Traditional Old Recipes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 897, 12 October 1956, Page 32

Traditional Old Recipes

EVERAL requests have come in from Links in | S our Daisy Chain for old, half-remembered recipes, chiefly British, but also some Swiss:and French. I have wondered whether these cakes and other viands will taste quite the same to us now as they did when Grandma made them. But we must, at

any rate, make them~and see! First ; came the request for "the Wiltshire Lardy Cake. This was identified by a regular listener as the "Selkirk Bannock" (to be found in my Cookery Book in the Bread and Teacakes Section), made in some counties with a piece of baker’s dough, but also made with home-made dough as follows: Lardy Cake ; This recipe was sent in by Doris, of Mt. Albert: 14 Ib. plain flour, % oz. yeast, good pinch salt, % Ib. lard, 3 oz. sugar, % lb. currants, 1 saltspoon mixed spice, 44 pint milk, or milk and water. Warm a mixing bowl and into this sieve flour, salt and spice. Warm the milk and stir in half of it to the creamed yeast. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour this in. Work in the flour adding rest of milk as required, to make a stiffish dough. Knead it well till it is elastic and smooth, then cover with a clean cloth and set it in a warm place. Let it wait till it has doubled its bulk. Divide fat, fruit and sugar into three.

equal quantities. Knead the dough again, then roll it into a strip 12 inches by 5 inches. Spread one-third of lard, sugar and currants over two-thirds of this. Fold dough over, so it encloses the fat, sugar and fruit. Seal ends with the rolling pin. Give dough a half turn, then roll out to a strip about the same size. Repeat these processes twice more. Fold ends, flatten it a little, cover with cloth and leave to rise again. It should double its bulk. Fit it in a tin, fashion it into a round, flat cake. Score across with knife. Bake in a hot oven 20 to 25 minutes, regulo 7, or electric 425 degrees. Lebkuchen (Swiss Bread) This was sent in by a friend who had liked it very much when in Switzerland. Four cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup sugar, 3 teaspoons mixed spice, 3 teaspoons cinnamon, 3 tablespoons golden syrup, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 cup milk, few drops aniseed essence. Melt honey and syrup in milk -do not let get hot. Mix dry ingredi-

ents and stir in milk mixtyre. Cook in a cake tin. Leave a couple of days, then spread slices 4vith butter. Crab Apple Wine (Lancashxe) Put 1 gallon of sliced crab apples into a gallon of water, and let them soak for a fortnight. Strain and add 3 lb. of Demarara or best brown sugar to each gallon of liquor. Stir well and frequently until fermentstion takes place, which should be in a day or a day and a half. Leave for 3 days, and then put wine into cask or jar. Lay muslin over the opening until the hissing noise (which tells that the wire is working) has ceased. Then cork tightly, and bottle after 3 months. This wine is one of the most delicious of our country wines, and improves with keeping. Lincoln Rusks Two pounds flour, 10 @z. lard or butter, 2144 dessertspoonfuls baking powder, 2 or 3 eggs, a little milk if required. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl, rub in latd or butter and mix with beaten eggs, and milk if required. Roll out and cut with pastry cutter. Bake in a quick oven for 20 minutes, leave to cool, then split open and dry in moderate oven until they are golden brown. These rusks are delicious cold, or hot, if well buttered. Singin’ Hinny This is the old Northumberland farmhouse girdle cake. Two ounces ground rice, 34 Ib. flour, 2 oz. sugar, 1 oz. lard,

3 oz. currants, 1 teaspoonful salt, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1 gill liquid, half cream and half milk, Mix flour, ground rice, salt, sugar and baking powder. Rub in lard. Mix in currants which have been previously washed and dried. Then add the liquid and mix to a moderately soft dough. Roll this out to a 14 inch thickness. Prick all over with a fork and bake on a fairly hot girdle

until nicely browned on both sides. It can be cut in halves or quarters for convenience in turning. This cake is delicious split and buttered and eaten hot. Swedish Sandwiches First make mustard butter by creanting butter with a little dry mustard. Then make a parsley butter by creaming butter with finely-chopped parsley and a drop or two of lemon juice. Butter a slice of brown bread one side with the mustard butter. Lay on this a slice of tongue or underdone beef; then butter a piece of white bread both sides with parsley butter. Lay on the tongue.