SC - Removes or courses? An issue of interest...

[Christine A Seelye-King]

Tollhase1 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> I choose to use the non fat dough as it did not call for any fat.  I
> recognized that it would probably need it to be edible.

As I've mentioned, I'm not entirely convinced this is so. I'm not
convinced that it's not, either.
 
> When a recipe asks for a rough dough, just what do they mean.  I realize that
> sometimes, periodwise, the crust was not meant to be eaten and sometimes it
> was.

A rough dough is coarse. This could refer to the grain used, the
grade/grind of the flour, or even to the size of the lumps of fat in the
case of certain shortened pastries. Rough puff paste, for example, is
made with little lumps, roughly the size of the end of your thumb, of
butter mixed into the dough, and flattened out by rolling, as opposed to
the layers of dough and butter laminated together like Damascus steel as
for regular puff paste. Rough puff paste expands differently from
regular puff paste, and generally has a slightly mottled look compared
to the usual "deck of cards" look that regular puff paste has. But
"rough" could mean any of several things. I believe Gervase Markham
speaks of rough paste for certain pies being made from coarse rye flour
and water.

> If its not stated either way, can one use any period dough recipe and be
> correct.  I.e., if as a cook, I realize to be edible I use recipe A for the
> dough and B for the filling, but use Recipe C for the Dough in some other
> case.

Yes, I think so. What you're doing is mixing known processes to your
best advantage. You _ought_ to be able to explain why you did it, which
it seems you are, and distinguish between the various recipes whose
aspects you're mixing, and make it clear you're not following a single
period recipe, but a synthesis of several Other than that, you can
always use the old "Well they'd have done it this way if they'd thought
of it!" dodge...;  ) As for whether all this is "correct", well, that's
up to you. You've probably got a big knife in your hand at times like
this, right?
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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