tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post3382134669262725068..comments2024-03-28T12:23:06.497-07:00Comments on Food History Jottings: Hot Cross Buns and Grains of ParadiseIvan Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03500437663759868535noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-51285395043587678142021-04-09T11:54:37.811-07:002021-04-09T11:54:37.811-07:00A very interesting article. I make all our own bre...A very interesting article. I make all our own bread, sometimes with sourdough although my cultures fail after a few repetitions. I agree with the views expressed regarding seasonality of foods. Apart from bought buns being distressingly poor they are on sale immediately after Christmas. <br />I bought Grains of Paradise (Melegueta pepper) intending to try them as a flavouring for bread.<br />Not relevant but in Sweden, ginger biscuits are called pepparkakor. Their origin is German. Germans who migrated to Sweden found they couldn't reproduce germanic baked goods with the Swedish flour (rye mostly) so imported German flour and recipes (including pepper in the biscuits). I now wonder if it was Melegueta pepper.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17210619618319713083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-36761463053429732342012-03-19T09:13:08.615-07:002012-03-19T09:13:08.615-07:00They are all the more interesting because of the m...They are all the more interesting because of the million stories that people have conjured up about their origins, I think. Also, very tasty, yum! Agree with last commenter about the seasonality, they are only available seasonally in Ireland, for the most part, too, unless you bake them yourself of course :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-7536604980169885642012-03-18T08:29:31.947-07:002012-03-18T08:29:31.947-07:00Ivan - here in the States, at least New Jersey, we...Ivan - here in the States, at least New Jersey, we can only get hot cross buns between Lent and Easter. They are still seasonal and it's that seasonality that makes them so special to me. Thanks for another great post!ccrown14https://www.blogger.com/profile/02541911553957973737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-66923290135898083492012-03-18T08:19:51.805-07:002012-03-18T08:19:51.805-07:00I am going to St Albans next month to investigate ...I am going to St Albans next month to investigate the matter further. I am rather sceptical about the authenticity of the recipe The other early Good Friday dish was Good Friday Pudding, a recipe for which is in Gervase Markham's The English Housewife (London: 1615) in the chapter entitled Skille in Oat-meale. He says, 'Of these Greets is also made the good fryday pudding, which is mixed with Eggs, Milk, Suet, Penyryal; and boyl'd first in a linen bag, and then stripped and buttered with sweet butter.' It is often said that the earliest recipe for a pudding boiled in a cloth is one for Cambridge Pudding in John Murrell's A Newe Book of Cookery (London: 1617), but Plumcake has pointed out that Markham's recipe for Good Fryday Pudding is two years earlier. There are however allusions to pudding bags in some medieval recipes, which of more anon.Ivan Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03500437663759868535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-24458661882957111292012-03-18T07:29:40.744-07:002012-03-18T07:29:40.744-07:00Ivan - I'd be very interested in finding out i...Ivan - I'd be very interested in finding out if there is an original document of this early date for these types of Easter buns, as I have not come across anything close to this age. The earliest similar recipe I have seen is a 17th century Scottish "Good ffryday cake" (flavoured with cloves, mace and saffron). But this is a large cake (using a peck of flour), not small buns and no mention of crossing the top is made. On the other hand I have seen similar Easter breads in Italy with slashed crosses. The grains of paradise is unusual also. I seen it used as a pepper substitute and in gingerbread recipes, but not as a major flavouring spice. In one brief analysis of spices in medieval cookery grains of paradise appear in 1% of English recipes, much less then in French recipes of the same period.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com