I got the one with the sweetest ways
Behold the spider cake!
It does not resemble a spider. It looks—and tastes—like a sweet cornbread with a kind of double-layered custard floated on top, which would be the baked cream.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spatch has found evidence suggesting the name actually comes from the three-legged cast-iron skillet known as a spider, although the upper surface did fissure attractively as it cooled. I love our new cast-iron skillet even if it has no legs at all. It can bake in an oven and we can make this dessert.
It does not resemble a spider. It looks—and tastes—like a sweet cornbread with a kind of double-layered custard floated on top, which would be the baked cream.
spatch has found evidence suggesting the name actually comes from the three-legged cast-iron skillet known as a spider, although the upper surface did fissure attractively as it cooled. I love our new cast-iron skillet even if it has no legs at all. It can bake in an oven and we can make this dessert.
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The custard layers are very rich and the cornbread is not too sweet and it is extremely more-ish. This skillet has already justified itself as a gift.
The name probably does refer to the vessel it was cooked in.
Then the other explanation must come in as a folk etymology once the tripod has gone out of fashion.
Well done you for mastering it!
Thank you!
Madame Buttery once baked me a “herby pie” (chicken and leek, double crusted) in a cast-iron skillet buried in the embers on my hearth fire.
That sounds delectable. I wonder if it could be adapted for an oven.
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Mmmm.
Then the other explanation must come in as a folk etymology once the tripod has gone out of fashion.
According to the OED, the term "spider" lingered even after the legs had gone: "A kind of frying pan having legs and a long handle; also loosely, a frying pan. Originally U.S."
The earliest usage they found is 1807: "Spiders with Covers."
The distinction (legs/no legs) was still there in 1830: "A judicious selection of spiders and frying-pans."
Whittier wrote, "Like fishes dreaming of the sea, And waking in the spider."
That sounds delectable.
It was. She was a genius cook.
I wonder if it could be adapted for an oven.
I should think so. Raking embers over it meant it baked top and bottom and all round, as in an oven. As I dimly recall, that recipe book also included stargazy pie. Maybe you could try that next, and gild the mermaids' tails.
Nine
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Nine
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That's great! And unaffordable!