SC - edible castles-LONG

[david friedman]

Gwenyth asked:

>Also, we are hosting Crown Tourney in Oct. and I have someone who wants to
>do an edible castle for the head table.  I would LOVE to hear
>suggestions/comments on this.  I would appreciate any alternative ideas to
>present to this lady.  She really wants to make a special contribution
>food-wise to Their Majesties feast but she is new at this and I would like
>to give her more than one option to try before hand.

Here is a recipe for castlettes (little castles) from the 14th c. English
cookbook Forme of Cury, as published in _Curye on Inglysch: English
Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Including the Forme of
Cury)_, edited by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler, published for the
Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

Chastletes.  Take and make a foyle of gode past with a rollere of a foot
brode, & lynger by cumpas.  Make iiii coffuns of the self past vppon the
rollere the gretnesse of the smal of thyn arme of vi ynche dep; make the
gretust in the myddell.  Fasten the foile in the mouth vpwarde, & fasten
the othere foure in euery side.  Kerue out keyntlich kyernels above, in the
manere of bataillyng, and drye hem harde in an ovene other in the sunne.
In the myddel coffyn do a farse of pork with gode poudour & ayren rawe with
salt, & colour it with saffroun; and so in another creme of almaundes, and
helde it whyght.  In another, creme of cowe mylke with ayren; colour it red
with saundres.  Therof another maner:  fars of fyges, of raysouns, of
apples, of peeres, & holde it broun. Therof another manere: do fars as to
frytours blaunched and colour it grene; put this to the oven & bake it wel,
& serve it forth with ew ardaunt. [end of original; letters not in modern
English replaced by their modern equivalents]

And for those who find Middle English daunting, here is a literal
translation/spelling update on the fly:

Castlettes.  Take and make a foil [thin layer] of good dough/pastry with a
roller of a foot broad, & longer by compass.  Make 4 coffins [pie
crusts--but note that these have a special shape] of the same pastry upon
the roller the greatness of the small of thine arm of 6 inches deep; make
the greatest in the middle.  Fasten the foil in the mouth upward, & fasten
the other four on every side.  Carve out carefully kernels above, in the
manner of embattling, and dry them hard in an oven or in the sun.  In the
middle coffin do a filling of pork with good [spice] powder & eggs raw with
salt, & colour it with saffron; and so in another cream of almonds, and
hold it white.  In another, cream of cow milk with eggs; colour it red with
saunders [ground red sandlewood--period food coloring].  Thereof another
manner:  filling of figs, of raisons, of apples, of pears, & hold it brown.
Thereof another manner: do filling as to frytours blaunched [another recipe
out of the same cookbook: see below] and color it green; put this to the
oven & bake it wel, & serve it forth with eau ardant.

I've though about this one, though I haven't made it myself, and I think
what is going on is:

You make five cylinders of pastry.  The first is a foot high and more than
a foot around, and the other four are 6" high and as big around as your
forearm.  You cut one end of each cylinder embattled (crenelated), like the
top of a castle wall, then arrange these upright on a baking sheet to be
the towers of a castle with the biggest in the middle (the keep) and the
other four around it. You then bake this briefly to harden it. You can't
use a modern short pastry dough for this, by the way; a friend of mine
tried this and even when she baked them on coffee cans most of them fell
apart. You then make five different fillings of five different colors (eggs
and saffron for yellow in the meat filling, white thick almond milk,
custard colored red with saunders, brown of fruit and dried fruit, and
green--probably with parsley juice, although it doesn't say--of ground
blanched almonds with ginger, sugar and salt).  The fillings are only
briefly described; you would want to look through Forme of Cury for similar
pie/tart recipes to fill out what the spicing and/or thickening should be
in these (if your friend wants to try this and doesn't have access to this
book, let me know and I can do some digging.  Also, we have a fair number
of worked-out pie recipes in the _Miscelany_, which is online.)  You put
one filling in each tower and bake.  I'm not sure what "serve it forth with
eau ardent" means--are you supposed to serve it flambe'?

Anyway, it is a period recipe for exactly what you want, and it would be
neat to see someone try it.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


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