Lady Arundel's Manchet is a traditional version of a manchet

Manchet

Manchet, or manchette or michette , is a wheaten yeast bread of very good quality, or a small flat circular loaf of same. It was a bread that was small enough to be held in the hand or glove .-History:...

, a traditional English yeast bread

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...

 from Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

 England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

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The recipe for Lady Arundel's Manchet was first published in 1653 according to Elizabeth David. It was a luxurious bread eaten by the medieval aristocracy and remained popular into the Restoration period. A recipe appears in A True Gentlewoman's Delight (1653) printed for the Countess of Kent.

Lady Arundel's Manchets crossed the Atlantic to Virginia with the early colonists according to Katherine E Harbury.

Florence White also references Lady Arundel's Manchet's in her 1932 English Cookery book Good Things in England, publishing a description of a 1676 recipe and updating it for a contemporary readership.

Manchets were often used as part of other dishes. For example, a recipe for a baked pudding that incorporates manchet is included in "Things Not Generally Known, Familiarly Explained," citing The Queene's Royal Cookbook of 1713. This is a rich pudding that includes double cream, the addition of beef suet and added aromatics such as nutmeg

Nutmeg

The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia...

, cinnamon

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...

 and rose water.

Lady Arundel's Manchets are rarely made today. Manchets generally ceased to appear in English cookery books after 1800. The closest similar yeast bread is probably a Bath bun

Bath bun

The Bath bun is a rich, sweet yeast dough shaped round that has a lump of sugar baked in the bottom and more crushed sugar sprinkled on top after baking...

 or a Sally Lunn bun

Sally Lunn bun

A Sally Lunn is a type of yeast bread originating from Bath in the West Country of England, the recipe for which is said to have arrived with a French émigrée in the 17th century. It is often lightly scented with lemon, and is traditionally served sliced horizontally, spread with butter or whipped...

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