Jumbles were traditionally shaped in intricate loop or knot patterns, usually of rolled out dough.

[1] Later, especially in the United States, jumbles referred to a thin crisp cake or cookie[2] using lemon-peel as a flavoring agent.

The only moisture in the recipe is the creamed butter and "a scant cupful of milk or enough to make a stiff dough about like pie crust".

[4] A recipe for "Almond Jumballs" is known from 1694, made by combining ground almond with orange flower water or rose water, then adding sugar syrup, dry sugar and egg whites.

They were brushed with lemon juice or rose water for enhanced flavor and very gently baked, with the caution that "it is best to sett them on something that they may not touch the bottome of the Oven.

An 18th-century recipe from The Compleat Housewife is made by beating three egg whites with milk, flour, sugar and caraway seeds into a stiff paste.