Saturday, January 24, 2015

HFF #17: Revolutionary Food



The Challenge: Prepare a food that is revolutionary in some way, or dates from a revolutionary time.

The Recipe: Ginger sprigs from The lady's assistant for regulating and supplying her table by Mrs. Charlotte Mason (page 379)

Date and Region: British, 1777 (I believe there was some rather revolutionary activity going on some of the British colonies at that time...)

How Did You Make It: With precious little assistance from the instructions...

"To make Ginger Sprigs after the West Indian Manner. TAKE three eggs, a pound of sugar, a pound of flower, a little ginger, two spoonsuls of rose water mix them to a paste "

Presumably, one then bakes this paste.  I took this as a sort of biscuit/cookie, and went for 350F about 12-13 minutes. (I used 1 Tbsp of ginger and 2 Tbsp of rose water.)

Time to Complete: About 75 minutes to mix up and bake 4 pans.

Total Cost: Ingredients were all to hand.

How Successful Was It: Successful.  Tasty enough, rather dense.  The rosewater flavor predominated, so I'd want to experiment with using a little more ginger.  The two flavors worked together surprisingly well.

How Accurate Was It: Having no description, shaping, or baking instructions, it's hard to say.  I couldn't find any other references to "sprigs" in other sources, so I just make them as drop cookies.

Ginger sprig cookies from a 1777 British recipe.

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