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Marlborough Rusks
Make the one pound common sponge mixture--it has already been twice given in the book of puddings--and add thereto one ounce of carraway seeds Bake in long, narrow moulds. When a day old slice, and brown the slices in the oven. These crisped slices can be kept a long time, and serve much the same purpose as sweet crackers.
A twice-baked sponge, closer to biscotti than to bread. The recipe assumes you already have the author's "one pound common sponge" in hand, which is the only real obstacle.
- The missing baseThe "one pound common sponge mixture" is not on this page; the text refers the reader to the book of puddings, where it is said to be given twice. Its proportions are not stated here, so a modern genoise or hot-milk sponge has to stand in.
- An ounce of carawayOne ounce is about four tablespoons of seed, which is emphatic by current taste. Two tablespoons gives a clear caraway note without the loaf turning medicinal.
- Long, narrow mouldsHe wants a loaf whose slices come out small and uniform. A Pullman pan, a narrow bar pan, or two standard 8x4-inch loaf tins all work; the narrower the mould, the more the finished rusk resembles a cracker.
- First bakeThe original gives no oven direction. In a modern oven, 350F until the centre springs back and a skewer comes out clean, roughly 35 to 45 minutes depending on the depth of the mould.
- Why a day oldFresh sponge tears and compresses under the knife. A day of resting, wrapped, firms the crumb enough for clean quarter-inch slices; a serrated knife and a sawing stroke help.
- The second bake is a dryingThis is the hinge. Browning means driving out moisture at a low heat, 275 to 300F, turning the slices once, for 20 to 30 minutes until dry through and pale gold. Colour taken quickly at high heat leaves a damp middle, and those slices go soft in the tin within a week.
- KeepingCool the slices completely on a rack before storing, or trapped steam undoes the drying. Airtight at room temperature they hold for a month or more, which is the whole point of the recipe.
- Yield and useThe number of rusks depends on the size of the sponge and the mould, neither of which the recipe fixes. "Sweet crackers" tells you the intended service: with tea or coffee.
A rusk is bread or cake baked twice, the second bake purely to drive off moisture so the result keeps for weeks without a cellar or a tin of ice; the technique is ancient and shows up across Europe as biscotti, zwieback, Dutch beschuit and ship's biscuit. Caraway-seeded sweet baking came into American kitchens from British seed cake and caraway comfits, and remained a standard flavouring for plain tea biscuits through the nineteenth century. The Marlborough name attaches to several American dishes of the period, most famously the apple-and-custard Marlborough pudding and pie of New England, and its transfer to a seeded rusk is best treated as a trade name rather than an established lineage. As for context, the only internal evidence is a cross-reference to a book of puddings.