SC - Repost: carrot pie

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Since I've had several requests for this...

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: Diego Granado, "Libro del Arte de Cozina", 1599
Translation: Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

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 
Tronchon 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.   


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net