SC - Re: Lombardy Custard

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Kerry Romano wrote:

> How often were the crusts made NOT to be eaten?  When I did my research
> for a paper on food, I understood that it was frequent that the crust
> was only the vessel and not intended for eating.  Is this just when it
> calls for a coffin?
> 
> Linneah

The simplest answer that really appears to be supported by the facts is
that sometimes the crust was meant to be eaten, and sometimes not.

Many of the pie and tart recipes throughout period don't give a recipe
for the pastry,  and the evidence that suggests that pies were a good
way to preserve foods generally comes from very late sources indeed. So,
the late-period pies filled with butter, that appear to be made with
coarse rye or whole-wheat pastry, are from very late period, but also
you have to figure that the pastry, especially if it was several days
old, probably wouldn't have been very appetizing.

Open-faced tarts and pies with sweet fillings (which, by coincidence,
also seem to be open-faced) are less justifiable as a means of keeping a
food for a couple of days, and they seem frequently to be the ones that
call for the additional tasty stuff (saffron, eggs, sugar, etc.) in the
pastry.

Probably the crust was treated on an individual case basis, as is the
case with trenchers. If a person at a medieval feast actually didn't get
enough to eat without eating the pastry (or if he was a glutton), then
the option was there to eat the pastry. Otherwise it could be given to
the poor, or the dogs, again, as with trenchers.

Adamantius    
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================