SC - icelandic chicken redaction.

[cclark at vicon.net]

'Lainie (AKA Queen Carmen Slugana) wrote:
>david friedman wrote:
>> ... In the English corpus, at least, you have specific references to
>> short pastes--doughs with shortening. It looks to me as if the default
>> "paste" is basically a flour./water dough, and the addition of shortening
>> is considered a variation worth noting. ...
>
>Hmm. By that rationale, perhaps going back to piecrust is the best
>solution? My considerations are: will the kids eat it? And how can I
>make it in camp with a minimum of fuss and mess (important when
>15-year-olds are cooking)...

That depends on what you mean by pie crust. Most Americans seem to "know"
that pie crust consists of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (or
"vegetable shortening") cut into salted flour, which is then moistened with
cold water to make it hold together. If they know that much. What period
English (or other) cooks knew was a bit different.

To begin with, period cooks didn't always assume that the dough was to be
eaten. But if it was to be eaten, they would likely improve it by using a
finer grade of flour, and shortening it with melted butter (back then,
butter seems to have been the most popular shortening for baking). The first
reference I have seen to shortening (again butter) that is cut into the
dough is from the 17th century (Digby, perhaps?) and the writer implies that
this is or might be a new innovation. And the butter is cut into the dough
after the rest is mixed, instead of the modern method of adding water after
the shortening is cut in. Looks like a direct adaptation of puff pastry. I
would guess that this 17th-century pastry was an ancestor of our modern
flaky and mealy pie pastries.

So if you want to use pie crust, period style, I would suggest either a
plain flour-water dough (perhaps lightly salted, and probably using some
non-wheat flour), or a flour, water, and melted butter dough. Don't use a
whole lot of butter or it gets grease all over your fingers. Not good for
your dexterity. (Though a slug might be more concerned about salt...)

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon

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