SC - pastry castles

[Jessica Tiffin]

Adamantius wrote:
>Well, the recipe, if I remember it correctly, does tell us to make it stiff!
>The simplest solution might be to make a really really really stiff
>flour-and-water dough, or flour-and-egg-yolk dough. Draft the nearest 300-lb
>fighter for kneading! This appears likely to have been the period solution to
>this problem.
This makes lots of sense - I can't actually manage kneading for any length
of time at the moment, owing to an arm injury, so probably just chickened
out on dough stiffness.  And I don't think I know any 300-lb fighters - ours
seem to run to the slim, here.

>  The recipe also says to dry it
>in the sun or bake it, so maybe a really low oven might be effective at
>stiffening the dough without causing it to lose structural integrity. I'm
>talking about a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius or less.
I used a fairly low oven, but obviously not low enough - I suppose it's the
kind of fine-tuning I'll get with practise.

>As for modernish alternatives, one might be a hot water and lard pastry, such
>as is used for various meat pies in the U.K. I generally use Hillary
>Spurling's recipe found in her edition of "Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book",
>my copy of which seems to have mysteriously vanished.
>While it's still warm, it is pliable, but when it cools, it stiffens up
>somewhat, so it's good for free-standing pies, baked outside of pie pans.
>However, it also works best when it has some added support, such as a filling
>inside, when it bakes. Some might even go far enough to wrap a belly-band of
>foil or parchment around it while it bakes.
Yes, the basic problem I seemed to have was in cooking it without the
filling, which I suppose goes to show you shouldn't fiddle too much with the
original recipe, it specifies things for a reason... :>  But then the Form
of Curye instructions specified making a cylinder of pastry before it went
anywhere near the oven, and I simply could not get the texture to do that.
>
>Finally, the other thing you can do is use any pastry you want, just about,
>baked "blind" in something like a coffee can with the top and bottom removed,
I intend to go out and buy one of those deep cake tins with a removeable
base, for next time.  I just couldn't find anything in the kitchen that
remotely gave the size I needed - all the casseroles and things had sloping
sides, phooey.  

>something like softened meat glaze for savory ones. Not to mention the
>occasonal toothpick... .
Ah, toothpicks, every cook's helpmate.  Well, not really.  They make cute
flags, though.

Thanks for all the suggestions, Adamantius, I shall have another go with
renewed culinary fervour.

Melisant

Melisant de Huguenin
Minister of Arts and Sciences, Shire of Adamastor, Drachenwald
Sable, three owls, wings elevated, argent, each maintaining a willow slip vert.
Jessica Tiffin * melisant at iafrica.com

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