Hi historians! I was looking up the history of cookies, and somehow I stumbled upon Martha Washington's jumble recipe:
Take a pound & a halfe of fine flowre & a pound of fine sugar, both searced & dried in an oven, 6 youlks, & 3 whites of eggs, 6 spoonfulls of sweet cream & as much rose water, fresh butter ye quantety of an egg. Mingle these together & make it into stiff paste. Work it a quarter of an hour then break it abroad, & put in as much annyseeds or carraway seeds as you shall think fit, & put in A little muske & ambergreece. roule them into rouls & make them in what forms you please. lay them on pie plates thin buttered, & prick them with holes all over. then bake them as you doe diet bread. If this quantety of eggs will not be enough to wet ye flour & sugar, put in 23 or 4 more, but no more cream, butter, not rosewater."
This is probably an obscure question for AskHistorians, but if any of you could decipher this for me, I would really appreciate it! I can't imagine people were ever able to follow this recipe, it seems so confusing. Hopefully you can provide some clarity for my curious mind!
One possibility is that the 'y' is a transcription of a thorn þ, a letter corresponding to modern English 'th' which was used in Old English, Early Middle English and persisted (mostly confined to particular common words and abbreviations) through Middle and Early Modern English. Those cases include writing 'the' as ' þ^e ' (a thorn with an e after - or often above - it, similarly 'this' was sometimes written as ' þ^s ', and the same process for many other common 'th' words). Over time, in some scripts, the shape of the thorn developed to be pretty much indistinguishable from a 'y', with the result that 'þe' would look like 'ye'. (Ever wonder where "ye olde" came from? That says "the").
Now, I couldn't say for sure that Martha Washington would have used these abbreviations, but she's just about in the time period where they were in somewhat regular usage (but becoming rather unusual by 1800). As such, I'd argue this should be taken as "the quantity of an egg" (i.e. an amount of butter the size [weight?] of an egg). I expect the final sentence's "wet ye flour & sugar" is another example of the same thing.
The quantity of an egg (that is a lump of something roughly the size/volume of an egg) was a fairly common measurement in ancient times. It's used frequently in the Talmud for instance. It's a bit more exact than 'about yay big'.
Anyone know what muske and ambergreece are?
1.5 lb all purpose flour
1 pound granulated sugar
6 egg yolks
3 egg whites
(roughly) 1/8-scant 1/4c whipping cream
equal amount of rosewater (makes me think it'd be more on the side of 1/8 c or two tablespoons, which would be the same as 6 teaspoons)
An egg-sized lump of butter
Mix these and knead for 15 minutes. Add in aniseed or caraway (I strongly suggest anise over caraway unless you really love the taste of sweetened caraway seeds. Don't put in as many as she suggests if you want it to be to modern tastes.) You won't find musk or ambergris, so forget it; musk (glandular excretions of a civet, I think?) is illegal now and ambergris is very expensive and may also be illegal. Roll them into forms and place on a lightly greased pie plate. Prick with a fork. If the dough is too stiff, add up to four more eggs, but do not increase the amount of butter or liquids.
edit: you can find rosewater at a halal or indian market, or at a good grocer, and at some natural foods stores.
Take a look at www.godecookery.com, which has recipes from the middle ages. Many of them are quite inexact, to the point that the martha washington recipe seems very detailed.