SC - Bad Feasts--Philosophically Speaking

[Stefan li Rous]

Hullo, the list...

I've been looking for other quince pie recipes, and have discovered this
interesting one in the Scully translated edition of Ms. Buhler 19, "The
Neapolitan Recipe Collection".

"77. Quince Pie.
	Prepare the dough as I have said for other tarts*; then get peeled
quince and remove the hard part in their centre, and do not let the hole
you make to remove it go all the way through; into this hole put good
beef marrow with plenty of sugar and cinnamon; and lay the quince in the
pies, adding the marrow to them inside and out; mind that it is not too
salty; put another crust on top, cooking it as with the other tarts."

*Note: there is another tart recipe which speaks of making a pastry
crust using a half pound of butter, but since no other ingredients, let
alone their quantities, are specified, this is of limited usefulness.
Recipe # 185, for French-Style Apple Tart, calls for a pastry crust to
be made from sugar, flour, oil, water and salt.

Here's another, from Ms. Harl. 5401, believed to be 15th Century, North
English Dialect...

"83 Quynces in Composte. Recipe fayre quynces & payr hem clene, & cut
(th)am oute (th)e kyrnyls; (th)an tak sugur enogh & a lityll powdyre of
gynger. Stop (th)e hole full; & (th)an make rownde cophyns & close .iij.
or .iiij. in a cophyn, & let it bake; & els take clarifyed hony in stede
of sugur; & serof."

The above recipe is pretty much identical to the English recipe I used,
and the two versions as represented by Harl. Mss. 279 and 4016, roughly
thirty years apart, are effectively identical; the Neapolitan recipe is
pretty much the same as Chiquart's, as far as I can tell. There appear
to be two basic methods, one of which involves cooked quinces, moistened
and enriched with marrow, the other involving raw quinces, to be
enriched only by their natural pectin and the other flavorings.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com