Image: Evan-Amos · Public domain
A Collection of the Most Approved Receipts in Pastry
- Year
- c.1770
- Era
- 18th century
- Origin
- Scotland · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English pre-1800
A Collection of the Most Approved Receipts in Pastry, issued anonymously at Aberdeen around 1770, gathers instructions for pastries, tarts, creams, and sugar work as practised in northeastern Scotland during the later eighteenth century. Aberdeen imprints on cookery from this period are uncommon, and the compilation offers useful evidence of provincial Scottish confectionery practice, sitting alongside the better known Edinburgh and London receipt books of the era.
Cooking from this book
Scotch Shortbread
Signature dishThis slim Aberdeen compendium is closely linked with shortbread, the buttery, crumbling round that came to define Scottish baking. Pressed into a flat cake, notched at the edges and baked until pale gold, it sat at the heart of the northern pastry tradition the book records. Its presence here reflects an eighteenth century Aberdonian kitchen where confectionery, biscuits and festive baking were prized accomplishments of the genteel household.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
