keyword: Alex Bray

Tray-bake sponge cake with currants.

Crushed biscuit or nuts with sugar, eggs and spice, baked. First known from The English Cookery Book' of 1859, a simpler version using crushed dried breadcrumbs...

Puff paste circles decorated with almond 'petals' (Mrs.B)

Base of minced white meat, cream and ground almonds.

Soda-raised white wheatflour cake with chopped apple, cider and raisins.

Soft, soda-raised wheatflour cake made with egg and treacle (or golden syrup) and ginger. According to one tradition the receipt came from a French prisoner of ...

Apple-based chutney with, typically, dried fruits.

Gutted mackerel either filled with gooseberry puree, or baked in it or served with it.

Folded turnover-style small pasties of sweetened soft paste, filled with sweet mincemeat.

Double shortcrust pie filled with sliced apple, dried fruit, brown sugar and sweet spices. Described by our correspondent Alex Bray (2017) as "Absolutely delici...

Open tart filled with sugared barberries. Known in many earlier cookbooks including 'The Cook and Housekeeper's Dictionary' by Mary Eaton (Eaton 1822), 'English...

Yeast-raised barley bread is known from ancient times, but, it being, presumably, a commonplace product there was no need to write down any receipts. It is ment...

A sauce made with the sweet Spanish 'Bastardo' wine (Huswife 1594, etc)

Dish part-filled with flour-egg-sugar-milk batter, fruit added, baked (Francatelli 1852, Acton 1845, etc).

Cooked beetroot mashed with sugar, butter, flour, hard egg yolks, spices, orange and lemon. Made into cakes and dried in a slow oven (Bradley 1728).

Yeast-raised white wheatflour dough, rolled very thin, sprinkled with currants and sugar, folded, cut into strips and baked. Known since 1869, these buns were l...

Basin lined with suet crust, filled with green gooseberries and sugar, boiled 2 to 3 hours. Known from Mrs.B and dozens of references throughout the 19th and ea...

Salad of samphire and lettuce with toasted almonds.

Broad beans, pureed and mixed with herbs, egg yolks, butter, baked or steamed.

The English wild plum (Prunus insititia), blue-black and white varieties.

Potted puree of 'bullies', bullace, the English wild plum, Prunus insititia (Moxon 1764)

Cinnamon flavoured shortcake biscuits with currants mixed-in.

A sweet, thickened egg confection of variable form, baked (sometimes in pastry) and served with fruit or jam. Compare with the nearby Bakewell Pudding

Soda-raised wheatflour bread with carraway seeds, traditionally made for Good Friday and, presumably, raised without yeast to conform with the Jewish tradition ...

Carrot pulp or shreds boiled with sugar and lemon, brandy added to preserve or apple or pectin to produce a set. Supposed by Mrs.B to be an imitation of apricot...

Prepared fruit pulp. Chardequynce (or chardecoynes) being made from quince, chardewarde from warden pears (Austin 1440)

Stew of cubed beef with sliced potato, celery, olives and spices, topped with potato slices and baked. Widely known, with several variations, the olives are omi...

Soda-raised sweet cake made with cider, usually including sweet spice and often apples.

Oval-shaped enriched cakes or scones with peel and currants.

Cake containing chopped Kentish Cobnuts (also known as 'filberts').

Cranham Honey Cake

Mould decorated with crystallised fruit, cherries etc, then filled with vanilla-flavoured set egg-and-milk jelly. Cooled and turned out.

Soda-raised, lemon-flavoured, plain sweet cake made with a high proportion of maize flour.

Any of several forms of easily-made pudding, most notably a baked sweetened potato confection, presumably named as being suitable for impoverished and inexperie...

Soda raised loaf made with dried fruit, nutmeg, black tea and (in most receipts) marmalade.

Dough of mashed potato with flour, dried fruit, sugar and butter, formed into a large thin round and baked (Hartley 1954, etc)

Scone or sponge cake with high proportion of chopped or sliced apple mixed-in, cooked as a relatively thin (c2ins) slab (Hartley 1954, etc)

Thick soda-raised biscuits of wheatflour with golden syrup, butter and ginger. Although called 'gingerbreads' this may hark back to the very early use of the na...

Soda-raised tin loaf with dried fruit and sweet spices.

Yeast-raised sweet white wheatflour buns with egg and sweet spices.

Batter of eggs, dripping, sugar, cream, flour and dried fruit, baked in cups. This dish is made with the melted fat that drips from roasting meat, distinct from...

Soda-raised dense cake with ginger, almonds, caraway seeds, mixed peel and sweet spices.

A pottage of boiled barley with spice and brandy. Said to have been served in the North East at Christmas time. Compare with Christmas Pottage

Wild leaves, such as dandelion, nettle or easter-ledge leaves, boiled with onion, pearl barley, butter and egg, allowed to set and served as an accompaniment to...

The roots of Eringus or Eyringo, the Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum), used as a food ingredient, as a vegetable, or, commonly candied as a, reputedly aphrodisiac...

A tiny spherical titbit (OED). A Whet, or Subtelty. Early references are to spheres of light sweetened pastry, a later receipt (Huswife 1594) is of minced mutto...

Open shortcrust base made with cornflour, covered with a layer of jam, topped with meringue, baked. Very widely reported in newspapers and magazines from the 18...

Soda raised white wheatflour bread cake made with egg, ground almonds, dried fruit and shredded peel. Known at least since Peggy Hutchinson's 'North Country Coo...

Open puff pastry case filled with custard of milk, sugar, butter, ground rice, infused with bay. Sprinkled with currants and baked.

Any fruit (typically gooseberries, apricots, apple, strawberries) boiled, strained, chilled and folded into a thickening agent such as whipped cream or custard.

Figs, grapes and small bread cubes in an almond sauce (Austin 1440)

Steamed pudding of breadcrumbs, egg, sugar and suet with marmalade (Mrs.B). Known at least since the 1870's, when it appears in a puzzlingly large number of adv...

Gooseberry puree mixed-in with egg custard.

Gooseberries, cut cross-wise end-on almost through, each spread out and several threaded together, forming a hop-flower like shape. Served fresh, or preserved i...

Image: Alex Bray...

Any of several versions of a formed ring of custard or cake, filled with gooseberry puree.

Gooseberry puree, seeds removed, sweetened. A sauce for fish, especially mackerel, and pale meats (Acton 1845, Walsh 1859, etc)

An open tart with a filling of whole gooseberries and ample sugar. Although this dish is known and repeatedly mentioned from the 17thCentury up to the present d...

Evaporated milk whisked with dark Muscovado sugar, poured into pastry case and baked until semi-set. Particularly associated with school dinners in Kent during ...

Small round cakes of soda-raised sweetened white wheat flour with egg, split and the halves adhered with jam.

Harcake

A soda-raised sponge made with a proportion of golden syrup or treacle, with chopped dates and walnuts mixed-in.

The name 'Harvest Pudding' is known from literary references at least since the early 19th Century. There does not appear to be any definitive form above the in...

A form of gingerbread biscuit, now believed lost. Possibly similar to Grasmere Gingerbread

Semi-hard boiled sugar slab toffee made with condensed milk.

Suet sponge with gooseberries mixed-in, steamed.

Soda-raised white wheatflour fruit-and-spice cake with ginger, black treacle and beer.

Individual fruit cakes made with butter, currants, white wheatflour, sugar and egg yolk, flavoured with mace. Known since Moxon 1764.

Sponge cake with ginger, cinnamon, and dried fruit.

Paste of flour, oatmeal, fat, ginger and treacle formed into c1in balls, baked so as to fall into rounds.

Small square cakes of soda-raised white wheatflour with currants sugar and lard. Similar to the, larger, Hampshire Lard Cake

Butter-rich cake made with black treacle, currants, citrus peel and ground almonds.

Semi-dense sponge cake with a thin syrup of lemon juice and sugar poured over. Known at least since the 'Good Housekeeping Cake Book' of 1958.

'Lincoln Salad' appears in several English bills-of-fare of the the 1920's and 30's, but only one receipt is known, for a mix of watercress, beetroot, peas, ric...

Puff pastry filled with apple pulp with whole egg, butter, lemon, cloves and cinnamon, baked.

Grilled fish with a gooseberry puree.

Round, thick, low-bake sweet white wheatflour biscuits made with rosewater and chopped almonds.

Everyday table bread made with a high proportion of malted wheat, distinct from the sweet malt loaf made with malt extract.

'Malvern Pudding' as now commonly made is well described by Information Britain as "little more than stewed apple and custard really", but earlier versions desc...

Traditional beaten-egg sponge with white flour, sugar and caraway seeds. Baked and dredged with sugar.

Puff pastry base coated in jam (or candied fruit) and filled-up with rich 'Marlborough' custard made with added butter and sharp shredded fruit such as lemon or...

Mix of butter, sugar, breadcrumbs, eggs and marmalade, in an open case, baked.

Soda-raised sweet bread with sweet spices, peel and marmalade mixed-in.

Martlemass Beef by Crown & Queue at Seven Dials food market.

Very thin ("paper thin") paste of 1 part butter to 8 parts flour with milk and salt, cut in 2 inch rounds and baked so as some of them puff up or blister.

Egg white and sugar only, beaten together at room temperature and then baked quickly until very slightly browned and set only on the surface for use as a toppin...

A treacle gingerbread - similar to parkin - with added candied peel and caraway seeds. In this old receipt 'pearl-ash' is potassium carbonate, E501

Millet seed with milk, butter, lemon, spices and sugar, in paste (Eaton 1822).

A variety of dishes have been described as 'mock goose'. The name is known at least since 'The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy' by Hannah Glasse, 1747 (Glas...

Brown bread with caraway seeds. Hartley 1954, etc. For other breads with caraway seeds, see Caraway Bread...

Whole apples of the red 'Beefing' variety, very slowly part-dried in the oven under weights to flatten them, on layers of straw to absorb moisture. Served cored...

Pastry of white flour, brown sugar, lard, soda and syrup, flavoured with ginger or lemon, rolled and cut into c2ins rounds, baked.

Egg white froth with sugar and cream, baked (Walsh 1859, etc)

Spiced rock cakes. Named after Old Harry Rocks off the coast of Swanage, part of the 'Jurassic Coast' World Heritage Site, possibly taking their name from a fam...

Medium-bake square or round biscuits made from a dropping batter of white wheatflour, butter, treacle and sugar with ginger and sweet spices, c¼ins thick. Descr...

Soda raised cake made with white wheatflour and rice flour, flavoured with grated lemon rind (J.Salmon)

Alternative to honey made by mixing parsley juice with sugar syrup. It is said to gell, taste and look like heather honey. Known at least since House and Garden...

Confection of soft-boiled pearl barley with eggs, sugar and spices, in puff-paste (Moxon 1764), or baked in a dish (Eaton 1822).

Soda-raised dense cake made with treacle, nutmeg, egg and ginger. Baked c1ins thick and allowed to dry for 1 or 2 days before eating.

A type of wine flavoured with honey and spices, taken for refreshment or used as an ingredient in medicinal recipes (OED).

Whole quinces, boiled, then peeled and pureed with sugar and cream.

This conserve of quince fruit is the precursor of the citrus marmalade of today.

Rhubarb stalks (the leaves are toxic) are commonly cut to short lengths and stewed with ample sugar, alone, or as part of a pudding or sweet desert.

Rhubarb Pudding Pie

Highly enriched soda-raised cake with spices.

Tiny rich sweet cakes made for 'routs', or evening parties.

The slim, sweet, root of Tragopogon porrifolius, also known as the oyster plant. It appears, peeled and boiled, as a vegetable in many 18th and 19th Century coo...

A Springtime Celebration Cake. Traditionally a light rich fruit cake with saffron, boiled first and then baked. Made with a central layer of marzipan, decorated...

Round flattish cakes made with ground rice and white wheatflour with egg and caraway. J.Salmon and BFT assert that these were a type of Soul-Cake, distributed a...

Sugar and treacle whisked into hot butter, egg, wheatflour, soda and ground ginger added. Baked in a cool oven.

Plain sponge cake with chopped apple mixed in, slight flavouring of sweet spices. Known, by this name, at least since newspaper reports from the 1930s

Small un-raised dense cake, or biscuit, of enriched dough with dried fruit and sweet spices. Commonly coloured with saffron and marked with a cross on top. Asso...

Slightly raised white wheatflour cakes enriched with egg, butter, currants, rosewater, cinnamon, mace and cloves baked as small flat buns without any mould.

A thickened cream confection flavoured with hawthorn flowers (Cury 1390, Austin 1440). Our corresponden Alex Bray describes the taste as; "hard to describe. The...

Alternative name for Kattern Cake - made with butter and a spice such as ginger or caraway seeds.

A ham-and-rhubarb soup, described by our correspondent Alex Bray as "really good"...

Soft soda-raised ginger cake made with black treacle, sweet spices, egg and sour milk. Known from J.Salmon

Lettuce, hard-boiled eggs and ham, all shredded, with salad cream. Known at least since (Acton 1845) and frequently repeated in cookbooks of the early 20th Cent...

Biscuits of flour, treacle, sugar and butter flavoured with ample ground ginger, allspice, coriander seed and, optionally, cayenne. Especially associated with t...

A form of wheatflour soft-bun formed to be split and filled with cream. Known only from the grocers Jempsons. See also Cornish Splits

Bread slice topped with clotted cream and Golden Syrup. Known from several newspaper reports from the late 19th and early 20th Century.

Accompaniments

Tray-baked light sponge cake square coated in jam, desiccated coconut and violently pink icing traditionally coloured with mulberry juice.

Yeast-raised cake of flour with sugar, nutmeg, ginger, eggs, melted butter and currants (Eaton 1822).

Soda-raised sweet white wheatflour cake with golden syrup, butter, brandy, ground ginger and mixed peel. Well known from advertisments since the 1870s and assoc...

Soda-raised sweet cake containing chopped walnuts, now usually with chopped dates, baked in a loaf form. Known since news references of the 1930's

"I must have Saffron to colour the Warden Pies"

Heavy, moist, soda-raised cake made with wheat flour and oats, with dark sugars. Differs from other parkin with the addition of allspice.

That Widecombe in Devon has had an annual fair for at least 150 years is well known. And that gingerbread is often sold there is also well known. But the only r...

Rich, sweet, cake raised with yeast. Typically flavoured with citrus peel and glazed.

Soda-raised buns with currants and mixed peel, glazed.