1 meal in this book
“It _was_ a delightful tea! There were tiny little loaves for each of the children, home-made cakes with plenty of plums, and strawberries and cream, and ducks' eggs. These the farmer's wife showed Little Me had pretty pale green shells, instead of white or brown like the hens' eggs, and Mrs. White promised to show the children some baby chickens and ducklings the next day.”
1768. INGREDIENTS.--3 lbs. of flour, 6 oz. of butter or good dripping, 6 oz. of moist sugar, 6 oz. of currants, 4 oz. of pounded allspice, 2 tablespoonfuls of fresh yeast, 1 pint of new milk. _Mode_.--Rub the butter into the flour; add the sugar, currants, and allspice; warm the milk, stir to it the yeast, and mix the whole into a dough; knead it well, and put it into 6 buttered tins; place them near the fire for nearly an hour for the dough to rise, then bake the cakes in a good oven from 1 to 11/4 hour. To ascertain when they are done, plunge a clean knife into the middle, and if on withdrawal it comes out clean, the cakes are done. _Time_.--1 to 1-1/4 hour. _Average cost_, 1s. 8d. _Sufficient_ to make 6 small cakes.
Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.
Sources: Every passage above is quoted verbatim from Golden Moments: Bright Stories for Young Folks, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipes come from cookbooks of the period, also free in full. All are in the public domain in the United States. The binding is ours — slate cloth, teapot stamp.