From the Hearth: Eliza Leslie's 1828 Jumbles

Jumbles are a simple butter cookie similar to our modern sugar cookie. They have a long history dating back to the 16th century. Receipts (recipes) were commonly printed in cookbooks. The one being made today was published in Eliza Leslie’s 1828 cookbook “Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes & Sweetmeats”.

Original Receipt (recipe)

JUMBLES
Three eggs
Half a pound of flour, sifted
Half a pound of butter
Half a pound of powdered loaf sugar
A table-spoonful of rose-waler
A nutmeg grated
A tea-spoonful of mixed mace and cinnamon

Stir the sugar and butter to a cream. Beat the eggs very light. Throw them, all at once, into the pan of four. Put in, at once, the butter and sugar, and then add the spice and rose-water. If you have no rose-water, substitute six or seven drops of strong essence of lemon, or more if the essence is weak. Stir the whole very hard, with knife.
Spread some flour on your paste-board, and flour your hands well. Take up with your knife, a portion of the dough, and lay it on the board. Roll it lightly with your hands, into long thin rolls, which must be cut into equal lengths, curled up into rings, and laid gently into an iron or tin pan, buttered, not too close to each other, as they spread in baking. Bake them in a quick oven about five minutes, and grate loaf-sugar over them when cool.

Modern Conversion

3 eggs
1/2 lb. flour (1 ¾ c), sifted
1/2 lb. (1 c) butter
1/2 lb. (1 1/8 c) powdered loaf sugar
1 TBS rosewater
1 nutmeg (2 tsp), grated
1 tsp of mace and cinnamon, combined

Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

MUSIC: Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1 - I. Allegro
Composer Ludwig von Beethoven
Performed by Paul Pittman
Music provided & License through https://musopen.org
This music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Public Domain Mark 1.0 License

Filmed at the 1820 Col. Benjamin Stephenson House
2023©

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