Plooyen Van Poitou

"Take a large earthenware bowl with freshly milked milk, strain it, and put it in another bowl with a pint of cream freshly skimmed from the milk: stir it all together, and let it stand for half a day in a cool place; after that, you should set the bowl on a small charcoal fire, but make sure it cannot boil; then put it for another half hour in a cool place. After six hours, set it on the fire again for another half hour, remove it, and let it cool again, then six hours later, set it again on the fire and let it cool after that. From this you will have a ‘Plooy’ or ‘Vlade’ of three fingers thick and very delicate; you should lift it out with a table knife and sprinkle it with sugar: but be careful not to break it by moving the earthenware bowl."

Recipes of early 18th-century Holland were written in semi-formal, instructive prose. They assumed the reader was adept in both kitchen judgement and managing variable fire. Spelling often varied: 'kom' (bowl), 'kool-vuurtje' (little coal fire), and 'ploo(y)' (fold or cream layer), reflecting evolving Dutch orthography. Instructions were sequential but without explicit times or temperatures, instead relying on physical cues—thus the repetition of warming/cooling cycles, and warnings about not stirring or agitating the vessel.