December 13^th

New Hope Pennsylvania 1830’s

For a little bit of difference in this line up of Holiday treats, this cookbook has several sugar cookie types of treats.  Jumbles are a very old cookie that goes back into History; you can find recipes for them in a lot of Renaissance cookery books.  The ingredient lists for these cookies are very interesting, rose water, lemon oil and spices.  Rose water is something you have to be very careful about using, too much and it will taste like a bowl of potpourri, but just a bit gives a nice floral essence.  Think about how a rose smells, that is how it tastes.  You can find rose water in most Middle Eastern grocery stores; it is a very common ingredient in a lot of their desserts.   And again, the use of it goes back into history as well; there are all kinds of Medieval receipts that use it for savory dishes as well as the sweet.    

Wanders

I believe these are something like doughnuts, and fried in fat. 

1 lb. sugar, ½ lb. butter; beat well together till very light.  12 eggs beat light; 3 lbs. flour, cinnamon, roll out and bake in lard. 

Jumbles Three recipes

This first one has a very interesting flavor combination, I am just not too sure how these would taste. 

1 lb. of sugar, 1 pound of butter, 6 eggs, brandy, rose water, lemon oil and cinnamon, 1 ¼ or 1 3/8 pound of flour and nutmeg.

1 pound of sugar, ¾ pound butter, 9 eggs, ½ ounce ammonia, flour and lemon oil.

1 pound sugar, 1 pound butter, 4 eggs, 1 pound flour and lemon oil. 

The second recipe with the ammonia in it is like several recipes that use baking ammonia that I have listed.  Baking ammonia is also known as hartshorn, and is commonly used in making Springerle cookies, the ultimate Christmas cookies! 

Wabash Indiana 1918 – 1920’s

Xmas Ammonia Cookies                      

Three more cookie recipes

Apeas

½ pound butter, ½ pound sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 gill rose water, 1 pound flour.

Apeas 1 or 1 ¼ pound of sugar, 1 pound of butter, 4 eggs, 2 pounds of flour and rose water.

Jumbles

½ pound butter, ½ pound sugar, 1 egg, ½ gill of rose water, ¼ pound of flour. 

Blown or Laffayette Jumbles

 2 ounces of almonds; few bitter, 4 whites of eggs or more, 1 ½ pound and 2 ounces or 2 pounds of sugar.  

(see below for notes on Bitter Almonds)

Blown or Laffayette Jumbles

1 ounce bitter almonds, 2 pounds of loaf sugar and 4 whites of eggs.

These sound like meringues, almonds, sugar and egg whites; which could be the reason for the name of Lafayette Jumbles, a French name for a French type of cookie.  The name Blown could be because the puff up when baking; they blow up. 

Garters or Wonders

To ½ lb. butter, 5 eggs, sugar to your taste, 1 glass of wine or a glass of brandy; stir the butter and sugar together and then the eggs, Brandy, a little cinnamon and last of all the flower until you are able to roll it out; then bake in lard.  

This is a recipe for Jumbles from a Cook book from 1731 several recipes for sugar cakes and biscuits. 

To Make Almond Jumbles

Take 30 Almonds blanch them & beat ym very fine as possibly may be. Then ad to it a pound of loffe sugar, finly beaten & some leamon pill that hath been boyled & beaten & some Gum Dragon that hath been lade in seepe ye night before in Orange flower water.  ye quantitiy of Walnuts, mix all these together.  Then take ye white of an egg & beat it up to a froth, & add a little of it to ye aforesade things to make it to a paste, Kaste ym paste into what form you please & bake them on buttered papers you must not let ye oven be too hot. 

This is also a macaroon type of recipe. 

INGREDIENT REFERENCES and MEASUREMENTS

I have found several references that explains the equivalents to our modern measurements.  Just a few examples are;

Gill – Pronounced Jill; equal to a quarter of a pint; or four fluid ounces which equals ½ cup.  

Lump of (something) the size of a Turkey’s egg – equals 4 ounces

Lump of (something) the size of a chicken’s egg – equals 2 ounces.

Lump of Butter the size of a walnut – equals 1 ounce. (can also be 1 rounded tablespoon)

A Victorian measurement of a wine glassful, will not be the wine glass we think of today.  They were much smaller, about ¼ cup to ½ cup.  So, when using a recipe that askes for a wine glass full be sure to use a lot less than you would think about using from today’s size of glass.

Quite a few of these recipes call for; a coffee cupful. A teacup full, and a wineglass full. 

A coffee cupful = 1 cup.

A tea cupful = 1/3 cup, I have also found it to be ¾ cup.

A wine glassful = ¼ cup, ½ gill or 4 T.

A Tumbler = ½ pint or 1 cup

Baking Ammonia – See Hartshorn.

Hartshorn – Ammonium carbonate is made by dry distillation of oil of hartshorn, which is made by the destructive distillation of male red deer horns.  (Can be used as smelling salts) Also known as Baker’s ammonia, it is still used in baking some old-world cookies such as Springerle, a favorite Holiday treat that can be kept for long periods of time without hardening and retains the intricate molded designs.  It can be used for thin, dry cookies and crackers as it releases ammonia and carbon dioxide, but not water.     

It was mainly used in the 17th and 18th centuries, before baking powder.  It can be very pungent with the smell of ammonia when baking, and thinner cookies will allow the smell to dissipate.  

As a safety concern; use with care!  The amino acids in some fruits, nuts and whole grains (asparagine) react with the ammonia released while baking to form acrylamide, which is a carcinogen.   Do Not breathe in the fumes of the baked goods using baker’s ammonia when removing from the oven!   

Substitute 1 teaspoon of baking powder for ½ teaspoon of hartshorn. 

Bitter Almonds – BE VERY CAREFUL!! If these are not processed correctly, they can kill you with a form of cyanide.  These are not actually almonds, even though they are classified as a nut, they are a drupe which is a seed encased in an outer shell. (Peanuts are also a drupe.)  Bitter almonds are more useful in culinary preparations instead of the snacking sweet almonds that we see and use for most things in the U.S. 

They are smaller and with more pointed tips, and a bit darker in color. 

“Interestingly enough, raw bitter almonds contain certain toxins that can be lethal to humans, even in small doses. If you eat 7-10 bitter almonds that haven’t been processed (heated, boiled, baked etc.), you will consume a toxic level of hydrocyanic acid. For this reason, the raw form of bitter almonds is prohibited in certain countries, including the United States. Once a bitter almond is treated, however, the hydrocyanic acid is removed or neutralized, making these almonds safe to use in culinary applications.”

In a lot of the old recipes, you will see “Bitter Almonds” called for; it is easier to just substitute the sweet ones we have access to, than try to acquire the bitter ones; so, you can be certain they will not poison you. 

Sweet Almonds – Almonds are classified as a drupe; which is a seed encased in an outer shell, even though we call them nuts.  These are larger and with a rounded tip and they can be eaten raw.   What you will find in your grocery store today, the bitter almond is not sold raw in the U.S.

Rose Water – Is a flavoring that can be traced back in history, used by the ancient Greeks and Romans for medicines, food and perfumes.  In Medieval and Renaissance cooking you can find recipes of all kinds using it as a flavoring; and today is often used in Middle Eastern sweets and desserts.  It is made by steeping and then distilling rose petals in water.  It can be found in most specialty markets, especially those catering to Middle Eastern foods.  

Lard – Is a semi-solid white fat from pigs used as a cooking fat or a shortening.  It is prized for its properties of making pastries light and flaky, replacing butter in the recipes.  The leaf lard is from the “flare” visceral fat surrounding the kidneys and inside the loin.  With very little pork flavor it is perfect for use in baked goods; and since the early 1990 when trans-fats in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils became a concern for your health, it has had a resurgence of popularity as a “Natural” food. 

As well as baked goods It has been used in culinary recipes for centuries, often for game meats to add fat in the cooking process to very low-fat meats such as venison; by “Larding” a roast you insert the lard into the meat so it doesn’t dry out during cooking. 

Visit my ebay store to find some great kitchen utensils and collectables to go along with these vintage and antique recipes.

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