Pound Cake from the 1700's - Food Wishes
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- I read somewhere recently that recipes for pound cake appeared in cookbooks dating all the way back to the 1700’s, which made me wonder, how in the world did they ever make a decent one, without the benefit of electric mixers? Turns out they didn’t.
There is no fully formatted, printable, written recipe being published on Allrecipes for this experiment. I’m going to list the ingredients below, and you saw how I did it, but I highly recommend you use an electric mixer.
Classic Pound Cake (Makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf)
1/2 pound (1 cup) soft, room temp unsalted butter
1/2 pound (about 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) white granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla, optional
pinch of salt
4 large eggs or 1/2 pound by weight after cracking
1/2 pound (about 1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour
Bake at 350 F. for about 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
To become an official “Food Wisher” and read Chef John’s in-depth article about this F Pound Cake from the 1700's, follow this link:
/ @foodwishes
You can also find more of Chef John’s content on Allrecipes: allrecipes.com/...
Man, James Townsend and Son sure has changed their set-up.
Lol, I literally just clicked off of Townsend’s pound cake video to see this come one!
Nice
I was just thinking if Chef John watched Townsends, he'd know that back in the 1700s they'd have whisked that for about an hour by hand with a bunch of branches - and it would have come out fantastic.
OMG
I think he forgot the nutmeg. Where's the nutmeg???
When I was growing up, my grandmother never used an electric mixer. She would tuck the bowl under her arm and stir vigorously in a sideways sort of way. (this is hard to describe accurately) It's a sort of lift and drop motion with the whisk or wooden spoon. You can leverage much more strength and the whisking action lifts the butter/eggs/whipping cream/whatever from the bowl and incorporates much more air than if you try to do it on the table. I still do this sometimes if I just don't feel like dealing with washing all the mixer parts (no dishwasher). She also churned butter in a butter churn, so ...yeah....I grew up like living in the 1700's.....right down to curing our own meats (which we still do) and wearing a bonnet to keep the sun off when we went outside (which I do not still do). And no, we are not of any particularly anti-modern religious persuasion, just poor and farmers. Point being, there's a technique to working the air into the cake that involves holding the bowl up and at an angle that makes it much easier to get a lovely, fluffy cake; or meringue or whipped cream, without the arm fatigue.
Yes! I learned this from my Grandmother too! Even for whipping egg whites I compare the effort of whisking with the effort of getting out the Hobart!
Trust me! People will be impressed with that whipping arm if you forgo the electric mixer. 💪
You are a rare breed. You should be proud though. You'll be much better off than many when the SHTF ...and others will be lining up at your front door drooling for tasty cake and treats! Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed it.
I thought this comment was to long to read, but I glad I did. I enjoyed and understand what you said, from experience. Best wishes have a blessed day.
yes! saw that and learned that way too.
In the 1700's, wouldn't it be the new shake-a shake-a and the new tap-a-tap-a?
this is way underrated
This is my new favourite Food Wishes video comment of all time.
Actually, I think it would be:
“Ye ole’ fhake-a fhake-a and ye ole’ tap-a tap-a”
@@YousefIsmail Could you explain the joke?
Monroville I mean it was before ftandardized fpeling so it could’ve been thee owled fhaike fhaike and thee owled tappe tappe
I can’t tell you how delighted I am at the sheer amount of Townsends references in these comments. You guys are the best.
Reads comments and am delighted to see so many watch Townsend as well.
Me too!
I know, huh? 2 of my 3 favorite Johns (hubs is first, k?)
Kira Ward,
Amen.
Foodies will be foodies we stick together
Me fifth! It's fascinating to see the ingredients that we don't think of as being available then~like lemons, being used quite often. And the dirth of spices that we think of~wasn't! They had many, many of the same spices we use today. It's a great channel!
James Townsend uses clean sticks and a bunch of straw he pulled off the broom for a whisk.
And don't forget the nutmeg!
I'm waiting for a collaboration where Townsend refers to his whisk as 'the freakishly small wooden broom.' ;)
DJ 😂
Yup. I was waiting for the wooden spoon and birch whisk to come out.
James Townsend was able to make this in a cave... with a box of scraps! Seriously though, and with all respect, he and Michael Dragoo probably could teach Chef a thing or two about historical cookery.
I tried this recipe but I cheated by using my mixer. But I called it "ye olde kitchenaide" so I don't feel so bad.
😂
How did yours come out? Mine was a tad dry and more dense than I like. I'll try it again, maybe next week but this time, I'll add in 2 - 3 egg whites and bake it for 35 or so minutes before checking for doneness. Since the recipe is halved, it shouldn't take as long to bake. Taste wise, I liked it as it wasn't too sweet and had a very nice buttery taste.
😂😂😂👌🏼
Marvel: Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover event of all-time.
Chef John and James Townsend: Hold my cayenne and nutmeg
Feronanthus,
Word.
If Hollywood superhero movies were food they would taste bland.
Chef John: "This recipe wasn't worth it"
*Townsends has entered the chat*
NEEDS MORE NUTMEG
@@DathanNaniel
😂 😂 😂 😂
@@DathanNaniel
OMG! 😂😂😂
I tried it and taste wise, it's quite good. The problem is the cook time. Mine was pretty dry, not inedible, but dry. Since this recipe is halved, cook time should be adjusted to probably 35 or so minutes since the regular full-size version is 50 - 60. I would probably adjust the egg content a little to make it less dense by adding 2 - 3 egg whites. This will then be pretty much worth it.
I laughed my way all the way through this. Thank you, Chef John
Was he joking? Im confused
Surely I can’t be the only person who loves dense, heavy pound cake.
Matthew Campbell Yes I completely agree that’s what I look for in a pound cake I want it to be dense and heavy I’m always very disappointed if it’s light and fluffy like a typical butter cake so frankly I think I would love the original recipe as hard as it may be to make however I think if you soften the butter to room temperature first it would be be a lot easier
Yep I want it to stick to the roof of my mouth like peanut butter
Exactly, that is pound cake...I like lemon..
My friend's mother makes a pound cake with cream cheese that has a gravitational pull (in more ways than one). It's glorious.
I thought this was how pound cake was supposed to be until watching the GBBO and seeing the pound cake recipe all light and fluffy.
“Dense, heavy, and texturally disappointing”
Why do I feel attacked?
jacob blake 😂
😎 You know what they say: If the shoe fits, kick yourself with it. 😏😉
😂
🙀
🤣🤣
"Ye olde tappan tappa... " You're the BEST, Chef John!!!
"welcome to 18th century cooking I'm John Townsend..." wait...wrong John...there's no nutmeg. Sacrilege! Somewhere Mrs Crocombe is also telling you this version is for the working class, from the 19th century.
You are the Townsend, of how this cake will end.
*James Townsend loads his dueling flintlocks.
Someone send this to Townsends to show all of us how its really done!
Townsends already did a video on the pound cake. He said that in that time, people would cream the butter and sugar with their hands. Then you need to whip the eggs for about an hour to give them all the air they need. The beaten eggs are folded into the butter, and the flour would also be folded gradually so to not deflate the eggs. There is no yeast, baking powder or baking soda in that recipe. It's the beaten eggs that give it its lightness.
I was thinking about whipping the eggs for volume. It is a common technique in gluten free recipes. (Not GFby preference)
Paul Beenis, it's not ANYONE's recipe. EVERY housewife here made it, historically. In fact during the war when butter was reserved for the troops,(as was meat, etc.), frugal housewives used their coupons to get buttermilk or other cheaper dairy at home. But the basic recipe was baked by every wife.
"And while it didn't really rise up, at least it looked like somebody had stabbed it a thousand times."
Lol! Love you, Chef John ❤️
“You are afterall the James Townsend of you pound cake flavor blend.”
I like a dense heavy pound cake I don't know why it reminds me of my grandmother's and I thoroughly enjoy it
This week's episode of Townsend's brought to you by Food Wishes!
Stay tuned for Chef John's next video: he turns a piglet on a spit over an open fire for 8 hours.
Live stream that!
I'd watch that.
Yup - I would watch that too - Chef John quipping for eight hours straight.... no brainer!!! 😎 😁
😂🤣 and I would still watch it!!!
@@vlc-cosplayer 👍😂 Good one ❗❕😹
I may be in the minority, but I think it looked pretty good. Sometimes, I want a piece of cake that's substantial and not all light and crumbly.
That's how I like my men (evil cackle)!!!
I agree. Sometimes, a dense and moist cake really hits the spot after all those cakes out there that are so light that they could almost lift off the plate. Sometimes the moist and dense stuff just hits the spot in a very satisfying sort of way.
I love a dense pound cake. I'm making this!
I'm here to give the play button the ol' tappa tappa along with a big ol' pounda pounda.
“Clean stick or something” I fell of the couch when I heard that.
😂😂😂
Me too lmao
I've been watching your videos for many years. This one gave me a hearty chuckle. Well done mate.
Chef John: "it was dense and heavy and texturally disappointing and I regret every minute of it"
Me:
Chef John: "and as always...enjoy!"
I love this video. It brought back wonderful memories of my great-grandma and the way she made her pound cake as I watched from the kitchen stool on which she sat me, (so to keep an eye on me).
Proof that Chef John and Townsends need to do a collaboration video. MAKE THIS HAPPEN
I love how you absolutely despise this, yet you still post it for our enjoyment. Thank you for always keeping it real, Chef!
I expected the joke to be "the ol' tappa tappa - or as they called it in the 1700s, the tappa tappa."
You always make me laugh. I love your channel.
The trick James Townsend used was to mix butter by hand, the warmth from your hand slowly softens the butter making it much easier to incorperate. Also, it's much easier to mix egg with sugar, and "knead" butter into flour with your bare hand, then incorperate both mixture.
You never cease to amuse, entertain, and inspire me. 😄 thanks for all you do!
Not gonna lie Chef John, when I saw the title I thought it was a Townsends video.
Fraid Naught same.
Townsends would be specific about the year
This is why in the south, grandmother's poundcake could be made in a cast iron dutch oven, the recipe evolved to woodstove etc. It makes for a great trifle or strawberry shortcake
Thank you, Chef John, for making cooking more like real life.
My grandmother made cakes by hand. Hard work. Hers were delicious. She was an excellent southern cook. I think your cake looks delicious.
“Dense, heavy, and texturally disappointing”-- sound oddly similar to my feedback notes from speed dating years ago.
"Wooden spoon if you were doing well... "
🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤
I lost it right there!!! If only that was today's standards for doing well! Love ya chef John 💙
Man, you're always pretty funny but this is like the most I've laughed with one of your videos. Maybe it's the malt liquor tho... 😳
In all honesty, sometimes, a dense cake is just the thing I want. Kind of eating what you are.
If the goal is a blah cake make it an angel food. They both need some gussing up.
No, you’re just a tough cake
Sigh. So true, Rudolph.
* GUSSYING up.
This is how most ppl here in Barbados still make it, except mostly we use brown sugar. Imagine trying to get them crystals dissolved. AND most ppl don't get the "stab" marks.
Barbados? Add some dark rum, or put it in the glaze.
I have made this every holiday season for years. I love how dense this cake is. Really stands up to toppings. Not everyone wants a fork full of air all the time. With all the Townsend references, I thought I'd throw in a Tasting History one as well.
You are the sideshow Bob stepping on rakes of your delicious poundcake
Love watching your videos, you crack me up🤣
“They prob just had to use a clean stick or something.” Lmao 😂
YOUR SO AWESOME CHEF JOHN!
I feel like there was going to be a crossover episode but they forgot to tell Townsend!
Chef John - you may not have enjoyed making this pound cake but I enjoyed your comedic delivery very much. Sorry about your shoulder pain.
Hey, I still do things like this by hand...always have! I'm 71 yrs young and never had a food processor, heck, my hand mixed is now too old to do any hard jobs!😂. Guess I'm just old fashioned as well as old but that's ok. Love your videos Chef John! 😃👍
Best cake ever! A Christmas staple in our home growing up. We had no electric mixer, all four kids, mom and dad took turns mixing this sucker! Best darn slice of cake I ate all year long! We each got one thin slice because the rest was for company!
Am I the only one that loves dense, heavy pound cake.
You are a riot! I love listening to you! BTW I made the cornbread chili you posted the other day for dinner tonight, it was amazing! We loved it! Once again I felt like the chef John of my kitchen! Lol!
18th century cooks and bakers were effin' R I P P E D 💪💪💪💪
😂
Definitely need a Townsends and Food Wishes collaboration!!!
That's a good idea.
Chef John gets tough on his rotator cuff....
I've followed this channel since the beginning, and I'm a cultural heritage worker, and I'm maybe crying from joy right now!!
ok there seems to be a great overlap between chef john and townsend watchers :D
only the excitement levels about the recepies seems to differ a bit
chef john, james townsend, and mrs crocombe are all i need for food videos
I'm very happy to have seen this! I'm going to make the guys beat it for me!
Best video I've watched all year. thanks for sharing :)
I would happily eat this every morning for breakfast and wash it down with a gallon of coffee...
In our family growing up, desserts were almost non-existent. The absolute, rarest of treats, as sugar was outlawed. However, every once in a blue moon my dad would bring home a pound cake for my mom who would indulge herself after we kids were in bed, supposedly sound asleep. Not so. We would creep to the bedroom door & open is slowly & carefully just wide enough to peer out to watch our mom eat her slice of decadence. The dense yellow cake was sliced to about the same thickness as yours was in the video. The difference was, she would slice a pat of margarine (which she believed was healthier than butter), place it on a griddle & put the slice of pound cake on top of the melting butter. She would grill it til just golden brown & slightly crispy on the edges. That's what I grew up thinking everyone did with pound cake. But the fresh berries & whipped cream on yours looks so yummy. Also, Chef John, I have never used a mixer in all my baking but my ingredients are at room temp always & I use different types of wooden spoons that were carved in the early 1700's. Different shaped spoons for different types of mixing, stirring & serving. Appreciating the really great laugh your humor provided! I won't take the insults personally. Love from the dark ages.
The way you talk about how dense this cake is, it sounds like I'd like it better than a machine made pound cake.
Wow after reading some of the comments, it seems like I am one of the few that likes a dense heavy cake. There was a place here locally that did one that I loved. They added Grand Mariner to it and it was so good.
Oh Yum!
*. MARNIER, not mariner. He's on dry land.
The Townsend's are proud.
Tomorrow is National Pounds Cake Day!! We'll use the mixer, thanks.
I’d say “Let’s have a bake off with John Townsends!” but I have to say I think you’re better off remaining in this century 🥴
@2.00 he said make sure its fire... lmao, love it😂
"Dense, heavy, and textural disappointing" is what my friends call me.
Toasted and buttered pound cake is pretty amazing too. Butter solves all problems.
Never once have i eaten pound cake and said to myself "this is what i want to be eating right now"
It's the oatmeal of pastry.
Come on now. Pound cake, properly made, is good stuff. And it is the grandfather of all modern cake. Of course, I do make one minor adjustment my recipe for the classic recipe. I add a cup of whole milk, and enough zest from about four large lemons. When I make pound cake, it is always what I want to be eating.
@@twosocks1976 Properly made is with a stand mixer.
@@recoil53 properly made means more than just using a stand mixer. It means not mixing the batter too much. It means adding the eggs one at a time so that they can incorporate into the batter. It means baking for the proper amount of time so that the cake doesn't dry out. There are a whole lot of people walking around on this planet convinced they hate certain food, only because they have never had that food made properly and in its Glory. Certainly we all have Foods we don't like, no matter how well they're prepared for us. But I have seen for myself, countless times, what happens when people are served food that is properly prepared. Getting back to Pound Cake, the type of flower used also matters a great deal. Despite its name, All purpose flour is not good for all purposes.
Happy Blind Dad - agreed! I used half bread flour in my first pound cake and it turned out really airy, even at high altitude! I was so disappointed, at first, because I was expecting it to be dense, but now I know what I did “wrong”. Everything was room temperature, to begin with. After creaming butter & sugar, I whisked the rest in by hand and barely incorporated in the sifted flour. 🤗
‘A clean stick.’
I knew there was a utensil that was missing from my kitchen equipment. 😂
You might expect things to get hectic,
Making cake without any electric.
But don’t fret, for I say,
Where there’s will there’s a way-
Just find a technique and elect it.
In French we call it a "quatre-quarts". Means "4 quarters". Because each of the 4 ingredients is a quarter of the total weight. We start by weighing the 3 initial eggs and use the same weigh for the other ingredients.
Amazing recipe and that was a lot of effort chef! Thank you.
Wait, this isn't Townsends!
Fantastic. Dense, excellent flavor, and a really nice outer crust. No icing necessary!
When I was growing up, every Christmas, my family would get 2 of these authentic pound cakes from a family of friends.
My recollection of the yearly cakes wasn't very favorable either. Even back then. Although we appreciated their hard work and the gift-giving gesture, I wondered why anyone would make such a dry, dense, powdery, crumbly cake and assume it was delicious enough to give out as a Holiday gift? I know that may sound mean and ungrateful, but we were the lucky recipients of these bricks of sugar, flour, and butter for maybe 20 or more years in a row. I had a lot of time to think about it and wonder, why, why, why?
To make matters worse, they were probably already a day or two old when we received ours, making the inevitable yearly gift of dense & dryness, even worse.
By the time we unwrapped the cakes out of their foil enclosures, we literally had to drench each piece in coffee or a glass of milk chaser to consume them.
I'm now convinced after watching your 1700 recipe that they used the same method and recipe. Even the frosting looked the same.
On another note, it's even stranger that you posted this today because I was just telling a little boy last week, sitting near me eating a slice of pound cake from a dessert buffet asking his Mother, "why do they call this pound cake?"
I chirped in about how people really did make pound cake using a pound of every ingredient to make the cake. And I mentioned it wasn't a very balanced recipe based on my own experience. Was that too harsh a statement, or do you agree with me now? Thanks for going to all the trouble to make the cake. I'm sure yours tasted delicious and wasn't dry at all...Wink wink...
All I can say is that when I make pound cake, mine is not crumbly and dry and inedible. It is dense, moist, but not heavy or dry. I do make one small adjustment however. I add a cup of whole milk to the classic recipe. Pound cake is the ancestor to all modern cakes. And even Pound Cake, when properly made and baked, is very good. It's funny you went on this rant, because your sentiments about holiday pound cake are exactly mine about fruitcake. The problem is that I have had good fruit cake that was so ethereal that I didn't want to stop eating it. It was perfect. They don't for those horrible tins of shortbread cookies that people pass around every holiday season. I used to think that was the best shortbread cookies could be until I actually set out and made my own just last year. Man what an incredible difference, and a fantastic Improvement! Never make the mistake, when it comes to food, of thinking that whatever you are eating is as good as it can get. if it is a classic, and what you are eating is underwhelming, it's far more likely it wasn't Madewell Then the dish itself just sucks.
I love your delightful reminiscence.
@@twosocks1976 I love everything you said. Yes, I guess it just plain old sucked, now that I think about it, maybe they cut costs and used margarine? Anyway, it was chokingly dry. I'm jealous you got a yummy fruit cake. I actually love fruit cake.
The "stabification" is quite simply .. perfection, Chef! lolllll
Chef John was so upset to be cooking the cake without a mixer, I'm starting to think someone forced him to
Toasted pound cake with butter and maple syrup is one my of favorite breakfasts.
*Me:* See's title *Pound Cake from the 1700's* & thinks Ah another Townsend video Great!
Video starts -
*Me:* Hold the phone this isn't a Townsend video. What the ☆BLEEP☆ is going on here Chef John?
It wasn't until I heard the music that I realised I hadn't clicked on a Townsend video. I think they need to do a crossover like Townsends did with Mrs Crocombe.
Lol I had the same line of thought
👍
Was literally watching a video of yours and got the notification as it finished so I get the treat of being super early :)
Townsends already did this one bro!
I like making pound cake,
Pain de Savoie 😋👌
Sometimes I add lemon or orange zest, and a touch of citrus juice to make the icing.
I know I've been dogging chef John with my punny comments... But now hes finally taken me to the POUND!
As a retired chef-instructor, I can vouch for how difficult this method is. Our principal at the time liked teachers to combine classes. So this became a joint History/Baking Class. Everyone that participated ended up with sore shoulders. The coach came by later to blame me for the team losing the football game because the quarterback couldn't throw the football.
Bring on the nutmeg!
In France, we call this cake a "Four fourth" (un quatre quart) bc you use the same amount of each 4 ingredient :)
"They would use a clean stick"
Homey you used a kilo of sugar that shit was cocaine level stuff in those days they would use a gold spoon bruh.
Trueeee
HA!!! Perfect response
Not true, by the 18th century the sugar business in the Caribbean and Brazil was booming and sugar was a common commodity for the middle and upper classes in Western Europe and the American colonies. The American colonists wouldn't have protested the sugar taxes levied by the Crown if they didn't consider sugar a necessary dietary staple.
You can cream the butter and sugar using your hand. The heat of your hand will soften the butter. Once that happens you can hold your fingers like a claw and easily beat air into the mixture.
They did have electricity in the 1700's...it's always been there...
DerekSpeare lolololol. Good laugh, ty
The disappointing texture is because you didn't beat it hard enough with a wooden spoon. It's completely possible to get something that looks like whipped cream if you beat the butter & sugar by hand. This was how I was taught to bake and we only persuaded grandmama to switch to an electric whisk after she turned eighty five.
I have NO IDEA WHO THIS TOWNSEND FELLA IS! I think I will stick with CHEF JOHN!
He enthusiastically recreates recipes from the 18th & 19th centuries.
His family has run a costuming company for decades, they supplied the movie outfits for Pirates of the Caribbean, The Patriot, Master and commander Far side of the ocean, ect. Before that they were kinda your basic mercantile type place. As a side he runs 18th century cooking on youtube, several other channels devoted to the time period as well such as Frontier stuff. Its quite a great channel. Just, learn that he loves nutmeg.
This is one of the coolest videos you've done.
That was amazing! I have never heard anyone trash what he cooked so hard in a youtube video! :P
Stay authentic!
hold my beer
@@xio3857 Ok
I guess it depends on preference because I absolutely love a dense cake like this.
25 years ago when I was starting baking at home we did not have an electric mixer. I remember how hard /impossible it was beating eggwhites to snow with a manual rotary double-whisk gadget. I made my bisquit cake anyway with half liquid eggwhites and it tasted delicious, like never after. Today I am grateful we had ingredients to bake at all, back then my thoughts were of shame being poor enough not to own an electric mixer. Chef John, I would be simply grateful to eat the pound cake you baked.
Sorry, Chef John, but I love the dense pound cake. I have always made it without electricity. I love it.