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Jackson Jumbles
3 teacups sugar. 1 teacup lard. 6 teacups flour. 1 teaspoonful soda in one cup of sour cream. 3 eggs. The grated rind of one or two lemons, or a little grated nutmeg. Roll out and bake.--Mrs. H.S.
A thin rolled cookie of the old sour-cream-and-soda school, written for a cook who already knew what a jumble looked like. The proportions are sound but the quantity is large and the dough needs handling cold.
- TeacupsNineteenth-century teacups varied; a common reading is about 6 fluid ounces rather than a full 8. On that reading the sugar is about 2 1/4 cups, the lard 3/4 cup and the flour 4 1/2 cups. The sour cream the recipe gives as "one cup" rather than one teacup, so take it as a full cup. Using 8-ounce cups throughout also works since the ratios hold, but the batch grows by about a third.
- Sour creamThe original means naturally soured raw cream, thinner and sharper than the cultured product sold today. Modern full-fat sour cream is close enough; buttermilk thinned cream is closer still. The acid is there to react with the soda, so do not substitute sweet cream.
- SodaStir the teaspoon of soda into the sour cream and let it foam before adding it to the batter, then work quickly. There is no other leavening in the recipe.
- LardLeaf lard gives the short, sandy crumb these cookies are meant to have. Unsalted butter substitutes at the same weight -- roughly 6 ounces if the teacup is read as 6 fluid ounces -- and browns more.
- Chill before rollingThe dough is soft and will fight a rolling pin at room temperature. An hour in the refrigerator, rolled a portion at a time on a lightly floured board to about 1/4 inch, is what makes "roll out" practical.
- ShapingJumbles were traditionally cut in rings, or rolled into ropes and joined into circles. A 2-inch cutter with a smaller one for the center is the usual modern equivalent.
- OvenNo temperature is given. A moderate oven, 350-375F, for 8 to 12 minutes, until the edges are just colored; these are thin and go from pale to overdone fast.
- Lemon and nutmegGrate the zest only, and rub it into the sugar before creaming so the oils disperse. Two lemons is assertive; one is plenty if you also use nutmeg.
- YieldExpect six to eight dozen small cookies from the full quantity. Halving it is reasonable for a modern household, and the dough keeps a few days wrapped and refrigerated.
Jumbles are an English sweet biscuit of long standing, appearing in manuscript receipt books from the sixteenth century onward, and the name is often said to derive from gemel, a twin or double ring, from the knotted and looped shapes they were once formed into, though the origin is in fact uncertain. By the time Housekeeping in Old Virginia was compiled, usually dated 1878-79, the knot had mostly flattened into a plain rolled and cut cookie leavened with soda and sour cream, a combination that spread rapidly through American home baking once commercial saleratus and then baking soda became cheap and reliable. The "Jackson" of the title is unexplained in the book, as titles in this collection often are; the volume is full of dishes named for contributors, families and Confederate figures, and a tribute to Stonewall Jackson is one possibility, though nothing in the text confirms it. Like a number of entries here it is credited only by initials, a reminder that the book is a gathered network of Virginia housekeepers rather than one author's work.