18th Century: A Hen’s Nest

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Preparation info
  • Makes

    4

    eggs and the nest: one 17 cm 6½ inch /No. 30) basin (mould), filled half full with jelly.
    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in
Pride and Pudding: The History of British Puddings, Savoury and Sweet

By Regula Ysewijn

Published 2016

  • About

Creating counterfeit meat or egg dishes out of something made to look like the real thing was a common practice in the Middle Ages; however, during the eighteenth century Elizabeth Raffald took inspiration from these medieval recipes for ‘eggs for Lent’ to create her Hen’s Nest with flummery eggs. Her recipe calls for filling real eggshells with flummery and then peeling them as you would a real egg. The nest was made of a clear jelly in which thin threads of lemon peel wer