Whilst browsing through the archive catalogue seeking inspiration, Collections Archivist Owen came across the Bloxworth Estate archive (D-BLX), and when looking amongst the Family papers saw that there were several recipe books listed…
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Recipe books can provide a good insight into social history and are always good fun to have a read through. They can provide a sense of what people considered to be of importance in a culture, they reflect food habits of a population, mark changes in lifestyle, and act as markers of historical events. This is reflected in such things as the use of more expensive/exotic ingredients, changes in the methods of cooking and changes in how ingredients are measured.
The recipe book (at least pre 20th century) was also not just a place for food recipes as we might expect nowadays, but also (despite increased availability of purchasable medical care) home to instructions on creating various medical concoctions intended to treat a myriad of ills. For instance, in one recipe book (D-BLX/F/36) in between recipes for Sweet Biscuits, Baked Apple Pudding, and German Pudding are recipes titled, “Excellent for a cough”, “For Sickness”, and “For chilblains”. The efficacy of these treatments is not known but it is not recommended that they be tried out!
I did however decide to have a go at a recipe for some ginger cake a recipe given to Ada by a Mrs Jeffers and marked as ‘very good’. The recipe is as follows:
- ¼ lb equal butter and lard
- 1 lb flour
- ½ lb brown sugar
- 6 ounces of sliced citron
- ¾ teaspoonful of mixed spices
- 1 ½ teaspoonful of ground ginger
- ¼ pint of Warm Milk
- ¼ pint of Cold Milk with a teaspoonful of Soda dissolved in it
- Yolks of 2 Eggs beaten
- White of one Egg beaten by itself
The first thing that is noticeable is the use of lard. Historically used in cooking and baking, lard began to fall out of favour in the 20th century as vegetable oils became more available and it was perceived as less healthy. The sliced citron was confusing, I wasn’t sure if it meant literally slices of lemon, but I thought that would be a bit strange so just substituted with some grated lemon rind.
The method is as below:
Crumble the butter, lard, and flour together first and then add to them the Sugar, Citron and Spices and Mix all together.
Then mix the Warm ¼ pint of milk with the ¼ pint of Cold Milk which has the soda in it, and to there add the beaten yolks of Eggs, and then the one Whole of Egg which has been beaten by itself; and pour all on the other ingredients and mixing all together, and beating Very quickly for a few minutes, Pour into your buttered Cake Tin, and put that quickly into a brick oven and bake 1 and ½ hours.
Make the cake two days before it is required for use.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have a brick oven, and had to make to with a conventional fan oven at 160°. Once the cake was baked, I did the hardest bit which was leaving it for two days before trying it!
After the two days had passed, it was time to sample and see if the ginger cake was indeed very good. The verdict? Actually, it was a bit dry and not particularly gingery either. Sorry Mrs Jeffers!
Love it. Living history! Great fun to read. Thank you.
6 ounces of sliced citron is a considerable amount. Did you really added 6 ounces of grated lemon rind? I suspect you didn’t and that would explain why the cake was dry. 6 ounces of juicy fruit pulp would have given a lot of moisture and considerable flavour….the two things that you said were lacking.
I was so disappointed at the result of your baking! Perhaps it really did mean slices of citron which might have added to the of the mixture!
I’d been intending to try the recipe out but your outcome has dissuaded me!!
Citron is a distinct citrus fruit like a lemon with a very thick rind. I don’t think you can buy it any more but probably available in those days.
Was your oven dialled to fan or conventional heat? I find using the fan option for cake baking tends to make a dry result. I would try again using conventional oven setting, slices of citron (not grated) and perhaps half a spoonful less mixed spices and a whole one of ginger ….. that’s it … talked myself into trying this out now 🤔😊