Ancient British Bake Off? Cauldrons Fit for Feasting Found at Iron Age Settlement

Ancient Origins

The wealth of evidence found suggests there were many mouths being fed at an Iron Age settlement in the UK that looks to have developed into a regional center for ceremonies and feasting.

 A Unique and Unprecedented Collection of Iron Age Artifacts
 A team of archaeologists from the University of Leicester has announced the discovery of a unique collection of Iron Age metal artifacts found during an excavation at Glenfield Park, Leicestershire. The nationally significant hoard includes one-off finds for the region and reveals previously unknown information about feasting rituals among prehistoric communities.

As EurekAlert reports, the researchers came across a store of valuable and delightful ancient treasures at the site, including eleven complete, or almost complete, Iron Age cauldrons, fine ring-headed dress pins, an abstruse brooch and a cast copper alloy object known as a 'horn-cap', which they speculate was part of an official staff, highlighting the uncommon nature of the metalwork collection.

Iron involuted brooch ULAS. (Image: University of Leicester)

The conglomeration is considered to be exceptional and unequalled, as never before has an archaeological mission uncovered a treasure trove that includes such a great variety of findings in England.

"Glenfield Park is an exceptional archaeological site, with a fantastic array of finds that highlight this as one of the more important discoveries of recent years,”

John Thomas, director of the excavation and Project Officer from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services commented. He added,

“It is the metalwork assemblage that really sets this settlement apart. The quantity and quality of the finds far outshines most of the other contemporary assemblages from the area, and its composition is almost unparalleled.”

Copper alloy horn-cap ULAS. (Image: University of Leicester)

  Character of the Site in Constant Progress
The excavation works at Glenfield Park, Leicestershire, were launched back in the winter of 2013, and since then archaeologists have found enough evidence to believe that the area was inhabited throughout most of the Iron Age and Roman periods. The remains of the settlement consist of several roundhouses, enclosures, 4-post structures and pits that occupied the southern slopes of a low spur of slightly higher ground at the northern end of the development area.

“Early occupation of the site during the earlier middle Iron Age (5th - 4th centuries BC) was relatively modest, consisting of a small open settlement that occupied the south-facing, lower slopes of the spur. Slightly later in the middle Iron Age, indicated to be in the 4th or 3rd centuries BC by radiocarbon dating, the settlement underwent striking changes in character. Individual roundhouses were now enclosed, there was far more evidence for material culture, and rituals associated with the settlement involved apparently deliberate burial of a striking assemblage of metalwork,” Thomas stated in a University of Leicester report.

The interior of one of the Iron Age cauldrons (Image: University of Leicester)

Cauldrons Indicate that the Settlement Was Used as a Host Site for Feasting
Of course, archaeologists were flabbergasted by the many cauldrons found at the site, which, according to the experts, emphasize the important role of the settlement as a possible host site for feasting, with associated traditions of ritual deposition of significant artifacts. “The cauldron assemblage in particular makes this a nationally important discovery. They represent the most northerly discovery of such objects on mainland Britain and the only find of this type of cauldron in the East Midlands,” an impressed Thomas said.

The cauldron enclosure where found to be deliberately buried. (Image: University of Leicester)

The majority of the cauldrons seem to have been purposely positioned in a vast circular enclosure ditch that surrounded a building. They had been laid in either upright or upside down positions, before the ditch was filled in, a fact that indicates that they were buried to commemorate the termination of activities associated with this part of the site. Other cauldrons were discovered buried across the site, indicating that important events were being marked over a long period of time as the settlement developed. "Due to their large capacity it is thought that Iron Age cauldrons were reserved for special occasions and would have been important social objects, forming the centerpiece of major feasts, perhaps in association with large gatherings and events,” Thomas explains as EurekAlert reports.

The cauldrons are made from several separate parts, comprising iron rims and upper bands, hemispherical copper alloy bowls and two iron ring handles attached to the upper band.

They appear to have been a variety of sizes, with rims ranging between 36cm (14.1 inch) and 56cm (22 inch) in diameter, with the total capacity of all cauldrons being approximately 550 liters, which illustrates their potential to provide for large groups of people that may have gathered at the settlement from the wider Iron Age community of the area.

Iron bands were attached to some of the cauldrons. (Image: University of Leicester)

CT Scanning of the Cauldrons Provides Valuable Information
Soon after the important discovery took place, the extremely fragile cauldrons were lifted very carefully from the site in soil blocks for transportation in order to be examined. After an initial analysis by Dr. Andrew Gogbashian, Consultant Radiologist at Paul Strickland Scanner Centre, scientists could finally estimate the original dimensions and profiles of the cauldrons, as well as figure out how they were created. Most importantly, the scans unlocked extraordinarily rare evidence of the beautiful decoration from the period, further complimenting the immense cultural and historical significance of the site.

Color rendered image of a cauldron showing possible decoration on top right of the iron band. (Image: University of Leicester)

Archaeologists noted that with the help of modern technology, they were able to recreate digitally an example of a complete cauldron, which has raised stem and leaf motifs on the vessels iron band, similar to the handle locations, which are similar to the so-called “Vegetal Style” of Celtic art (4th century BC). Ultimately, they mentioned that more detail and information from the cauldrons will only be possible through excavation and conservation, which is being undertaken by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology).

An optimistic Liz Barham, Senior Conservator at MOLA, told EurekAlert, "Already we have been able to uncover glimpses of the detailed histories of these cauldrons through CT scanning, including evidence of their manufacture and repair, and have identified sooty residues still clinging to the base of one of the cauldrons from the last time it was suspended over a fire. During the upcoming conservation we hope to discover much more about the entire assemblage. If we're lucky, we may even find food residues from the last time they were used - over 2000 years ago." The results of the project to date are published in the current issue of British Archaeology magazine, which will be available from 6 December.

 Top image: L-R: An iron cauldron that was found at the site. (Images: University of Leicester)

By Theodoros Karasavvas

17th-century 'Great British Bake Off' recipes

History Extra

All images are © Wellcome Images

 Hannah Bisaker’s puff pastry, 1692

To make puff paist
 "Take halfe a quortorh of The Finest Flower then mix yo Flower and water
 and Four white of Eggs together, mould up yo paste but not too stiff,
Then role yo Past out into a Sheete. Then lay some Butter in litle Pecies
Till you have Filled yo sheete but doe not lay it Towards The ends to neare,
 Then Dust a little Flower with yo Drudging Box then Fould it up
Twice before you put any more Then doe soe Till yo have put in
a pound keeping it a little dusted very Fine yo put it to yo Butter,
handle it a little Then cut it to yo own

Fancie Lady Ann Fanshawe's icy cream, 1651-1707

To make Icy Cream
 Take three pints of the best cream, boyle it with
a blade of Mace, or else perfume it with orang flower water
 or Amber-Greece, sweeten the Cream, with sugar let it stand
till it is quite cold, then put it into Boxes, ether of Silver
 or tinn then take, Ice chopped into small peeces and
putt it into a tub and set the Boxes in the Ice couering
them all over, and let them stand in the Ice two
hours, and the Cream Will come to be Ice in the Boxes,
then turne them out into a salvar with some of the same
Seasoned Cream, so sarue it up at the Table.

 Lady Ann Fanshawe's sugar cakes, 1651-1707

To make Sugar Cakes
 Take 2 pound of Butter, one pound of fine Sugar, the yolkes of nine
Egs, a full Spoonfull of Mace beat & searsed [sifted], as much Flower as this
will well wett making them so stiffe as you may rowle it out, then
with the Cup of a glasse of what Size you please cutt
them into round Cakes; pricke them and bake them.

 Orange pudding c1685-c1725

To make Orange Pudding
 Take 2 Oranges pare them and cut them in little pieces,
then take 12 Ounces of fine Sugar, beat them in a stone morter,
put to them 12 Ounces of butter and 12 Yolkes of Eggs,
 and beat all these together, then make a very good paste,
and lay a sheet of paste upon a dish and so lay on your pudding,
and cover it with another sheet of paste,
 and set it in the oven, an hour will bake it

 How to Cook a Husband (c1710-1725)

How to Cook a Husband

 As Mr Glass said of the hare, you must first catch him. Having done so, the mode of cooking him, so as to make a good dish of him, is as follows. Many good husbands are spoiled in the cooking; some women go about it as if their husbands were bladders, and blow them up. Others keep them constantly in hot water, while others freeze them by conjugal coldness. Some smother them with hatred, contention and variance, and some keep them in pickle all their lives. These women always serve them up with tongue sauce. Now it cannot be supposed that husbands will be tender and good if managed in that way. But they are, on the contrary, very delicious when managed as follows: Get a large jar called the jar of carefulness, (which all good wives have on hand), place your husband in it, and set him near the fire of conjugal love; let the fire be pretty hot, but especially let it be clear - above all, let the heat be constant. Cover him over with affection, kindness and subjection. Garnish with modest, becoming familiarity, and the spice of pleasantry; and if you had kisses and other confectionaries let them be accompanied with a sufficient portion of secrecy, mixed with prudence and moderation. We would advise all good wives to try this receipt and realise how admirable a dish a husband is when properly cooked.

A history of baking in 6 objects

History Extra

Bread tins
Though once considered the food of the poor, by the end of the 18th century, brown bread and course-grained flour were popular alternatives for the wealthier classes who began to reject the mass-produced, super-fine flours imported from the United States. Britain has retained its demands for less-conventional flours into the 21st century, with recent revivals for artisan grains such as spelt, rye, buck-wheat and gluten-free alternatives including rice, potato and oat flours. The latter sustained day-to-day bread making in Scotland and Ireland for centuries.

 The phrase ‘bread tin’ or ‘loaf tin’ was not commonly used until the early 1800s, roughly around the same time as the origination of the tin can for the preservation of food.

 Prior to the standard bread tin we are all familiar with today, loaves shaped in crude rustic ball shapes, or ‘boules’, were baked on a wooden tool called a 'peel' in large earthenware crocks. As bakers began to understand the science of bread-making – understanding that too much heat from below would burn the goods and that coarser flours required longer cooking times – bread ovens slowly became more progressive and integrated into the standard oven range in the 19th century.

 This progression was also seen in 19th-century legislation pioneered by the great German chemist, Friedrich Accum, that would subjugate the appalling and widespread use of harmful additives in baked goods.

A 19th-century satirical image showing a bread trough, oven and peel.

 Biscuit tins
Biscuits evolved out of small, baked necessities used as substance for long journeys. The most famous of these are perhaps the ‘ship’s biscuits’ eaten by Tudor sailors. These were concocted from flour, salt and water, prebaked on land and then rehydrated in stews or beer while at sea. Often alive with weevils and hard as door posts, this culinary ‘delight’ was almost certainly the precursor for the staple biscuit that we are all familiar with today.

 Gingerbread was traditionally the biscuit of popular choice, reigning supreme from its roots in the 13th century, right up until the 19th century. There were whole fairs and fetes dedicated to this sweet treat. The most popular of these, the Birmingham Fair, took place each year until the mid-1800s while other major fairs known for their significant gingerbread and toy stalls, Oxford St Giles and St Bartholomew Fairs in London, also petered out by the middle of the century. These would have consisted of rows and rows of market stalls displaying gingerbread in all its forms, interspersed with booths selling toys. Gingerbread men were known as ‘husbands’ in England.

Late 19-century tin biscuit cutter. (© Emma Kay)

 Early tin biscuit cutters like the one pictured above would often have little holes drilled into them to help circulate air, as well as aiding the release of the biscuit following cooking. In the 19th century, small biscuit cutters shaped like leaves, flowers, birds and animals were popular, used to produce fine, fancy almond pastes or other luxury delicacies.

 The ‘docker’ was once an essential tool for the baking of biscuits. It looked like an instrument of torture – sharp spikes attached to a wooden handle. This would perforate the biscuit dough to prevent trapped air from making the mix bubble up or rise too much.

 By the early 20th century, it became hugely popular to ice biscuits using the new-fangled metal syringes, which could be purchased in the icing kits manufactured by Tala and Nutbrown.

A Tala icing set c1950-60 and 1940s flour sifter. (© Emma Kay)

 Cake tins
The term ‘cake tin’ did not emerge until tin manufacturing had become the popular choice for kitchenware during the mid-19th century. Prior to this, ‘patty pans’ made from steel were used to bake small cakes and tartlets in a variety of shapes and sizes.

 During the Second World War, cake tins became equally popular for storing money as well as spongey delights. The media at this time reported on the high number of burglaries that prompted housewives to hide their loot in this most convenient of saving banks.

 In 1921, the Dundee Evening Telegraph reported that the favoured receptacle also saved the life of a little German girl, who was travelling alone by train in the UK. Having panicked after just missing her stop, the child threw open the outer carriage door as the train departed, shielding herself from the fall by holding out her cake tin. Despite falling out while travelling at a speed up to 20 miles an hour, she survived, albeit with some serious injuries.

Gingerbread hornbooks, based on the wooden and leather educational hornbooks, were blocks of alphabetical letters or Roman numerals designed as learning tools for children. (© Emma Kay) 

Pie-making
Pies are as ancient as the Egyptians and Greeks. The earliest of these wondrous and versatile of baked goods consisted of meat wrapped in flour and water pastes to seal in the juices when cooking, or honey concoctions which were coated in mixed grains and baked over hot coals. In early British pie-making, wooden hoops were used to shape the pie mould itself, though by the Victorian period, any dish that was deep enough to contain meat, vegetables, a gravy, capable of being covered by a pastry crust was termed a pie.

 This was also the era of the decorative pie collar and functional pie funnel, designed to both release steam and support the pie crust. In an 1806 edition of The Experienced English Housekeeper, the early 19th-century cook Elizabeth Raffald recommended that raised pies should be cooked in a well-sealed oven, quickly to prevent the sides from falling down. “Light pasted pies” were considered most successful if cooked at moderate temperatures for a period of time that was neither “too long, nor too short” (resulting in the pastry becoming either “sad” or quick to burn).

 Rolling pins and pastry jiggers
Two of the earliest mass-produced baking tools are the rolling pin and pastry jigger (jagger), with a history of mass production starting in the 1600s, possibly earlier.

 Glass rolling pins were used in the preparation of pastry-making, and they were often filled with ice to maintain the temperature when rolling. Apart from producing baked goods, decorative rolling pins were often used by sailors as superstitious good luck charms at sea. The Nailsea glass factory near Bristol produced a huge range of beautiful and decorative glass rolling pins (main picture).

 The pastry jigger, or cutter, was originally carved from scrimshaw [bone or ivory objects], another pastime of sailors who would create these wonderfully intricate items for their waiting wives and girlfriends ashore.

 The popular French rolling pins of the Victorian era were thicker in the middle and tapered at the ends in order to enhance the rolling process. In 1866, two Americans, Theodore Williamson and Chas Richardson, applied for a patent to create the ultimate rolling pin: one that acted not only as a roller, grater, and steak tenderiser, but also as a butter print. Whether it was commercially successful or not remains a mystery.

 Moulds
Moulds are the backbone to any kitchen and used to create many historical treats, from ancient Chinese rice cake sculptures to traditional jellies, ices and delicate confectionery.

 One of the most famous historical moulds in the UK is that of the Biddenden twins, Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst. This stems from a Kentish legend of twin girls, born joined at the hip and shoulders. Each Easter, the town of Biddenden would distribute cakes shaped in the image of the twins, taken from moulds carved in their image.

Other notable moulds include the traditional gingerbread hornbooks, based on the wooden and leather educational hornbooks, which were popular between the 16th and 19th centuries. These were blocks of alphabetical letters or Roman numerals designed as learning tools for children. The edible versions were incredibly popular in the 18th century, with London street sellers touting them for around half a penny.

 Gelatine is the stuff of early civilisations and blancmange is not, as we might believe, a 1960s British brainchild. Rather, it is thought to have originated in the Middle East from almonds, chicken, rice and sugar and introduced to Britain by the crusaders. It is also understood that a Frenchman in the 1600s widely communicated the method of boiling animal bones to extract its benefits, with the use of fishbones and innards to produce an adhesive (Isinglass), patented by the British in 1750.

A 20th-century wax Springerle mould. (© Emma Kay)

 Springerles are German biscuit, cake or confection moulds that exist in many designs and forms, originally carved from wood and wax. This is a typical traditional recipe taken from German National Cookery for English Kitchens, 1873:

 Half a pound of fine flour, half a pound of sifted sugar, two eggs, an ounce of butter, and a pinch of carbonate of soda dissolved in a teaspoonful of milk, or a little more if necessary. Form with these a dough, which must be well kneaded. Roll it out a quarter of an inch thick. Mix the anise-seeds into the dough… The more general way of moulding the springerle is with various figures cut in wooden blocks. These are dusted with flour, the paste rolled out and cut into small pieces, which are then pressed into the shapes, the surface shaved off with a knife, and the devices turned out by knocking the blocks as they are held upside down. Bake them very pale.

 Emma Kay is the author of Vintage Kitchenalia (Amberley Books, 2017)

A brief history of baking

History Extra

We asked Professor John Walter from the University of Essex and Dr Sara Pennell from the University of Roehampton to take us through the history of baking.

Middle Ages

Baking is a luxury few are able to enjoy. But for those who can afford a wood-burning stove and to heat it, you would start with bread. The better the quality, the higher up the social order you are.
“Ovens were not a standard fixture in any household, so bread-baking never really entered the home in the medieval period,” says Dr Pennell.
“It was a niche, commercial activity. For example, you had bread-bakers in London.”
Prof Walter adds: “The rich ate fine, floured wheat bread. But if you were poor you cut your teeth on rye and black bread.
“Only the very wealthy had the cakes we tend to think of today. But they were much heavier – 10 to 20lbs.
“This was subsistence-focused baking, with an emphasis on bread and pies.
“If you were wealthy, your baked goods would be rich in exotic colour. But if you were poor, you were grateful if you could afford meat for your pie.”

15th century

Britain sees an explosion of expensive spices, such as saffron. Sweet dough, with lots of cream and butter, start to be enjoyed by those who could afford it.
The wigg - a small bun made with sweetened dough and herbs and spices – becomes popular.
But mince pies are made with minced beef or mutton, and biscuits “are the equivalent of Ryvita – pretty nasty stuff,” says Prof Walter.
Meanwhile, gingerbread is made with breadcrumbs.

16th and 17th centuries

Baking is transformed by globalisation, which heralds an explosion of treacle and currants. Plump cake and bready dough with lots of butter, cream and raisins become popular.
“Economic growth prompted an emerging middle class, and baking ‘trickled down’,” says Prof Walter.
“Amid growing wealth and social change, people could think about eating things other than bread, and imitate the upper-class diet.
“Baking became more accessible, and so more people baked cakes and biscuits.
“By the late 17th century sugar was cheap, and so you saw the emergence of mince pies as we know them, made with sugar and spices.
“And with the refinement of flour you see the development of gingerbread as we know it.”
Dr Pennell adds: “From the 16th century you had the onset of cookery literature, in which you start to see recipes for things we might recognise today as small, yeasted cakes and buns.
“They would be eaten as part of the dessert course, to help you digest the rich meal you had eaten beforehand.
“You also started to see the emergence of kitchen equipment, such as the ‘cake hoop’ – that is, a cake tin. The tin was lined with buttered paper.
“But cakes were made with ale and were very solid. The modern-day equivalent, in terms of the yeast-bread-based dough, would be a lardy cake.
“Seed cakes were also popular.”
Pastries too were considered fashionable in the late 17th century. “The English prided themselves on their pastry-making,” says Dr Pennell.
“It was considered a skill all good housewives should have.
“London cookery schools were teaching pastry-making. It was a fashionable skill.”

18th century

Cake making soars in popularity, but the industrial revolution from 1760 sees a return to more stodgy baked goods.
“This was when cake making really took off,” says Dr Pennell.
“The Art of Cookery, written by Hannah Glasse and published in 1747, contained a catalogue of cake recipes.
“Integral to this was the development of the semi-closed oven. The development of baking is as much to do with technology as it is taste.”
Fast-forward to the industrial revolution and Britain sees “a return to heavy baking, where the working class eats bread and jam,” says Prof Walter.
“But at Easter, Christmas and other seasonal occasions, a richer diet would be available to even the poorer members of society.
“Merchants and shopkeepers can afford ovens, and to bake.”

19th century

Convenience food grows in popularity, and the advent of baking powder sees cakes become lighter.
“As more working class women were employed in the 19th century, they had less time for elaborate food preparation,” says Prof Walter.
“We often think of the ‘fast food culture’ as being a recent thing, but women in Britain in the 19th century increasingly relied on convenience food such as pasties and pies.”
Meanwhile, the introduction of baking powder saw “the style of cakes change from dense, yeast-based bakes, into cakes made with flour, eggs, fat and a raising agent,” says Dr Pennell.