Maids of Honour

maids of honour are pastry tartlets filled with a white curd, which is usually made with renneted milk and cream, butter, sugar, almonds, eggs, and lemon juice and zest. They have a historical association with Richmond and Kew in Surrey.

Various stories associate them with Tudor royalty but no one has been able to establish whether the maids of honour were themselves the main consumers or simply used them to please royal palates. The first reference in print, according to Ayto (1993), is 1769 in the Public Advertiser.