SC - Waffres ala Master Huen
Mordonna22@aol.com
Mordonna22 at aol.com
Sat Feb 6 13:26:55 PST 1999
And it came to pass on 6 Feb 99,, that Tim & Dee wrote:
> My name is lachlan and i am from sunderoak in aethelmarc
> i was wounderin if some good and wise gentle could tell me if carrot pie
> would be period or not it is prepared similar to pumpkin pie any info or
> leads where to look or document would be greatly appreciated.
M'lord Lachlan,
The only carrot pie recipe that I know is late period Spanish.
However, it does not greatly resemble a modern pumpkin pie. Here
is a translation of the recipe; perhaps it will be useful to you.
Torta of Carrot
From: "Libro del Arte de Cozina", 1599
Wash and scrape the carrots, and remove them from the water and
cook them in good meat broth, and being cooked remove them and
chop them small with the knife, adding to them mint and marjoram,
and for each two pounds of chopped carrots [use] a pound of
Trochon cheese and a pound and a half of buttery Pinto cheese,
and six ounces of fresh cheese, and one ounce of ground pepper,
one ounce of cinnamon, two ounces of candied orange peel cut
small, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, three ounces of cow's
butter, and from this composition make a torta with puff pastry*
above and below, and the tortillon [pie pan?] with puff pastry all
around, and make it cook in the oven, making the crust of sugar,
cinnamon, and rosewater. In this manner you can make tortas of
all sorts of roots, such as that of parsley, having taken the core out
of them.
*The word used here for pastry, "ojaldre" ("hojaladre" in the modern
spelling) means puff pastry according to my modern Spanish
dictionary, and the etymology of the word (from hoja, "leaf") would
seem to indicate that it is the period meaning as well. There is a
recipe for a veal torta in the same cookbook which calls for the
same kind of pastry, and gives instructions for making it:
To Make Puff Pastry Pies of Veal Neck
Take wheat flour and knead it with egg yolks, tepid water, salt, and
a little bit of pork lard, and make it in such a manner that the dough
is more soft than hard, and pummel it very well on a table, and
make a thin torta, but swiftly, longer than wide and anoint all of it
with melted lard which is not very hot and begin to roll up the
narrow part, and make a roll the thickness of an arm which will
come to be solid, in such a manner that it can be cut, then cut a
round slice two fingers in thickness, and have separately another
firm dough well kneaded, made from wheat flour, egg yolks, water,
and salt without lard, and make of it a pie bottom which is of the
bigness of the pastry, and put in it a mixture made as in the
preceeding chapter [ie., the veal filling from the previous recipe],
keeping the same order to make the mixture high and pyramid-
shaped, because the cover that you make is of the same paste, in
cooking it can better become puffed [literally, "leafed"], and before
you put it in the oven anoint the pie with melted lard, which is cold
and not hot, because it clings better to the paste, and then put it in
the oven, which must be well swept, and clean, and level, and
moderately hot, and especially the upper part, so that the said puff
pastry can better puff, and as it begins to puff, anoint it with lard
with a feather fastened to a small cane without removing it from the
oven, which you will do two or three times, and being cooked you
must serve it hot dusted on top with sugar, and if you wish you can
put the broth which we have said in the previous chapter. And be
aware that if the ceiling of the oven is low, that will be better,
because all the puff pastries want the fire hotter above than below.
Which you must beware of in the other pies with puff pastry.
The recipe then goes on to discuss an alternate (and inferior)
dough which is used in Rome, and other fillings that can be used
with this pastry.
Note that while the veal pie has puff pastry only on the top crust,
the carrot torta calls for puff pastry in the top *and* bottom crusts.
The "crust" of sugar, cinnamon, and rosewater I would interpret as
a sweet topping for the upper crust. I haven't tried this myself, but
it sounds tasty, and with the quantities given, it shouldn't be too
hard to redact. Remember that medieval eggs would be smaller. If
you're not a pastry-baker, ready-made puff pastry can be found in
the frozen foods section of your local grocer.
In service,
Brighid
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
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