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. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ 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 http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ 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 http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ 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