In Europe (specifically Scotland) and the American colonies, where was
baking done. Most houses would not have had ovens (would they?). Not
every one would have bought from a baker or had one available to them.
How was bread baking and cake baking accomplished?

Thanks,

Cookie

Oh pshaw, on Thu 21 Sep 2006 05:20:02p, Cookie Cutter meant to say...

>
>
> In Europe (specifically Scotland) and the American colonies, where was
> baking done. Most houses would not have had ovens (would they?). Not
> every one would have bought from a baker or had one available to them.
> How was bread baking and cake baking accomplished?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Cookie

There were often communal ovens or the oven of the village baker where goods
could be taken for baking. Home baking was often done in an covered iron pot
in the coals of the fire.

--
Wayne Boatwright
__________________________________________________

The right to revolt has sources deep in our
history. --William O. Douglas

> > In Europe (specifically Scotland) and the American colonies, where was
> > baking done. Most houses would not have had ovens (would they?). Not
> > every one would have bought from a baker or had one available to them.
> > How was bread baking and cake baking accomplished?
> There were often communal ovens or the oven of the village baker where goods
> could be taken for baking. Home baking was often done in an covered iron pot
> in the coals of the fire.

In most of Scotland people lived too far from any centre for oven baking
to be possible. They made porridge or used griddles.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Thanks to both of you for your replies.

I was not sure if the baking guilds were still around in the 18th
century or not.

I am specifically trying to figure out the origin of the Southern (as in
American South) cookies called "tea cakes." They are likely the "little
cakes" that early bakers created by dropping small amounts of cake
batter in the pan to test the temperature of their ovens.

I found a recipe for tea cakes in The Practice of Cookery by Mrs
Dalgairns, first published in 1829 in Scotland. The recipe is
essentially the same as my grandmother's recipe. So, I am working on
the assumption that they are probably goodies out of 18th century
Scotland, a time when their was a great deal of immigration of Scots to
the South.

Cookie

> I am specifically trying to figure out the origin of the Southern (as in
> American South) cookies called "tea cakes." They are likely the "little
> cakes" that early bakers created by dropping small amounts of cake
> batter in the pan to test the temperature of their ovens.
>
> I found a recipe for tea cakes in The Practice of Cookery by Mrs
> Dalgairns, first published in 1829 in Scotland. The recipe is
> essentially the same as my grandmother's recipe. So, I am working on
> the assumption that they are probably goodies out of 18th century
> Scotland, a time when their was a great deal of immigration of Scots to
> the South.

Recipe books were written for relatively wealthy people who would
have had ovens in their houses. Most of the population of Scotland
didn't, as late as 1829, and I doubt if any higher a proportion of
Southern American colonists did.

If your "tea cakes" (the word can mean several different things here)
could be made on a griddle, then they could well have come from the
poorer or more rural parts of Scotland. If they needed an oven then
they would presumably have been confined to slaveholders (who could
well have bought cookbooks like Mrs Dalgairns's) and spread more
widely as ovens became more widely available.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

"Jack Campin - bogus address" > wrote in message
...
>> I am specifically trying to figure out the origin of the Southern (as in
>> American South) cookies called "tea cakes." They are likely the "little
>> cakes" that early bakers created by dropping small amounts of cake
>> batter in the pan to test the temperature of their ovens.
>>
>> I found a recipe for tea cakes in The Practice of Cookery by Mrs
>> Dalgairns, first published in 1829 in Scotland. The recipe is
>> essentially the same as my grandmother's recipe. So, I am working on
>> the assumption that they are probably goodies out of 18th century
>> Scotland, a time when their was a great deal of immigration of Scots to
>> the South.
>
> Recipe books were written for relatively wealthy people who would
> have had ovens in their houses. Most of the population of Scotland
> didn't, as late as 1829, and I doubt if any higher a proportion of
> Southern American colonists did.
>
> If your "tea cakes" (the word can mean several different things here)
> could be made on a griddle, then they could well have come from the
> poorer or more rural parts of Scotland. If they needed an oven then
> they would presumably have been confined to slaveholders (who could
> well have bought cookbooks like Mrs Dalgairns's) and spread more
> widely as ovens became more widely available.
>
Not many of our ancestors here in the South, especially the ScotsIrish sort
from whom I'm descended on most of one side, Campbells and Clarks, would
have had much in the way of ovens (other than the warming holes built into
the sides of large fireplaces), nor would they have had much in the way of
breastplates or bucklers (but maybe an occasional gorget ripped from the
neck of a fallen pink-cheeked British cornet as we looted/retrieved personal
property from the dead and soon to be so on random sites of minor
engagements), so our "tea cakes" would have likely been of the "griddle"
sort of among the middle class (while the wee and puir subsisted on hoe
cakes, cooked on the blade of the hoe).....

A couple of sidenotes....My Clark ancestors (as in General Elijah,
Revoltionary hero - one of the figures from whom Mel Gibson's composite was
formed in that ghastly cinepic, "The Patriot", founder of Clark County (and
Athens and UJawja, I guess or so claims the memorial plinth outside the
gates of the place), dreadful despoiler and dispossessor of Native 'Merkins,
etc., acquired some wealth post-Revolution and would have likely hada
kitchen with a bricj fireplace with oven(s) built into the sides. Some of
the Campbells (of the non-Tory sort) would have been likely to have acquired
assets to afford such cultured frippery, likely taking over the lands and
chattels, human and livestock, of their relatives/fellow clansmen, the Tory
Campbells fled for their lives to Novia Scotia, etc., a pragmatic eye to the
future being a constant Campbell virtue.

You've got to grind that corn fine for tea ckes, but cane syrup both
sweetens and eases down the hard and gritty edges.

Actually, I suspect that cast iron "Dutch Ovens", suitable for marvelous
biscuits, the ambrosia of the South, or even "Spoonbread" by which all men
are not rendered equal, out numbered built in ovens well into the 20th
century in much of the South.

TMO

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

>
> Recipe books were written for relatively wealthy people who would
> have had ovens in their houses. Most of the population of Scotland
> didn't, as late as 1829, and I doubt if any higher a proportion of
> Southern American colonists did.
>
> If your "tea cakes" (the word can mean several different things here)
> could be made on a griddle, then they could well have come from the
> poorer or more rural parts of Scotland. If they needed an oven then
> they would presumably have been confined to slaveholders (who could
> well have bought cookbooks like Mrs Dalgairns's) and spread more
> widely as ovens became more widely available.

Tea Cakes are soft sugar cookies (biscuits in England). They are rolled
and cut large, usually about 3 inches. I don't know if they could have
been cooked on griddles or not. Everyone made these when I was a child.
No distinction by social, economic, country of origin of ancestors,
color, or religion. But when I found a recipe for them in a Scottish
cookbook, I began to wonder if they originated in Scotland. Maybe their
popularity came much later and it is only a coincidence that there is a
similar recipe in a Scottish cookbook. I don't find any recipes in The
Virginia House-Wife, 1824, The Kentucky Housewife, 1839. The Carolina
Housewife, 1847, has an entire chapter labeled, "Tea Cakes, etc." but
none of the recipes really looks familiar. Even the "Scotch Cake" is
probably shortbread.

Sources on the web say that Mrs. Dalgairns book was initially published
in 1829. The 1840 edition is on the web at:

http://www.scotfood.org/cookery/index.htm

Online edition at this website:
THE PRACTICE OF COOKERY
Adapted to the
BUSINESS OF EVERY-DAY LIFE.
By MRS. DALGAIRNS.
1840

In Chap. 15,

THE QUEEN’S TEA CAKES.

Mix together half a pound of dried and sifted flour, the same quantity
of pounded and sifted loaf sugar, the weight of two eggs in fresh
butter, the grated peel of a lemon, and a little salt; beat the two eggs
with a little rose water, and with them make the ingredients into a
paste; roll it out, cut it into round cakes, and bake them upon floured
tins.


In the historical cookbooks at:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/

Housekeeping in Old Virginia
By Marion Fontaine Cabell Tyree
Richmond, VA: J.W. Randolph & English, 1878.


TEA CAKES.

2 quarts of flour.

1 small teacup of lard.

1 small teacup of butter.

3 cupfuls of sugar.

3 eggs.

1 cupful of cream (sour is best).

2 small teaspoonfuls of soda.

1 grated nutmeg.

Roll out half an inch thick, and bake in a moderate oven.--Mrs. F. C. W.



TEA CAKES.

2 quarts of flour.

3 cupfuls of sugar.

1 cup of butter.

5 eggs.

1 teaspoonful of soda dissolved in 2 tablespoonfuls of sweet milk.

2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar.

Season with lemon or nutmeg.

--Mrs. H.





DELICATE TEA CAKES.

Whites of 3 eggs beaten to a froth.

1 cupful of pulverized sugar.

1/2 cupful of sweet milk.

1 teaspoonful cream of tartar.

1/2 teaspoonful of soda.

2 1/2 cupfuls of flour.

1 teaspoonful of almonds.

1/2 cupful of melted butter.

--Mrs. R.



Even
La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes, From Leading Chefs
and Noted Creole Housewives, Who Have Made New Orleans Famous for its
Cuisine.
By Lafcadio Hearn
New Orleans: F.F. Hansell & Bro., Ltd., c1885

has a recipe for tea cakes

TEA CAKES. CHEAP AND NICE. NO EGGS
One cup of butter or a large spoonful of lard, two cups of sugar, one
cup of sour milk, one teaspoonful of soda, some grated orange peel or
nutmeg; flour enough to roll out. Roll very thin; cut with fancy
cutters, and bake in a quick oven. If you use lard, add a pinch of salt.

PLAIN TEA CAKES
Half a cup of butter, or a large spoonful of lard, one and a half cups
of sugar, one teacupful of milk, one teaspoonful of soda, seven cupfuls
of sifted flour. Roll thin.


My grandmother's recipe for tea cakes

1 egg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lard
1/4 cup sour milk
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon flavoring

Roll thin, cut with large cutter, sprinkle with sugar before baking

In article >, Cookie Cutter
> wrote:

Until recently bread was normally baked in rural Ulster on a griddle
over a turf fire - see "soda bread" and "farl" in wikipedia. Certain
types of bread were hardened by laying them directly on a "har'nin'
stand" - an ornamental iron rack propped in front of the fire (see
http://www.uftm.org.uk/collections_a...ctions/domesti
c_life/

Lazarus