Here, kitty, kitty! This pan or Cat’s Tongue Plaque from a past QBO sale was made by venerable English cookware company Tala. Founded in 1899 by Frederick Taylor and Thomas Law, the company was called Taylor Law & Co Ltd, but in the 1920s its founders names were combined as ‘Tala’ by Thomas Law’s son, Frank. It is thus hard to date this pan because the British owned and operated company has been producing for so long and is still going strong. But, we can say the that design of this pan is not British, it’s (horrors) French! It’s for making “Langue de Chat” (Cat’s Tongues), so-called because of their long, flat shape. (You can see it, right? Lick, lick!)
“Langue de Chat” cookies originated in France in the 17th Century after refined flour became more available, along with white sugar from cane grown in the colonized Caribbean. Additional exotic flavorings might include vanilla or even chocolate, both from the Spanish conquest of Mexico, or citrus from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, or spices from the Indonesia. The simplest rendition is a plain, crunchy vanilla cookie, but they’re also frequently made with one end dipped in chocolate. In Europe it’s also common to sandwich two Cat’s Tongues with a filling of chocolate ganache, jam or cream. In France, they are served alongside ice cream.
Widespread throughout European, each country has kept the amusing name: in Czechoslovakia they are called “Kočičí Jazýčky”, in the Netherlands “Kattentong”, in Poland “Kocie Języczki”, in Germany “Katzenzungen”, in Hungary “Macskanyelv”, and in Romania “Limbă de Pisică”. Italy, Portugul and Spain use almost names phonetically identical, “Lingua di Gatto”, “Língua de Gato” and “Lengua de Gato”. Because they appeared during European colonization, they spread widely and are popular in Indonesia, “Lidah Kucing” and the Phillipines ” Lengua de Gato”. In the Canary Islands, the cookie is served with Bienmesabe, a Moorish-influenced dessert. The Cat’s Tongue has leapt beyond its origins in other ways, too, in Japan “ラング・ド・シャ”, “Rangu do Sha” doesn’t signify a specific shape, it refers to a European-style sandwich cookie. In Austria and Hungary the mutation went the other way, retaining the shape but losing the cookie. Made since the 1880s, “Macskanyelv” chocolate bars come in milk, dark, and white.
These next pans make one of the most famous sweets in literary history, the Madeleine. More cake than cookie, Madeleines stale quickly, so it’s best to devour them quickly (easily done!). First made in Commercy in northeastern France, local lore claims the cakes are named after their inventor, Madeleine Paulmier, who served them to the Duke of Lorraine in 1755. Their scallop-shell shape references the apostle Saint James, who performed a healing miracle with a scallop shell, so scallop shells are traditionally hung over beds, on doors, and over wells to purify water. Christians traveling the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) to his shrine in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain are given scallop shells to remember their pilgrimage by. That’s also how this scallop shell cake gets its claim to fame, as a trigger for memories. Prolific French author Marcel Proust (1871–1922) spent much of his childhood in Combray, where Madeleine were also made. In his autobiographical seven-part novel “Remembrance of Things Past”, the narrator, who has neither drunk tea nor eaten a Madeleine in many years, accepts both while visiting his mother. Upon tasting the long-lost flavor of a Madeleine dunked in lime-blossom tea, he is instantly and viscerally transported back to his forgotten boyhood, and Combray, and the time spent with his beloved Aunt. The evocative passage is too long to include, but maybe you’d like to read it with a cookie and a cup of tea.
www.dailygood.org/story/2136/the-madeleine-excerpt-from-remembrance-of-things-past-marcel-proust/
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!