Scottish Shortbread, 1845

Also for the recent holiday event, Scottish Shortbread (Excellent) from Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery (London, 1845). 

Shortbread. Not quite excellent.

I made a whole batch: 1 lb (~3.5 cups) all-purpose flour, mixed with 1 oz of orange peel, and 2 oz of granulated sugar. I melted 8 oz of butter and combined it with the dry ingredients, making a dry dough. I baked the shortbread at 350F for 20 minutes. ["Mold it onto tins" was a little weird, so I went with "press the dough into two pie tins."]

The shortbread was alright. It mostly held together, had a decent texture and taste. There was a slightly off aftertaste which I suspect was the peel (instead of homemade, I used a jar of purchased peel, which I don't think I'll do again).

Compared to the last receipt I used, all the cookbooks I found this time specified that the butter should be melted (which made it much easier to incorporate versus cutting in solid butter as for pie-crust), and also called for citron, candied orange peel, and/or caraway seed to flavor and adorn the shortbread. I recall making shortbread with only butter, sugar, and flour (and eggs?), with the orange peel being an optional decoration, so know I'm wondering where I originally found that receipt. I thought it was Beeton's, which I was using a lot when I started out, but her receipt definitely calls for almonds and candied peel, even in the caraway is optional.