
To make Lemmon Cakes (1670) - benbreen
http://rarecooking.com/2015/03/26/to-make-lemmon-cakes/
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simonsarris
I love this blog.

The 18th century mac and cheese from this blog[1] has caused me to change my
default mac and cheese recipe, substituting eggs for heavy cream, since I
always have eggs but hate to be bothered to buy heavy cream (and then forget
about it for weeks if I don't use it). Other times I'll make bechamel
(flour/butter/milk) and add eggs at the end anyway. I still dress the mac up
more than the ancient recipe (cayenne powder, nutmeg, cumin are usually a
minimum), but switching in or just adding eggs never occurred to me and is
surprisingly delightful.

[1] [http://rarecooking.com/2014/06/30/maccarony-
cheese/](http://rarecooking.com/2014/06/30/maccarony-cheese/)

~~~
radicalbyte
You use heavy cream in macaroni cheese? Is that an American thing? I've only
ever known it as a mixture of egg/cheese/milk/breadcrumb.

Maybe it's a British thing, we have a lot of traditions which date from the
war - cornflour custard, eggy mac cheese, margarine, boiling hot tea...

~~~
simonsarris
I'm not really sure what the normal american way is. At this point I've made
mac+cheese in every way possible. (ie for a while I was trying _milk instead
of water when cooking the pasta,_ and attended the pot as it cooked on a slow
simmer. It works OK)

Since you're British I recommend you try making "Mac+Cheese tikka masala",
basically use your favorite recipe for chicken tikka masala but swap out the
chicken and no rice, and the sauce will call for (among other things) heavy
cream! It is a crowd pleaser for sure.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
The normal American makes crappy mac-n-cheese from a box :-) However, I've
never heard of eggs in it. Sounds interesting, in a pasta carbonara sort of
way. Is it a baked recipe, or "sauce & noodles" deal?

I typically make a roux, add a sharp/extra sharp cheddar to it to make a very
tangy cheese sauce, then stir in the cooked macaroni, and a touch of paprika
and cayenne and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top. Sometimes I will add feta or a
little blue cheese if I have any on hand. My Midwestern wife adds Velveeta
since she likes the extra creaminess and it's how her mom made it. Either way
is fine with me.

~~~
ksherlock
Ronald Reagan mac and cheese uses an egg [0].

I haven't tried it, but molecular gastronomists (or are they modernists?) use
sodium citrate to keep real cheese creamy when it's heated [1].

0\. [http://lincolnslunch.blogspot.com/2012/02/ronald-reagan-
maca...](http://lincolnslunch.blogspot.com/2012/02/ronald-reagan-macaroni-and-
cheese.html)

1\. [http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/silky-smooth-macaroni-
an...](http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/silky-smooth-macaroni-and-cheese/)

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freshyill
I'm glad this site exists. A few years ago at Christmas, I made a fig/plum
pudding from an 1890s-era recipe book from Project Gutenberg. It was a huge
pain to downsize and convert all the measurements and to find appropriate
substitutions for some ingredients.

~~~
maxerickson
Are many of the units listed in this file?

[https://github.com/fogus/minderbinder/blob/master/notes/defi...](https://github.com/fogus/minderbinder/blob/master/notes/definitions.units)

(I found out how much information had been collected in GNU Units by way of
[https://futureboy.us/frinkdata/units.txt](https://futureboy.us/frinkdata/units.txt)
)

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pekk
Published recipes are arguably an old form of programs :)

~~~
alanh
indeed, the first definition of "algorithm" i ever heard was that it was
essentially a recipe.

~~~
thret
I first heard that in the book 'Hackers' by David Bischoff.

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padobson
Now I'll be ready for my date with Sansa Stark!

