This is a recipe from American
cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and the best
modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and
preserves, and all kinds of cake, from the imperial plumb to plain cake.
Adapted to this country and all grades of life by Amelia Simmons:
To three pound flour, sprinkle a teacup of fine powdered coriander seed, rub in one pound of butter, and one and half pound sugar, dissolve three teaspoonfuls of pearl ash in a tea cup of milk, knead all together well, roll three quarters of an inch thick, and cut or stamp into shape and size you please, bake slowly fifteen or twenty minutes; tho' hard and dry at first, if put into an earthen pot, and dry cellar, or damp room, they will be finer, softer and better when six months old."
There is not much information about the woman herself, except that Amelia Simmons was a domestic servant, perhaps a housekeeper, who had this collection of recipes published in 1796. The book was the first of its kind in America, promoting the use of local ingredients, such as molasses, cornmeal, and pumpkin, although many recipes were directly copied from British works. The use of potash and several Dutch terms led food historians to believe that Amelia Simmons came from Albany, New York.
Potash is the by-product of burnt wood, among other things, and was largely exported from America to Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. It has been used since the Bronze Age for bleaching textiles and the production of glass, ceramic and soap. Today it's still used as fertilizer but no longer for culinary purposes as was common in Amelia Simmons' time. Pearl ash (potash) is low in sodium and would leave a bitter aftertaste - unlike baking soda that became widely available to American housewives after 1850.
When Amelia Simmons' cookbook was published, Albany served as the capital of New York State with over 3,000 inhabitants. The author herself was of modest education and finances and probably never became a success, like women of the next century who often specialized in home economics as well. Despite this, American cookery
was and still is thought of very highly in the U.S. even though it's not very easy
to read since it's neither divided into parts nor indexed.
CORIANDER COOKIES
The following version is a quarter of the original recipe. I used a coarse type of wheat flour and replaced pearl ash (that I couldn't have found in the market) with baking soda. This and the addition of ginger yielded a rather sandy dough that I must handle with care but, once in the oven, the dough kept its shape tolerably well. Although butter percentage is limited, the resulting cookie was both tender and crispy and loaded with holiday flavor. Simmons' original cookie was probably harder in texture because the dough was
rolled out much thicker so you needed to keep for six weeks before
eating. Happily, today it's precisely six weeks to Christmas so do follow Amelia's hints and let me know how it went!
I n g r e d i e n t s
350g plain flour
115g butter
170g caster sugar
1tsp baking soda
2tsp coriander
1tsp ginger (optional)
100ml cold milk
M e t h o d
Sift the flour, baking soda and spices in a bowl. Beat the butter with the sugar in another. Stir in the flour and milk little by little and mash with your fingers until everything is combined. Roll out the dough on a hard surface, use cookie cutters to shape, and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in a moderate oven for 20' or longer. Leave in the oven for the cookie to harden, then place on wire racks. Store in a biscuit tin when perfectly cool.
V a r i a t i o n s
For extra Christmas flavor, you can vary the spices. To keep the gingerbread white, I added 1/2tsp each of nutmeg and cardamom. For a darker version, use cinnamon, allspice, cloves and black pepper.
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