SC - icelandic chicken redaction.

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> 
> what dough did you use, and why did you pick that one? according to my
> reading, we have little evidence on how early pastry was made, and whetehr
> it was to be eaten or not.

True, but...

The recipe (or at least one early one) does say, as I recall, something
like "cut speck small and put it in [the dough]". This doesn't make it
clear how the fat (very possibly fresh & uncured, unlike what most of us
think of as bacon) is introduced.

It _could_ end up in the pastry as a shortening, as with the grated
unrendered suet you find in some English puddings.

Alternately, as AM points out, it may simply be that it's hard as a rock
and intended to be as edible as a rock. I've often heard it said by
people field-testing the dish that the thing to do is eat only the
bacon-juice-y bottom of the pastellum. YMMV.

Another consideration is that we don't know for sure how hard or soft
the wheat or other grain used in the recipe is. Using a softer wheat
flour might help with making the dough at least somewhat more edible by
modern standards, if it was intended to be eaten. If, on the other hand,
the recipe really is from some Mediterranean region, as has been
suggested, it may well have been a harder wheat.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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