To make Shrewsbury Cakes Take four pounds of Flour, two pounds of Butter, one pound and an half of fine Sugar, four Eggs, a little beaten Cinamon, a little Rosewater, make a hole in the Flour, and put the Eggs into it when they are beaten, then mix the Butter, Sugar, Cinamon, and Rosewater together, and then mix them with the Eggs and Flour, then make them into thin round Cakes, and put them into an Oven after the Houshold Bread is drawn; this quantity will make three dozen of Cakes
Shrewsbury Cakes Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe The above Old dessert recipe for Shrewsbury Cakes is written in totally different way to today's recipe books!
There were no lists of ingredients - these were included as part of the text
Food and ingredient measurements were extremely basic - quantities were not often specified!
Temperature control was difficult and therefore not specified!
Cooking times were vague - and left to the cook to decide!
It was assumed that the reader would already have some knowledge of cooking
The History of the Recipe Book
Some of the language might be referred to as 'Olde English'
The art of cooking and the recipe was passed verbally from one generation to the next
The first printed book ever to be published in English was in 1474!
Most Elizabethan women were unable to read!
The idea of a Recipe Book was an entirely new concept
The first Recipe Books to be printed in England which included many old Elizabethan and Medieval recipes were called:
1545 - 'A Propre new booke of Cokery'
1588 - 'The Good Huswifes Handmaid for Cookerie in her kitchen'
1596 - 'The Good Hyswife's Jewell'
1610 'Mrs. Sarah Longe her Receipt Booke'
Shrewsbury Cakes Old Elizabethan Recipe The above Old recipe is taken from the book by Hannah Woolley (1622-1675) printed at the White Lion in Duck-Lane, near West-Smithfield, London in 1672 and entitled:
The Queen-like Closet OR RICH CABINET Scored with all manner of RARE RECEIPTS FOR Preserving, Candying and Cookery
Shrewsbury Cakes Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe
Ingredients for Shrewsbury Cakes - an Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe
Cooking method for Shrewsbury Cakes
Free Shrewsbury Cakes - Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe
Have fun reading this Shrewsbury Cakes old dessert recipe
What food people ate during the Renaissance era
The cooking instructions used
The different types of food used in old dessert recipes