Honeycomb Gingerbread                     Mrs. Overman     

1 lb. treacle

12 oz. butter

Put in oven to melt

1 lb. flour                               a little grated ginger              Juice of ½ lemon

½ lb. sugar

Mix all well together.  Spread it thin on a tin & bake it.  Roll it in when warm, light side outwards. 

This sounds like a rolled cake without a filling; that could be why it is called honeycomb, it may be the shape of one. 

Gingerbreads                                         

1 oz. ginger, 1 lb. flour, 1 lb. treacle, ½ lb. sugar, ½ lb. butter, 1 tea sp. of baking powder.  Make the mixture into a paste; roll out, not too thin & cut into rounds. 

Rusks (Wroxham)                

6 oz. flour, tablespoon baking powder, 4 oz. butter, 1 yolk of an egg, ½ cupful milk (teacup) Mix flour & baking powder together then mix the butter well into the flour, put in the yolk of one egg, (having beaten it well) Take the milk mix it very lightly together.  It must be worked very little.  Roll out about ½ inch thick, cut with a round cutter.  When half baked, pull them in half.  Put on baking tin again, & dry in the oven.  Put in a quick oven, for 5 minutes, when divided dry quickly. 

Suet – It is the hard, raw fat from beef or mutton found around the kidneys and loins.  The high smoke point and fast melting temperature makes it perfect for deep frying and pastry making.  After rendering into tallow, it is used in cooking and baking such things as the traditional English Christmas pudding.  The long process of rendering it down to tallow, involves melting and simmering several times, cooling it down all to refine the suet to a usable state.  Suet requires refrigeration if it to be stored for any length of time. 

Do not confuse suet with all fat from the animals it can only be found around the heart and kidneys of cattle and sheep.  Nor should it be confused with drippings, which is the melted fats in the pan when cooking the meat. 

Pre-packaged suet that can be found today in the markets is mixed with flour and dehydrated to make it stable at room temperature. Some care is needed to use this for the old recipes, the proportions of flour to fat will alter the stated recipe.  Fresh suet can be bought in markets and must be coarsely grated to use; then must be refrigerated prior to use and used within a few days of buying it. 

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

Oven temperatures are seldom given in the old books and recipes; most times the only say something like a slow oven or quick oven.  These are the equlivent to today’s oven temperatures;

A very slow oven equals 250 to 275 degrees.

A slow oven equals 300 to 325 degrees.

A moderate oven equals 350 to 375 degrees.

A hot or quick oven equals 375 to 400 degrees.

A very hot oven equals 400 to 450 degrees. 

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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