FoodNetArchive

Cassell's dictionary of cookery

1892

Page 1630 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Saffron Cakes. — Take a quartern of fine flour, and a pound and a half of butter, three ounces of caraway-seeds, six eggs well-beaten, a quarter of an ounce of well-beaten cloves and mace, a little pounded cinnamon, one pound of sugar, a little rose-water and saffron, a pint and a half of yeast, and a quart of milk. Mix these ingredients thus : first boil the milk and butter, then skim off the butter, and mix it with the flour and a little of the milk. Stir the yeast into the rest, and strain it. Mix it with the flour ; put in the eggs and spice, rose-water, tincture of saffron, sugar, and eggs. Beat it all well up, and bake in a hoop or pan well-but- tered, in a quick oven. Time to bake, an hour and a half. Saffron Cakes or Buns.— Loaves, cakes, or buns mixed with a little saffronSaffron Cakes-water will be found both wholesome and palatable. The medicinal quality of saffron is stimulant, and its tendency is to help digestion. It is said to kUl or drive out intestinal worms. To make the saffron-water, infuse a small quantity of saffron in a little water. After a few minutes, strain the liquor, and add a spoonful or two to an ordinary cake. Be sure that it rises well. The cake after baking will retain the taste and . mell of the saffron, and will have a rich ap- pearance. Saffron Cordial "Water (Robinson's recipe) : — Best picked saffron . . . i oz. Sifted loaf sugar .... 4 oz. Cinnamon and nutmeg, sliced, each ^ oz. Cloves and pimento, bruised . 1 oz. Sweet almonds, beaten . . 1 oz. Bitter do i oz. Caraways . . . . . 1 oz. Pure water 1 pint. Proof spirit of wine ... 1 pint. Put the above ingi-edients into a stone jar, the almonds beaten with a little of the spirit of wine. Secure the cork, and let the ingredients infuse in the usual manner. Then strain and filter clear ; bottle, cork, and seal. This should be kept a while to let the strong flavour of the saffron go off. Saffron, Preparation of.— The bulbs of the saffron [Crocus satirus) are planted in rows six inches apart, and three from bulb to bulb, in a well-pulverised, not poor, nor a very stiff clay, in the month of July. The flowers are collected in September, and the yellow stigmas and part of the style are picked out, and dried on a kiln, between layers of paper, and under SAF ( 786) SAG the pressure of a thick board, to form the mass into cakes. Two pounds of diied cake is the average crop of an acre, after the first phxnting, and twenty-four pounds for the two following years. After the third crop the roots are taken up, divided, and transjilanted. Saffron, Properties of.— Dr. Thomson in his "Materia Medica " states that safl:"ron excites the nerves of the stomach, and is in some degree narcotic; its incautious use has sometimes been attended with dangerous con- sequences. It is sometimes adulterated with safflower and marigolds; but the adulteration is easily detected, for the petals of these flowers will appear distinct from the stigmata of the crocus.