Recipes from The Baron's Inconvenient Bride

For your convenience, each recipe has been printed on a separate page.

To Make A Double Tart (Apple Tart)

(Which Lily and Rand eat after the baptism)
Take some codlings tenderly boyled and peel them, cut them in half, fill your tart, put in a quarter of a 100 codlings, 1 ½ pounds of sugar, a few cloves and a little cinnamon, close up the coffin and bake it; when it comes out of the over take a quart of cream, 6 eggs, a quartern of sugar and a sliced nutmeg, beat all these well together, pour them into the tart and sent your tart in the oven for 8 minutes, when it comes out cut off the lid and having a lid cut in flowers ready, lay it on and garnish it with preserves of damsons, raspberries, apricots and cherries and place a preserved quince in the middle and strew it with sugar biskets.
—The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth commonly called Joan Cromwell, 1664

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a pie dish with the crust and bake until golden. Arrange the apple slices in the pie. Mix ¼ cup sugar, cloves, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over apples. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Mix the cream, egg yolks, 1/8 cup sugar, and nutmeg. Remove foil and pour cream mixture in pie. Return to the oven and bake 20 more minutes or until the custard is set. Remove from oven and decorate with fruit.

Lauren's notes: This pie is delicious and can be served warm or cold. My family prefers it just as an apple pie without the extra fruit on top, but if you want to be authentic, go crazy and decorate it with all the fruits you can find!

To Make a Chicken (and Artichoke) Pye

(Which Rand has for supper at Lakefield House)
Take four or five chickens, cut them in pieces, take the bottom of Artichokes boiled, then make your coffin proportionable to your meat, season your meat with Nutmeg, Mace and salt, then some Butter on the top of the Pye, put a little water into it as you put it into the Oven, and let it bake an hour, then put in a leer of butter, Gravy of Mutton, eight Lemons sliced; so serve it.
—The Compleat Cook, 1665

Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C). Line a pie dish with the crust and bake until golden. Combine chicken, artichoke bottoms, ¼ cup melted butter, nutmeg, mace, and salt, and mix well. Fill pie shell with mixture, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons water, cover with foil, and bake until nice and hot, about 30 minutes. Boil gravy with lemon slices for five minutes, remove lemon, and stir in 2 tablespoons butter. Pour sauce into pie and serve.

Lauren's notes: The original 17th C. recipe called for mutton gravy, but I just use regular brown gravy. If you use canned artichoke bottoms, make sure they're packed in water, not marinated. This doesn't really look much like a pie once you serve it (since the insides spread all over the plate!), but it tastes wonderful and my whole family loves it.

A Bacon Tart

(Which Lily eats for dinner at Trentingham Manor)
Take a quarter of the best Jordan Almonds and put them in a little warm water to blanch them, then beat them together in a mortar with 3 to 4 spoonsfuls of , then Sweeten them with fine sugar; then take Bacon that is clear and white and hold it upon the point of a knife against the Fire till it hath dropt a sufficient quantity, then stir it well together and put it in the paste and bake it.
—The Accomplisht Lady's Delight by Hannah Wolley, 1675

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 6″ soufflé dish with puff pastry and bake as directed. De-rind bacon and fry until lightly browned, remove and cut into small pieces. Mix the almonds, sugar, and rose water, then mix in the bacon. Fill souffle dish and bake just until it's hot.

Lauren's notes: British bacon is not the same as American bacon—in the United States, Canadian bacon is the closest thing we have, so buy that for this recipe. I've made this with individual puff pastry shells instead of as a single tart; the recipe fills six shells perfectly, and it makes a very nice, quite unusual appetizer.

Turneps Roast in Paper with Butter and Sugar

(Which is served with dinner at Hawkridge Hall)
Some roast Turneps in a Paper under the Embers, and eat them with Sugar and Butter.
—Acetaria by John Evelyn, 1699

Preheat oven to 350° F. Peel the turnip and gouge a hollow out of the top. Rub the outside well with butter. Stuff the hollow with ½ teaspoon of butter and a teaspoon of dark brown sugar. Wrap loosely in foil and bake for an hour and a half, or until turnip is well-cooked. Serves 2.

Lauren's notes: My husband is not a turnip lover, but he pronounced this edible (which from a meat-and-potatoes sort of guy is as good as you're going to get!).

The Nuns Bisket

(Lily's favorites!)
Take the Whites of twelves Eggs and beat them to a Froth, a Pound of Almonds, blanch them and beat them with the Froth of the Whites of Eggs, as it rises; then take the Yolks and two Pound of fine Sugar and beat them all together; then mix the Almonds with the Sugar and Eggs; then add half a Pound of flour with the Peel of four Lemons grated, and some citron shred small; put the Composition in little Cake Pans and bake them in a quick Oven and, when the are coloured, turn them onto tins to harden the Bottoms; and before you set them in the oven again sift on them some double refined sugar. Let the Pans be butter'd and fill them but half.
—The Cook's Dictionary by John Nott, 1723

Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C). Generously grease one or two muffin pans with butter. Beat the egg whites until they hold their shape, then beat in the ground almonds. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture is pale yellow and ribbony. Combine the two mixtures and mix. Add the flour and lemon zest and mix. Pour the mixture into well-buttered muffin pans, filling the cups one-third to one-half full, depending on how thick you wish your biscuits to be. (They will not rise much.) Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 18 minutes or until nicely browned. Makes about 12 to 18 biscuits, depending on muffin cup size.

Lauren's notes: These delicate lemony cookies are very thin, very crispy, and very delicious! At my house, they disappear as fast as I can bake them. I do wonder how anyone made anything like this before electric mixers, though…my arm aches just thinking about it!

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