Posted on 04/05/2010 3:14:42 AM PDT by Daffynition
A grandmother has the world's oldest hot cross bun - baked on Good Friday in 1821.
Nancy Titman, 91, was given the incredible 189-year-old bun when her mum died and amazingly it shows no traces of mould.
The bun, which was made the same year as Napoleon died, George IV was crowned king and poet John Keats passed away has been in her family for generations.
"It's a relic which has been passed down through the family. My mum said our ancestors worked in a baker's shop and they believed buns baked on Good Friday didn't go mouldy," said Nancy.
"It is rock hard and the currants have disintegrated but you can tell it's a hot cross bun and you can still see the shape of the cross."
The bun, which has the date March 1821 on its base, was made by Nancy's great, great, great grandfather, William Skinner, who owned a bakery in London.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I’m gobsmacked!
English folklore suggests that sharing a hot cross bun would ensure friendship throughout the coming year.
ALSO IN 1821...
George IV was crowned king. One of his first acts was to increase his mistress’s allowance to [pounds sterling]10,000 a year ([pounds sterling]818,000 in modern money)
Scientist Michael Faraday faraday /far·a·day/ (F ) (far´ah-da) the electric charge carried by one mole of electrons or one equivalent weight of ions, equal to 9.649 × 104coulombs.
far·a·day
n. invented the first electric motor out of magnets, wire and a cup of mercury
John Constable painted The Hay Wain and exhibited it at the Royal Academy. It failed to find a buyer
German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote his first string symphony - aged 12
The Bronte sisters moved to Haworth parsonage in the Pennine moors. Charlotte, who would later write Jane Eyre, was five
Napoleon died in exile in Saint Helena of suspected arsenic poisoning
The Romantic poet John Keats died of tuberculosis aged 26, in Rome
So the question begs to be asked... If you eat it, what coffee would compliment it? ; )
Great article.
I think the US President at the time, if memory is correct, was the one who now graces our $20 bills, Andrew Jackson, “Old Hickory”.
....Or was it John Q. Adams?
I would calculate the value of £10,000 in 1821 to be worth something closer to £1,700,000 in today’s money, based on the value of 0.2354 of a troy ounce of gold (the AGW of a £1 sovereign that was in circulation in 1821, the year incidently, that Britain officially went on the gold standard)...
For your further edification and astonishment!
Since the bun is of English heritage ....perhaps we should be asking, “What tea?” ;)
Monroe. The American System. Era of Good Feelings. Industrial Revolution.
Quick pop in the microwave freshened it right up.
Thank-you!
Thank-you.
The world’s strongest pot of coffee.
I can’t believe nobody’s said it yet: “dwarf bread!”
I have an apple in the bottom of my fridge that kinda looks like that bun...........
A “hot cross” bun is now probably illegal. It “reminds” some folks of the Klan don’t ya know.
The politically correct term is now “Hot X Bun”, although that sounds a bit like the name of a porn star.
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