Until the early 18th century, soft-baked cookies went by the name of 'bisket', which is the obsolete form of 'biscuit'. Some recipes called for yeast to make the dough lighter, others used several eggs. Robert Smith's Court Cookery, or the Complete English Cook (1725) includes a version of bisket that falls into the latter category. Using as many as 8 eggs for approx. 900g each of flour and sugar, his cookie must have been quite a luxury.
Like many authors of cookbooks from the Early Modern period, Robert Smith was a distinguished chef - as is eloquently stated on the front page of his work that he dedicates to the 'nobility and gentry of England'. Under a certain Mr. Lamb, Smith had prepared the meals of King William, the Dukes of Buckingham and Ormond, the French ambassador D' Aumont & several other noblemen. His cookbook gives an idea of refined English cuisine around 1700 although the most extravagant recipes by Mr. Lamb had been dismissed as 'impracticable', for being too complicated. Some of the material that was published had been given to Smith by friends and colleagues but, according to his words, all of the recipes were excellent and worthy of a Prince.
 |
| The Prince of Orange lands in England (Jan Hoynck van Papendrecht - after 1885) |
The Prince that Robert Smith had known was none other than William of Orange, who reigned in England as King William III from 1689 until his death in 1702. His father had been of Dutch and German origin and his mother a grand-daughter of Mary, Queen of Scots. The Prince, who had been raised in the Low Countries and filled the position of Stadtholder (=Steward) in his youth, was offered the English crown after landing on British soil in 1688, which marked the Glorious Revolution. Even before that, he was constantly engaged in wars vs. Louis XIV of France and therefore away from home for long periods of time but when he did return to Engand, he must have dined on Mr. Lambs 'bombarded veal' and other delicious stuff. The dish consisted of several kinds of veal, beef, pork, and fish as well as mushrooms and was just one example of Mr. Lamb's 'practicable' recipes. 'Bombarded veal' involved larding, boiling, stewing, and frying the meats that were seasoned with thyme, marjoram, and other fresh herbs. An orange was squeezed over the meat and the finished dish was garnished with sliced citrus fruits.
We don't know how much Court Cookery, or the Complete English Cook actually owed to Robert Smith's unnamed colleague in the category of 'confectioneries' that falls within his chapter of 'Pastes, Pies, Pasties, Puddings, Tansies, Cakes, Jellies, etc.' but at least some of these recipes would have been served (or used as the basis for desserts that ended up) on the table of either King William or the dukes Mr. Lamb and his assistant cooked for. I like to think of bisket as one of their favorites.
Double-baked cookies were originally used for army & navy rations but gradually became the indispensable companion of breakfast. Dunked in milk, coffee, or tea, and even soup or wine - biscuits were vastly popular at Robert Smith's time. A fictional version of Louis XIV's consort Maria Theresa 'dunking a biscuit in wine' as her mother-in-law conversed with the King about family matters in The Vicompte de Bragelonne (an impossible historic romance by Alexandre Dumas-père, following The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After) is forever imprinted on my memory. This scene would have taken place in the early years of the Sun King's reign when the future Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel was still very young.
This is how dunking biscuits were prepared at William's royal court - as per Robert Smith's instructions:
Unlike most cookbook authors before 1850, Robert Smith gave precise quantities of the necessary ingredients for his recipes but not always much guidance on how to prepare the dishes. In the bisket recipe, for instance, there is no clue about 'laying' the dough. Was it rolled? and if so, how thin? Was it shaped, or just divided among the 'Plates'? And what exactly was meant by 'Plates'? Nineteenth century housewives used a variety of cookie-cutters and even biscuit tins for perfect-looking biscuits - that couldn't have been available in Robert Smith's time. I've often seen 'plates' and 'dishes' mentioned as bakeware in Hannah Glasse or Elizabeth Raffald cookbooks (that were published long after Robert Smith's work) and there is also reference to individual cake tins but I doubt if these were used for baking cookie dough. The 'Plates' in our bisket recipe were likely baking dishes.
Comments