Spider Cake (1873) and Bannock (1810)

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SPIDER CAKE

   More on the itsy bitsy spider.


(WRIGHT AMERICAN FICTION)
Print Source: Old times
Chellis, Mary Dwinell.
New York : National Temperance Society and Publication House, 1873.
Page 241:
CHAPTER XIV.
LUMBERING.
     THE next morning Mrs. Weston rose very early, to prepare breakfast for her husband, although he assured her that it was not necessary. "You and the children will need what there is," he said, kindly.

     "There'll be enough left for us," she answered with a smile which was almost bright. "We've got plenty, and I'm so happy. I don't want much to eat. I'll make some spider cakes for the children, so they'll have a treat."


(PROQUEST'S HERITAGE QUEST)
TRURO--CAPE COD, OR, LAND MARKS AND SEA MARKS
by Shebnah Rich
Boston: D. Lothrop & Co.
1883

Pg. 345:  The spider, or skillet, and the Dutch oven, should not be omitted from the list of kitchen furnishings.  They were indispensable agents of happiness and civilization.  Though not intended, I am not sure this remark does not contain a philosphical truth.  To the spider we are indebted for the famous "spider cakes," that for tender, wholesome, and well-cooked bread of wheat, corn or rye-flour, that to this day cannot well be surpassed.  The principal qualifications in this formula was "faculty."  It is surprising how largely that simple quantity permeated comfortable homes, and how large a factor it became in the social problem.  Should I go further and venture an opinion, from a quite broad field of observation it would be that the one needed accomplishment in settling the domestic question of the day, is _faculty_.  The favorite and never-failing item in the Cape bill of fare is pies.  The Old Colony wives were well--
   ---versed in the arts
   Of pies, puddings and tarts,
proving most conclusively their relations with the counties of old Devon and Cornwall.

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BANNOCK

   OED has "bannock" from 1000 A.D., but the below might be of use.


(BRITISH AND IRISH WOMEN'S LETTERS AND DIARIES)
   Spence, Elizabeth Isabella. "Letter from Elizabeth Isabella Spence to Turnour, Countess of Winterton, August 14, 1810"
[Page 193 | Paragraph | Section | Document]
to celebrate the victory of Robert over the English.35 "Bannockburn, from what reason we know not, receives its name from the panis cineritius of the Romans. Unleaven cakes, toasted in the ashes, or upon an iron plate, called a girdle, are named Bannocks in Scotland." — Forsyth. Immediately after passing Bannockburn, I entered the town of St. Ninians. In an old low roofed house, on the left hand, report says, James the Third was mortally wounded by a priest, after the battle of Sanchieburn, where he was

Spence, Elizabeth Isabella, 1768-1832, Letter from Elizabeth Isabella Spence to Turnour, Countess of Winterton, August 14, 1810 in Sketches of the Present Manners, Customs, and Scenery of Scotland; With Incidental Remarks on the Scottish Character, 2nd edition, vol. 1. London, England: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1811, pp. 216. [Bibliographic Details] [8-14-1810] S9742-D026


   Carlyle, Jane Baillie Welsh. "Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle, April 13, 1848"
[Page 318 | Paragraph | Section | Document]
light had been brought in; and, an hour after, tea was placed for me in the same invisible manner. I looked, to myself, sitting there, all alone, in the midst of comforts and luxuries not my own, like one of those wayfarers in the fairy tales who, having left home with `a bannock' to `poose their fortune,' and followed the road their `stick fell towards,' find themselves in a beautiful enchanted palace, where all their wants are supplied to them by supernatural agency; — hospitality of the most exquisite description, only without

Carlyle, Jane Baillie Welsh, 1801-1866, Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle, April 13, 1848 in Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle, vol. 1. Froude, James Anthony, ed.. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883, pp. 445. [Bibliographic Details] [4-13-1848] S4444-D112


   Somerville, Mary Fairfax Greig. "Memoir of Mary Fairfax Greig Somerville"
[Page 14 | Paragraph | Section | Document]
of this extinct race. There was another species of beggar, of yet higher antiquity. If a man were a cripple, and poor, his relations put him in a hand-barrow, and wheeled him to their next neighbour's door, and left him there. Some one came out, gave him oat-cake or peasemeal bannock, and then wheeled him to the next door; and in this way, going from house to house, he obtained a fair livelihood. My brother Sam lived with our grandfather in Edinburgh, and attended the High School, which was in the old town, and, like other boys, he was given pennies to buy bread.

Somerville, Mary Fairfax Greig, 1780-1872, Memoir of Mary Fairfax Greig Somerville in Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville: With Selections from her Correspondence. Somerville, Martha, ed.. London, England: John Murray, 1873, pp. 377. [Bibliographic Details] [9999] S5126-D001


(GERRITSEN COLLECTION)
Natural history of rye (Secale cereale) and Rye-bread; The Magazine of domestic economy.
London: v. 1-7 (no. 1-84); July 1835-June 1842, Vol. 6, pg. 53-56, 4 pgs
Pg. 55:  We think that our inquiring friends who wish to know how oat-cakes and Scotch bannocks are made, will find the following very simple method of making thin ones the most expeditious, and the result more palatable, than those which are fermented with either yeast or leaven.
   Mix a stiff dough with water, salt, and oatmeal, roll it our round and as thin as possible, place it on a tin with a thick sprinkling of dry oatmeal over the surface of the tin, place two bricks one on each side of the kitchen fire, support the tin upon them--the smoke will thus escape behind, and there will be sufficient draught of air to draw up the fire.  In a _very few_ minutes, say less than four, one side will be baked enough, then turn the cake, and bake the other side as long a time.