Bun

“ The bun-venders who eclipse the rest in voice and activity, are young women who drive fruit-barrows—barrows, by the bye, are no more, but of them by and bye. A couple of these ex-barrow-women trip along, carrying a wicker clothes-basket between them, in which the “hot-cross-buns” are covered, first by a clean flannel or green baize, and outwardly by a clean white cloth, which coverings are slowly and partially removed, for fear of letting the buns cool, when a customer stops to buy, or calls them to the door. ”

“ There is a semi-sacred bread eaten by the English race, and by no one else—the hot-cross bun—millions of which are devoured in England on Good Friday. Its origin is obscure, as is also that of the word ‘bun.’ Most dictionaries derive it from the old French bigne, or bugne—a swelling; but it certainly occurs in an early Promptorium Parvulorum, as ‘bunne-brede.’ Anent ‘Eating Buns on Good Friday,’ a correspondent in the Athenæum of April 4, 1857, p. ”

“ And suppose Clara's unknown luncheon to have been "3 buns, one queen-cake, one sausage-roll, and 2 bottles of Zoëdone:" while the two little sisters had been indulging in "8 buns, 4 queen-cakes, 2 sausage-rolls, and 6 bottles of Zoëdone." (Poor souls, how thirsty they must have been!) If Balbus will kindly try this by his principle of "two assumptions," first assuming that a bun is 1d. and a queen-cake 2d., and then that a bun is 3d. ”

“ Work well to distribute the fruit and then form into a long roll three inches thick. Cut off pieces about one and one-half ounces and form into buns. Let rest for fifteen minutes and then roll into round buns and place in a well-greased baking pan [pg 22] and let rise for thirty minutes. Make a hole in the centre of each bun with a small wooden stick and wash the buns with egg and milk. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Cool, and then fill the centre with jelly, and ice with water icing. ”

“ So they hide their mildness by eating a bun as if it were horseflesh, assuring the bad boys that their own tastes are extremely dashing, but that they have chosen to throw away the forbidden fruit and keep only the skin ”

“ One a penny, two a penny,
Hot Cross buns!”
Book of Days, vol. i. p. 418.
The following lines are taken from Poor Robin’s Almanac for 1733:
“Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs
With one or two a penny hot cross buns,
Whose virtue is, if you believe what’s said,
They’ll not grow mouldy like the common bread.”
It seems more than probable that the cross upon the Good Friday bun is intended to remind the devout of a Saviour’s sufferings. The following extract in illustration of the ancient name and use of the bun is from Bryant’s Analysis of Ancient Mythology, 1807, vol. i. pp. ”

“ Then with a little fresh flour sprinkled over the hands to prevent the dough sticking to them, he pats it and makes it into the shape of a large bun or several buns.
Then he puts it on a gridiron over hot ashes, or sweeps part of the fire to one side, and on the hot ground left there he puts his dough, and piles hot ashes round it and lets it bake itself. ”

“ Mix the flour, cornflour, and baking powder together, beat the butter and sugar to a cream, beat in the egg, flavouring, and milk, then the flour, &c., and continue to beat for five minutes. Butter some small bun tins, half fill them with the mixture, put into a moderate oven and bake for about twenty minutes; stand on a sieve till cold. ”

“ An ingenious apparatus has been invented called a Patent Bun Divider, which greatly facilitates the making of these buns, and cannot fail to be of great service where large quantities of buns or cakes are required to be divided. ”

“ All that is needed is to weigh 8 lbs. of dough, place it in the pan, and at one stroke of a lever thirty buns or cakes are divided ready to mould.
21.—Chelsea Buns.
Take plain bun dough (or if for common buns, bread dough) , roll it out in a sheet, break some firm butter in small pieces and place over it, roll it out as you would paste; after you have given it two or three turns, moisten the surface of the dough, and strew over it some moist sugar; roll up the sheet into a roll, and cut it in slices; or cut the dough in strips of the required size and turn them round ”

“ Ulrich left the palace with five cart-loads of splendid buns, four of these carts being for the Bunmakers, and the fifth and last cart being filled to the brim with buns good enough to make any one's mouth water, being made of the purest butter, the most delicious honey, the freshest eggs, and the richest saffron and other spices ever known. ”

“ Strew the top of each bun with carraway comfits, and bake them on flat tins buttered well. They should be eaten the day they are baked, as they are not good unless quite fresh.
JELLY CAKE.— Sift three quarters of a pound of flour. Stir to a cream a pound of butter and a pound of powdered white sugar, and mix in half a tea-cup of rose water, and a grated nutmeg, with a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Beat ten eggs very light, and add them gradually to the mix [345] ture, alternately with the flour; stirring the whole very hard. Put your griddle into the oven of a stove ”

“ Thousands come to it, thousands go from it. Porters grow gray-headed beneath its roof. Buns, once fresh and tender, become hard and misanthropic in its refreshment rooms, and look as if they had seen the littleness of existence and were disillusioned. ”

“ INGREDIENTS.—1 rabbit, a few strips of bacon, rather more than 1 pint of good broth or stock, a bunch of savoury herbs, salt and pepper to taste, thickening of butter and flour, 1 glass of sherry.
Mode.—Well wash the rabbit, cut it into quarters, lard them with Blips of bacon, and fry them; then put them into a stewpan with the broth, herbs, and a seasoning of pepper and salt; simmer gently until the rabbit is tender, then strain the gravy, thicken it with butter and flour, add the sherry, give one boil, pour it over the rabbit, and serve. Garnish with slices of cut lemon. ”

“ Put into a saucepan with a pint of cold water, a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion finely minced, a pinch of mace, one of nutmeg, pepper, and half a pound of fat salt pork, cut into slips. Cover, and stew until tender. Take out the rabbits and set in a dish where they will keep warm. Add to the gravy a cup of cream (or milk) , two well-beaten eggs stirred in a little at a time, and a tablespoonful of butter. Boil up once—when you have thickened with flour wet in cold milk—and take the saucepan from the fire. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, stirring all the while, and pour over the rabbits. ”

“ So the doctor rented a bakeshop and he got a ton of nice white American flour, and hundreds and hundreds of cans of American condensed milk, and a very great deal of sugar and some other things, and went to work making buns. And the reason I went to the schools yesterday was to help give out the buns and chocolate for the children's "taste". ”

“ Hot Cross Buns.—Sift together 1 quart flour, 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, 1 cup sugar, 3 scant teaspoons Royal Baking Powder. Rub in 1⁄2 cup butter, then add 1⁄2 pound cleaned currants, 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1⁄4 pound cut citron, 1⁄4 pound seeded raisins, 1⁄2 teaspoon allspice. Beat 2 eggs, add 1⁄2 cup milk, and stir into the dry mixture, adding enough more milk to mix to a firm dough. Mold into round buns, lay 2 inches apart on greased pans, brush with milk. Cut cross on each, sprinkle cut with granulated sugar, bake in hot oven. ”

“ Brand quotes a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine who shows that they were "formerly, at least, unleavened," p. 156. They "are constantly marked with the form of the cross." "It is an old belief that the observance of the custom of eating buns on Good Friday protects the house from fire, and several other virtues are attributed to these buns," p. ”

“ If she were given a roll or bun in the market, she would hand it to the first child she met. ”

“ Rub the butter in with the flour, make a bay and break in the eggs, add the yeast with sufficient milk to make the whole into a dough of moderate consistency, and put in a warm place to prove. When it has risen enough mix in the peel, a little essence of lemon, and the sugar, which should be in small pieces about the size of peas. Divide into pieces for buns, prove and bake in gentle heat. ”

“ When you have cased the rabbits, skewer their heads with their mouths upon their backs, stick their fore-legs into their ribs, skewer the hind-legs doubled, then make a pudding for them of the crumb of half a loaf of bread, a little parsley, sweet marjoram and thyme, all shred fine, nutmeg, salt and pepper to your taste, mix them up into a light stuffing, with a quarter of a pound of butter, a little good cream, and two eggs ”

“ We know very well, my dear Marianne, that the bread we buy of the bakers is composed of some flour, and some alum, and some plaster-of-paris, and some china-clay, but we don't stop to analyse it at our breakfast; we cut ourselves a slice, butter it, and pop it into our mouths, and like it a thousand times better than home-made bread made of pure, unadulterated flour. ”

“ And I threw myself upon the simple fact of rabbit pie.
And when the pie was opened, what a picture did we see!
They lay in beauty side by side, they filled our home with glee!
How excellent, how succulent, back, neck, and leg, and thigh!
What a noble gift is manhood! What a trust is rabbit pie! ”

“ Quantity for 4–6 Persons.
1 domestic rabbit 1⁄8 lb. of bacon 1⁄8 lb. of butter 1⁄2 cup of sour or sweet cream 11⁄2 tbsps. of flour 1⁄2 cup of water Salt
For Stuffing.
Heart, liver, kidneys of the rabbit 2 soaked rolls 2 eggs 1 tbsp. of butter 1 tbsp. of lemon juice Salt, pepper, nutmeg
Preparation: The domestic rabbit is prepared like the rabbit under No. 14, but the legs, neck and breast are left on, because it is going to be stuffed. It is washed well inside and outside and salted. Heart, liver and kidneys are chopped fine and mixed well with the soaked rolls and the other ingredients. ”

“ Clean the rabbits and wash them through several waters. If to be roasted, they must be stuffed with grated bread crumbs, suet or butter, a chopped onion, the liver of the rabbit chopped, and a lemon peel grated. Moisten with eggs and a little claret. Put this in the rabbit and sew it up; baste with butter, and cook for two hours. Make the gravy with the drippings in the pan, a little cream or milk, and flour. If the rabbits are old, they are good stewed slowly with sweet herbs, wine, water, and chopped onions, and thickened with flour and butter. ”

“ Quantity for 1 Person.
1 rabbit liver 1 pinch of salt and pepper 1 well beaten egg Some flour 1 piece of butter for frying 1 slice of lemon Preparation: The liver must be very fresh. As soon as the rabbit is shot, dress it, take the liver out and prepare it the same day. If you cannot do this the same day, it is better to leave the liver and prepare it with the rabbit.
The fresh liver is washed, sliced, seasoned with salt and pepper, dipped into egg and flour, then fried quickly in some hot butter and served at once on a hot platter. ”

“ FORCEMEAT FOR HARE. Chop up the liver, with an anchovy, some fat bacon, a little suet, some sweet herbs, and an onion. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, crumbs of bread, and an egg to bind all together.
FORCEMEAT FOR SAVOURY PIES. The same as for fowls, only substituting fat or bacon, instead of suet. If the pie be of rabbit or fowls, the livers mixed with fat and lean pork, instead of bacon, will make an excellent stuffing. The seasoning is to be the same as for fowls or meat. ”

“ Many times have I followed, with eager step, the waiting-girl when she shook the table-cloth, to get the crumbs and small bones flung out for the dogs and cats. It was a great thing to have the privilege of dipping a piece of bread into the water in which meat had been boiled, and the skin taken from the rusty bacon was a positive luxury. ”

“ Rows of spotless plates winked from the shelves of the dresser at the far end of the room, and from the rafters overhead hung hams, bundles of dried herbs, nets of onions, and baskets of eggs. ”

“ Rabbit pie is made like chicken pie. To roast a rabbit, stuff with a dressing made of bread crumbs, chopped salt pork, thyme, onion, pepper and salt; sew up; rub over with a little butter, or pin on a few slices of salt pork; add a little water, and baste often. Rabbits may be fried as you would steak, and served with a sour sauce made like a brown flour gravy, with half a cup of vinegar added ”

“ Cut two or three rabbits up in joints, and a pound of streaked bacon in slices; butter a pie-dish, lay some of the slices of bacon upon the bottom, dip the pieces of rabbits into flour, place a layer of them over the bacon, season well with pepper and salt, then add another layer of bacon, then rabbit, again seasoning, proceeding thus, building them in a dome above the edge of the dish ”

“ My love for you is stronger than the smell of patent butter, or the kick of a young cow, and more unselfish than a kitten’s first catterwaul. As a song bird hankers for the light of day, the cautious mouse for the fresh bacon in the trap, as a mean pup hankers after new milk, so I long for thee. ”

“ The second course more than sustains the character of the first. Small browned birds that look like larks, their plump breasts clothed succulently with a counterpane of fat bacon, their tender backs reposing on beds of savoury toast,—stewed pigeon,—a sponge-cake pudding,—baked pears. ”

“ Never in his life had he tasted bread so sweet!—and the strips of boiled bacon in between came surely from a most unusual pig—a porker of sorts, without a doubt, and of most extraordinary attainment in the nice balancing of lean and fat, and the induing of both with vital juices of the utmost strength and sweetness. ”

“ Take a pig being scalded, flayed, and quartered, season it with beaten nutmeg, pepper, salt, cloves, and mace, lay it in your pie with some chopped sweet herbs, hard eggs, currans, (or none) put your herbs between every lay, with some gooseberries, grapes, or barberries, and lay on the top slices of interlarded bacon and butter, close it up, and bake it in good fine crust, being baked, liquor it with butter, verjuyce, and sugar. ”