SC - A Recipe for Ras

[Magdalena]

Just got back from Wash DC and found an amazing number of digests to
wade through, but glancing through the subject headings, it doesn't
look like anyone has replied to this. Following are a couple of cherry
pie recipes from Sabina Welserin, only one of them redacted. I'm sure
there are more in other cookbooks, but these are the only ones I've
got translated and on my hard drive.

Valoise

123 To make a very good sour cherry tart

Take a pound of sour cherries and remove all of the pits. Afterwards
take a
half pound of sugar and a half ounce of finely ground cinnamon sticks and
mix the sugar with it. Next mix the cherries with it and put it after that
in the pie shell made of good flour and let it bake in the tart pan.

130 To make a sour cherry tart

Take the sour cherries, take out the stones and make a pastry crust as for
the other tarts. Take bread crumbs from grated white bread and fry
them in
fat. Pour them on the crust, sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top, Put the
sour cherries in it, leaving their juice in the bowl, sprinkle it well with
sugar and with cinnamon, make a crust on top of it, let it bake, as it is
customary.

Pastry for a two-crust pie
1 1/2 cups plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup butter or lard
3 cups pitted sour cherries (fresh or frozen, canned in water as a
last resort)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Drain cherries. Melt butter in pan. Add bread crumbs and brown
lightly. Set
aside to cool. Arrange bottom crust in pie pan. Add bread crumbs and
sprinkle 
with a third of the cinnamon and sugar. Add remaining sugar and
cinnamon to 
drained cherries and place on top of bread crumbs. Cover with
remaining pie crust. 
Trim and flute edges and cut vent holes. Bake in preheated oven 450
degrees 
Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
and bake 
until brown (Approximately 35 more minutes).


> Back when I first joined the SCA, one of the dishes served at a feast was a type
> of cherry tart (pie base was plain pastry; cherry filling was very rich).
> 
> It received rave reviews; converted a number of "period food is nasty" people
> (;-p); and still sticks in my memory of "I have got to make this" after 9 years.
> 
>  Unfortunately, the lady who cooked it has passed beyond my range of contacts,
> and I'm unable to find out where the recipe originated from (the closest I've
> found is the recipe "Chyryoun" - page 201 "Take a thousand eggesor more" by
> C.Renfrow  [second ed. Volume one]
> 
> The question is - does anyone know on a period recipe for Cherry tarts or pies?
> (or should I just play with this one to create what I'm after??)
> 
> Mari
> Brisbane, Australia