Field Notes, Sept. 8th 2014

Historical Recipe Reconstruction: “To Make Gumballs”
DIPLOMATIC TRANSCRIPTION of MS 774 Wellcome:
Take a pound and a halfe of fine sugar search it and
dryed six yealkes and three whites of eggs six spoon fulls
of creime and as much rose water the quantity of
an egg of sweett butter mingle all this together
make the past stiff works it better then a quarter
of an hower then breake abroad and put in some
coriander or anny seeds caraway seed as musk
mace and ambor greas as you please mold them in
roals make them in what forme you please
lay them on pye plates thinn buttered printing all
them all ouer back them as you back thinn dyet bread
if this quantity if eggs will not be [safitront?] to wett
the flower and sugar, put in three or fwer
more tell it be wett, but no craime or butter or
rose watter

MODERNIZED VERSION OF RECIPE TRANSCRIPTION:
Take a pound and a half of fine sugar. Search it and dried six yolks, and three whites of eggs, six spoons full of cream, as much rose water the quantity of an egg of sweet butter. Mingle all this together. Make the paste stiff. Work it more than a quarter of an hour. Then break abroad (open) and put in some coriander or any seeds (such as) caraway seed or musk (and) mace (and) ambergris as you please. Mold them in rolls, Make them in forms as you please. Lay them on pie plates thin buttered (butter greased). Printing them all over. Bake them as you bake thin [dyet?] bread. If this quantity of eggs will not [sofitront] (be sufficient), to wet the flower and sugar, put in three or four more (of eggs) until it is wet, but no cream or butter or rose water.



NOTES AND COMMENTS ON TRANSCRIPTION:
In order to reconstruct the recipe as faithfully as possible the maker is confronted with a number of issues. First, the historian lacks “historical” tacit knowledge the artisan may possess and possible assume his or her readers has, while may bring “contemporary” tacit knowledge to the work of reproduction that may or may not be the same as the historical.
Issues regarding “tacit knowledge”:
- “Fine sugar”: How fine? Is the equivalent of contemporary confectionary sugar or more granular similar to standard granulated sugar today?
- “dried six yolks”: How were the yolks dried? Were they sun dried, slightly heated in an oven or was technique applied that is similar to modern-day vacuum drying?
- “spoons full…”: Modern day baking has standardized table spoon and tea spoon quantities for liquids. Do these apply in this case? What size spoon is required here?
- “Make the paste stiff”: What does this mean specifically? How stiff? What are the criteria?
- “Work it for more than quarter an hour”: Whisk it for more than 15min? Beat it for more than 15min?
- “bake them as you bake [dyet bread]”: This section of the recipe contains crucial knowledge about how to bake the gumballs. “Dyet bread” is referenced as the baking method. However, this is not directly available to the reader. What oven was used? For how long was it baked? At what temperature? Indeed, what is the way to bake “dyet bread”?
Issues regarding “language” in the document:
- “search it”: What does this mean?
- “as much rose water the quantity of an egg of sweet butter”: This phrase suggests that an amount of rose water to be used as the volume of an egg. This can be reproduced. However, “an egg of sweet butter” is a confusing element. Does it mean butter needs to be added? Is a certain kind of egg or part of the egg referred to?
- “breake abroad”: This is not a modern usage. This likely means “break open” or perhaps manipulate to acquire the powder of the seeds.
- “thinn buttered”: This likely refers to modern day “greasing of the pan”. In this case butter is required to be used.
- “Printing”: This is not clear, but possibly means pressing onto the pie plates (in Discussion with Donna).
Issues regarding ingredients:
- Eggs: They were likely not refrigerated. Chickens were likely not treated with anti-biotics or hormones. This is unlikely to affect the historical recipe reconstruction.
- Cream: Was likely not pasteurized and did not come from treated cows.
- Rose water: Rose water being used in the recipe reconstruction is from an Indian grocery store. Is readily available in Middle-Eastern and Indian grocery stores as they are used in these cuisines.
- Coriander: readily available, should it be in powder form or not? How fine is the powder?
- Caraway: same as above?
- Musk: strong smelling redish extreted by deer (http://www.fragrantica.com/notes/Musk-4.html , Sept. 9th 2014)
- Mace: shell that covers nutmeg, aromatic (http://www.mccormick.com/Spices-and-Flavors/Herbs-and-Spices/Spices/Mace-Ground , Sept. 9th 2014)
- Ambergris: pungent intestinal substance from sperm whales, used in perfumes as well as medicines (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/18871/ambergris , Sept. 9th 2014)
Issues regarding cooking appliances:
- “pye plates”: What material and shape are these made of? I used an aluminum cookie sheet.
- bowl, spoons, mixing utensils, holding and storage vessels: Bowl were metal, so were spoon and mixing utensils. Plastic tupper wear was used to hold gumballs.
RECIPE RECONSTRUCTION:
According to the Joy of Cooking (Rombauer, Becker) most wheat flour based breads are to be baked at 350 F. Since, the recipe calls for the gumballs to be baked like “dyet bread”, a bread of some sort, the assumption was made that it is wheat bread. The kitchen oven was pre-heated for 45min. One equivalent volume of rose water to one egg was added (measured by cracking an egg into a measuring cup), which is about a quarter of a cup.
The ingredients were divided into three batches.
1st batch: beaten for 15min, no change or stiffening of paste
2nd batch: added more sugar to “dry” the paste, added 1 cup, no stiffening after 15min beating
3rd batch: added 2 cups sugar, after 15min beating the mixture became stiff or rather viscous like bread dough. 1 table spoon of coriander powder was added and mixed in.
It was, however, still too wet to actually “roll” out. Therefore a small serving spoon was used to “drop” the mixture onto a greased pan.
Since, it is unknown how long the gumballs are to be baked. An experiment will be done. Gumballs were baked for 15min and 30min.
Assumptions:
- “spoons” are 1 table spoon
- temperature is 350 F
- to be “worked” with a whisk until judged by me as “stiff”

Final Ingredient list:
- ¼ cup rose water
- 3.17 pounds sugar (1 pound of sugar gives approximately 3.6 cups confectionary sugar)
- 6 egg yolks
- 3 egg whites
- 7 table spoon of cream
- 1 table spoon
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
After tasting the final product I had the issue of determining what constitutes successfully reconstructing the recipe. What did the gumball taste like? What was its consistency? Can other sources such as descriptions by artisans, customers or guests be found? Are there visual depictions? Are there accounts by travels, who described their culinary experiences as well?
Many things can be done to further refine the reconstruction, such as:
- dry the egg yolks, see: http://www.dryit.com/driedegg.html
- Find recipes for “dyet bread” from this time and region in order to more faithfully recreate the baking method
- Find recipes for rose water to recreate more historically accurate rose water
Another concern is the level of the detail my notes should have. What level of detail will allow other historians to reproduce my “recipe reconstruction”?
It was very difficult to get mixture to stiffen. It was too wet and likely adding fresh egg yolkes as opposed to dried ones lead the mixture to be too wet and require me to add more sugar. Lastly, the point at which the mixture is ready to be rolled or prepared for backing was unclear to me.

REFERENCES:
Acknowledgements:
Donna was helped me a great deal in transcribing the recipe. I thank her!