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Sally Lunn
Mix a scant half-cup of butter; one-fourth cup of sugar; one cup of milk; one egg; two teaspoons of baking powder and one pint of flour. Bake in a loaf or in gem-pans in a moderate oven. When fresh huckleberries are in season one cup stirred in just before baking will be an agreeable addition.
A late chemical-leavened Sally Lunn: no yeast, no rising time, essentially a rich muffin batter. The instructions assume the reader knows the standard cake method of the day, so the order of mixing is left out.
- A pint of flourFlour was measured by volume in a pint cup: two cups, roughly 8 to 9 oz of soft white flour. Modern all-purpose is stronger; spoon it in loosely rather than scooping and packing.
- A scant half-cup of butterAbout 7 tablespoons. Have it soft, and cream it with the sugar before adding the egg and milk, then fold in flour sifted with the baking powder. Mixing everything at once as the wording suggests will give a tough crumb.
- Moderate oven350F. A loaf pan takes roughly 35 to 45 minutes, gem-pans 18 to 22 minutes.
- Gem-pansNineteenth-century gem pans were heavy cast iron with deep oval or round cups; a standard 12-cup muffin tin is the direct substitute. This batter fills about ten cups.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons to two cups of flour is about standard by current practice. Period powders were often single-acting, so the instruction to bake immediately mattered more then than now; still, do not let the batter stand.
- HuckleberriesTrue huckleberries are wild and rarely sold; blueberries are the usual stand-in. Toss the cup of berries in a spoonful of the measured flour before folding them in so they do not sink.
- Sweetness and servingA quarter cup of sugar makes this barely sweet by modern standards, which is the point: it is a tea bread, meant to be split hot and buttered. One loaf or about ten gems.
Sally Lunn began as a yeast-raised, egg-rich bread associated with Bath in England, where an eponymous bakerwoman is traditionally credited with it; the name is also often traced to the French solilemme or to soleil et lune, sun and moon, for the pale crumb and golden top, though neither derivation is documented. It was established in America by the early nineteenth century and took particularly firm root in Virginia and the upper South, where it was often baked in a turban mould and served hot at tea and supper. By the time this recipe was printed, cheap and reliable baking powder had reworked a great many yeast breads into quick ones, and this version is the result: the richness and the name survive, the long rising does not. The huckleberry suggestion suits a fruit that was gathered rather than bought in that period.