Delightes for Ladies – Part 2

Delightes for Ladies continues to intrigue me, so I took some more time to look at some of the recipes, thinking that it would be fun to try to re-create some of them.
As I indicated in my first post, the spelling was inconsistent and instructions were often cryptic to me, so I looked at several recipes. Sweet Cakes without either spice or sugar asked the cook to “wash your Parsneps cleane” and “dry them upon Canuas,” and since I had neither “parsneps” nor “canuas” I scratched that recipe. I looked next at directions To candy Orenge pills.

Those instructions indicated that I should take the “orenge pills” and “take fine Sugar and Rosewater, & boyle it to the height of Menus Christi.” I figured out that I needed orange peel, but without Rosewater and having no idea how high Menus Christi is, I eliminated that recipe, too. There were many more recipes from which to choose, though, so I persevered.
The next recipe I looked at was

To make gelly of Straw-berries, Mulberies, Raspberries, or any such tender fruit. Maybe this one would work. I could certainly find strawberries. But, when I saw that I would need to “grinde them in an Alabaster Mortar,” that I needed “faire water” and that I needed to boil the mixture in a “posnet” with a “little peece of Isinglasse” I gave up on that one, too. Next, To make Ginger-bread.

Ok, everyone likes gingerbread, so maybe I’d found my recipe. But the first sentence proved otherwise. “Take three stale Manchets and grate them.” To make gingerbread? Another recipe down the tubes. I found another one which sounded promising.

To make puffe-paste needed “a quart of the finest flower,” “the whites of three egges, and the yolks of two, & a little cold water.” Now this was promising. But, then I read that I would need to “driue it with a rowling pin abroad,” “put on small peeces of butter” and “fold it ouer.” Not once, but ten times. So, out went that recipe, too.
But, I finally found one! The title was simple, To make wafers.

The ingredients included “a pint of flower,” “a little creame with two yolkes of egs,” and “a little searced Cinamon & sugar.” All that was necessary was to “worke them all together, and bake the paste upon hot Irons.” Hurrah! I recognized this one. Wafers are our cookies, and these are our “Snickerdoodles.” Fun for the weekend. Making Snickerdoodles!