This hedgehog has a sweet almond paste body with slivered blanched almonds for the spikes. The original receipt from Hannah Glasse , 1777 and my modern interpretation is below. Also a description of hedgehogs as
"timid , shy and stupid" and yet it was their attacker who became "fatigued with fruitless attempts to annoy it" and left. 1822
Two other dishes prepared in the shape of a hedgehog were a "tipsey cake after the fashion of a hedgehog…” [The London Quarterly Review. 1837] and a “Savoy Cake to imitate a Hedgehog.” [Parkinson , Eleanor. The Complete Confectioner. Phila: 1844]
Modern Interpretation The original recipe , from Hannah Glasse , 1777 , is below. For a quarter sized portion: pound half a pound of almonds with a sprinkle of orange flower water and sweet white wine in a mortar or use almond flour. (I've never used prepared marzipan/almond paste but perhaps that may work). Add 2 whole eggs and 1 yolk , 1/2 C cream , 1/4 C melted butter , and 1/4 C or more sugar. Place the pan over coals , the fire or stove on low heat and stir constantly until it thickens enough to hold a shape. Form into the shape of a hedgehog and add slivered almonds for the bristles and currants for the eyes.
Hedgehogs in the hedges The real hedgehogs are small animals , which are able to roll themselves into a pricklely ball for a very successful means of protection. Eighteenth century writers commented that hedgehogs
were "timid , shy and stupid" and yet it was their attacker who became "fatigued with fruitless attempts to annoy it" and left. [The image is from
John Wood's The Illustrated Natural History: Mammalia. London: 1865] “While other creatures trust to their force , their cunning , or their swiftness , this animal , destitute of all… As soon as it perceives itself attacked , it withdraws all its vulnerable parts , rolls itself into a ball , and presents nothing but its defensive thorns to the enemy…
… the animal begins to bend its back , to lay its head upon its breast , to shut its eyes , to roll down the skin of its sides towards the legs , to draw these up , and lastly , to tuck them in every side , by drawing the skin still closer. Thus rolled up in a lump , it patiently waits till its enemy passes by , or is fatigued with fruitless attempts to annoy it.
The hedgehog , like most other wild animals , sleeps by day , and ventures out by night. It generally resides in small thickets , in hedges , or in ditches covered with bushes: there it makes a hole of about six or eight inches deep , and lies well wrapped up , in moss , grass , or leaves. Its food is roots , fruits , worms , and insects.”
Goldsmith , Oliver. A History of the Earth and Animated Nature. London: 1822 To make a Hedge-Hog. Hannah Glasse
TAKE two pounds of sweet almonds blanched , beat them well in a mortar , with a little canary [sweet white wine from the Spanish Canary Islands] and orange-flower water , to keep them from oiling. Make them into a stiff paste , then beat in the yolks of twelve eggs , leave out five of the whites , put to it a pint of cream , sweeten it with sugar , put in half a pound of sweet butter melted , set it on a furnace or slow fire , and keep continually stirring till it is stiff enough to be made into the form of a hedge-hog , then slick it full of blanched almonds slit , and stuck up like the bristles of a hedgehog , then put it into a dish. Take a pint of cream , and the yolks of four eggs beat up , and mix with the cream: sweeten to your palate , and keep them Stirring over a slow fire all the time till it is hot , then pour it into your dish round the hedgehog ; let it stand till it is cold , and serve it up.
Or you may make a fine hartshorn-jelly , and pour into the dish , which will look very pretty. You may eat wine and sugar with it , or eat it without.
Or cold cream sweetened , with a glass of white wine in it , and the juice of a Seville orange , and pour it into the dish. It will be pretty for change.
This is a pretty side-dish at a second course , or in the middle for supper , or in a grand desert. Plump two currants for the eyes.
Glasse , Hannah. The Art of Cookery: Made Plain and Easy. London: 1777
Savoy Cake to imitate a Hedgehog.
Bake a cake in a mould of that form; blanch some Valentia or Jordan almonds; cut them into small fillets and stick them over the surface , to form the quills or prickles of the hog. Put in two currants for the eyes.
Parkinson , Eleanor.
The Complete Confectioner , Pastry-cook , and Baker.
Phila: 1844
©2012 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com
