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Category Archives: Baking
A Short Paste, a Delicious Pear Tart, and a Choice of Three Toppings
I’ve mentioned in an early post that there were, for the most part, three types of pastry crusts used in 18th century cooking. This is admittedly a simplification of the goings-on of the old English kitchen. There were other types … Continue reading
Posted in Baking, Ingredients, Recipe, Video
Tagged crust, custard, pan, paste, pear, rolling pin, tart, tin
9 Comments
Three Dozen Mince Pie Recipes Later — the Fallacy of Precision
I recently completely a side-by-side comparison of a number of 18th and early 19th century recipes for mince pie — 36 recipes in all from 24 different sources. I have to admit that when I get involved in something like … Continue reading
The Complexities and Perils of Baking a Cake
In her 1807 book “A New System of Domestic Cookery; Formed upon Principles of Economy, and Adapted to the use of Private Families,” Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell offers wonderfully helpful advice to the novice baker, especially when it comes to … Continue reading
A Puff Paste Recipe (with a secret confession)
Our third video series, “18th Century Cooking with Jas. Townsend & Son,” is embarking on a closer look at the three more common types of pastry crusts used in 18th century cookery: the standing crust, the puff paste, and the … Continue reading
Posted in Baking, Ingredients, Pies, Recipe, Video
Tagged beat, beef pasties, cornish, crust, pasty, puff paste
15 Comments
Read Twice, Bake Once.
When it comes to interpreting 18th century cookbooks, sometimes it pays to go with your instinct when it tells you a recipe may be inaccurate. Take for instance this recipe from the book “The Universal Cook” by Francis Collingwood and … Continue reading
Spices in the 18th Century English Kitchen
Proper seasoning can make all the difference between a bland chunk of meat and a course fit for royalty. We decided to dig through a collection of 18th and early 19th century cookbooks to see which spices were mentioned. We … Continue reading
The Crust of Time
While many foods (and people’s taste preferences for them) have changed dramatically over years of culinary evolution, some remain unaltered from their ancestral origins. Take pie crusts, for instance: any trustworthy modern recipe likely calls for flour, cold butter and/or … Continue reading
Posted in Baking, Ingredients, Pies, Video
Tagged curst. standing, paste, pastry, Pies, puff, short
10 Comments
A White Pot Recipe
“A white-pot custard for my white-pot queen,” cried Kemp, waving his bauble. “Mark this boy,…A white-pot mermaid custard, with a crust, lashings of cream, eggs, apple-pulse and spice, a little sugar, and manchet bread. Away! Be Swift!” (Tales of … Continue reading
Another Fine Resource
Here’s a link to an excellent resource for best (and worst) cooking, food-preparation, and home-remedy practices of southern England, compiled and published by William Ellis in 1750.
Pan Perdu (or as we call it “French Toast”)
Who doesn’t like a nice big plate of French Toast? For me it brings back fond childhood memories of Saturday mornings — usually during the holidays when no one seemed to be in a hurry to change out of our … Continue reading
Savoring the Past 