SC - RE: Spelt (recipe)

[Nicholas Sasso]

<<< I find mine at the local health food store.  Triticum spelta is a harder
wheat than the more common emmer (Triticum dicoccum) and does very well in
leavened breads and some pastries.  The meal is usually a little coarser
than modern flour.

I don't recall any Medieval recipes which call specifically for spelt, but
there are some in the Roman corpus.

Bear >>>>

Not high Medieval, but in Scully's new book, Neapolitan Cuisine, he includes a recipe for a spelt tort which is absolutely divine for dinner as well as a hearty breakfast/brunch.  Lady Caitlin served it towards the end of our megaFeast at last coronation.  I'll have that menu and recipes webbed next week sometime.

niccolo difrancesco

A Spelt Tort

Source:
  The Neapolitan Recipe Collection ,by Terence Scully

Primary Source: 
Spelt Torte (#130): Clean the spelt very well and cook it in fat broth, then drain it; get a pound of new cheese and half a pound of old, grinding or grating bothe; get a veal belly that is well cooked by boiling and almost disintegrating, beat it with a knife, add fine spices, sugar, and saffron with fifteen eggs, and mix everything together; make a pastry crust on the bottom of a pan, pu the mixture in it with enough butter; when half cooked, put lasagne closely together on top, then let it cook a little more; take it out and garnish it with sugar, cinnamon and rosewater.


Redaction by: Caitlin of Enniskillen (Catherine Hartley)
Serving Size: 10 

Ingredients:

  3 ounces spelt
  10 eggs
  1 pound Farmer's cheese
  1/2 pound Parmesan cheese
  1 cup chicken stock
  2 fluid ounces pork fat
  2 tablespoons powder douce
  2 teaspoons sugar
  5 saffron threads

  ~~ Garnish
  1 teaspoon sugar
  1 teaspoon rosewater
  1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon -- ground
  1 pie crust
  2 lasagna noodles

Clean the spelt and cook in broth with pork fat. Drain broth. Mix spices, cheese, sugar, saffron and eggs and add to spelt.

Place in pastry crust.  Cover with cooked lasagna noodles. Garnish. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes until set.

Yield: 1 large pie

Notes: Used a recipe from a book called "The Splendid Table" by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as a guide.


Per serving: 364 Calories (kcal); 20g Total Fat; (51% calories from fat); 19g Protein; 25g Carbohydrate; 210mg Cholesterol; 815mg Sodium

Food Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates