Student Work Wednesday- Featuring Sarah Thompson
This week we’re highlighting the work of Gastronomy graduate, Sarah Thompson. Sarah completed a project in which she recreated a historical recipe for the Cookbooks and History course taught by Karen Metheny here at Boston University’s Metropolitan College.
The Nameless Cake
The Nameless Cake—I feel kind of bad for this cake because in Malinda Russell’s 1866 A Domestic Cook Book, this recipe is placed among so many other named cake recipes but I think this one has just as much to offer! To show this cake the love and attention it deserves, I decided to try my hand at making the recipe. While the ingredient list was ever so simple, that’s pretty much the extent of the recipe: an ingredient list. There was no mention of temperature at which the baking should happen, nor was there a time given for how long the cake should be in the oven. There was no mention of any type of pan that is suggested to use. It is clear that Malinda Russell assumes her readers have baked many cakes in their day and they can infer the instruction portion. Another challenge was equating a “teacupful” to something I had in my kitchen arsenal. I decided I would use ½- ¾ of a coffee mug and call that a teacupful. It seemed to work, but I know the result could have been a little different had I been more accurate with my decision-making.
I thought it was so interesting that this cake was at the bare bones level as far as cake ingredients go, including just: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and milk. I kept thinking while I was making this, I feel like I need more, a splash of vanilla, or lemon zest or baking soda, or something. But it did turn out delicious in the end. It is not a cake I am used to by any means, and I would accredit that to the lack of ingredients. When I tasted it, it was very spongy and sort of soufflé-like, probably because there were 5 eggs in there. All-in-all I really enjoyed this sort of sleuth-like cooking. I feel like when I bake a modern recipe, I know I will always be surprised at what comes out of the oven, but following this recipe (or ingredient list more like it) I was really flying blind. It goes to show however how much baking has changed as a form of cooking and the way chefs, and recipe-developers chose to include or exclude. Malinda Russell, I think it is clear in this recipe, at least maybe felt less was more. So, I think it is appropriate to euphemize perhaps and give a name rather than be Nameless forever in history, so let’s call it the Less is More Cake.
References:
Russell, Malinda, A Domestic Cook Book (Paw Paw: T.O. Ward, 1866), 14.