SC - cuskynoles

[david friedman]

At 11:03 AM -0400 10/27/97, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

>If you wanted to make
>them on your own, I'd suggest two parts pastry flour and one part whole
>wheat, which would give you, I think, something fairly close to bolted,
>"white" medieval English pastry flour. Add salt and enough egg yolks to
>make a firm dough, which, when fully kneaded, should be completely
>smooth and non-sticky.

Note that the original specifies eggs, not egg yolks.

>I still believe that the dough is rolled out into a large sheet, roughly
>8" by 24", and scored or cut into rectangles as indicated in the recipe,
>approximately 6" by 2 1/2". The pastry is left in place after cutting.

How can you reconcile that with the language of the recipe--hew into many
parts? Doesn't that make it clear that the parts are entirely cut apart?

>The filling is smeared on the portions, all of one dole. To me, this is
>the main bone of contention. What does that mean? The glossary of Curye
>on Inglysch says that a dole is the same as a del or dele, meaning a
>portion. This could be interpreted to mean that the filling is smeared
>on all at once, forming a mass the size and shape of the rectangle
>pictured.

Smearing it on all of one dole can mean covering all of one of the 3x6
pieces with the filling.

And then fold together. Either on itself (make it 2x6 to get the oblong
after folding) or on another identical piece.

>That isn't consistent with the rest of the instructions,
>though.

Why not?

>I'm all for the idea that some instrcutions are implicit or
>absent altogether, but this seems like too much of a logical leap. No
>mention is made of using the back of a knife, or any other utensil, to
>subdivide each portion into individual bite-sized cells,

But it says "and then fold together in the same manner as this figure" and
gives you the picture.

>and it would
>take a pretty skilled hand to do that subdividing, be sure it is sealed,
>using only the inherent stickiness of the filling, and have them stay
>that way while they boil, as steam inflates the cells.

Thanks for the compliment, but it was really quite easy.

>An alternate interpretation, while still a little shaky, but still more
>logical to my mind, is that the filling (represented by the dots in the
>picture) is placed, in little blobs, on the pastry rectangles, still
>laid out in their original large rectangular formation, all at once.
>This is quite consistent with the way a cook producing several identical
>items would work. It is far faster to cut out as many rectangles as you
>need, plop filling on all of them, and then seal them all, because this
>uses, and wastes, minimal hand motion. If you moisten the edges to seal
>them, you needn't worry about the dough drying out, even if it takes a
>while to do them all. It's my belief that this is what is meant by "all
>of one dole".

But it says to fold together in the manner of the figure, not to lay it out
for putting the filling on in the manner of the figure.

Try it my way and see if it doesn't taste better. Yours is, I suspect,
putting too much of the filling together in a glop--like eating jam instead
of a jam sandwich. Also, I suspect that your thicker version (because the
individual filled units are much bigger) isn't going to broil as well--but
try it and see.



David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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