Our favourite historical baking recipes

Baking is one of the oldest methods of cooking, and in the UK some of our most beloved recipes can be dated back to the ovens of yesteryear. Back then, sweet dishes would be reserved for noblemen and royalty, as ingredients we take for granted today such as spice, sugar and almonds were incredibly rare and expensive.

While many of our ancestors enjoyed flavour combinations that you’d rarely see today (the combination of sickly sweet fruits and gamey meats from all sorts of animals in a pie doesn’t enjoy the same popularity it had in the nineteenth century), there are some bakes that have stood the test of time. Here are some of our best recipes that can be traced back hundreds of years.

Beef and oyster was a popular combination in Victorian times, as oysters were regarded as a cheap source of protein for poor people. Beef was expensive, so thrifty cooks could pad out their pie fillings with the shellfish instead, often using ale to make the gravy. Today, oysters are regarded as a luxury and tend to be eaten on their own so we can appreciate the flavour, but this pie recipe shows how delicious they can be encased in pastry.

Bakewell tart is one of Britain’s great bakes, but it originally started life as a pudding in the nineteenth century. The sugar and almonds needed to create this decadent pud would have meant only the wealthy could afford it, but today it’s an easy, affordable dessert to put together. Mark Hix’s recipe is a fantastic way to bring it into the twenty-first century.

These quintessentially French delicacies might not be British but they’re loved throughout Europe for their light, airy and subtle flavour. First written about in the eighteenth century, madeleines quickly became popular with the French bourgeoisie, and then entered the history books when author Marcel Proust wrote about them in his book In Search of Lost Time. You’ll need a special mould to achieve the iconic scallop shell shape, but follow Tom Aikens’ recipe to the letter and you can’t go wrong.