Lady Arundel's Manchet

Lady Arundel's Manchet
Type Sweet bread
Place of origin England
Region or state Sussex
Cookbook:Lady Arundel's Manchet  Lady Arundel's Manchet

Lady Arundel's Manchet is a traditional version of a manchet, a traditional English yeast bread from Sussex.

The recipe for Lady Arundel's Manchet was first published in 1653 according to Elizabeth David.[1] It was a luxurious bread eaten by the medieval aristocracy and remained popular into the Restoration period. A recipe appears in A True Gentlewoman's Delight (1653) printed for the Countess of Kent.[2]

Lady Arundel's Manchets crossed the Atlantic to Virginia with the early colonists according to Katherine E Harbury.[3]

Florence White also references Lady Arundel's Manchet's in her 1932 English Cookery book Good Things in England,[4] publishing a description of a 1676 recipe and updating it for a contemporary readership.

Manchets were often used as part of other dishes. For example, a recipe for a baked pudding that incorporates manchet is included in "Things Not Generally Known, Familiarly Explained," citing The Queene's Royal Cookbook of 1713. This is a rich pudding that includes double cream, the addition of beef suet and added aromatics such as nutmeg, cinnamon and rose water.[5]

Lady Arundel's Manchets are rarely made today. Manchets generally ceased to appear in English cookery books after 1800. The closest similar yeast bread is probably a Bath bun or a Sally Lunn bun.

References

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on
  1. English Bread and Yeast Cookery Paperback: 624 pages Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; Language English ISBN 0-14-046791-2 ISBN 978-0140467918
  2. "SCA COOKING". midrealm.org.
  3. Katherine E Harbury: Colonial Virginia's Cooking Dynasty (2004) Univ of South Carolina Press p. 98 ISBN 1-57003-513-X
  4. Florence White: Good Things in England published by English Folk Cookery Association 1932 Jonathan Cape 1968
  5. John Timbs, W. Kent and Co, Robson: Things Not Generally Known, Familiarly Explained (1859) Publishers Kent & Co page 42