Biscuits are important in a work place. They make or break both tea-breaks and reputations. Woe betide those staff members who do not bring in their share, but pity even more those who bring in biscuits that are not up to scratch.A certain well-meaning but ultimately misguided staff member brought some very promising looking chocolate sandwich-type specimens in today. They did not taste good. One by one hands reached, mouths chewed, eyes narrowed and angry insults flew. Even tea did nothing to remedy their tasteless, mealy dryness.
To put this catastrophe into context, we looked out an old recipe book from 1712 as you can usually rely upon old recipes sounding horrific. It all sounds okay though. Many more herbs and spices were being used than I would have guessed; cloves, mace, nutmeg, ginger, sage and thyme all make an appearance, and although there are many instructions to 'boyle' things until they fall apart or until you have lost the will to live, and there are recipes involving skinned cod's heads and non-specific 'shoulders', it all ends up sounding reasonably tasty.
I probably won't try the Colour A Pigg recipe anytime soon however.
Recipe book reference D14/7/1 dated circa 1714.
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