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Italian Rusks

A historical recipe from The Book of Household Management, by Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary) (1861).

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A historical recipe

The Book of Household Management, by Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary) (1861). Project Gutenberg eBook #10136.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Its words name: preserving or pickling. Check current food-safety guidance before following this.

Italy

Known as an Italian recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

  • Preserving. Old preserving methods may not make food safe to keep. Use current tested guidance.

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. 1733.
  2. A stale Savoy or lemon cake may be converted into very good rusks in the following manner.
  3. Cut the cake into slices, divide each slice in two;
  4. put them on a baking-sheet, in a slow oven, and when they are of a nice brown and quite hard, they are done.
  5. They should be kept in a closed tin canister in a dry place, to preserve their crispness.
  6. PANNICLED MILLET.--This is the smallest-seeded of the corn-plants, being a true grass;
  7. but the number of the seeds in each ear makes up for their size.
  8. It grows in sandy soils that will not do for the cultivation of many other kinds of grain, and forms the chief sustenance in the arid districts of Arabia, Syria, Nubia, and parts of India.
  9. It is not cultivated in England, being principally confined to the East.
  10. The nations who make use of it grind it, in the primitive manner, between two stones, and make it into a diet which, cannot be properly called bread, but rather a kind of soft thin cake half-baked.
  11. When we take into account that the Arabians are fond of lizards and locusts as articles of food, their cuisine, altogether, is scarcely a tempting one.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Chef's knife
  • Cutting board
Source Public domain in the USA
Credit

From The Book of Household Management, by Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary) (1861). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #10136 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10136). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.