To make Sugar-Cakes or Jambals

  Still Life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit, and Pretzels by Clara Peeters, circa 1611

I found this recipe interpretation for Sugar-Cakes, or Jambals, available here. Instantly, I became interested. However, I have quickly found myself going down a rabbit hole as I continued to do more research on the original recipe. The recipe below is from Robert May's book for "To make Sugar-Cakes or Jambals".

"Take two pound of flour, dry it, and season it very fine, then take a pound of loaf sugar, beat it very fine, and searse it, mingle your flour and sugar very well; then take a pound and a half of sweet butter, wash out the salt and break it into bits into the flour and sugar, then take the yolks of four new laid eggs, four or five spoonfuls of sack, and four spoonfuls of cream, beat all these together, put them into the flour, and work it up into paste, make them into what fashion you please, lay them upon papers or plates, and put them into the oven; be careful of them, for a very little thing bakes them." (May)

(May)

According to the recipe, the ingredients needed are 2 pounds of flour, 1 pound of sugar, 1 1/2 pounds of butter, 4 egg yolks, 4-5 spoonfuls of sack, 4 spoonfuls of cream, and to "season it very fine".

First, I did my math conversions, as well as lowering the recipe down to 1/4 the original recipe. Two pounds of flour equals 7.25 cups, divided by 1/4 equals 1.81 cups or approximately 1 3/4 cups (to make measuring with measuring cups easier). One pound of sugar equals 2.26 cups, divided by 1/4 equals 0.56 cups or approximately 1/2 cup. 1 1/2 pounds of butter equals 3 cups, divided by 1/4 equals 12 Tbsp. Have I mentioned that I like this online calculator?

So, after doing my conversions, I was left with "season it very fine", as well as "make them into what fashion you please". For the fashion that I please, I learned that jumbles (also spelled as jumbals, jumbels, jumbols, etc.) have existed since around 600 AD, thanks to a young Italian monk (Bertelsen). Various recipes for jumbles have appeared in numerous places over the centuries, including Thomas Dawson's The Good Huswifes Jewell (1585), Eliza Smith's The Compleat Housewife (1727), and The Great British Baking Show Season 4 Episode 8 ("Jumble Biscuits"). "In 16th century England gimmell rings (from the Latin gemellus for twin) were popular symbols of love and friendship and often exchanged as wedding rings." ("All Jumbled Up") Then, there is Robert Herrick’s poem The Jimmall Ring Or True-Love Knot:

“Thou sent’st to me a true love-knot, but I
Returned a ring of jimmals to imply
Thy love had one knot, mine a triple tie.”

"Jumbles then are biscuits made in the shape of these rings, and their twisted and entwined shapes are easily recognisable in many 16th and 17th century paintings, only recently has their shape changed to a flat or mounded biscuit." ("All Jumbled Up")

Still life with Venetian Glass, a romer and a candle by Clara Peeters, 1607. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

For the "season it very fine" (May), I looked at other historical recipes. The seasoning can include almonds, caraway seeds, anise seeds, rosewater, nutmeg, ground cloves, and saffron.

(Above two pictures from Glyn Hughes' book,
The Lost Foods of England)

Since I am not a fan of anise seeds or caraway seeds, I decided to "season it very fine" (May) my way, based on other cookie recipes from that time period. One fun thing with this cookie is that there are so many historical varieties of recipes for jambals, you can pick and choose which spices and associated recipe that you would like to bake with. For example, here is one interpretation of a historical recipe that includes honey. ("Saffron Jambals")

Then, there is the instruction that says, "then take a pound and a half of sweet butter, wash out the salt and break it into bits into the flour and sugar" (May). Medieval butter was salted for preservation. "A typical modern salted butter contains 1-2 percent salt, whereas medieval butter contained 5-10 times as much: according to a record of 1305, 1 pound of salt was needed for 10 pounds of butter, i.e., the butter was 10 percent salt." (Wilson) It is understandable why a person would want to "wash out the salt" before preparing any food with it. For this reason, I have decided to use unsalted butter for my interpretation of May's recipe below.

How does one "wash out the salt"? Based on my limited research from a modern chemistry perspective, put the butter in a pot of water (keeping the butter and water proportions about the same). Heat up this mixture and regularly stir it until the butter melts. Then let the mixture sit and cool down. Finally, remove the butter from the top after it has cooled. The water should contain most of the salt, since salt is much more soluble in water than in oil. I suggest looking into how clarified butter is made.

One other bit of research left for me was to figure out what "sack" was. I learned that sack is sherry. I also learned that sherry can be substituted for "red wine + 1 teaspoon sugar (per cup of wine)" (Alden). An interesting side note is that I also learned if you want to use a non-alcoholic substitute for sherry, try replacing it with vanilla extract. ("Amazing Substitutes for Sherry") However, this non-alcoholic substitute is a modern alternative, as I have not yet seen any Tudor or Elizabethan cookie recipes using vanilla. This is not to say that it did not exist yet, though. Did you know vanilla first left Mexico in the early 1500s on ships bound for Spain? (Rain)

For more information on jumbles, check out this page.


My interpretation of May's recipe:

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
12 Tbsp salted butter
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp red wine
1 Tbsp cream
1/2 tsp aniseed


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Refrigerate dough for about 30 minutes. Shape the dough like a pretzel. Bake for 9 minutes.
Yield: approximately 24 cookies

The results:

Pictures during the baking process:

 

Flavorful alternative to this recipe (if you do not want to use aniseed):

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
12 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp sherry (or substituted red wine)
1 Tbsp cream
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg



Works Cited:

Alden, Lori. "Fortified Wine." The Cook's Thesaurus. 1996-2005. http://www.foodsubs.com/Aperitif.html.

"All Jumbled Up." Turnspit & Table. 9 February 2015. https://turnspitandtable.wordpress.com/tag/robert-may/.

"Amazing Substitutes for Sherry." Tastessence. 19 March 2018. https://tastessence.com/sherry-substitute.

Anachronists Cookbook. "Renaissance Era 'Sugar-Cakes'". https://www.instructables.com/id/Renaissance-Era-Sugar-Cakes/.

Bertelsen, Cynthia. "Jumbles: Cookies That Travelled Across An Ocean and Through Time." 26 January 2016. http://www.modernsalt.co.uk/stories/jumbles-cookies-that-travelled-across-an-ocean-and-through-time.

Herrick, Robert. The Hesperides & Noble Numbers, ed. Alfred Pollard, vol. 1 (London and New York: Lawrence & Bullen, Ltd., 1898), 217.

Hughes, Glyn. "The Lost Foods of England." 2017.  https://books.google.com/books?id=oNs6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=jambals+the+english+huswife&source=bl&ots=d6QseILQwz&sig=ACfU3U09KNfSpRJ6WiPDye8QmOzjNxP9ig&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtoYTeyJfmAhUFsJ4KHXaUBvIQ6AEwDXoECAoQAg#v=onepage&q=jambals%20the%20english%20huswife&f=false. Page 129.

"Jumble Biscuits." The Great British Baking Show. https://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/jumble-biscuits/.

May, Robert. The Accomplisht Cook, Or, The Art and Mystery of Cookery. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22790/22790-h/cook1.html#secIX. #270.

May, Robert. The Accomplisht Cook, Or the Art and Mystery of Cookery. 1665. https://books.google.com/books?id=7dhopy-AJ98C&pg=PA270&lpg=PA270&dq=jambals+robert+may&source=bl&ots=4_c8QEhh2v&sig=ACfU3U2cywZ8m_Rp3HA5Ho-oj9d4KbUBxw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiEt5_gvZfmAhVWnJ4KHZ2mC78Q6AEwBXoECAoQAg#v=onepage&q=jambals%20robert%20may&f=false. Page 270.

Rain, Patricia. "History of Vanilla." The Vanilla Company. 26 February 2009. https://vanillaqueen.com/facts-about-vanilla/.

"Saffron Jambals." The Fresh Loaf. 15 June 2011. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23947/saffron-jambals.

Wilson, Bee. Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. 2013. https://books.google.com/books?id=mg4aAdxORk0C&pg=PT130&lpg=PT130&dq=medieval+butter+salted&source=bl&ots=we5jYocPCb&sig=ACfU3U39pEFiwuJuyXMAKaiYiaS4dSO8kg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDhNmJ4ZnmAhVQF6wKHeHHAbsQ6AEwDHoECAkQAg#v=onepage&q=medieval%20butter%20salted&f=false.