Welcome Friends welcome back to the
kitchen welcome back to Sunday morning
in the old cookbook show today we're
going to do a recipe out of this uh
fantastic looking little book
um
it is the Virginia housewife or
methodical cook
uh this uh this particular copy was
published in 1856 and has been rebound
very nicely someone has taken great care
to rebind this and there's an incredible
inscription uh dedication at the top of
this page
and the penmanship is just absolutely
unbelievable
now this is a later printing of this
cookbook this cookbook was originally
published printed in 1824 1825. there
were changes made over the years by the
time you get to this one in 1856
it is a pivotal cookbook in the uh in
the pantheon of American cookbooks uh
often cited as the first real American
cookbook
um I kind of rolled my eyes at that
because I think
to my mind there are a couple of books
published before this one that are also
real American cookbooks
um
and the reasons given for that sort of
adulation are that this book really
speaks to the Cook in America in this
time period a departure from recipes
that you would have seen in older
English cookbooks
yet
at least half of the recipes in this
book are lifted directly from older
English cookbooks recipes are taken here
from Spanish cookbooks from French
cookbooks etc etc that's the norm for
cookbooks in this time period but it
does speak specifically about certain
aspects of American Cooking
recipe we're going to do today is
Shrewsbury cakes which of course is an
Old English recipe that dates back to
the mid 1600s is sort of the first time
it's published so in the bottom here
I've got sugar I'm going to add to that
flour
um and some coriander ground coriander
where I think this book shines is
it sort of Treads a balancing Point
um
in cookery for a couple of different
reasons you're starting to see that
shift towards true American Cooking
cooking that reflects life in America
ingredients available in America there
are a lot of tomato dishes in this book
there are a lot of vegetable dishes in
this book living off the land
it also sort of Treads balance in this
time period
especially with the baking in the use of
chemical leavening agents
there is only one recipe in here really
with with a chemical leavening agent and
that is Pearl Ash
baking soda and baking powder were
available when this book was printed in
1856 but they were new on the scene
depending on who you believe and what
your what's your definition of an
definition of invention is baking powder
isn't really invented until the 1840s
and when I when I say that I mean
someone has figured out how to make it
that it's safe to eat and they're able
to manufacture it in a way that they can
sell it to the public package it and get
it out there even though it was
discovered in like 1801 there is a
recipe though for like I said for Pearl
Ash
and the thing is Pearl Ash wasn't used
as often as in baking as some people
would want you to believe
people didn't trust it which was also
part of the problem with the early
adoption of baking powder and baking
soda people didn't trust it chemically
they didn't trust it they didn't trust
what it did so they relied instead on
eggs for Lyft or Yeast most of the cakes
in here use egg or Yeast
um and also Pearl ash left a bitter
flavor
so you didn't trust it and it left a
bitter aftertaste you didn't use it
even though every time I go to one of
those uh places where people dress up
and interpret history in a historical
setting like you know Old Fort York or
or the fort in Kingston or the one in
Quebec City
they talk about Pearl Ash as this thing
that was used every day
and the historical texts just don't bear
that out they just don't bear that out
so that was melted butter and I'm
supposed to put the eggs in
one at a time
okay last egg
now the last ingredient is some Brandy
and I thought I had
some American Brandy but I don't so
a little bit of cognac do exactly the
same thing
um it calls so I I cut the I've I've cut
the recipe in half because I didn't need
that much
uh
so called for a Jill
an American Jill
not a British Jill two completely
different things
um
so put that Brandy in
you're supposed to knead it so the mixer
is doing that job I'm going to put a
little bit of flour down here
because the next operation is to roll it
out
so get this out onto the counter
it is
um
it is a very oily glassy looking dough
so
it'll probably stick
to the counter and it's not going to
give any resistance to roll it out I
could probably just
patted it with my hands
how thin is thin well
we'll find out so I've got a cutter
and we'll cut out some fancy shapes
onto the baking sheet
and into the oven
hey Jules hey hey friends hey Glenn it's
time for the cookies
the Shrewsbury cakes
is that a place like yeah it's a place
I wasn't sure if it was a thing or a
bear okay a brewery versus Barry okay
got it it's a place so this is uh this
is from the Virginia housewife in
1856. I like the shape
do they specifically say fun shapes they
did well maybe not fun shapes what did
they say interesting shapes
cut Oh no just cut it in shapes could
have been any shape could have been
trying is it shortbread uh no sugar
cookie no no
hmm
so it's not crispy like a sugar cookie
no
it's a bit savory
I kind of like them yeah it's got
cilantro in it not cilantro
not cilantro the seed
okay so this is where that's that's a
that's a plant that's a little bit weird
cilantro or yeah this one in this recipe
no so this is Cory Anderson
I can picture the jar yeah in the
cupboard
so coriander seed the fresh Leaf we call
cilantro and that's kind of the break
here but I know that in other parts of
the world they don't break it that way
and they could be looking for the leaf
to put in it
that's really good yeah
so it's it's it's before leavening
before chemical leavening so there's no
chemical leavening in it it's a very
simple cookie
um not not a lot of butter
like I don't feel like it doesn't have
that short bready kind of texture to it
well it was melted butter so that okay
so that changes the texture so that's
the difference okay and when I looked at
other historical recipes from pre-1856
for this cookie
um it was a mix of savory
and lemon okay so there'd be lemon in it
as well actually I think I like it just
with the with this I think I'd put more
coriander in it uh next time if I made
them again it's an interesting cookie
it's a cake
and it's not a Shrewsbury biscuit which
is again something slightly different
the recipes diverge at some point and
you've got
um Shrewsbury cakes and Shrewsbury
biscuits and anyway
yeah
these are pretty good I like them yeah
um you can just dress them up a little
bit
thanks for stopping by see you again
soon