Year: c. 892
Length: 47 pages
This short but sternly instructive volume, believed to have been written shortly after the famous incident in which Alfred, distracted by matters of state, allowed a peasant woman’s cakes to scorch, lays out the king’s uncompromising rules for achieving a morally upright cake.
Alfred devotes an entire chapter to the “Correct Temperature of Regal Ovens,” insisting the fire must be “hot enough to inspire diligence yet cool enough to preserve humility.” He further outlines the appropriate posture when checking one’s cakes (“a slight bow of apology to the memory of past failures”) and includes a table of baking times depending on the baker’s level of contrition.
A commonly quoted line:
“Let no king, reeve, nor common man turn his back upon a baking cake, lest he learn again the bitterness of distraction.”
Though circulation was limited, the text survived in scattered monastic copies. Culinary historians agree it is the earliest known attempt by a reigning monarch to legislate kitchen temperature.
