SC - Notes re Quinces in Paste

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the list!

Now you've done it!

In an attempt to help drown out some of the more objectionable material
on this list lately, I will inflict on you my documentation for Quinces
in Paste, which sat on the EKU A&S display table a couple of feet from
the Peach Pits and the Four Condiments from Platina...

> Quyncis or Wardouns in past
> 
> “.xxj. Quyncis or Wardouns in past. -- Take & make fayre Rounde cofyns of fayre past; (th)an take fayre Raw Quynces, & pare hem with a knyf, & take fayre out (th)e core (th)er-of ; (th)an take Sugre y-now, & a lytel pouder gynger, & stoppe (th)e hole fulle ; & cowche .ii. or .iij. wardonys or quynce3 in a cofyn, & keuer hem, & lat hem bake ; & for defaut of Sugre, take hony ; but (th)en putte pouder Pepir (th)er-on, & Gyngere, in (th)e maner be-for sayd.”
> -- Harleian Ms 279, ~1420 C.E. “Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books”
> ed. Thomas Austin, pub. Early English Text Society, printed by 
> The Oxford University Press, 1888, reprinted 1964 and 1996 
> 
> XXI. Quinces or wardens in paste. -- Take and make nice round piecrusts of good pastry, then take good raw quinces, and peel them with a knife, and neatly take out their cores. Then take enough sugar, and a little powdered ginger, and stuff the core holes full; and lay two or three wardens or quinces in each piecrust, & cover them, and let them bake; and if you have no sugar, take honey; but then put powdered pepper on them, and ginger, in the same manner as above.
> 
> 	This is a pretty straightforward recipe; the method not too far from an apple pie made with an uncooked filling. Quinces require longer cooking and, usually, more sugar or other sweetening to be palatable. I used honey because I had a lot in the house, and because I thought it would make for a more complex flavor.
> 	The filling consists of four quinces, three cored, peeled and whole, plus one cut into smaller pieces to fill up any large, empty spaces in the pastry. These were flavored with approximately 10-12 ounces of honey, 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper and 1/2 tsp. ground ginger.
> 	The pastry poses some research problems... the oldest piecrust recipe I’m aware of in English is as follows, from the sixteenth century:
> 
> 	“To make short paest for tarte. Take fyne floure and a curscy of fayre water and a dish of swete butter and a lyttel saffron, and the yolckes of two egges and make it thynne and as tender as ye maye.”
> -- “A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye”, mid-sixteenth century C.E., ed. Catherine Frances Frere, Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., 1913
> 
> 	The trouble is that this is intended for tarts, usually open pastries no more than an inch or two deep; our quince pastry is more of a pie, covered, deep enough to hold whole quinces, possibly for some period of time.  If what is described above is for a rich, delicate, tart pastry, we probably need something a bit more substantial.  The basic recipe can be followed with somewhat fewer egg yolks and butter in proportion to the other ingredients; since these are shortenings, that should make the dough a bit tougher. To keep it from being too tough, I’ve added some sugar, which is consistent for many piecrust recipes both within and early post-period. There appear to be some German tart doughs made from flour, saffron and yolks alone (see Ein Buoch Von Guter Spise, etc.)
> 	The final proportions of the pie dough are approximately two pounds of stone-ground whole wheat flour (while it has less gluten than white flour, pies in late period appear often to have been made with whole wheat or rye flour, as the coarseness seems to have been equated with strength and keeping ability. See Gervase Markham’s “The English Hus-Wife”, etc.) four ounces of unsalted butter, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 cup grated “panela dolce” brown sugar, approximately 1/4 tsp saffron, four egg yolks, and approximately a pint of very cold water, kneaded by hand to a smooth, moderately tough, sculptable dough, which was raised by hand, like clay on a potter’s wheel, into the round “coffin” for the pie. After filling, the lid was sealed on with water and crimped into place.
> 	The pie was baked for a total of approximately two hours; for half an hour at 350° F., half an hour at 325° F., and an hour at 300° F.
> 	Decoration is with a gilding wash made from an egg yolk, 1/2 tsp sugar, a tiny pinch of salt, and 1/4 tsp saffron, over which is placed edible silver leaf, held in place with a solution of gum tragacanth dissolved in water. As of this writing I have no idea what form the design will take.

**Post-event commentary: I had fun with applying edible silver leaf to
the surface in two counterchanged quarters, which I did on-site.
Contrary to what you may have heard, silver and gold vark sheets are not
Zip-A-Tone, and do not adhere to the sheets of paper used to keep them
separate. They will stick to themselves, or any other surface, with no
visible provocation _provided_ that that is _not_ where you want them to
go. Once applied where you actually want them, they will resist most
initial attempts to fix them in that location.

In all seriousness, what I found most effective was a thinly brushed
coating of dilute solution of gum tragacanth on the pastry (already
gilded with saffron-egg wash). For stubborn areas, a small dot of
additional gum solution could be applied to the edge of a sheet (without
actually touching the brush to the foil), where it would be sucked under
the sheet by capillary action. Advice: you cannot have too many fine,
soft brushes for this job.  

I think perhaps my technique will improve with further experience, and I
was happy to provide the people of my Kingdom with living proof of the
consequences of the Sin of Pride. (And all they kept saying was, "Come
on, I thought Laurels can do anything!") To offset my embarrassment, I
learned a great deal in the process, had a good time playing with food
and a more-or-less exotic ingredient that is a lot cheaper than most
people seem to think, and you can't _ask_ for a better conversational
ice-breaker than to sit and concentrate on such a job and be asked "What
in Heaven's name are you doing to that poor pie???", in one case from
His Majesty, with whom I had to speak anyway, so it worked out okay.

Next time, gold... ;  )

Adamantius  
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com