SC - my collected glossary

[KallipygosRed@aol.com]

I'm testing some of the recipes I will be preparing for Protectorate.  I
tried out the Spinach Tart on the unsuspecting populace last night.  The
spinach lovers liked it.  Most of the spinach haters refused it, although a
couple who tried it declared it almost edible.  

The crust turned out to be very light and flaky.  I'm wondering whether this
is the period intent or whether they worked the dough more to make a
heavier, crisper crust.

You will note that rosewater has been left out of the finished recipes.  The
Baroness and I have decided that for the feast, rosewater is a scribal
error, much as saffron is for Cariadoc.

Bear


Sweet Spinach Tart  
 
A Spinnage Tart.  Take a good store of Spinage, and boyl it in a Pipkin,
with White Wine, till it be 
soft as pap; then take it and strain it well into a pewter dish, not leaving
any part unstrained; then 
put to it Rose-water, great store of Sugar and cinamon, and boyle it till it
be thick as Marmalade.  
Then let it coole, and after fill your Coffin and adorn it... 
 
				Gervase Markham 
				The English Hous-wife, 1615 
 
1 pound spinach (fresh or frozen) cleaned and chopped 
1/2 cup white wine 
1 cup water 
1/3 cup sugar (or more) 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
 
Boil spinach in wine and 1/2 cup water until very soft. 
Press through a colander or run through a food processor to mince large
pieces of spinach. 
Combine sugar and 1/2 cup water in a pan  and bring to a boil. 
Stir in spinach and cinnamon. 
Reduce heat to medium and cook until almost dry. 
Put spinach into pie shell.  Cool. 
 
After cooling the tart can be adorned with fruit, powdered sugar, crystal
sugar, etc.  One 
tester suggested sliced hardboiled eggs. 
 
Notes:  One third cup of sugar sweetens the spinach without being cloying.
A cup of 
sugar would make a thicker syrup and make the spinach closer to the
marmalade of the 
original recipe. 
 
One teaspoon of fresh cinnamon provides a nice bite without being
overpowering. 
 
Fresh spinach may require additional water or wine in the first boil.  I
used frozen spinach 
for availability and speed.  I used Malavasia wine, which is fairly strong,
and cut it with 
water for expedience.  The spinach absorbed much of the liquid. 
 

Elizabethan Pie Shell  

Another Way.  Then make your paste with butter, fair water, and the yolkes
of two or three Egs, and 
so soone as ye have driven your paste, cast on a little sugar, and
rosewater, and harden your paste 
afore in the oven.  Then take it out, and fill it, and set it in againe. 
 
			The Good Huswifes Handmaid, 1588 
 

1/2 cup butter 
1 1/2 cup flour (approx.) 
2 egg yolks 
1/3 cup water 
sugar 
 
In a bowl, cut butter into 1 cup of flour, until it crumbs. 
Add egg yolks and cut into mixture.  Add additional flour a Tablespoon at a
time until the 
moisture is absorbed into the crumbs. 
Add the water and cut into mixture.  Add additional flour a Tablespoon at a
time, as 
needed, until the moisture is absorbed into the crumbs. 
Push the crumbs into a ball, working the dough gently for a few seconds to
smooth it. 
Let the dough rest for 15 to 30 minutes. 
Roll out the crusts on a floured surface and transfer to pie pans.  The
recipe makes two 8 
or 9 inch pie shells. 
Prick the pie shells to let air vent from between the shell and the pan. 
Sprinkle sugar on the shell before baking.  I used about a scant 1/4
teaspoon granulated 
white. 
 
If the shell is to be filled after baking, bake the shell at 325 degrees F
for about 35 
minutes or until very light brown. 
If the filling needs to be baked in the shell, bake the shell at 325 degrees
F for about 10 
minutes, remove, fill and continue baking as per the filling recipe. 
 
Notes:  This recipe makes very light, crisp pie shells.  If the dough is
worked minimally, 
the result is flaky and very similar to modern pie shells.  The more the
dough is worked, 
the more the pie shell resembles a crisp or cracker.   
  
By taste, salt is noticeably missing from the crust, but the sugar modifies
the taste.  A fine 
ground white sugar or a brown sugar might present interesting differences. 
 
As written, this recipe appears to be for a dessert shell, but it might also
represent an 
interesting contrast for a savory filling.