Mycket i Samuels dagböcker skulle vara obegripligt, såvida man inte är expert på brittiskt 1600-tal. Men tack och lov finns noter inflikade i texten, som förklarar historiska skeenden, olika personer ställning och betydelse, och tidstypiska företeelser.
När Samuel den 25 september 1660 berättar att han smakat te, följer ett utdrag från 1890 ur "Old Records at the India Office":
[That excellent and by all Physicians, approved, China drink, called
by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee, is sold at the
Sultaness Head Coffee-House, in Sweetings Rents, by the "Royal
Exchange, London." "Coffee, chocolate, and a kind of drink called
tee, sold in almost every street in 1659."—Rugge's Diurnal. It is
stated in "Boyne's Trade Tokens," ed. Williamson, vol. i., 1889,
p. 593 "that the word tea occurs on no other tokens than those
issued from 'the Great Turk' (Morat ye Great) coffeehouse in
Exchange Alley. The Dutch East India Company introduced tea into
Europe in 1610, and it is said to have been first imported into
England from Holland about 1650. The English "East India Company"
purchased and presented 2 lbs. of tea to Charles II. in 1660, and 23
lbs. in 1666. The first order for its importation by the company
was in 1668, and the first consignment of it, amounting to 143 lbs.,
was received from Bantam in 1669 (see Sir George Birdwood's "Report
on the Old Records at the India Office," 1890, p. 26). By act 12
Car. II., capp. 23, 24, a duty of 8d. per gallon was imposed upon
the infusion of tea, as well as on chocolate and sherbet.]
Och så här skrev Samuel:
25th. To the office, where Sir W. Batten, Colonel Slingsby, and I sat awhile, and Sir R. Ford coming to us about some business, we talked together of the interest of this kingdom to have a peace with Spain and a war with France and Holland; where Sir R. Ford talked like a man of great reason and experience. And afterwards I did send for a cup of tee' (a China drink) of which I never had drank before, and went away.
Det framgår inte av dagboken om han åt något till sitt te, men vad passar väl bättre till en kopp "tee" än "small cakes"?
Samuel skrev naturligtvis om den stora branden som rasade i London mellan den andra och femte september 1666. "The Guardian" har den 9 januari 2001 en artikel som för fram teorin om att branden kunde ha startats i ett bageri, där man råkade bränna vid "small cakes". Så för den som vill prova på att baka tidstypiska kakor till teet kommer här ett recept från den tiden.
Small Cakes - after a recipe from Sir Kenelme Digby, 1669. from "The Closet of Sir Kenelme Digby Opened."
Small Cakes Recipe
x
Take one pound of very fine flower, and put to it half a pound of sugar. Add one pound of currants well washed. When your flower is well mixed with the sugar and currants, you must put in it a half a pound of melted butter, three spoonfuls of milk, with the yolks of three new-laid eggs beat with it, some nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of Sack.
g
When you have mixed your paste well, you must put it in a dish by the fire, till it be warm.
h
Then make them up in little cakes, and prick them full of holes. Bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards sprinkle them with sugar.
z
The Cakes should be about the bigness of a hand-breadth and thin; of the cise of the Sugar Cakes sold at Barnet.
j
Word List: flower = flour, cise = size, bigness = size, sack = dry Spanish wine (can be left out or dry sherry used instead)
Ingredients
z
1 pound self raising flour.
Half pound caster sugar
i pound currants
half pound butter
3 tablespoons milk
3 egg yolks
pinch of nutmeg
3 tablespoons Sack
icing sugar (to sprinkle on top)
Notes
1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds
Place in oven for 15 minutes at 200C - with the door shut.
Receptet hittade jag på Samuel Pepys hemsida. Det vill till att skaffa höns...
