Dining with William Shakespeare. New York: Atheneum, 1976.


Macrae, Sheila. Traditional Scottish Cookery. London: Foulsham, 2001.


Nelson, Kay Shaw. The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook. Recipes and Lore from Celtic Kitchens. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1999.


Paston-Williams, Sara. Traditional Puddings.1983. London: The National Trust, 2002.


Sands, Brianna, ed. King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook. Revised edition. Norwich, Vermont: Sands, Taylor & Woods Co., 1991.


Scotland on a Plate. Edited by Ferrier Richardson. Volume One. Edinburgh: Black and White Publishing, 2001.


Traditional Food from Scotland. The Edinburgh Book of Plain Cookery Recipes. 1932. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1999.



General Works on Food History and History of Scotland:


Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.


Herman, Arthur. How the Scots Invented the Modern World. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.


Lee, Christopher. 1603. A Turning Point in British History. London: Review, 2003.


Mason. Laura and Catherine Brown. Traditional Foods of Britain. An Inventory. Totnes, Devon, U.K: Prospect Books, 1999.


Oram, Richard, ed. The Kings & Queens of Scotland. Stroud, Gloucester, U.K.: Tempus, 2001.


The Peoples of Scotland. Picts, Vikings, Angles and Scots. Series edited by Gordon Barclay. Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 1999.


Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 1995.


Spencer, Colin. British Food. An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History. London: Grub Street, 2002, 2003.


White, Eileen. Soup. Totnes, Devon, U.K: Prospect Books, 2003.


Wilson, C. Anne. Food and Drink in Britain. 1973. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1974.


Yeoman, Peter. “Dispelling Medieval Scotland’s Gloom.” British Archaeology. No.11, February, 1996. http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba11/ba11feat.html



Additional Works on the History of Sugar, Sugar-works, Banquets, and Desserts:


Brears, Peter. “Rare Conceits and Strange Delightes: The Practical Aspects of Culinary Sculpture.” ‘Banquetting Stuffe’ The Fare and Social Background of the Tudor and Stuart Banquet .[Food and Society I. Papers from the First Leeds Symposiums on Food History and Traditions, 1986.] Edited by C. Anne Wilson. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991. pp. 60-114.


Brears, Peter. All the King’s Cooks. The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace. London: Souvenir Press, 1999.


Brown, Peter B. and Ivan Day. Pleasures of the Table. Ritual and Display in the European Dining Room 1600-1900. York, U.K.: York Civic Trust, 1997.


Chong, Alan and Wouter Kloek. Still-Life Paintings from the Netherlands 1550-1720. Amsterdam : Rijksmuseum; Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art; Zwolle: Waanders Publishers, 1999.


Day, Ivan. Royal Sugar Sculpture. 600 Years of Splendour. Barnard Castle, Durham, U.K.: The Bowes Museum, 2002.


Eat, Drink, and Be Merry. The British at Table. Edited by Ivan Day. London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2000.


Fleming, Elise. “SUGAR PASTE: A Cook's "Play Dough" by Alys Katharine.” Tournaments Illuminated, Summer 1992 (#103).


Glanville, Philippa and Hilary Young, eds. Elegant Eating. Four Hundred Years of Dining in Style. London: V&A Publishers, 2002. [Distributed in U. S. by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.].


Holmes, Randle. The Academy of Armoury. 1688. [on EEBO.]


Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery. Edited with commentary by Karen Hess. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. [Two Tudor-Jacobean works, inc. a Booke of Sweetmeats.]


Mason, Laura. Sugar-Plums and Sherbet. The Prehistory of Sweets. Totnes, Devon, U.K.: Prospect Books, 1998.


Wilson, C. Anne. ‘Banquetting Stuffe’ The Fare and Social Background of the Tudor and Stuart Banquet. [Food and Society I. Papers from the First Leeds Symposiums on Food History and Traditions, 1986.] Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,1991.


Wilson, C. Anne. The Appetite and the Eye: Visual Aspects of Food and its Presentation within Their Historic Context. [Food and Society 2. Papers from the Second Leeds Symposiums on Food History and Traditions, 1987.] Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,1992.


Also see the Tournaments Illuminated article on Alessio for its extensive bibliography highlighting additional Sugar plate or paste references.


Online Sources:


Early English Books Online (EEBO) is a restricted subscription database available from ProQuest. EEBO contains most of the works represented in the microfilm series Early English Books I & II or most titles printed in English or in England prior to 1700.


Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. A new project intended to create a full text database of some 25,000 works now found in EEBO. The text files will be linked to EEBO and allow users to perform keyword searches. See http://www.lib.umich.edu/eebo/


Oxford English Dictionary. (OED) Online Second Edition.



Works by this author mentioned in the text:


From Tournaments Illuminated. Old Style entries under Society Name.


Lewis, Johnnae llyn. “The Period Palate: Shortbread” by Johnnae llyn Lewis. Winter 1981 (# 61)

Lewis, Johnnae llyn. “Chicken Soup Recipes of Scotland” by Johnnae llyn Lewis. Fall 1981 (# 60)

Lewis, Johnnae llyn. “Wafers” by Johnnae llyn Lewis. Spring & Summer 1982. (# 62 and # 63)


 Holloway, Johnna. “Alessio and the Secretes of Cookery,” Tournaments Illuminated, Summer 2003. (# 147).


Articles in Other Publications:


Holloway, Johnna. “Alessio and the Secretes of Cookery,” Serve It Forth. A Periodical Forum for Historical Cooks. December 2002, Number 18. pp.16-18.


The Orange Book that I wrote and am revising is properly:

On the Making of Candied Segments and Peels from Oranges of Various Kinds With Learned Commentary Based Upon Actual Practice With a Collection of Recipes for Citrus Cookery Collected and Improved Upon By A Well Noted Lady Authoress. Derived from Sources and Practices most authentic and unusual ancient and modern which embraces a Compendium of most useful and entertaining knowledge. Submitted for your consideration by Johnnae llyn Lewis.

[Chelsea, Michigan: Private Publication by the Author, 2003. 169 pages.]


Also mentioned was:

Delayed Desserts. A Collection of Recipes for Desserts Both Suitable and Appropriate for Society Occasions. Johnnae llyn Lewis. Urbana, Illinois: Folump Enterprises, 1982. 24 pages. Out of Print.


Note—

We were unable to grill the steaks because the information given by the Event Steward regarding the availability of electrical outlets proved to be incorrect. There were no outlets in the rooms allocated for the luncheon that could be used. Somehow grilling the steaks in the ladies’ room where there was an outlet seemed a little too much.


Regarding the author- Her Ladyship Johnnae llyn Lewis (CE, CW, CPF) is celebrating her thirtieth year since joining the Society. Following a hiatus, she returned to active Society activities in 2001. These days she writes for a number of publications, answers numerous reference queries, and gives presentations concentrating on the art and science of bibliography, research methods, and culinary/food history. She still makes an occasional appearance in the kitchen. She was made a Companion of the Evergreen at the last court of TRM Fina and Tarrach on 10 May 2003 for her work in researching and production of period confections. She also collects cookbooks.


Johnna H. Holloway has a MS in Library and Information Science and a BA in History.



This booklet created September 2003. Copyright by the author.

 2003 by Johnna H. Holloway [email protected]

 


 

While I make it a practice to note sources, amounts and methods in rough handwritten notes while cooking, I normally never spend the time during the creation of a luncheon or feast to formally type the working recipes up. From the following example, a reader may see that it’s never just a plain simple working recipe these days. I always try to include all sorts of commentaries and remarks and an extended bibliography. Any simple recipe of mine will take pages and pages of text, and days and days to type. A menu such as today’s luncheon fully typed out might take 60 plus pages. (My working recipe and thoughts on De Serres’s “Oranges” recipe took 164 pages.)



From 2002--



A Great Cake from the Rose Tourney


By Johnnae llyn Lewis


The recipe---


S 151 TO MAKE A GREAT CAKE

Take a peck of flower & put to it 10 eggs beaten; take out 3 of ye whites. Put in nutmeg, cinnamond, cloves, & mace, of each a quarter of an ounce; A full quart of Ale barme, & mingle with ye flower two pound of fresh butter. When it

allmoste kneaded, put in 6 spoonfulls of hot water to it, & 10 pounds of currans, & halfe a pound of sugar beaten. Let it ly by ye fire to rise, & then bake it.


Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. pp.315


This is one of four recipes for ale barm or yeast leavened cakes found

in 'A Booke of Sweetmeats', which is the second manuscripts of the two Tudor-Jacobean manuscripts that make up Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. Kenelme Digbie or Digby in his The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby, Opened had a similar recipe for "An Excellent Cake" in his collection. Other cakes of the same type include Gervase Markham's Banbury Cake and one entitled "To Make a Good Cake" from The Gentlewoman's Cabinet Unlocked of the 1590’s. Rebecca Price in her culinary manuscript included recipes for "rich" and "not rich" cakes, "good" and "very good" cakes, and lastly a recipe for "A very good, and a Rich Cake, often made by me." Elizabeth David would remark that over the

centuries every village and town in the British Isles would develop its own specialty yeast bread or cake. The recipes mentioned here form the background of those cakes or breads.


Ingredients—

Food Historian Karen Hess provided some suggestions as to the amounts required for a quarter version of the S 151 recipe.

8 cups flour, 3 eggs, minus 1 white, 3/4 teaspoons each of the

spices, 1 cup barm made from 1 cup imported ale and 1 ounce

yeast, 1 cup sweet butter, 2 tablespoons hot water, and 2 1/2

pounds currants, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt.

Bake at 350 degrees F for an hour.


When one examines the proportions given in the suggested amounts of the flour to the currants in these original recipes, one often comes up with a one to one ratio of flour to currants. Hess holds to this rule as 8 cups of flour at 3 1/3 cups of flour per pound equals approximately 2 and 1/2 pounds, which is her suggested amount of currants. I thought 1/2 pound of currants would be adequate for my cake and for a banquet in June. Pepys may have dined on a very rich currant

cake in the winter of 1661, but for our ladies a less rich cake might well do better. There would after all be currants incorporated in some of the other dishes as well. I cut back on the currants and to compensate for losing part of the sweetness of the currants, increased the sugar to 1 cup. I also used Sam Adams' Summer Ale, an American product for the Ale. Since I used a whole 12 ounce bottle, I did not add the called for 2 Tablespoons hot water. Sam Adams' uses Grains of Paradise and lemon zest in its summer ale.


Ingredients used for my cake:

8 cups all purpose flour, 3 eggs, minus 1 white, 1 teaspoon each of the spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, & mace, ale barm made from 1 bottle of Sam Adams' Summer Ale and 1 tablespoon yeast, 1 cup butter, and one half pound currants, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt.


I did not have a fire to let the cake rise by, so I used my kitchen's modern equivalent. I combined all the ingredients, except for the currants in my bread machine and let the dough mix and rise on the machine's dough cycle. I then added the currants to the dough just prior to placing the dough into the chosen baking pan. This kept the currants whole and prevented the bread machine blade from knocking them about into bits and pieces.


[Be sure that your machine can handle a dough of 8 cups of flour before

doing the cake in your machine. Otherwise one should make the recipe up and handle it as one does a rich yeasted dough. It works up well in a 5 quart heavy duty mixer with bread hook. Mix, knead and let rise and then place in a cake pan of one's choice.] I baked mine in a reproduction [albeit non-stick] early 18th century cake pan, which is the earliest documented cake tin style that I own. A 12 cup pan is necessary for this amount of dough. Hess thinks they may have been baked originally in hoops or even baked without a hoop. I thought it worked well in this pan. [For a similar pan, although not exactly the same as mine, see Kaiser's cakepan sold as a “Charlotte Bundform.”]


Bake in an oven at 350 degrees F for approximately an hour. Check to make sure that the cake is not burning on the top or that the currants are getting too brown. Cover with foil, if needed. Turn out and cool on a rake. Ice or serve plain. Mine baked in exactly an hour, but this may vary depending on the pan used.


Icing -

My survey article on the recipes, history and uses of the words "icing", "glazing", and "frosting", appear in the file: Sugar-Icing-art -11/10/01 "Sugar Icing" by Johnnae llyn Lewis. Described as: "Some notes on sugar icing in late period…" with appropriate dated recipes. The article includes recipes that contain the word “icing” that predate OED’s earliest quotations. The article is some 20 plus pages, so I shall not produce it here. It is located in Stefan's Florilegium at http://www.florilegium.org/


Sources:


Digby, Kenelm. The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie,

Kt. Opened. 1669. Ed. By Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson. Prospect Books,

1997.


Markham, Gervase. The English Housewife. Edited by Michael R. Best.

McGill-Queen's University Press, 1986.


Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. Ed. By Karen Hess. Columbia

University Press, 1981.


Price, Rebecca. The Compleat Cook, Or the Secrets of a Seventeenth-Century Housewife. Complied and introduced by Madeleine Masson. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974.


[Recipe from The Gentlewoman's Cabinet Unlocked may be found in Bridget

Henisch's Cakes and Characters. London: Prospect Books, 1984.]


See also:

Pepys At Table. Edited by Christopher Driver and Michelle Berriedale-Johnson. Bell & Hyman, 1984.


David, Elizabeth. English Bread and Yeast Cookery. 1977. American edition with notes by Karen Hess. Viking Press, 1980. [See especially her chapter on moulds and tins and regional cakes.]


----copyright J.K. Holloway 2002--- please don't reprint without permission.

contacting the author.


This ends the recipe for the Great Cake.