SC - Sweet Spinach Tart

[Stefan li Rous]

Ari asked: 
> Let me guess....coffin = crust?

Yes, because of the shape. In period pies were typically long rectangles
like coffins. :-) I'm not sure if the name was first used for pie crust
shapes or for boxes to bury folks in. OED, anyone?

The shape was due to the fact that most pies were not baked in a
container such as today. The crust was the container. We have debated
before whether the crust was actually eaten or was only a container
and was thrown away (or given to the poor or workers) or whether it
was eaten. If the coffin is only made with flour and water, ie: no
butter or oil, you might not want to eat it.

Conversely, bread was often round instead of our straight sided loaves
because, again, it was cooked in the oven without a pan.

You may be overwhelmed with Florilegium referances, especially if you've
actually tried to read any of them, but here are the ones on pies:
In the FOOD section:
Period-Pies-art   (33K)  9/29/97    "Raising a Coffin or the Fine Art of Making
                                       Period Pies." by Lady Aoife Finn.
pies-msg          (51K)  7/31/00    Period pie crusts, meat and fruit pies.
meat-pies-msg     (97K)  4/12/00    Period meat pies. Recipes.

In the FOOD-FRUITS section:
fruit-pies-msg    (32K)  9/ 1/00    Period fruit pies. Recipes. Baking pies.
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****