SC - A question for the group

[Seton1355@aol.com]

gwyneth/Gail Young wrote:

>...I have several period recipes for meat pies.  They all end up
>with a sweet flavor.  Is there any period basis for a non-sweet or mostly
>non-sweet meat pie?
>
>From the Miscellany:

Koken van Honer
Grewe 13th century

One should make a pastry shell of dough, and cut up into it a chicken, and
add bacon (speck), cut as peas, pepper and cumin and egg yolks well beaten
with saffron, and take the shell and bake it in an oven. It is called
"koken van honer." [end of original]

1/2 chicken: 1 1/2 lb or 3/4 lb boned	4 threads saffron	1/8 pepper
3 pieces of bacon	1/4 t cumin	9" pie shell
6 egg yolks

Bone and cut up chicken, put in pie shell; add bacon cut small; sprinkle on
spices. Beat egg yolks with saffron and pour over. Bake 45 minutes at 350°.

Malaches of Pork
Curye on Inglysch p. 134 (Form of Cury no. 162)

Hewe pork al to pecys and medle it with ayren & chese igrated. Do therto
powdour fort, safroun & pynes with salt. Make a crust in a trap; bake it
wel therinne, and serue it forth. [end of original; thorns replaced by th]

13 oz boneless pork	3/4 t powder fort*	1/4 c pine nuts
3 eggs	8 threads saffron	1/2 t salt
1/2 lb parmesan cheese

Cut up the pork raw into 1/2"-1/4" cubes. Grate cheese and mix with eggs in
a bowl. Crush saffron into a teaspoon or so of water. Combine everything.
Make a 9" pie crust, prebake about 10 minutes at 350°. Put filling in crust
and bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes.

We have also used mozzarella and cheddar for the cheese, but parmesan is
better.

*Powder fort is a spice mixture mentioned in various period recipes; we
have not yet been able to find a description of what spices it contains.
What we use is a mixture containing, by weight: 1 part cloves, 1 part mace,
1 part cubebs, 7 parts cinnamon, 7 parts ginger, and 7 parts pepper, all
ground. This is a guess, based on very limited evidence; it works well for
the dishes in which we have tried it.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


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