pastries-msg – 5/4/08
Medieval pastries. Recipes.
NOTE: See also the files: Period-Pies-art, bread-msg, breadmaking-msg, ovens-msg, cookies-msg, gingerbread-msg, desserts-msg, Rosquillas-msg, cuskynoles-msg, pastry-logs-msg.
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Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Wed, 04 Jun 1997 17:55:13 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Regional cooking
ND Wederstrandt wrote:
> What's a cuskynole?
A cuskynole is a kind of filled pastry: various fresh and dried fruits
mixed with chopped nuts are wrapped in what might be a pasta dough,
parboiled and then roasted on a gridiron. I suspect they would be
something like a cross between Fig Newtons and Chinese fried dumplings.
Recipe is in one of the 14th-century English prototypes of The Forme of
Cury, called Diversa Servicia. The language is pretty obscure when
compared to the more modern Forme of Cury, so even though there is a
diagram, I'm not sure how the filling is wrapped or sealed. I suspect
they are either done as square ravioli or as triangular turnovers, but
can't be sure.
Adamantius
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 00:58:03 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: cuskynoles (was Re: SC - Regional cooking)
>As for me, it's those durned cuskynoles that I'm losing sleep over!
>
>Adamantius
The only recipe in the entire medieval corpus that comes with an
illustration, and he's still not happy with it.
The relevant part of my interpretation (from the Miscellany) is:
Roll out as two 12"x15" sheets. Cut each sheet into 10 6"x3" pieces. Spread
1 T of filling on one piece and put another piece over it, making a
sandwich of dough, filling, dough. Using the back of a thick knife, press
the edges together to seal them, then press along the lines shown in the
figure, giving a 6"x3" "cake" made up of fifteen miniature fruit filled
ravioli, joined at their edges. Boil about 4 minutes, then broil at a
medium distance from the burner about 4 minutes a side, watching to be sure
they do not burn.
That is at least consistent with the picture.
David/Cariadoc
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 1997 09:00:04 -0400
Subject: Re: cuskynoles (was Re: SC - Regional cooking)
david friedman wrote:
> >As for me, it's those durned cuskynoles that I'm losing sleep over!
> >
> >Adamantius
>
> The only recipe in the entire medieval corpus that comes with an
> illustration, and he's still not happy with it.
Yeah, some people are never satisfied ; ).
> The relevant part of my interpretation (from the Miscellany) is:
>
> Roll out as two 12"x15" sheets. Cut each sheet into 10 6"x3" pieces. Spread
> 1 T of filling on one piece and put another piece over it, making a
> sandwich of dough, filling, dough. Using the back of a thick knife, press
> the edges together to seal them, then press along the lines shown in the
> figure, giving a 6"x3" "cake" made up of fifteen miniature fruit filled
> ravioli, joined at their edges. Boil about 4 minutes, then broil at a
> medium distance from the burner about 4 minutes a side, watching to be sure
> they do not burn.
>
> That is at least consistent with the picture.
That is pretty much what I figured on. The only problem is that the
recipe essentially forces you to indulge in a intuitive speculation: I
am quite familiar with how ravioli is made, but the problem is that the
diagram is really the only clue that the process is very similar. For
instance, no mention is made of a second piece of dough, either as a
12"x15" sheet or as a piece the size of your hand, as I believe the
recipe specifies. So, while they could be made like modern ravioli, they
could also be made as square turnovers 3" on a side, especially since
the recipe states , as well as I can recall, that each cake is a
portion. This could be interpreted as meaning that one piece of dough is
required for each.
Another possibility is that the instructions are given in the wrong
order (which happens occasionally elsewhere) and that the intent is for
the filling to be portioned out on the sheet of dough, then topped with
a second sheet, sealed around the filling, and then cut into portions
along the seals, if we want to take the ravioli comparison to its
logical conclusion.
Also, no mention is made of whether they are turned over in the roasting
process, so they could end up being along the lines of Chinese guo tie,
with one crisp side and one boiled side. I have made them with only one
crisp side and actually prefer them that way, although it's hard to tell
which is intended.
So no, in spite of the diagram, I'm not satisfied, and although your
interpretation makes sense, I think there are other avenues to explore,
which is what I've been doing, instead of (figuratively speaking)
sleeping.
Now if only we could thresh out the whole mosserouns yflorys issue, I
could die a happy man ; ).
Thanks very much for the description!
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 07:54:28 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - cream puff's
Kerry Romano wrote:
> So, I'm confused. Are cream puffs or at least the dough, period?
>
> Linneah
Technically choux paste is what is known as a panada with eggs, which
may have been eaten as some kind of pudding or porridge, since panadas
were originally bread-crumb-based (as the name suggests) porridges. The
idea of using flour instead of bread crumbs is probably at the tail end
of period, which may or may not have much relevance unless you were
thinking of boiling the stuff.
What we are pretty sure of is that baking a flour-based panada with eggs
so that it puffs up dramatically is apparently an eighteenth-century
innovation.
Puff pastry (as in laminated dough-butter amalgam), by the way, appears
to be period. Recipes appear in several English sources from the late
16th century on, and there are some earlier ambiguous recipes and
references to a pastry similar to it in some Andalusian and Spanish
sources, I believe, which seem to keep it pretty distinct from what we
call phyllo dough or barrak.
Summary: Choux paste or cream puff / eclair paste, which is really a
batter, is probably not period for practical purposes. Puff pastry dough
almost certainly is (I just found a reference to it in the Forme of
Cury, under the name Payn Puff).
Everything you never wanted to know about it...; )
Adamantius
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 21:33:54 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - pie beans?
Mark Harris wrote:
> What are *pie beans*? Are these some kind of special synthetic bean-like
> item made for this purpose? Or do you mean just use a pile of uncooked
> beans?
Pie beans are either any dried beans, or small aluminum pellets that are
made specifically for the purpose of putting into an empty pie shell to
help hold its shape, and hold its bottom down flat while it bakes, since
modern shortcrust pastry (which is what most piecrusts are today) has a
tendency to puff up a bit, and sometimes quite a lot, while baking, if
our friend gravity isn't kind to us. You can buy the aluminum ones (at
least I THINK they're aluminum) in the supermarket, a baking supply
store, or a five-and-dime. Regular beans come from the supermarket.
Either type is sometimes used in conjunction with an empty pie plate,
which you put inside your pie shell, and then weight down with the
beans.
> What was the medieval solution since they didn't use pie pans? Or was
> their pie dough different enough that it didn't puff up? Or did they
> not pre-cook the crust as in this redaction?
They did use pie pans, apparently, at least some of the time. The
frequent instruction is to make a coffin (a pie shell) in a trap (a pie
plate of some kind).
We're not too sure what their pie dough was like, as there are very few
period pastry recipes, especially in English, but based on its apparent
behavior, it was probably a variant on the hot-water-and lard pastry you
find English meat pies are generally made from, but often with the
addition of egg yolks, probably added during the kneading, to avoid
their being cooked by the hot lard and water. This type of pastry puffs
up a bit, but not as much as the types in which the shortening is rolled
or rubbed in, such as short crust or puff pastry, which have built-in
air pockets that are lovely places for steam to puff up the dough. Also
medieval pies were apparently baked longer, at somewhat lower
temperatures, that modern ones, so the effect would be less drastic.
Some recipes do call for the pie crust to be prebaked (they usually call
for the crust to be baked until it is hard), but many more do not. In
any case the recipes don't seem to allow for the pastry puffing up
unintentionally, so either it didn't happen, or the solution was so
obvious to period cooks it bore no mention. I honestly don't know which,
though.
Adamantius
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 16:07:27 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - pickled fruit
>Bear wrote:
>>>I'll set up a rum pot this weekend in preparation for the holidays.
>This should make my fruit cakes and stollen even better.
>
>Could you share with us your recipe for stollen? And (just to stay on
>topic<g>) does anyone know the origin and age of same, or a similar period
>item?
>
>Caitlin, who loves stollen
I'll have to find the battered old recipe box, but I'll be happy to post
at least one of my stollen recipes. I have several, but two which I use
with any frequency.
There is a recipe for Banbury Cakes in Gervase Markham, The English
Hous-wife. While this is not stollen, it is a rich yeast bread of
similar composition and spicing. The chief difference is that the
Banbury Cake has the fruit kneaded into the dough and in my favorite
stollen, brown sugar and fruit are rolled in the center of three rolls
of dough and are braided.
If I can find it, I'll post that recipe also.
Bear
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 21:32:40 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: SC - Banbury Cakes and Stollen
I haven't made the Banbury Cakes, but they look interesting. I think
there is a slightly different recipe in Elizabeth David's, English Bread
and Yeast Cookery. When I get around to experimenting, I'll use David's
redaction to compare to the one listed here.
The Banbury Cakes are closer to a recipe I have for Dresden Stollen,
than they are to this version of Weinachtsstollen. However, this is one
of the two versions I make with any regularity.
Banbury Cakes
Recipe By : Gervase Markham, The English Hous-wife
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
- -------- ------------ --------------------------------
3/4 cup light cream
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package yeast
1/4 cup tepid water
2 egg
1 egg white
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon mace
4 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1/3 cup currants
3 tablespoons sugar, confectioner's
1 tablespoon milk
1 dash anise extract
1. In a saucepan, scald cream. Add butter, sugar and salt. Stir to
dissolve. Pour mixture into a large bowl and cool to lukewarm.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water.
Lightly beat eggs and egg white together.
3. Add yeast, eggs, and spices to cream mixture.
4. In a large bowl, combine 4 cups of flour and currants, stirring
until currants are lightly coated.
5. Add flour and currants to cream mixture. Knead until dough is
smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary.
6. Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover with a clean, moistened towel,
and set bowl in a warm place for dough to rise until doubled in bulk.
This will take about 1 1/2 hours.
7. Punch down dough; then knead it again for an additional few minutes.
8. Shape dough into 14-16 2 1/2-inch balls and place them on a greased
cookie sheet.
9. Cover "cakes" with a towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
10. Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees about 25 minutes or until
tops are golden.
11. Remove cakes from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.
Optional: Mix confectioner's sugar, milk and anise extract
12. Frost with icing, if you wish.
Redaction by Sass, Lorna K.; To the Queen's Taste, pp. 114-115.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NOTES : To make a very good Banbury Cake. Take four pounds of Currants,
and wash and picke them very cleane, and dry them in a cloth: then take
three egges and put away one yolke and beate them, and straine them with
good barme, putting thereto cloves, mace, cinamon and nutmegges: then
take a pinte of creame, and as much mornings milke and set it on the
fire until the cold bee taken away: then take flower and put in good
store of cold butter and suger. Then put in your egges, barme and meale
and worke them all together an houre or more: then save a part of the
past, and the rest breake in peeces and worke in your currants: which
done, mould your cake of what quantity you please: and then with that
past which hath not any currants cover it very thin both underneath and
aloft. And so bake it according to the bignesse.
From Gervase Markham, The English Hous-wife, as taken from Sass, Lorna
J., To the Queen's Taste; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976.
Weinachtsstollen (Christmas Bread)
Recipe By :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
- -------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup candied fruit
1/2 cup hazelnuts, chopped
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast, dry active
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
2 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon, ground
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar, confectioner's
2 tablespoons water
If desired, soak fruit in rum or brandy for 1 hour.
Mix 1 cup flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
Warm milk and butter in a sauce pan to approximately 120 degrees F.
Beat milk into flour mixture.
Add eggs to the mixture and beat. While beating, add enough flour to
make a soft dough.
Knead dough for 5 to 10 minutes.
Place dough in a lightly greased bowl. Let rise until doubled (about 2
hours).
Punch down dough. Turn out on a lightly floured board.
Split dough into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rectangle 5 x
18 inches. Do not roll too thin.
Brush melted butter onto each rectangle.
Mix cinnamon and nutmeg together. Sprinkle spice mix lightly onto the
buttered rectangles.
Sprinkle brown sugar onto the buttered rectangles.
Beginning about 1" in from the ends, place the fruit and nuts down the
center of the rectangles.
Fold the sides over the fruit filling, so that they overlap and press
the dough together to seal.
Place the three rolls on a greased baking sheet.
Press one end of the rolls together. Twist the rolls to form a braid.
Press the free ends together to finish the braid.
Brush the top of the loaf with melted butter.
Cover and let rise until doubled.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake until golden brown, approximately
25 minutes.
After the loaf is cool, glaze it.
Mix confectioner's sugar and water to make the glaze just before
spreading.
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 09:48:21 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: SC - Zitronenkuchen der Fugger
While this recipe alleges to be from the Fugger family of medieval
bankers, there was no provenance or original text provided.
I have found that rolling the dough thin and baking it to a hard,
cracker-like shell produces a better end product. This was an accident
of my oven over heating. I have not tried to reproduce this accident in
my new oven.
I suspect that the butter in the dough may be a "modernization" of the
original.
Bear
Zitronenkuchen der Fugger
Recipe By :
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :1:00
Categories : German Medieval
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
- -------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 1/2 Cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
6 ounces almonds, ground
2/3 cup sugar
1 lemon rind, grated
2 lemons, juice of
2 ounces almond slivers
1 Tablespoon water
1 egg white
or
2 ounces milk
Sift flour and salt in a bowl.
Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add egg and egg yolk. Mix to form dough.
Refrigerate dough for 15 minutes.
Mix ground almonds, sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice for the filling.
Divide dough. Roll out half into a thin circle.
Place dough in a 10 inch tart or springform pan. Form a 3/4 inch rim.
Prick dough with a fork in several places.
Spread filling evenly in the pastry shell.
Roll out second half of dough into a thin circle. Place atop filling.
Crimp the edges of the top and bottom pastry shells to seal. Prick
decorative patterns into the dough with a fork if desired.
Brush cake with milk or with egg wash.
Sprinkle on the slivered almonds and press gently into the dough.
Bake for 40 minutes in preheated oven at 350 degrees F.
Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NOTES : Make the dough parchment thin.
Try baking this at 400.
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 12:12:51 SAST-2
From: "Ian van Tets" <IVANTETS at botzoo.uct.ac.za>
Subject: SC - Puff pastry, sturgeon and mandrake
Antoine - there is a recipe for Payn Puff, which I will try to post
later, in Furnivall's Early English Meals and Manners. It's in the
footnotes somewhere. Prima facie, it looked just like normal puff
pastry, but I will try to get it to you.
Cairistiona
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 23:23:42 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: *puff pastry* (was Unit alert! was: SC - Long-Period food, bread, etc.)
Now the easy way ... .
Preparation of Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy]
Andalusian p. A-60 - A-61
Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough without yeast.
Moisten it little by little and don't stop kneading it until it relaxes and
is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without severing
it. Then put it in a new frying pan on a moderate fire. When the pan has
heated, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on marble or a
board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter liquified over
water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then
twist it and beat it with your palm until it becomes like a round thin
bread, and if you want, fold it over also. Then roll it out and beat it
with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. Then put it
in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying pan with clarified
butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with butter]
little by little, and turn it around until it binds, and then take it away
and make more until you finish the amount you need. Then pound them between
your palms and toss on butter and boiling honey. When it has cooled, dust
it with ground sugar and serve it.
[end of the original]
2 c semolina flour 1/4 c clarified butter for frying 1/4 c
butter at the end
aprox 5/8 c water 1 T+ sugar 1/4 c honey at the end (or more)
1/4 c = 1/8 lb butter, melted
Stir the water into the flour, knead together, then gradually knead in the
rest of the water. Knead for about 5-10 minutes until you have a smooth,
elastic and slightly sticky dough that stretches instead of breaking when
you pull it a little. Divide in four equal parts. Roll out on a floured
board, or better floured marble, to at least 13"x15". Smear it with about 4
t melted butter. Roll it up. Twist it. Squeeze it together, flatten with
your hands to about a 5-6" diameter circle. If you wish, fold that in
quarters and flatten again to about a 5-6" circle. Melt about 1 T of
clarified butter in a frying pan and fry the dough about 8 minutes, turning
about every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (shorter times towards the end). Repeat with
the other three, adding more clarified butter as needed. Melt 1/4 c butter,
heat 1/4 c honey. Beat the cooked circles between your hands to loosen the
layers, put in a bowl, pour the honey and butter over them, dust with
sugar, and serve. If you are going to give it time to really soak, you
might use more butter and honey.
- ---
I have done this at both Pennsic and thirty year. Unlike the Frankish
versions described by others, it does not require an oven--not even a dutch
oven. It gives you a puff pastry like effect--i.e. many very thin, crisp
layers, although not identical to puff pastry--as a frying pan pastry.
David Friedman
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 20:50:55 -0600 (CST)
From: jeffrey s heilveil <heilveil at students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: SC - SC-SHORT BREAD AS PERIOD
Whilst planning this dessert feast, I stumbled across a seemingly period
shortbread. The deal is that it was called "fine cakes." The source is
taming of the Shrew (1594)
To make fine cakes Take a quantity of fine wheate Flower, and put it in
an earthen pot. Stop it close and set it in an Oven, and bake it as long
as you would a pasty of Venison, and when it baked it will be full of
clods. Then searce your flower through a fine sercer. Then take clouted
Creame or sweet butter, but Creame is best: then take sugar, cloves, mace,
saffron and yolks of eggs, so much as wil seeme to season your flower.
Then put these things into the Creame, temper all together. Then put
thereto your flower. So make your cakes. The paste will be very short;
therefore make them very little. Lay paper under them. (John Partridge
[The widowes Treasure] in Lorna J. Sass's "To the Queen's Taste)
Her redaction is as follows:
6oz butter (room temp)
.5 cup sugar
1 egg yolk, beaten
1.75 C sifted flour
.5 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp mace
pinch ground saffron
Egg white
1. In a bowl, cream butter. Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
2. Add egg yolk and beat until thoroughly blended.
3. In another bowl, combine sifted flour and spices, stirring to
distribute evenly.
4. Sift dry ingredients into bowl containing butter-and-sugar mixture.
Combine by stirring or with hands.
5. Press mixture into a 9-in square baking pan.
6. Brush top lightly with egg white.
7. Bake at 325 for 45min or until cake feels firm when pressed lightly in
the center.
8. Cut into squares while still hot.
9. cool in pan on wire rack.
I was told this redaction is tasty too. I don't know if this helps,
but...
Your servant,
Bogdan din Brasov
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 00:52:51 -0600 (CST)
From: jeffrey s heilveil <heilveil at students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: SC - More on Shortbread
I wish to make a minor addition to the previous note I sent out on the
Shortbread. Having just been loaned the book tonight I had not tried the
shortbread. Upon arriving home, I was able to make it in about an hour
and 20 minutes, and with the luck of cold weather, cool it quickly. The
Shortbread is wonderful, and I highly recommend the recipie.
Your servant,
Bogdan din Brassov
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 14:33:03 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - SC-SHORT BREAD AS PERIOD
>Whilst planning this dessert feast, I stumbled across a seemingly period
>shortbread. The deal is that it was called "fine cakes." The source is
>taming of the Shrew (1594)
>To make fine cakes Take a quantity of fine wheate Flower, and put it in
<snip>
Sass's adaption may make a perfectly fine short bread, but it really
doesn't match what the recipe says.
First, the flour is baked. This should coagulate the gluten, so that
when the flour is sifted, it will become granular and remain roughly
granular in any dough into which it is mixed.
Second, the spices are mixed into the sugar combined with egg yolks and
creamed into the butter or clotted cream. A modern version would
probably use 2 cups of the spiced sugar to 1 cup of butter and a couple
of egg yolks. I've never worked with clotted cream, but I suspect it is
more liquid than butter and will use more dry ingredients and blend the
flavors better.
Third, the flour is then added to the creamed mixture to form a paste.
For the modern version I postulated, this would be approximately 2 cups,
depending on the quality and dryness of the flour. The flour is added
primarily to thicken the dough and reduce the surface butter fat.
Personally, I would work in flour enough to make a ball of dough that
doesn't slump and leave it at that.
Fourth, the recipe says nothing about glazing the cakes, but I would
consider that a matter of choice.
Fifth, the recipe says nothing about baking these, but I would.
Probably 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. I
would expect the result to be a somewhat crumbly spice cookie.
This is a fairly simple recipe, so I think I'll give it a try over the
next few days, time permitting.
Bear
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 20:52:08 -0500
From: dangilsp at intrepid.net (Dan Gillespie)
Subject: SC - pumpkin pie redaction
To add to all the tantalizing recipes that folks have offered from their
holiday cooking experiments, here's one that I made for an appetizer for
Thanksgiving dinner from the 1607 Arte de Cozina.
On an English empanada of pumpkin
Take the pumpkin & clean it very well, & cast it to cook, & after it
is well cooked, take & cast it on a board; & then drain off any water, that
it remains quite dry, & take parsely & mint & onion in large quantity, & fry
it all in fat, & chopped garlic, very well fried, & cast it all in the
pumpkin after you have it well dried, mixing everything, the onion with the
others, parsley & mint & chopped garlic, mixing everything with the pumpkin;
& take verjuice & spices, clove, pepper & saffron, & nutmeg well ground, &
salt, because pumpkin is by its nature insipid, & when you have seasoned it
well with the spices & verjuice; so that it is sweet & sour, take the eggs
that seem right to you, & beat them very well, & cast them to the pumpkin, &
put it in a casserole, & put it on the fire, & put fire below & on top, as
you would cook a sauce (of pounded nuts & spices) & take & make "french
toast" (bread dipped in egg or wine with sugar & fried in oil), & have your
dough kneaded with fat & eggs & white wine & sugar & let the dough be fine,
& then stretch your dough, & put your chunks & strips of bacon, & marrow &
yolks, & cast enough sourness, & make your pastry, & cook it with a small
fire, & give it a crust of eggs & sugar, as with meat pastries. And it is a
highly regarded dish, if you know how to make it.
Pumpkin Pie Turnovers
Take 1/2 a large butternut squash, & peel, seed & chop it in cubes; about 3
cups cubed squash. Boil the squash in a little water for 10 minutes, or
til tender. Drain it in a colander. Saute 4 medium onions in 2 Tbsp of
olive oil, til they are browned. Add 3 cloves of minced garlic & saute with
the onions for a few minutes. Add 3 Tbsp minced parsley & 1 Tbsp finely
minced fresh mint leaves & saute a minute longer. Add onion mixture to the
pumpkin. Stir in 1/4 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp verjuice (or to taste), 1/2 tsp
pepper, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, & 2 tsp honey (to make it sweet &
sour). Beat 2 eggs & mix this into the pumpkin mixture & stir it all well.
The pumpkin should be mostly mashed.
I made a plain pie crust recipe to make individual turnovers. I cut
squares about 4 or 5 inches on a side & filled with 2 or 3 teaspoons of the
filling. I put a small piece of turkey ham on top of the pumpkin filling;
cooked bacon or ham would also work. Moisten 2 edges of the square with
water, fold the extra dough over & seal the edges to form a triangle. Bake
at 400 for 10 or 15 minutes. I made about one dozen turnovers & used the
rest of the filling to make a one crust pie. Overall, it took about 3 or 4
single batches of pie dough to make all of the pastries.
I was not quite sure what the pieces french toast were supposed to
do in the recipe, so left that out. I also skipped the sugar coating on the
pastries, as this was for a mundane dinner. Similarly, the marrow slices &
egg yolks were omitted. I am not sure whether the egg yolks are raw or
cooked. Sliced egg yolk might be decorative & would seem to go along with
the sliced bone marrow. I did not feel taht it was necessary to prebake the
pumpkin & egg mixture before inserting it in the pie dough.
All thoughts on this redaction are most welcome.
Antoine
Dan Gillespie
dangilsp at intrepid.net
Dan_Gillespie at usgs.gov
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 14:16:22 -0600 (CST)
From: jeffrey s heilveil <heilveil at students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - A bit bland...
On 12 Dec 1997, Marisa Herzog wrote:
> <snip>
> I have recently whipped up an almond tart, which is remarkably period,
> <snip>
>
> RECIPE?! please, please!!!
> -brid
Okay, first off, the peach perserves did the trick [as a topping],
and the thing is
edible, and even tasty. Thank you to all for your assistance. For the
recipe I worked mainly from the original, but I will put the redaction
with it. Once again it is from "To the Queen's Taste", by Lorna Sass.
The recipe itself is out of The good Huswives handmaid, which is 1588.
To make a tart of almonds Blanch almonds and heat them, and strain them
fine with good thicke Creame. Then put in Sugar and Rosewater, and boyle
it thicke. Then make your paste with butter, fair water, and the yolks of
two or three Egs, and so soone as ye have driven your paste, cast on a
little sugar, and rosewater, and harden your paste afore in the oven.
Then take it out and fill it, and set it in againe, and let it bake till
it be wel, and so serve it.
"Paste":
1/4 # butter
1 1/2 C flour
egg yolk
Ice water,
Teaspoon confectioners sugar,
teaspoon rosewater
mix, cool for an hour on wax paper, after it is shaped into a ball, then
roll in the paper, and transfer to the pie plate, then removing the paper.
Tart:
1 1/2 C blanched almonds, coarsely ground
1 1/2 C heavy cream
1 tbs + 1tsp sugar
4 tsp Rosewater
Bake paste at 425 for 10 min, then reduce to 350 and bake an additional 5
minutes. Let cool.
Combine ingredients in a heavy saucepan, boil gently for ten minutes,
stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens to the consistency of a
pudding.
Fill paste.
Bakea t 350 for 30min or until top is golden
Cool on wire rack, refrigerate for at least two hours.
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 16:20:44 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - A bit bland...
><snip>
>
>Tart:
>1 1/2 C blanched almonds, coarsely ground
>1 1/2 C heavy cream
>1 tbs + 1tsp sugar
>4 tsp Rosewater
>
><snip>
>
>That doesn't seem like very much sugar for that much nuts and cream? Most of
>the nut pie recipes I have made or seen would hav closer to a qtr or half cup
>of sugar, if not more. That might help with the blandness a bit, tho the
>addition of jam sounds quite good too.
>thanks for the recipe.
>-brid
I think you are correct about the sugar, but I would start with the
above measures and sweeten it to taste. Since the filling is cooked to
thicken it before baking, small amounts of sugar can be stirred into the
filling as it cooks. Taste testing will let Bogdan decide when to stop
adding sugar and determine if more rosewater needs to be added.
Bear
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 13:16:33 +0000 (GMT)
From: Daniel Serra <lzu97ds at reading.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: SC - pie crusts--??
Piecrust...I seem to remeber a rather easy recipe from "the medieval
cookbook" Maggie black
225 g of flour
65 g butter
40 g lard
mix them together, add water until the right texture is achieved
bake for about 20 min in ~200 Celsius....with dried peas to keep the
bottoom from rising , take out remove peas...another 5 minutes at 160
degrees
(that is if you shall add the filling after the crust is baked)
Daniel Serra (No SCA-member, but interested in cooking of this period)
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 13:06:40 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - pie crusts--??
>Does anyone have a pie-pastry recipe? If I'm planning to learn how to
>make meatpies, I'd like to have one, especially for the ones that call
>for a pastry on top of the pie. Merci beaucoup!
>
>Isabelle de Foix
>College of Misty Mere
>Kingdom of Meridies
Off the top of my head, basic pie dough is a 3-2-1 dough; three measures
of flour to two measures of fat to one measure of liquid.
So to do this, cut 2 cups of flour into 1 1/3 cups of shortening
(butter, lard, etc.). I usually use a dinner fork to stir the mix (the
tines cut through the shortening and force the flour into it), but there
are tools specifically designed for this. The result should look like a
bunch of large crumbs. Add 2/3 cup of water and work the dough until it
forms a ball.
If the dough won't stick together in ball, add a little more water
(about a tablespoon at a time). If the dough sticks to the bowl, add a
little more flour (no more than 1/4 cup at a time).
Most pie doughs are variations on this theme; changing the ratios of the
ingredients slightly, adding eggs or spices, using milk for the liquid.
Bear
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 01:23:29 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - pie crusts--??
At 12:52 AM -0500 12/16/97, MISS PATRICIA M HEFNER wrote:
>Does anyone have a pie-pastry recipe?
Let me answer on a tangent, by asking a different question:
Does anyone have good information on when medieval pie crusts were pastry
(i.e. a dough with significant amounts of shortening) and when they were
basically flour/water (like a pizza crust) or something else? My impression
is that while you may occasionally get instructions for the crust, most of
the recipes simply tell you to make a coffin or whatever. We do most of
ours as pastry, but I have a strong suspicion that many should be
flour/water--perhaps all that do not specify additional ingredients. The
earliest explicit pastry shell recipe that comes to mind is, I believe,
16th century.
David/Cariadoc
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 17:38:08 -0600
From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr at ptd.net>
Subject: SC - Pie Pastry
>>Does anyone have a pie-pastry recipe?
>
>Let me answer on a tangent, by asking a different question:
>
>Does anyone have good information on when medieval pie crusts were pastry
>(i.e. a dough with significant amounts of shortening) and when they were
>basically flour/water (like a pizza crust) or something else? My impression
>is that while you may occasionally get instructions for the crust, most of
>the recipes simply tell you to make a coffin or whatever. We do most of
>ours as pastry, but I have a strong suspicion that many should be
>flour/water--perhaps all that do not specify additional ingredients. The
>earliest explicit pastry shell recipe that comes to mind is, I believe,
>16th century.
>
>David/Cariadoc
I have found that most of the manuscripts consulted for original recipes
contain recipes for BOTh tarts and Pies. My observations of the pastry
phenomenon in English cooking manuscripts goes something like this:
In general (and there are plenty of holes in the theory)--
A recipe that calls for raising a coffin or shaping a paste will require a
stiff coffin-type dough that is capable of standing on it's own, even when
filled with the fairly stiff and heavy fillings of that era. In general, the
earlier one looks, the more frequently one finds recipes encased in free
standing pastry (I believe it is because of the general expensiveness of
using tart tins---it is far cheaper to cok a dish that requires no container
whatsoever. Tins, like any other cooking utensil, do wear out, and in the
case of metal pie pans my observance is that the cutting in the tin serves
to hasten it's demise). In addition, Self-enclosed foods are handy, and keep
for longer periods of time.
These foods are Pies (Pyes, etc..). I use a stiff hot-water based pastry
since I have never found a period recipe for coffin-dough, and I use salted
butter, which hardens nicely, giving the pastry additional strength. The
practice of stiff doughed, free standing pies continues to this day. I have
a copy of an 18th century newspaper account of a "raised" game-pie baked so
large that a platform with wheels was made to ship it to London by train,
where it was unloaded and later served at a dinner gathering, being wheeled
around to the guests, who helped themselves to the parts they wished.
Tarts (tartes, etc...), on the other hand, are mostly made with
short-pastry, and the pastry lines a tin or pan of some sort. Taillevant has
a recipe for Parma Tarts which are raised, however, but do not have a lid.
Most of the tart recipes I have come across in English/French manuscripts do
not contain red meat unless it is left-over or cut-up, pre-cooked, or
hashed. They usually do not have an upper crust.
So we get to the question of timing----we know both types of pies existed
from the High Middle ages onwards. So the question is this: how early does
the first Tart make an appearance? We know that it is fairly common/standard
in 1375 because of Taillevant. Does anyone have much earlier evidence? Do we
know where it originated in the world? Apecius has a recipe for Ham in
pastry, so we know that pastry existed fairly early. The question remains
whether the pastry was used in pie-shell form early on, and if so, when and
where?
Aoife
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 22:04:23 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - introduction
At 3:55 PM +0000 2/3/98, Yeldham, Caroline S wrote:
>BTW, my area of interest is England and sometimes France - so
>although I use northern European sources I try to avoid southern Europe and
>points south. My period is late 15th century and 16th century.
>There appears to be a big change in pastry in the 16th century. All I can
>find evidence for before is hot water pastry, by the end of the 16th century
>we've even got puff pastry. Does anyone else see this, does anyone know
>why? Has anyone got evidence of anything other than hot water pastry before
>the 16th century.
In my experience of the 14th/15th c. English/French, what the pastry is
usually is not specified. Off hand, I cannot think of any that specify hot
water. One 16th c. recipe that uses butter and does not specify hot water
is:
To Make Short Paest for Tarte
A Proper Newe Book p. 37/C10
Take fyne floure and a curscy of fayre water and a dysche of swete butter
and a lyttel saffron, and the yolkes of two egges and make it thynne and as
tender as ye maye.
One of my interests is Islamic cooking. In the 13th c. sources you get
flour/oil/water pastry (for khushkananaj, for example) and you get
something rather like puff paste (I think; I don't do modern French
cooking) with lots of very thin layers. The recipe is:
Preparation of Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy]
Andalusian p. A-60 - A-61
Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough without yeast.
Moisten it little by little and don't stop kneading it until it relaxes and
is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without severing
it. Then put it in a new frying pan on a moderate fire. When the pan has
heated, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on marble or a
board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter liquified over
water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then
twist it and beat it with your palm until it becomes like a round thin
bread, and if you want, fold it over also. Then roll it out and beat it
with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. Then put it
in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying pan with clarified
butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with butter]
little by little, and turn it around until it binds, and then take it away
and make more until you finish the amount you need. Then pound them between
your palms and toss on butter and boiling honey. When it has cooled, dust
it with ground sugar and serve it.
David/Cariadoc
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 00:03:43 EST
From: Swthrt13 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Maid of Honor Tarts
A couple of days ago, someone was discussing a recipe for "maid of honor"
tarts.......Unfortunately, I do not have the person responsible for this
rendition originally. I purchased a set of 20 recipes at the Kansas City
Renaissance Fair in Sept. 1996. This card was included in the set. None of
the recipes had author or redaction information, and I am re-typing it
verbatim from the card.
Maids of Honor Tarts (sometimes called, Queen of Heaven Tarts)
Introduced into Catherine of Aragon's household by her ladies. The name
"Maids of Honor" is rumored to have been attributed to the Queens' archrival,
Anne Boleyn, who supposedly baked them to please King Henry VIII. The King is
thought to have named them after Anne, maid of honor to Queen Catherine.
20 tartlet shells, done but not brown
1/4 c softened butter
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs (yolks only)
2 tbsp heavy cream
rind of 1/2 lemon, grated
1-1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2/3 c ground, lightly toasted almonds
1/2 c currants
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, then cream
again. Add other ingredients and blend well. Spoon into shells, leaving 1/3
of the shell empty at the top. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes. (Longer if
larger tarts are made.)
* * * * * * * * *
As I said, I have no knowledge of the authenticity or the originality of this,
but I ran across this card looking for other ideas for a feast that I have
coming up the first part of May.
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:22:41 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - Piecrust debate continues...
> From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
> Subject: RE: SC - Cheesecake and Lent
>
> At 1:01 PM -0600 2/22/98, Decker, Terry D. wrote:
> > If you are willing to accept Karen Hess' scholarship that Martha
> >Washington's Booke of Cookery dates to the Elizabethean period, there is a
> >cheesecake recipe (108) using a curded custard filling of a style common to
> >medieval cooking (the recipe is very similar to the one noted above), but
> >uncommon in 17th century cookbooks, which says:
> >
> > "...yn take a quart of fine flowre, & put ye rest of ye butter to it
> >in little bits, with 4 or 5 spoonfulls of faire water, make ye paste of it &
> >when it is well mingled beat it on a table & soe roule it out ..."
>
> I am not sure I see the relevance. At the earliest, the recipe you are
> citing is considerably more than a century after the recipe we are
> discussing, on the other side of a fairly major shift in culinary style.
> Even if the filling is similar, there is no reason to suppose that the
> crust is.
True. The simple fact _appears_ to be that we don't really know in any
detail what medieval pie crusts were made of, although there are a few
hints. The only certainty appears to be that several methods were
employed, and there may have been a logical system for determining which
method was used in given circumstances, but we don't seem to be able to
figure out what it was.
>From various recipes, what we seem to be able to deduce is that medieval
pie crusts were largely used as containers, and even if they were
palatable, they probably weren't eaten much. Some medieval recipes
(although I have no references available just now, so I'm working from
memory) caution that a "paast" should be made tender with yolks of eggs.
Bearing in mind the soft, non-glutinous nature of most Northern European
flours of the period, this doesn't seem too difficult. Egg-yolk pastry
tends to get a bit rubbery at times, but is tasty and easily chewed.
Yolks have enough fat in them to act as an effective shortening given
the low glutein and glutenin content, and certainly are rich enough for
the nabobs above the salt.
I also have a vague recollection of a post-period recipe (probably in
Kenelm Digby) that makes a point of stating that the method uses no
butter, which would indicate that butter was used often in other
recipes. The recipe in question calls for cream instead, added to flour
that had been dried in the oven, which would tend to compensate for the
fact that butter contains less water than cream. There may have been
eggs or egg yolks involved also, but I don't remember for sure. If they
were, the result wouldn't be too far from a modern tart pastry recipe
(although presumably less sweet).
Gervase Markham also talks about pastry crusts, but as I recall, he does
only that: he talks about them, but doesn't give recipes, IIRC.
Basically he tells us what types of flour to use for different types of
pastry. I believe he recommended all-rye flour for certain types of meat
pasties, for example, and whole wheat flour pastry for others. He does,
however, specify, IIRC, puff pastry for tarts, which would presumably
use the method Sir Hugh Plat describes in a slightly earlier source:
essentially a modern method.
> And I thought Karen Hess' claim was only that the earliest recipes in the
> book were Elizabethan--although I haven't checked.
Agreed. Hess doesn't say that the recipes are all late-medieval /
Renaissance, she just says that some of the recipes are probably that
old, based on the likelihood that the manuscript had been passed through
several generations. She goes on to say that some of the dishes seem to
use a more archaic cooking style than some of the others, and that they
may well be part of earlier versions of the corpus. The same argument,
probably with greater justification, is made for Elinor Fettiplace's
Receipt Book. The point is that we don't really know for sure which is
which.
My inclination would be to use a relatively tough container-type pastry
for the early-period Great Pies, and a more tender egg-yolk or
almond-milk paste for chewets and tarts of that period. For later
recipes I'd use a tender tart-like pastry or puff pastry for most
purposes, except perhaps for big showpieces like those enormous venison
pies that are meant to keep for a while.
Then, of course, there's the peri-oid method I've used in the past,
which has gotten excellent results, looking like many of the
illustrations for medieval pies, in other words like a slightly domed
hatbox. For that I made a cylindrical container of hot-water/lard paste,
about 4-6 inches high, and covered the meat filling with a circle of
puff pastry, laid on top but not attached (sealing edges with egg wash
or water tends to limit the puffiness of puff pastry). The resulting pie
is pretty spectacular in appearance, being a cylinder with a high domed
lid, usually around eight inches or more in height.
Adamantius
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:21:54 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: SC - Payne Puff
At 10:11 AM +0000 2/27/98, CHRISTINA van Tets wrote:
>5. Pastry: I did post this some months ago, but it seems that it is
>needed again. Payne puff is mentioned (line 497) in John Russell's
>Book of Nurture (Harl. MS 4011), c. 1452, given in F. J. Furnivall's
>Early English Meals and Manners, Early English Text Society, London,
>1868. His footnote states that the last recipe in the Forme of Cury
>is for payn puff. His quote, unfortunately, does not appear to be
>complete, or to give adequate directions for the pastry. What he
>does provide is this:
> Payn puff, Forme of Cury, # 196
>
> Eodem modo fait payn puff. but make it more tendre 6e past,
>and loke 6e past be rounde of 6e payn puff as a coffyn & as a pye.
>
>Perhaps someone else can help further?
_A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye_ has a recipe for Panne Puffe (p. 27); I
don't know if it is the same thing or not.
Take the stuffe of Stock frytters and for hys paest take a quantitie of ale
and a lytle yest and Suger, Mace and Saffron, than heate it on a
chavyndysche and ut it to youre floure with the yolcke of a rawe agge, and
so after this maner make up your paest.
To Make Stock Frytoures
Take the same stuffe that you take to a vaute and that same paest ye take
for pescoddes, and ye maye frye them or els bake them.
To make Pescoddes
... and make youre paeste as fyne as ye canne, and as shorte and thyn as ye
canne, ...
David/Cariadoc
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 10:04:35 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Payne Puff
> > From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
> >
> > At 10:11 AM +0000 2/27/98, CHRISTINA van Tets wrote:
> > >5. Pastry: I did post this some months ago, but it seems that it is
> > >needed again. Payne puff is mentioned (line 497) in John Russell's
> > >Book of Nurture (Harl. MS 4011), c. 1452, given in F. J. Furnivall's
> > >Early English Meals and Manners, Early English Text Society, London,
> > >1868. His footnote states that the last recipe in the Forme of Cury
> > >is for payn puff. His quote, unfortunately, does not appear to be
> > >complete, or to give adequate directions for the pastry. What he
> > >does provide is this:
> > > Payn puff, Forme of Cury, # 196
> > >
> > > Eodem modo fait payn puff. but make it more tendre 6e past,
> > >and loke 6e past be rounde of 6e payn puff as a coffyn & as a pye.
> > >
> > >Perhaps someone else can help further?
> >
> > _A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye_ has a recipe for Panne Puffe (p. 27); I
> > don't know if it is the same thing or not.
> >
> > Take the stuffe of Stock frytters and for hys paest take a quantitie of
> ale
> > and a lytle yest and Suger, Mace and Saffron, than heate it on a
> > chavyndysche and ut it to youre floure with the yolcke of a rawe agge,
> and
> > so after this maner make up your paest.
>
> Interesting how slight textual variatons can make a big difference. The
> version of FoC in Curye On Inglysch contains the following:
>
> "203. The pety peruaunt...
>
> <I'll omit the filling ingredients for a fairly typical medieval custard
> tart with fruit and marrow>
>
> ...and loke (th)at (th)ou mak (th)y past with (y)olks of ayren 7 (th)at
> no water come (th)erto; and fourme (th)y coffin and make vp (th)y past."
>
> Followed by # 204:
>
> "Eodem modo flat payn puff, but make it more tendre 6e past,
> and loke 6e past be rounde of 6e payn puff as a coffyn & as a pye."
>
> Either meaning, 'in the same way flat payn puff', etc., or 'in the same
> way make payn puf', assuming "flat" to be an error, and that "fait" was
> intended.
>
> Anyway, it's not really clear, for certain, whether any other shortening
> is included. All other things being equal, the only way I can think of
> to make the pastry more tender, without adding shortening or sugar
> (neither of which is mentioned for the pastry) is to add more egg yolks
> (i.e. more liquid and more egg yolk shortening), making the dough
> softer, or else to knead it less, or to knead it to the point where the
> gluten is fully developed and then begins to break down. That's quite a
> bit of kneading...maybe Bear could tell us more about that?
>
> Adamantius
> troy at asan.com
I'm afraid all I can say about over-kneaded, unleavened dough is that it
gets leathery when baked. Since this is a finished product I try to avoid,
I haven't really experimented with it. When working with any kind of pastry
dough, I tend to mix the ingredients and knead only enough to get the
desired consistency, not that I'm any great expert with pastries.
Looking at the egg and flour dough recipe, I wonder if this may not have
been a common, utilitarian dough in the 14th and 15th Centuries. In Maggie
Black's The Medieval Cookbook, she quotes Harleian 279 for a recipe for
Cruste Rolle, which is a griddle cake:
"Cruste Rolle. Take fayre Flowre of whete; nym Eyroun & breke ther-to &
coloure the past with Safroun; rolle it on a borde also thinne as
parchement, rounde a-bowte as an obyle; frye hem and serue forth; and thus
may do in lente but do away with the eyroun, & nym mylke of Almaundys, and
frye hem in Oyle, & then serue forth."
The egg and flour pastry dough would certainly yield a better tasting
product than flour and water. I would also expect a dough that could be
used for boiling, frying or baking, depending on the thickness of the dough
and its contents.
While it is not mentioned in the recipe, another trick that could be used to
make the pastry tender is to add sour cream to the mixture, which would add
semi-liquid and butter fat. Modern pelemi dough uses sour cream in a
standard pastry dough and produces a smooth dough which is easy to roll and
to work. I will add the caveat that I think using sour cream in this manner
is a recent practice, although I would love to be proven wrong.
Bear
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 16:25:40 -0800
From: "Crystal A. Isaac" <crystal at pdr-is.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #639
The herb and cheese pies (quiches) are nice for lunches, as long as you
have a way to transport them. Look in Elizabeth and Cariadoc's Micellany
for reliable ideas. The tart for Ember day is very good. I seem to
recall a really good spinach and cheese pie as well.
You could also try Pastry of Artichokes. For your needs, little turnover
sized pastries might be better than a 9 inch pie. You might consider
reducing the liquid to 1/3 cup if you make individual pie servings.
Pastry of Artichokes is a late-period recipe for a vegetarian pie. I
found it in _Acquired Taste: The French Origins of Modern Cooking_ by T.
Sarah Peterson. Published by Cornell University Press, Ithaca. 1994.
ISBN 0-8014-3053-4. Ms. Peterson cites Cristoforo di Messisbugo's
Banchetti: Compositzioni di vivande e apparecchio generale (1549 CE)
modern edition by F. Bandini. Venice: Pozza, 1960 as her source.
"First make a rectangle of pastry.... Then in the bottoms put butter and
a little pepper, and marzolino (a cheese) cut very, very small. Then you
will have three artichokes almost cooked and well trimmed of their
spikes, with the heart well cleaned off of hay. Put into the pastry
adding pepper, butter and marzolino cut small in the same way. Then take
two egg yolks, two ounces of sugar, and half a cup of verjuice, and a
little bit of fragrant herbs cut fine with knives. Mix everything
together and put into the pastry. Then put on its cover and put to
cook...."
Modern adaptation:
1 nine inch pie crust, plus top crust
2 12oz cans of artichoke hearts, very well drained and chopped
3 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated
2 tablespoons butter, grated (It is easier if you freeze the butter
first.)
2-3 pinches ground black pepper
Sprinkle a layer of cheese and butter on the bottom of the pie pastry.
Add a pinch of pepper. Place a layer of well-drained and chopped
artichokes on the layer of cheese. Add another layer of cheese and
butter; then another layer of artichokes. Add another pinch or two of
pepper.
When all is layered and ready, mix together:
2 egg yolks
2 ounces of sugar (about 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar*
1/4 cup grape juice*
fragrant herbs and salt
For "fragrant herbs" I placed a 1/4 teaspoon of the following into the
mortar and ground it fine: salt, dried rosemary, sage, tarragon and
parsley. Next time, I will use more spices*. Evenly drizzle the
resulting sticky mixture over the pie. Put on top layer of crust. Prick
or slash the crust top. Bake at 350?F until the crust is done, (about an
hour).
*A later version of this pie, using 1/2 cup verjuce and triple the
spices was much better.
Crystal of the Westermark
(mka Crystal A. Isaac, crystal at pdr-is.com)
Date: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 05:54:36 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - "Cutting in" egg yolks, etc.
> From: "Mark.S Harris" <rsve60 at email.sps.mot.com>
>
>> Euriol said:
>> Cutting ingredients into the
>> flour for a pie crust minimizes the activation of the gluten, then
>> only at end press it together to form a ball and then roll it out.
> Cutting it into the flour???? For us newbie cooks, what does this
> mean? What is the differance between cutting it in and stirring it
> in? One you use a spoon and one you use a knife? :-)
Uh, yeah. Some people advocate using the fingers (but not the palms,
since the warmth of your hand is generally considered a Bad Thing where
pastry is concerned). Using the fingers enables you to use a certain
amount of tactile Search and Destroy, um, tactics, specifically going
after lumps of unmixed yolk. You just sort of go in there and pinch to
obliterate the larger lumps.
I suspect that cutting in is a technique that works best for the
hyrdogenated / saturated shortenings, such as lard, butter, and Crisco,
though, since they will hold their shape when cut. Also, I'd recommend a
good gluten rest, of half an hour or so, preferably in the fridge or
other cool spot, after kneading the dough for the first time, or
whatever you want to call the process where it gets compressed into a
ball, then a shorter rest (15-20 minutes) after each rolling/forming
operation. For this type of dough probably one additional rest, after
forming your pie, is adequate.
Cutting in yolks won't _hurt_ , of course, but for what it's worth, I
suspect, based on the other period pastry recipes I've seen, that the
hands would likely have been used. Whether or not the utensil makes much
difference in this case I'm not so sure.
Adamantius
Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 00:13:46 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Quince chestnut fritters
William Bekwith MKA Kornelis Sietsma quoted the Menagier's recipe for
Rissoles and wrote:
>
>Hmm - on re-reading this again, it *does* mention dough - and note [104]
>says :
>[104]A 15th-century English recipe for dried-fruit rissoles gives more
>detail on making them: ...
Here is that recipe; spelling modernized:
Ryschewys Closed and Fried (Two Fifteenth Century p. 45/97)
Take figs, and grind them small in a mortar with a little oil, and grind
with them cloves and maces; and then take it up into a vessel, and cast
thereto pines, saunders and raisons of corinth and minced dates, powdered
pepper, canel, salt, saffron; then take fine paste of flour and water,
sugar, saffron and salt, and make fair cakes thereof; then roll thine stuff
in thine hand and couch it in the cakes and cut it, and fold them in
ryshews, and fry them up in oil; and serve forth hot.
And here is the recipe of Master Chiquart (Du Fait de Cuisine, 1420), who
never uses one word when ten will do:
51. Again, rissoles: and to give understanding to him who will make them,
according to the quantity of them which he will make let him take a
quantity of fresh pork and cut up into fair and clean pieces and put to
cook, and salt therein; and when his meat is cooked let him draw it out
onto fair and clean tables and remove the skin and all the bones, and then
chop it very small. And arrange that you have figs, prunes, dates, pine
nuts, and candied raisins; remove the stems from the raisins, and the
shells from the pine nuts, and all other things which are not clean; and
then wash all this very well one or two or three times in good white wine
and then put them to drain on fair and clean boards; and then cut the figs
and prunes and dates all into small dice and mix them with your filling.
And then arrange that you have the best cheese which can be made, and then
take a great quantity of parsley which should have the leaves taken off the
stems, and wash it very well and chop it very well in with your cheese; and
then mix this very well with your filling, and eggs also; and take your
spices: white ginger, grains of paradise-and not too much, saffron, and a
great deal of sugar according to the quantity which you are making. And
then deliver your filling to your pastry-cook, and let him be prepared to
make his fair leaves of pastry to make gold-colored crusts(?); and when
they are made, let him bring them to you and you should have fair white
pork lard to fry them; and when they are fried, you should have gold leaf:
for each gold-colored crust(?) which there is, have one little leaf of gold
to put on top. And when this comes to the sideboard arrange them on fair
serving dishes and then throw sugar on top.
>So maybe I should have made them in pastry after all :)
I think when Menagier says "and make your rissoles" he is assuming you know
what rissoles are like, just as the English recipe assumes you know what
"fold them in ryshews" means (I make a circle of dough, put filling on
off-center, fold my circle in half and seal--but I have no idea if this is
right).
Elizabeth/Betty Cook
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 15:24:56 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Cheesecakes
Joshua mentioned an Anglo-Norman recipe and Allison asked:
>I'm not familiar with "Tardpoleyn". What language is it in, and where is
>it located, or reprinted? And what year(s), please?
The source is Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from Brotosh
Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii. by Constance B.
Hieatt and Robin F. Jones, Speculum 61/4 (1986), pp. 859-882. The language
is French and it is 13th c. Here is their translation of the recipe:
Here is another dish, which is called tardpolene. Take and combine flour
and sugar, and mix into pastry with almond milk; make cases of this pastry
two fingers in height; then take pears, dates, almonds, figs, and raisins,
and put in liquid and spices and grind together; add egg yolk and a piece
of good, soft, cheese, not too old, and plenty of whole eggs; then put them
to cook; brush the tops with egg yolk; then serve.
They comment that the "them" in "then put them to cook" means "the pastry
cases filled with the above mixture".
Elizabeth/Betty Cook
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 10:13:52 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - Coffin Pastry
>I tried making a coffin pastry using the recipe from Traveling Dysshes
>but ended up with crumbs - nothing stuck together.
>My jinx with pastries continues! I don't know a lot about working with
>doughs/pastry but it seems that the liquid dry ratio isn't
>right. The recipe calls for 4 c. flour with 1/2 c. butter and 1/4 c.
>water boiled and then added to the flour. Even though I adjusted the
>liquid, it still didn't work. Any ideas on what might have happened or
>better recipe? I couldn't find anything in my limited library that
>seemed similar.
<snip>
Here is a recipe for Hot Water Crust Pastry. It makes enough for one
6-inch by 3-inch raised pie.
1/3 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons lard
1 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sift the flour & salt into a bowl, & make a well in the center. Put the
lard in the water & stir till it melts. Pour the hot liquids into the
flour well & stir to make an elastic dough. Add more boiling water if the
dough is too dry. Knead the dough on a floured board until smooth.
Reserve one-third for a lid. Shape the rest into a cylinder. Fill with
your already-prepared filling (holds about 1 1/2 cups) and cover with the
pastry lid. Poke a steam vent in the lid. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 25
to 30 minutes, or until done and golden.
This is a modern recipe, but there is a period one in Sabina Welserin's CB.
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 98 11:13:44 -0600
From: upsxdls at okway.okstate.edu
Subject: Re: SC - Coffin Pastry
My regular pastry dough is 3 C. Flour, 1 C. Butter (or lard), pinch of
salt, beat one egg with 1 Tbsp vinegar and add cold water to make one full
cup. The dough must be refrigerated at least one hour before trying to
roll out. Mama told me that reducing the butter will cause a tougher dough
(that's why grandmother's pie crust was as tough as boot leather, she
didn't want to waste the butter - and you better not let her CATCH you
feeding the crust to the chickens! ;)
Looking at what you used, I would suggest 4 cups flour, 2/3 cup butter, and
1 1/3 cup water.
Leanna McLaren of Sparrowhaven
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 13:38:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gretchen M Beck <grm+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Coffin Pastry
I'd add a couple of egg yolks -- several period and just post period
coffin recipes call for them, and I've found that they add a lot of
structural integrity to your paste.
toodles, margaret
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 18:45:16 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Coffin Pastry
upsxdls at okway.okstate.edu writes:
<< My regular pastry dough is 3 C. Flour, 1 C. Butter (or lard), pinch of
salt, beat one egg with 1 Tbsp vinegar and add cold water to make one full
cup. >>
This pastry sounds very nice and potentialy flakey but the pastry for coffins
was intended to be a dish to hold food in rather than something that was
eaten in and of itself. Boiled pastry makes a very good "clay" for structuring
coffins especially since the sides can be built up rather thickly allowing
for the formation of rather large constructions. OTH, flaky pastry does not
allow for the stength needed for large free-standing vessels.
Ras
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:10:45 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: Frying (WAS: SC - Elizabethan buffet (long))
At 12:51 PM -0400 10/22/98, Margo Hablutzel wrote:
[the original question was whether cookie dough was a fair interpretation
of "a fine paste" to be filled and either fried or baked.]
>Most "fine paste" I have seen is more like piecrust than shortbread.
>
>Note that dough used for frying, whether on its own or wrapped around some
>filling, needs to have a fairly small ratio of fat to the dough, if any. If
>the percentage of fat is too high, it will melt into the frying grease and
>you get an icky mess. A regular "flaky" pie dough should not be used for
>frying, and I have seen some recipes where the surrounding dough has no fat,
>is just flour and water (and maybe salt) kneaded together until smooth and
>elastic.
Here is an example from somewhat earlier than the recipe in question (and
Epulario is 16th c., I think, but its Italian original is 15th c.) of a
"fine paste" meant to be filled and fried which lists the ingredients for
the pastry:
Ryschewys Closed and Fried
Two Fifteenth Century p. 45/97
Take figs, and grind them small in a mortar with a little oil, and grind
with them cloves and maces; and then take it up into a vessel, and cast
thereto pines, saunders and raisons of corinth and minced dates, powdered
pepper, canel, salt, saffron; then take fine paste of flour and water,
sugar, saffron and salt, and make fair cakes thereof; then roll thine stuff
in thine hand and couch it in the cakes and cut it, and fold them in
ryshews, and fry them up in oil; and serve forth hot. [end of original;
spelling modernized]
Note that the pastry is sweetened, but has no fat in it.
Elizabeth/Betty Cook
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 22:58:38 -0800
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <acrouss at gte.net>
Subject: Re: OT - Re: SC - Filo Dough Things
Hi all from Anne-Marie
we are asked about using canned fruit fillings for tarts and "filo dough
things" :)
My experience says that canned fruit works very well, as long as its not in
heavy syrup. Take the fruit, drain and put in a large saucepan. Add just
enough of the canning liquid to cover. Simmer the crap out of it until most
of the liquid is evaporated and the fruit is the consistency of good jam.
The drier the better. Stir in a pat or so of butter.
Spread a prebaked tart shell or your phyllo dough with this and bake. Yum!
FYI, this version with pear is from la Varenne (1651 French). I assume he
used fresh fruit, but with the "canned in its own juice stuff", I figure
that there shouldn’t be much difference after all that boiling.
- --AM
PS, there's several fun middle eastern PERIOD recipes out there that use
"dough in leaves", etc, if you want to play with them...
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 13:31:54 EST
From: Varju at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - filo dough
tsersen at browser.net writes:
<< I thought a strudel dough was more like a sweet bread dough than a
pastry, like filo. >>
The Hungarian re'stes, which is usually translated as struedel, uses a special
version of puff pastry dough. The versions I saw most often in bakeries
were filled with apple, walnut, poppyseed or cheese fillings.
Noemi
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 11:33:35 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - filo dough
Linda Peterson wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Jan 1999, Diana Haven wrote:
> > I had posted an apple strudel recipe on this list a while ago...and the
> > dough comes out like a phyllo dough. very nice and buttery.
> >
> > That may be what you are looking for. Ask Stefan if he has a copy.
>
> Are we all talking about the same stuff here? All the filo dough I've ever
> used, usually for Middle Eastern cooking, comes as a thin sheet of plain
> dough-if you boiled it, it would be a noodle. No butter. Usually you add
> the butter and layer it manually while assembling a dish. What y'all are
> describing sounds more like puff pastry?
>
> Mirhaxa
> mirhaxa at morktorn.com
I think the above reference to strudel dough being buttery refers to the
finished product, although some strudel dough has butter knreaded into
it from an early stage. I expect we most of us know the differences
here, but just to be on the safe side, and on the same terms:
Phyllo dough is a paper-thin sheet of cooked pastry, made from flour and
water, which is almost invariably served layered with butter or oil and
rebaked. It's usually factory-made using a machine with heated steel
rollers that press and cook at the same time. Some Asian spring roll
wrappers are made somewhat similarly, by pressing a ball of dough onto a
heated griddle and pulling away the excess, so what sticks to the
griddle cooks as a sheet.
Puff pastry is made in layers, uncooked, then filled (or whatever) and
baked. It's basically laminated like Damascus steel by layering butter
or other fat between layers of dough, folded and rolled out, then folded
again. It is then allowed to rest and chill to relax developed gluten
strands, then the process is repeated as many times as will give the
desired number of layers - anywhere from around 600 to a couple of
thousand, depending on usage, as I recall.
Strudel dough is a single layer, like phyllo, except it is used from its
raw state, usually rolled around a filling, either with butter or the
filling itself separating the layers, depending on whether the filling
is in a lump or spread out on the dough.
Adamantius the Arbiter
Østgardr, East
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 11:11:46 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - filo dough
> Are we all talking about the same stuff here? All the filo dough I've ever
> used, usually for Middle Eastern cooking, comes as a thin sheet of plain
> dough-if you boiled it, it would be a noodle. No butter. Usually you add
> the butter and layer it manually while assembling a dish. What y'all are
> describing sounds more like puff pastry?
>
> Mirhaxa
> mirhaxa at morktorn.com
Filo dough is made from water, flour and salt and a lot of practice. It is
cut into sheets which are commonly buttered and layered together to form a
pastry shell or wrap.
Strudel dough is made from water, flour, salt and a small amount of melted
butter. Most of the butter is added during the rolling to keep the dough
elastic and damp. Once rolled out it is trimmed, cut and folded around a
filling to produce a layered effect.
Puff pastry is made from water flour and salt. The dough is chilled and
rolled out into a square. Cold butter are pounded to the consistency of the
dough. The butter is formed into a square about 3/4 inch thick and centered
on the rolled out dough. The corners are folded in, the dough is rolled
into an elongated rectangle. A third of the length is folded over each
other and then rolled back out into the rectangle. The dough is worked and
chilled until the desired number of laminations has been created. The
butter must stay solid during the process. The dough is then wrapped around
a filling.
One of the confusing points is that commercially, puff pastry is oftend used
to make strudels, rather than using tradional strudel dough.
Bear
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 10:21:33 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - favorite sweet
One of the simplest and tastiest sweets is Judges Mouthfuls from al-Baghdadi
(1226 CE). It is simply a raised dough from which pieces are pinched and
dropped in hot fat to cook. They are drained and dipped in honey. Think
glazed doughnut holes from raised doughnuts.
Ras
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 11:10:46 -0500
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Kataif
At 9:06 AM -0500 9/9/99, Decker, Terry D. wrote:
>I have a reference from the 1920s to 10th Century kataif as a confection of
>banana, almonds and honey doused with nut oil. The work is a history of the
>banana and displays solid historical references in most regards. The
>comment about kataif appears to be explanatory fill in a reference to
>Masudi, the poet and historian.
>
>Modern kataif (also known as ataif and gatayef) is a coarse, shortened dough
>stuffed with nuts or cheese then baked and served with syrup.
>
>Does anyone have any idea whether I am dealing with an author's error or
>with the evolution of a recipe or with a change in the useage of the word
>kataif?
>
>Bear
>From _Manuscrito Anonimo_ (13th c. Andalusian)
Sift white flour three times, take the choicest part, mingle it with butter
and knead it with egg yolk and put into the dough some saffron and salt.
Put clarified butter into an earthenware frying pan, boil it and take one
kail of honey and one of dough and throw them into the melted butter until
it is cooked. Before it is thickened, put in blanched almonds and
pine-nuts, sprinkle it with pepper and present it.
The Making of Qatâif
Put a potful of water on the fire until it boils, and throw in coarsely
ground semolina, and cook it on the fire until it becomes pudding ('asîda).
Then take it out of the pot and put it in a dish; boil honey and pour it on
top, with pepper, and present it, God willing.
[This is an aberrant recipe. Qataif are basically crepes, very thin breads
or things made from them.]
[the note is by Charles Perry, the translator]
- ---
Recipe for Abbasid Qatâif
It is made from the pierced musahhada that has already been mentioned. Take
peeled almonds, pound them and let them dry until they are like semolina.
Add as much again of sugar, spikenard, cloves, and Chinese cinnamon. Then
take a flatbread (raghîf) of the aforementioned musahhada, free of burns,
and sprinkle it with those almonds and ground sugar aplenty. Sprinkle it
with rosewater in which some camphor is dissolved, and fold it until it is
a half circle. Glue the edges with dough wetted in rosewater, and put it in
a frying-pan full of fresh oil. Boil it, and then take it out immediately
and remove it so it drains of the oil. Let if float in a syrup of roses or
julep or skimmed honey. You might make raghîfs on raghîfs, filled inside,
and glue the margins together, and they will turn out circles and halves.
- ---
David/Cariadoc
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 01:02:44 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Rosquillas (recipe)
I've been doing some more baking. Below is a period Spanish recipe
(and my redaction) for rosquillas. The name means "little rings".
Modern rosquillas are generally leavened with baking powder, fried, and
glazed. (I understand that in the Spanish-language version of "The
Simpsons", Homer's constant cry is, "Oooh.... rosquillas!"). Period
rosquillas are sweet egg-leavened rings, which are boiled, then baked.
One of my friends commented, "I like them, but they're confusing. They
look like bagels and taste like biscotti!"
Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del Arte de Cozina_, Spanish, 1599
Translation and redaction: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)
PARA HAZER ROSQUILLAS -- To make <italic>rosquillas</italic> (little rings)
For forty egg yolks, a pound of ground sugar, and as much white wine
as will fit in the shell of an egg, and a little anise, and a little cinnamon,
and a little cow=92s butter, and a little orange flower water. Knead
everything with fine flour, and cast in what should be necessary to
conform to the quantity of eggs. Knead with a light hand, so that you
do not break the dough, which should not be very hard, nor very soft, but
well pummelled, and being good, make the rosquillas the size that you
wish. Have on the fire a kettle of water, and when it begins to boil, cast
the rosquillas within, in such a manner that they do not go one on top of
another, and cast them in until they ascend. Upon ascending they are
cooked. Put them in some kneading troughs, and being cooled, remove
them and send them to the oven to cook, which should be quite
temperate.
Rosquillas
20 egg yolks (medium or large)
1/2 pound sugar (1-1/4 cups)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon white wine
2 tablespoons orange-flower water
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground anise
5 to 5-1/4 cups all purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Fill a large, wide pot with water, at least 4-5
inches deep, and bring it to a boil. Adjust the heat so the water is at a
constant simmer.
Beat the egg yolks lightly in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer equipped
with a dough hook. Stir in the sugar, butter, wine, orange-flower water,
and the spices. Add 3 cups of the flour and mix well. Gradually add
flour, kneading continually, until you have a dough of medium firmness.
It will be sticky, and it will *not* form a ball on the dough-hook or clean
the sides of the bowl. It will more closely resemble a sugar-cookie
dough than a bread dough. Add just enough flour to make a dough that
can be handled and shaped. Knead well, about 8-10 minutes. The
dough will be fairly smooth.
Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a flat surface. Cover with a damp
cloth so it does not dry out. Roll a piece of dough into a ball about 1-
1/2 inches in diameter. Flatten the ball slightly, and with your thumb
and forefinger, pinch a hole in the center of the disc. Enlarge the hole
and shape the dough until you have a doughnut-like ring, about 2-1/2
inches in diameter and 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick.
When you have shaped several rosquillas, drop them, one at a time,
into the simmering water. (You did get the pot of water ready, didn't
you?) They will sink like stones to the bottom of the pot. Watch out for
scalding-hot splashes, and make sure that the rosquillas do not settle
on top of each other. They will begin to expand slightly, and to become
whiter and wrinkled. In about 4-5 minutes, the rosquillas will suddenly
float to the surface of the water. As each one rises, remove it gently
with a slotted spoon or a skimmer, and place on a rack to cook and dry.
Continue shaping and simmering rosquillas until all the dough is used
up.
When the rosquillas are cool to the touch, place them on an ungreased
cookie sheet, and bake 20-25 minutes at 350 F until lightly browned.
Cool on racks. Makes about 2-1/2 dozen.
Notes:
My redaction is half of the original recipe, as it makes a quantity that
is convenient for a home kitchen. A quarter-recipe also works well. I
made two test batches using my KitchenAid mixer. One batch, which I
hand-kneaded for 10 minutes, did not turn out well. They took twice as
long to rise in the water, and then they drifted up languidly. After
baking, they were unpleasantly dense. A long period of hand-kneading
would probably solve that problem.
I decided to conduct an egg size experiment. After separating out the
yolks from 10 medium eggs, I weighed them. The yolks varied in size,
but the total came to 165 grams (5-3/4 oz.) in weight. I then started
weighing the yolks of large eggs, on the assumption that I would need
fewer of them. These also varied in size, but 10 large yolks came to
166 grams. I do not know how the yolks from larger or smaller eggs
would compare.
The anise and cinnamon flavors blended subtlely and pleasantly. Even
my anise-hating husband pronounced the rosquillas acceptable. I could
not detect the flavor of the orange-flower water, even when I increased
the quantity to 2 tablespoons. I suspect it could be omitted if
unavailable, without much noticeable change.
The rosquillas are good for dipping in tea or coffee. They would probably
keep for at least several days in an air-tight container.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 17:11:57 -0500
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: SC - Kadayif
AHH! Young ladies' breasts. . . I too, know of these! This pastry is made with similar ingredients to baklava as I recall: shredded phyllo, cinnamon, ground walnuts, a nut in the center and a sugar or honey syrup.
>One of the two recipes posted so far calls for:
>1 lb kunafeh pastry, bought or homemade (shredded pastry)
>
>The other calls for:
>shredded phyllo(fillo)dough or
> 1 package (16 oz. size) Frozen Kataifi, defrosted
>
>The phyllo dough I'm familiar with comes in a roll of very thin
>sheets, not shredded. Is this shredded phyllo dough/kunafeh/kataifi
>something I will likely find in the grocery store? Or is there
>some other specialty store I should look for it at? Is it available
>fresh or dried as well as frozen?
>
>Lord Stefan li Rous
You can find shredded phyllo in the freezer section near regular phyllo. If not there, try a middle eastrn market or farmer's market. I don't find it in the supermarket stores often, but have seen it at a Kroger last year. You can shred your own by making a chiffonade of phyllo with a SHARP knife (roll and make as thin a slice off the end as possible.).
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 21:44:32 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: SC - Kadiyif recipes-OOP
KADAYIF -Olivia Hagopian
(Shredded dough)
2 lbs. Kadayif dough
3/4 lb. butter, melted
Syrup:
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
Boil together 10 minutes; add 1 tsp. lemon juice
Place kadayif in a large bowl. Separate and loosen all shreds. Pour melted
butter over it and coat all shreds well. Divide mixture in half, spread half
on a lightly buttered pan (12 "xll"). Press gently. Spoon filling over this
layer evenly, cover with remaining kadayif. Bake in preheated 425F oven for
30 minutes or until delicately brown. Cool. Pour hot syrup over entire top.
Cut into serving pieces. Let stand 30 minutes before serving.
Serves 32-40
Fillings:
Cream Filling:
3 tbs.heavy cream
1/2 pt. light cream
2/3 cups milk
4 heaping tbs. cornstarch
3 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine heavy cream, light cream and sugar in a pan. Bring to a boil.
Dissolve cornstarch with milk, add to hot creams stirring constantly until
thick. Boil slowly 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
Pour or spoon evenly over bottom layer of kadayif. Place remaining shreds
over cream filling.
Bake as directed in above basic recipe.
Nut Filling:
1 lb. walnut meats, chopped fine
3 tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Cheese Filling:
1 1/4 lbs. Muenster cheese, grated
1/2 lb. Feta (Greek cheese} grated or crumbled
1/2 lb. cottage cheese
2 eggs, beaten
- -From Adventures in Armenian Cooking. Published in 1973 by St. Gregory's
Armenian Apostolic Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html
.......................
EKMEK KADAYIF -Sonia Matulewicz
(Khadayif)
4 eggs
1? cups sugar
2 cups yogurt
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 lb. butter, melted
Beat eggs well, add sugar and yogurt mixing thoroughly. Add flour, baking
soda and butter. Pour into 11" square Corning Ware. Bake in preheated 300F
oven until brown.
Topping: 1 cup boiling water 3 cups sugar 1 1/2 tbs. vanilla
Boil thoroughly. Let cake cool a little. Pour topping over cake.
Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
Serves 30. -From Adventures in Armenian Cooking. Published in 1973 by St.
Gregory's Armenian Apostolic Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html
.....................
Tel Kadayif with walnuts
Ingredients:
750 gr. tel kadayif (pastry made into thin long thread-like strips; available
at Turkish stores)
1 1/2 glasses of margarine
2 glasses of walnuts
Syrup:
4 1/2 glasses granulated sugar
3 3/4 glasses water
1 teaspoons lemon juice
Flake kadayif and place on a shallow cake pan, sprinkle crushed walnuts over
evenly and spread the other half of the kadayif on top. Sprinkle melted
margarine over and place in moderate oven to bake for 40 minutes.
SYRUP: Meanwhile, put the granulated sugar, the water and lemon juice into a
saucepan and boil until moderately thick. When golden brown, take kadayif out
of oven and sprinkle boiling syrup over immediately. Cover and allow to cool.
When cool, place a plate large enough over the top of the pan and transfer
kadayif onto the plate by turning upside down.
Small cakes of batter, fired, soaked in syrup (Yassi kadayif Cevizli)
Ingredients:
300 gr. yassi kadayif
4 eggs
1 1/4 glasses olive oil
1 1/4 glasses ground wheat
Syrup:
2 glasses granulated sugar
1 1/3 glasses water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Put sugar, water and lemon juice into a pan, and stir over moderate heat
until the sugar melts, boil for 10 minutes until it becomes a syrup and leave
aside.
Trim 1/4 inch from the edge of the yassi kadayif. Beat the eggs in a bowl and
roll the kadayif in the beaten egg. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan then
fry 3-4 kadayifs each time, fry both sides, remove from the pan and drain.
Dip in and out of boiling water and place immediately into the prepared
syrup. Repeat this for all pieces of kadayif. Cover with a plate and allow
them to stand in the syrup for an hour. Place the kadayif on a serving plate
sprinkle ground walnuts over and serve. -From Turkish Cuisine by Mehmet
Yazgan, Editor, Yazgan Turizm Tic. Ltd. Sti.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/kandogan/FTA/TurkishCuisine/cuisine.html
.........................
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 11:56:59 MST
From: "Harold Tackett" <htackett at eagnet.com>
Subject: Fw: ANST - recipe
To: <rlportwood at earthlink.net>
CC: <ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG>
> Does anyone have a recipe for Kadayif?
> Ascelyn
I have made several versions of Kadayif or Kunafat (Shredded filo pastries).
The one that has gone over the best is Kiz Memesi Tel-Katayif , Shredded
Pastry Mounds(according to the book I use this translates to "young girl's
breasts"). I have made these for a class I taught at Gulf Wars last year on
Middle Eastern Pastries. The recipe I use comes from "Patisserie of the
Eastern Mediterranean" by Arto Der Haroutunian, ISBN # 0070266654
Dinah bint Ismai'l
Kiz Memesi Tel-Katayif
"Young Girls Breasts"
The name on this gets everyone the first time. The name is translated
directly from the Turkish, and takes its name from its rather graphic
representation.
Makes about 12
1 lb kunafeh pastry, bought or homemade (shredded pastry)
1 cup Clarified buttered, melted
about twelve walnut halves
3/4 cup finely chopped blanched almonds
Syrup
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups water
1tbsp lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350'F
Place the pastry in a large bowl and pull apart the strands , discarding
any coarse lumps you may find in some brands. Shred the pastry very finely
with your fingers or pass it through a meat grinder. Pour in most of the
melted butter and rub the pastry between you palms until it is all coated
with butter.
Lightly brush two baking sheets with a little of the remaining butter.
To make this pastry the correct shape you need a soup ladle or container of
similar shape and size, about 21/2 inches in diameter. Brush the inside of
the ladle with melted butter and put a walnut half in the bottom. Fill the
ladle with shredded pastry and make a hole with your index finger into the
center of the pastry. Fill the hole with 1-2 tsp of the chopped nuts and
then add a little more pastry to cover the nuts. Press down firmly. Place
your fingers over the mouth of the ladle, turn it over and slide the pastry
out. Place on the baking sheet. Continue until you have used up all the
ingredients.
Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the syrup by
placing the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Simmer for 10 minutes, then set aside.
When the pastries are cooked, remove them from the oven. Bring the syrup
back to a boil and ladle it over the pastries. Set aside to cool before
serving.
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 21:12:36 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Brighid's Spanish Cinnamon-Fruit Rolls
And it came to pass on 18 Jun 00,, that david friedman wrote:
> A while back, Lady Brighid posted the following recipe, which we have now
> tried out:
[snip]
I'm delighted that you did this one. It looked very good, but I never got
around to redacting it. As it is, I bake far too much sweet stuff for my
own good.
> Comments: good. Too much filling per amount of dough for my taste,
> but that's what the recipe says. The piece of dough it is put on
> becomes part of the loaf, rather than remaining behind in the pan.
When I first posted the recipe, I recall someone mentioning a modern
recipe for a similar pastry, which is a cone-shaped roll atop a flat piece
of dough. (Fluden? Fladen? Something like that.) That gentle
indicated that the two pieces normally fused together in baking.
> I rolled this up as I do cinnamon bread, and it didn't really fit the
> description: didn't twist by itself until it becomes like a snail; I can't
> make much sense of this. Anyone have any suggestions?
[snip]
> try rolling from the side of the rectangle rather than the end to see if
> I can get it more snail-like that way--maybe roll tighter ("more
> closed") at one end than at the other.
This was my thought. If you roll it like a cornucopia, perhaps pinching
the small end together and leaving the wider end fairly loose, I think it
would tend to flare out as the dough expands in baking. I do *not* see
that it would tend to curl into a spiral unless it was laid out that way.
> Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 17:11:57 -0500
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: SC - Kadayif
AHH! Young ladies' breasts. . . I too, know of these! This pastry is made with similar ingredients to baklava as I recall: shredded phyllo, cinnamon, ground walnuts, a nut in the center and a sugar or honey syrup.
>One of the two recipes posted so far calls for:
>1 lb kunafeh pastry, bought or homemade (shredded pastry)
>
>The other calls for:
>shredded phyllo(fillo)dough or
> 1 package (16 oz. size) Frozen Kataifi, defrosted
>
>The phyllo dough I'm familar with comes in a roll of very thin
>sheets, not shredded. Is this shredded phyllo dough/kunafeh/kataifi
>something I will likely find in the grocery store? Or is there
>some other specialty store I should look for it at? Is it available
>fresh or dried as well as frozen?
>
>Lord Stefan li Rous
You can find shredded phyllo in the freezer section near regular phyllo. If not there, try a middle eastrn market or farmer's market. I don't find it in the supermarket stores often, but have seen it at a Kroger last year. You can shred your own by making a chiffonade of phyllo with a SHARP knife (roll and make as thin a slice off the end as possible.).
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 21:44:32 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: SC - Kadiyif recipes-OOP
KADAYIF -Olivia Hagopian
(Shredded dough)
2 lbs. Kadayif dough
3/4 lb. butter, melted
Syrup:
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
Boil together 10 minutes; add 1 tsp. lemon juice
Place kadayif in a large bowl. Separate and loosen all shreds. Pour melted
butter over it and coat all shreds well. Divide mixture in half, spread half
on a lightly buttered pan (12 "xll"). Press gently. Spoon filling over this
layer evenly, cover with remaining kadayif. Bake in preheated 425F oven for
30 minutes or until delicately brown. Cool. Pour hot syrup over entire top.
Cut into serving pieces. Let stand 30 minutes before serving.
Serves 32-40
Fillings:
Cream Filling:
3 tbs.heavy cream
1/2 pt. light cream
3/4 cups milk
4 heaping tbs. cornstarch
3 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine heavy cream, light cream and sugar in a pan. Bring to a boil.
Dissolve cornstarch with milk, add to hot creams stirring constantly until
thick. Boil slowly 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
Pour or spoon evenly over bottom layer of kadayif. Place remaining shreds
over cream filling.
Bake as directed in above basic recipe.
Nut Filling:
1 lb. walnut meats, chopped fine
3 tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Cheese Filling:
1 1/4 lbs. Muenster cheese, grated
1/2 lb. Feta (Greek cheese} grated or crumbled
1/2 lb. cottage cheese
2 eggs, beaten
- -From Adventures in Armenian Cooking. Published in 1973 by St. Gregory's
Armenian Apostolic Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html
.......................
EKMEK KADAYIF -Sonia Matulewicz
(Khadayif)
4 eggs
1? cups sugar
2 cups yogurt
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 lb. butter, melted
Beat eggs well, add sugar and yogurt mixing thoroughly. Add flour, baking
soda and butter. Pour into 11" square Corning Ware. Bake in preheated 300F
oven until brown.
Topping: 1 cup boiling water 3 cups sugar 1? tbs. vanilla
Boil thoroughly. Let cake cool a little. Pour topping over cake.
Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
Serves 30. -From Adventures in Armenian Cooking. Published in 1973 by St.
Gregory's Armenian Apostolic Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html
.....................
Tel Kadayif with walnuts
Ingredients:
750 gr. tel kadayif (pastry made into thin long thread-like strips; available
at Turkish stores)
1 1/2 glasses of margarine
2 glasses of walnuts
Syrup:
4 1/2 glasses granulated sugar
3 3/4 glasses water
1 teaspoons lemon juice
Flake kadayif and place on a shallow cake pan, sprinkle crushed walnuts over
evenly and spread the other half of the kadayif on top. Sprinkle melted
margarine over and place in moderate oven to bake for 40 minutes.
SYRUP: Meanwhile, put the granulated sugar, the water and lemon juice into a
saucepan and boil until moderately thick. When golden brown, take kadayif out
of oven and sprinkle boiling syrup over immediately. Cover and allow to cool.
When cool, place a plate large enough over the top of the pan and transfer
kadayif onto the plate by turning upside down.
Small cakes of batter, fired, soaked in syrup (Yassi kadayif Cevizli)
Ingredients:
300 gr. yassi kadayif
4 eggs
1 1/4 glasses olive oil
1 1/4 glasses ground wheat
Syrup:
2 glasses granulated sugar
1 1/3 glasses water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Put sugar, water and lemon juice into a pan, and stir over moderate heat
until the sugar melts, boil for 10 minutes until it becomes a syrup and leave
aside.
Trim 1/4 inch from the edge of the yassi kadayif. Beat the eggs in a bowl and
roll the kadayif in the beaten egg. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan then
fry 3-4 kadayifs each time, fry both sides, remove from the pan and drain.
Dip in and out of boiling water and place immediately into the prepared
syrup. Repeat this for all pieces of kadayif. Cover with a plate and allow
them to stand in the syrup for an hour. Place the kadayif on a serving plate
sprinkle ground walnuts over and serve. -From Turkish Cuisine by Mehmet
Yazgan, Editor, Yazgan Turizm Tic. Ltd. Sti.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/kandogan/FTA/TurkishCuisine/cuisine.html
.........................
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 21:12:36 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Brighid's Spanish Cinnamon-Fruit Rolls
And it came to pass on 18 Jun 00,, that david friedman wrote:
> A while back, Lady Brighid posted the following recipe, which we have now
> tried out:
[snip]
I'm delighted that you did this one. It looked very good, but I never got
around to redacting it. As it is, I bake far too much sweet stuff for my
own good.
> Comments: good. Too much filling per amount of dough for my taste,
> but that's what the recipe says. The piece of dough it is put on
> becomes part of the loaf, rather than remaining behind in the pan.
When I first posted the recipe, I recall someone mentioning a modern
recipe for a similar pastry, which is a cone-shaped roll atop a flat piece
of dough. (Fluden? Fladen? Something like that.) That gentle
indicated that the two pieces normally fused together in baking.
> I rolled this up as I do cinnamon bread, and it didn't really fit the
> description: didn't twist by itself until it becomes like a snail; I can't
> make much sense of this. Anyone have any suggestions?
[snip]
> try rolling from the side of the rectangle rather than the end to see if
> I can get it more snail-like that way--maybe roll tighter ("more
> closed") at one end than at the other.
This was my thought. If you roll it like a cornucopia, perhaps pinching
the small end together and leaving the wider end fairly loose, I think it
would tend to flare out as the dough expands in baking. I do *not* see
that it would tend to curl into a spiral unless it was laid out that way.
> Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
From: johnna007h at netscape.net
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 23:35:11 -0400
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Cream Puff Source dated 1604
Cream Puff Source dated 1604
With regard to the recent questions on cream puffs, there is apparently a 1604 source.
Barbara Wheaton in Savoring the Past. The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789, [1983, 1996] traces recipes for cream puffs or more properly pate a choux to a recipe in Lancelot de Casteau's Ovverture de Cvisine which was published in Leige in 1604. On page 33 and more fully on pages 176-177, she describes the wide assortment of pastry recipes found in Casteau, concluding that the fritter recipes are an =93exploitation of pate a choux for baking, frying and poaching=85=94 Wheaton includes Casteau's recipe for "Paste de bugnolle ou friture" (pages 248-9). Her adaptation includes four versions of preparation and cooking once the dough is made. One version is to form and bake at 350 degrees. [See PPC#8 for an examination of the history of the 19th century croquembouche, which is of course another far grander use of the dough.]
By the way, Casteau was reprinted in 1983 as Ouverture de Cuisine and was reviewed in PPC#15.
There is a recipe in Le Patissier Francois, which is often credited to La Varenne. It's found in chapter xix and is entitled "La maniere de faire des petits choux." [It appears on page 405 of the combined edition entitled Le Cuisinier Francois that Flandrin and the Hymans released in 1983.] I don't know whether or not the recipe appears in the "Englished" version of Le Patissier that was published in England as Marnette's The Perfect Cook in 1656. If it does, that could well be the earliest English recipe.
As to serving them at an SCA feast, I do know that cream puffs were served at the Midrealm Crown Feast, held in the Barony of Wurm Wald in May of 1974. They were prepared in the classic manner, baked, then sliced in half, scooping out all the undone bits and then rebaked to get them crisp. For that feast, they were baked and then freshly filled during the late night & early morning hours to be served later that same evening. They were much appreciated.
Johnna Holloway
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 11:59:34 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] anything like period fig newtons?
Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Is there any evidence for period filled pastries, perhaps even
> something like a fig newton?
And the Tourteletes in fryture from Curye on Inglysch are very similar to fig
newtons:
157. Tourteletes in fryture. Take figus & grynde hem smal; do therein
saffron & powdur fort. Close hem in foyles of dowe, & frye hem in oyle.
Claryfye hony & flamme hem therewht; ete hem hote or colde.
157. Tourteletes in fryture(Ground figs in pastry). Take figs and grind them
small; add saffron and poudre fort. Enclose them in sheets of dough and fry
them in oil. Clarify honey and baste them. Eat either hot or cold.
Redaction: makes 16 pieces
10 Dried figs 1 egg white
1 pinch Saffron 1 tsp. oil
1/2 tsp. Poudre Fort 3 tsp. honey
16 Won Ton wrappers
1. Grind figs, then add saffron and poudre fort.
2. Place a tsp of mixture in the center of a wrapper, fold over and seal with
egg whites.
3. Oven fry with oil until lightly browned.
4. Remove from oven and drizzle honey over them.
Note: As with the raviolis above, I have used won ton wrappers, as they are
approximately the same kind of dough, and are a major time-saver.
Also, instead of deep frying them, I have oven-fried them, again in the
interest of saving time, but it has approximately the same effect.
Kiri
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 11:25:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Nikki McGeary <draculachanter at yahoo.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Figs
<And the Tourteletes in fryture from Curye on Inglysch
<are very similar to fig newtons.
I've made these and boy, are they tasty. I used my
own pie crust dough, and it really sucked up the oil,
but they were delicious. Reminded me of southern
fried pies...
Heloise
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 21:06:35 -0500
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re:Cooking techniques-
Also sprach johnna holloway:
>See La Varenne for puff pastry.
>It appears as recipe 13 on page 192
>of the reprint of The French Cook which
>was originally published in English in 1653.
It also appears in Hugh Plat, c. 1609 CE, and probably existed
previously under other names. Plat's version is similar to a blitz or
Scottish puff paste.
Adamantius
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 21:17:47 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re:Cooking techniques-
La Varenne's instructions don't call for
the eggs though and he clearly tells one how
to fold it over so that it layers where as
Plat seems to have one adding the butter as one
goes. So in terms of food chemistry, is this
the same process or not or two different methods?
Johnna
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 21:27:08 -0500
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re:Cooking techniques-
Also sprach johnna holloway:
>La Varenne's instructions don't call for
>the eggs though and he clearly tells one how
>to fold it over so that it layers where as
>Plat seems to have one adding the butter as one
>goes. So in terms of food chemistry, is this
>the same process or not or two different methods?
I believe Plat (whose book I don't have in front of me, so take this
with a grain of unsalted butter) describes adding a second layer, but
eventually does a recognizable fold-and-roll method. He also uses
pats of butter, like the blitz method, rather than a block of butter.
The egg I assume to be connected to structural strength, which is now
sometimes compensated for by using bread flour, depending on which
modern recipe you look at.
Now I have to dig it (Plat) out ;-)
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 16:49:1 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Make Fayre Paste (was: Medieval History
Magazine...)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Edouard Halidai (Daniel Myers) wrote:
> Below are the relevant recipes from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery
> Books. In them I can find references to pre-baking the coffin, to
> coloring it with saffron and egg yols, and to putting a top crust
> on it, but I do not see any notes about the thickness of the coffin
> walls, whether they were edible, or the ingredients or methods used
> for making them.
>
> Are there any other sources or recipes mentioned to document teir
> methods? I am concerned that the "hot liquid fat poured into flour"
> way of making a crust is a (relatively) modern one that arose from a
> faulty source or assumption and is unintentionally being promoted as
> period without supporting evidence (.g. probably period because
> it's very rustic looking - thick and inedible).
(recipes snipped)
As far as I know, none of the pie recipes in Two Fifteenth-Century
Cookery Books tells you anything about how to make the pastry. The
only recipes I remember which do tell you are for pasty-types things
(at least, that is my guess about what they are) that are going to be
fried, and I am not sure how much of a guide that is to what pastry
you would use for something that is going to be baked. Here is one of
these recipes:
Ryschewys Closed and Fried. Take figs, and grind them small in a
mortar with a little oil, and grind with them cloves and maces; and
then take it up into a vessel, and cast thereto pines, saunders and
raisons of corinth and minced dates, powdred pepper, canel, salt,
saffron; then take fine paste of flour and water, sugar, saffron and
salt, and make fair cakes thereof; then roll thine stuff in thine
hand and couch it in the cakes and cut it, and fold them in ryshews,
and fry them up in oil; an serve forth hot. [spelling modernized]
Elizabeth/Betty Cook
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 12:32:47 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Hat was favorie cicada lymerics; YAK
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Olwen the Odd wrote:
> Olwen, who wants the recipe for the marzipan calzons.
The Marzipan calizonis recipe actually came from the Santich book on
Mediterranan cookery. Here it is:
p. 51: Pasties of Fine Sugar (from Rupert de Nola, trans. Vincent
Cuenca)
Take a pound of peeled almonds and grind them dry without adding any
water or broth so that they become very oily; because the oilier they
are the better; and then take a pound and a half of well pulverized
white sugar, and mix it well with the almonds, and when it is all well
mixed and ground, if it is very hard soften it with a little rose water,
and when the mixture is softened a little grind a litte ginger over it,
at your discretion, well ground; and then take dough which should be of
flour, and knead it with good eggs and sweet oil which should be fine,
and from this dough make little cakes or small pasties or crusts and
fill them with the aforemntioned mixture, and then put a casserole on
the fire with very good sweet oil, and when it boils, put these little
pasties in and cook them until they turn yellow like gold, and when you
take them out sprinkle thinned honey over them, and sugar and cinnaon
over the honey.
Redaction from Original Mediterranean Cuisine, by Barbara Santich:
1/2 cup almonds, ground, blanched
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon rose water
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 cup flour
1 each egg
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons water
oil for frying
caster sugar (Super or Very fine sugar)
cinnamon
honey
Combine almonds, sugar, rosewater and ginger in food processor and
blend well (if the almonds are freshly ground the mixture should start
to hold together). Meanwhile make soft pastry with flour, egg, olive
oil and water, knead lightly and roll out thinly. Cut into rounds about
3 inches in diameter. Place a small spoon of the almond mixture on one
half, brush edges with water, fold over and press edges together to
seal.
Heat oil and deep-fry pastries, a few at a time; drain, then toss in
caster sugar. Original calls for brushing with honey, then sprinkling
with sugar and cinnamon, which is what we chose to do.
Note, we made some of the pastry, but ran short of time and used gyoza
skins instead...worked out very well. Again, one of my students made
these for the feast, though I had used them in an Italian feast I did
about 8 years ago.
Kiri
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 03:48:34 -0500
From: Bill Fisher <liamfisher at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] canisoles
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 22:11:04 -0600, Stefan li Rous <stefanlirous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> I don't have a copy of Platina. And I just did a search in the
> Florilegium for "canisoles" and got no hits. So, could someone please
> post the recipe? Preferably a translation and any redactions they have?
> This sounds like a good item for the various holiday pot lucks coming
> up.
>
> And Cadoc, what do you mean by "spin some hot honey over them"? Are you
> actually spinning something or do you just mean drizzling honey over
> them? And for folks who have done this, does it help to warm the honey
> in a microwave first or do you just drip it out of the bottle?
>
> Thanks,
> Stefan
I'm pretty sure I posted them to the list, but it was 5 or 6 years ago I
think.
A pound of almonds to a pound of sugar, ground into each other, then
spread over your flattened pie dough and rolled up, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
then baked till done. I used more butter in my pie dough than usual
for these.
I believe Platina calls for what Milham translates as "bun" dough for these.
Which is basically a fat, flour and water dough. (Like I said, no book yet, it is on order again *sigh* I can't remember who I loaned it to)
By spinning I mean sticking a spoon into hot honey and holding it way
above the food and moving it back and forth so that they get thin traceries
of honey on them evenly and not in large drops. The heated honey is less
viscous and sinks into the dough before cooling. I used a water bath to heat
the honey in a bowl. I don't heat viscous fluids in the microwave.
Cadoc
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 20:02:54 -0800
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spanish Vigil Food
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Anahita asked about food for the vigil of a Spanish-Islamic persona
Laurel.
How about the stuffed tortillon, which is a
filled bread? (Recipe from our Miscellany below.)
I brought one to a Mists Investiture a year or
two back--I don't remember if you were there and
had a chance to try it.
Elizabeth/Betty Cook
Para Hazer Tortillon Relleno: To Make a Stuffed Tortillon
Diego Granado, Libro del arte de cozina, 1599
Tr. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)
Knead two pounds of the flower of the flour with
six yolks of fresh eggs, and two ounces of
rosewater, and one ounce of leaven diluted with
tepid water, and four ounces of fresh cow's
butter, or pork lard which has no bad odor, and
salt, and be stirring said dough for the space of
half an hour, and make a thin leaf or pastry and
anoint it with melted fat which should not be
very hot, and cut the edges around, sprinkle the
pastry with four ounces of sugar, and one ounce
of cinnamon, and then have a pound of small
raisins of Corinth, which have been given a boil
in wine, and a pound of dates cooked in the same
wine, and cut small, and all of the said things
should be mixed together with sugar, cinnamon,
and cloves, and nutmeg, and put the said mixture
spread over the pastry with some morsels of cow's
butter, and beginning with the long end of the
pastry, roll it upwards, taking care not to break
the dough, and this tortillon or roll must not be
rolled more than three turns, so that it will
cook better, and it does not have to go very
tight. Anoint it on top with fat, not very hot.
It will begin to twist by itself at one end which
is not very closed, in such a manner that it
becomes like a snail. Have the pie pan ready
with a pastry of the same dough, somewhat fatty,
anointed with melted fat, and put the tortillon
lightly upon it without pressing it, and make it
cook in the oven, or under a large earthen pot
with temperate fire, tending it from time to time
by anointing it with melted cow's butter, and
being almost cooked, put sugar on top, and
rosewater, and serve it hot. The pie pan in
which you cook the tortillones must be wide, and
must have very low edges. [end of original]
Translator's notes: All of the recipes which bear
the name "tortillon" have a rolled-up pastry with
some kind of filling. If I had to translate the
Spanish, I would render it as something like
"roll-pastry". The noun "manteca" can mean either
butter or lard. I have translated "manteca de
vaca" as cow's butter, "manteca de puerco" as
pork lard, and undifferentiated "manteca" as fat.
dough:
2 lb = 7 c flour
4 oz = 1/2 c butter
6 egg yolks
2 oz = 4 T rose water
2 scant T dried yeast
1 1/4 c lukewarm water
2 t salt
filling:
1 lb = 3 1/2 c currents
1 lb = 3 1/2 c chopped dates
3 c wine
1/4 c sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4+ t nutmeg
1/8 t cloves
to use in making loaf:
1/2 c sugar
1 oz = 3 1/2 T cinnamon
2 T butter
~3 T melted butter
1 t rosewater
1 T sugar
Mix flour and salt in a large bowl; mix yeast
with warm water, beat egg yolks with rosewater,
melt 1/4 c butter. Make a well in the center of
the flour and pour the liquids into it, stir
together with a wooden spoon, then knead for
10-15 minutes, until smooth. (The original says
half an hour, but the extra quarter hour doesn't
seem to make much difference.) Let rise an hour
and 20 minutes. To prepare filling, bring wine to
a boil, add currents and dates and let boil two
minutes; drain and add sugar and spices. When
dough has risen, pinch off about an eighth of it
and spread it out flat in the bottom of a greased
11" pie pan; spread 1 t melted butter over it.
Spread the rest of the dough out on a floured
board to a rectangle ~21"x18", spread with 2 t
melted butter, and sprinkle on 1/4 c sugar and 1
oz cinnamon. Spread the filling on top of that;
dot with 2 T of butter in pieces. Roll up from
the long side and pinch together to seal, so that
the filling won't all ooze out. Coil on top of
the piece of dough in the pan and spread another
2 t of melted butter over the top. Let rise
another 10 minutes or so and put in a pre-heated
oven at 350¡. Bake 50 minutes or so, taking out
once or twice to spread with more melted butter.
After 45 minutes baking, sprinkle with rosewater
and sugar, then put back in oven for another 5
minutes.
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 12:00:17 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Suggestions Needed
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Martha Oser wrote:
> William de Grandfort wrote:
>> Almond Fingers / Assabih bi Loz (featured in medieval manuscripts
> as 'lauzinaj') these are little
>> 'cigars' of fila dough filled with almonds, pistachios, walnuts
> and sugar, and fried.
>
> Do you have a source for these? I'd like to see it. I make Assabi with
> shells of fried dough kind of like cannoli shells.
>
> -Helena
There are several recipes for lauzinaj in "Medieval Arab Cookery". I
don't interpret them as being like cannoli (i *love* cannoli). I made
an adapted version for a feast several years ago - i used purchased
marzipan, not hand milled almonds, and phyllo for the wrapping.
Descriptions of the dough suggest to me something like, but perhaps
not as fine as, phyllo. Here's what i wrote in my website.
----- begin quote -----
Lauzinaj - Phyllo-wrapped rose-scented marzipan
This is a originally a Persian dish. References to it can be found in
pre-Muslim Persian literature. It was the only dish in the pre-Muslim
legendary history "King Khusraw and His Page" recommended as being
suitable for both summer and winter.
Isa ibn Hisham said, "Bring us some throat-easing Lauzinaj, for it
slips into the veins. Let it be... [fresh], the crust paper thin,
generously filled, pearled with almond oil, starry in color, melting
before it meets the teeth..."
Another writer said, "lauzinaj... in a wrapper as gossamer as
grasshopper wings."
Original Recipe:
Lauzinaj: One part almonds, pounded coarsely. Put a like quantity of
finely pounded sugar on it with a third as much rosewater, and melt
it with it. When it thickens, throw one part sugar on it and take it
from the fire. It is dry lauzinaj.
As For The Moist: It is that you take a pound of finely milled sugar,
and you take a third of a pound of finely milled blanched almonds,
and knead it with rose-water. Take thin bread such as sanbusak bread
- it is better if even thinner; the best and most suitable is kunafa
- and spread out a sheet of that bread and put the kneaded sugar and
almonds on it, then roll it up and cut it in small pieces. Arrange
them in a vessel and refine as much fresh sesame oil as needed and
put it on them. Then cover them with syrup dissolved with rose-water
and sprinkle them with sugar and finely pounded pistachios, and serve.
Another Variety: It is that you take starch [sc. flour?] and knead it
hard, and as much as it stiffens, thin it carefully so that it
becomes like fresh milk. Take the carved mirror and heat it and pour
in it with the "emptier" and take it up. Then roll up pistachios,
sugar, musk, and rosewater in it. Pack them snugly, cut them, and put
hot sesame oil and syrup on them, and sprinkle them with sugar. This
can be eaten right away.
al-Kitab Wasf al-At'ima al-Mu'tada (The Book of the Description of
Familiar Foods), 1373, has over 1/2 dozen Lauzinaj recipes - in
"Medieval Arab Cookery" on pp. 456-457.
----- end quote -----
The above, including my adapted, not really authentic, recipe is on my
webpage:
http://home.earthlink.net/~lilinah/2001_Feasts/persianrecipes.html
Neither cannoli nor a number of other dough wrapper sound to me to be
"as gossamer as grasshopper wings" so i used phyllo.
It was my first experience using phyllo and i wrote out the process
in detail on my webpage, but the actual doing of it is far simpler
than it appears. One just has to work fast - the process is
repetitive and somewhat mechanical, so it goes fairly quickly. The
ones i made were all gobbled up, so i guess it turned out ok.
I now have a food processor and a friend with a food mill, so i'm
willing to grind my own almonds.
If i were a skilled pastry cook or knew one, i'd like to try making a
pastry closer to the original. What i'd really love to learn is how
to make Maghribi warqa, but i don't really know what they're like
when home-made (i guess i ate some in Morocco, but i wasn't studying
them with great care, as i was busy eating them :-)
Anahita
Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 19:21:50 -0500
From: "Martha Oser" <osermart at msu.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 19, Issue 29
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Stefan wrote:
>> Ataif / Aab Pancakes (mentioned in a 10th century poem written for
>> Caliph Mustakfi of Baghdad)
>> drizzled with honey or syrup.....can also be stuffed with 'new cheese'
>> or Ricotta.
>>
>> Almond Fingers / Assabih bi Loz (featured in medieval manuscripts as
>> 'lauzinaj') these are little
>> 'cigars' of fila dough filled with almonds, pistachios, walnuts and
>> sugar, and fried.
> These sound interesting and I don't think we've discussed these