Old Hertfordshire Recipes: To make Brawn

Take a Pig's face, feet and ears &c rub them with Salt-petre, let them be salted, in common Salt, three days; then boil them very tender; Have ready a wooden Mould proper for Brawn {an old Seive will do} let it stand in a Pewter plate, and put a Cloth in the Mould, or you will find it difficult to get the Brawn out. When it is boiled and quite hot, take out all the Bones, and then take the different pieces as you judge best, and place them in the Mould alternately fat and lean; take care to put pieces of skin outside. Press it down afterward as close as possible, and let it remain under the weights for one Night. Take it out of the Mould and keep it in a pickle made of Salt and Water, and a handful of Bran and a little Vinegar. This Pickle should be boiled, and the Brawn should not be put in until it is cold again. The Pickle should be made fresh every 3 or 4 days.

       A couple of ox feet are good ingredients.

The Receipt Book of Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale, c1800

Doughnuts originated in Hertfordshire!

Dow Nuts (Mrs Fordham)

Receipt Book  (c1800)

A quarter of a Peek of Flower, a pound of moist Sugar, 10 Eggs {Yolks & Whites} one Nutmeg grated, 3/4 of a pound of fresh Butter, a quarter of a pint of Yeast. First melt the Butter over the fire in Milk; skim the Butter off. Mix the Sugar and Nutmeg with the Flour, making a hole in it at Top. Strain the Eggs and Yeast mixed together through a Sieve into the Flour; then put the Butter skimmed off the Milk into it also, with as much of the Milk as is necessary to make it into a paste. Let it stand by the fire half an hour to rise, throwing a Cloth over it. Then roll it out thick or thin as you like, cutting it into Nuts with a jagging Iron. Throw them into some Hogs-lard almost boiling hot; if quite boiling they are likely to be black, and if it does not near boil, they will be greasy. Stir them about with a skimmer with holes. Take them out with it, put them in a Cullender but do not put the hot ones to the cold, or they will be then heavy.

The thinner the Paste is rolled, the lighter and more cri[s]p it will be.

A little Sugar should be first put to the yeast and a little Milk, and set it by the Fire an hour to rise.

The Receipt Book of Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale, c1800

An item in The Herts Record Society Newsletter (Spring 2014) relates to the history of the doughnut. Baroness Dimsdale collected a number of recipes over the years (some almost certainly in the late 18th century), including this one from a Hertfordshire friend. It appears to be the oldest known recipe for doughnuts.