From Gervase Markham's The English Housewife, 1615:
To make fritters another way, take flour, milk, barm (yeast), grated bread,
small raisins, cinnamon, sugar, cloves, mace, pepper, saffron, and salt; stir
all these together very well with a strong spoon, or small ladle; then let it
stand more than a quarter of an hour that it may rise, then beat it in again,
and thus let it rise and be beat in twice or thrice at least; then take it and
bake them in sweet and strong seam (clarified animal fat), as hath been before
showed; and when they are served up to the table, see you strew upon them good
store of sugar, cinnamon, and ginger.
From Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book, 1604:
To make fritures and pancakes:
Take good ale, make yt bloud warme, put to yt some fine wheatne flower, the
yelkes of 4 or 5 egges some Cloves, mace, and smale quantity of ginger, with
some salte, and a qter of a pound of beefe suett shred very smale, temper yt
all well together, then pare yor apples, Cut out the Cores & slice them
round
into yor batter, and bake them in beife Lard as other fritures. Of the same
bater make yor pancakes leavinge out yor suett and apples, and let yor ale
bee halfe sacke, fry yor pancakes either in butter or beefe lard.
Translation (for pancakes only, not fritters):
4 oz. plain flour, 2 or 3 egg yolks (or a whole egg), salt, 2 crumbled cloves,
a generous pinch each of powdered ginger and nutmeg and just under 1/2 pint
light ale. Add 2 tablespoons sack or sherry, which will probably be quite
enough of any of the modern fortified sherries. Have ready a thick-bottomed
frying pan - an omelette pan is ideal - well greased and sizzling hot. Pour
in a tablespoonful of batter which should be thin enough (about the
consistency of single cream) to spread and cover the pan by tilting and
tipping. Toss the pancake, or loosen and turn it with a spatula as soon as
the batter bubbles and sets. Stack these fine, light, lacy panckaces on a hot
plate, strewing brown sugar liberally between the layers as you go, with a
little butter and perhaps an occasional sprinkling of cinnamon. Put the plate
in a low oven to keep warm until the stack is high enough, and cut it into
wedges like a cake, to serve at table. [Modern interpretation Hilary
Spurling, 1986]
Another, modern, recipe for Shrove Tuesday Pancakes from Epicurious
Food.
Eggs and fat were once forbidden during the 40-day Lenten
fast, so on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, Irish
bakers would make pancakes to use up their stores of those
ingredients.
4 large eggs
1 cup milk (do not use low-fat or nonfat)
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla, extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
Additional melted butter
Powdered sugar
Fresh lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Blend first 6 ingredients in
blender. Gradually add flour; blend until smooth. Let stand
15 minutes.
Heat medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Brush
with butter. Add 2 generous tablespoons batter, tilting pan
to coat bottom. Cook until golden on bottom, about 45
seconds. Turn pancake over. Cook until bottom is speckled
with brown, about 30 seconds. Turn out onto paper towel.
Cover with another paper towel. Repeat with remaining
batter, brushing skillet with butter as needed.
Butter ovenproof dish. Sift powdered sugar over speckled
side of each pancake, then sprinkle lightly with lemon
juice; fold pancakes into quarters. Overlap pancakes in
prepared dish. Cover; bake until heated through, about 10
minutes. Serve with more powdered sugar and lemon juice.
Makes about 18
Bon Appetit
May 1996
Peggie O'Kennedy: County Wexford, Ireland
This recipe has been sent to you from Epicurious Food
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recipes from Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines, visit the Recipe File
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Lady Fettiplace's Recipe for Cakes
Take flower & sugar & nutmeg & cloves, & mace, & sweet butter,
& sack, & a little ale barme, beat your spice, & put in your butter,
& your sack, cold, then work it well all together, & make it in little
cakes, & so bake them, if you will you may put in some saffron into them
or fruit.
(Translation: For two dozen buns or cakes, quantities are 1 lb. flour, 2 oz.
sugar, a generous pinch each of freshly ground nutmeg, powdered cloves and mace,
4 oz. butter, about 1/2 pint sack (use sherry well diluted in water), and 1
oz. yeast. The buns will be rather dull unless you include either 4 oz. currants
or about 1/2 teaspoonful of saffron filaments.
First put the saffron to steep in a little of the warmed sack, while you prepare
the dough. Whatever the recipe may say, modern fresh or dried yeast prefers
its liquid warmed, so melt the butter in the rest of the sack and, as soon as
it has cooled to blood heat, dissolve the yeast in some of it. Mix together
the flour, sugar and spices, work in both the saffron and yeast mixtures, and
add as much more sack as you need to make a light, firm, elastic dough. Leave
it to rise, shape it into buns, range them on baking sheets and leave them to
prove again in a warm place. Bake 20 minutes in a hot oven [400 degrees F.])
[Lady Fettiplace's recipe is not specified to be Soul Cakes, but is very similar
to later recipes that are so labelled. In the 16th century, it was more common
to use ale barm as the raising agent than yeast, which became the rule later.]
(_Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book_, by Hilar Spurling)
Yeast Soul Cakes
Three pounds flour, quarter pound butter (or half pound if the cakes are to
be extra rich), half pound sugar, two spoonsful of yeast, two eggs, allspice
to taste, and sufficient new milk to make it into a light paste. Put the mixture
(without the sugar or spice) to rise before the fire for half an hour, then
add the sugar, and allspice enough to flavour it well; make into rather flat
buns, and bake. This is the recipe of Mrs. Mary Ward, who is known to be the
last person who kept up the old custom of giving Soul Cakes at Pulverbatch.
She died in 1853 at the age of 101.
US equivalents: about 9 cups flour; 1/2 or 1 cup butter (2 or 4 sticks); 1
cup sugar; 2 oz. yeast (4 tsp dry); 2 eggs; allspice; milk (say about 3 cups).
(_English Bread and Yeast Cookery_, by Elizabeth David)
Soul Cakes
A good pinch of saffron
Warm milk
6 oz. butter
6 oz. caster sugar
(a sugar that is finer than granulated but coarser than powdered)
3 egg yolks
1 lb. plain flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon mixed spice
3 oz currants
Pre-set oven to 350 degrees F. Soak saffron in a little warmed milk. Cream
butter and sugar. Beat in egg yolks. Sieve flour, salt, and spices together
and add to mixture. Lastly add currants and drained saffron milk. Add more milk
if necessary, to make a soft dough. Make into flat cakes, mark each one across
top, and bake on a greased baking tray in pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes
or until brown.
(_The National Trust Book of Christmas & Festive Day Recipes_, by Sara Paston-Williams.)