[Sca-cooks] Chastletes - help please

[LadyPDC at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/12/2001 7:10:47 AM Mountain Daylight Time, 
cnevin at caci.co.uk writes:


> My mental TV screen just isn't getting this one! Here's what I have so far:
> 
> ConI: FoC p.142-3  (|> = thorn)
> "Chastletes. Take and make a foyle of gode past with a rollere of a foot
> brode, & lynger by cumpas. Make iiii coffyns of |>e self past vppn |>e
> rollere |>e gretnesse of |>e smale of |>yn arme of vi ynche dep; make |>e
> gretust in |>e myddell. Fasten |>e foile in |>e mouth vpwarde, & fasten |>e
> o|>ere four in euery side..."
> 
> the recipe goes on to carve battlements, cook the pastry and dictate the
> fillings. My rough redaction;
> 
> "Chatletes. Take and make a leaf of good pastry with a rolling pin, a foot
> broad and twice as long (?). Make four coffins of the same pastry, upon the
> rolling pin, the length of a forearm and six inches deep; (are we talking
> width here or thickness?) make the biggest (ie the first piece of pastry) in
> the middle. Fasten the pastry leaf in the mouth upward, and fasten the other
> four in every side..."
> 

I actually did this for a competition a few years ago (in fact I think the 
documentation for it may be in the florigilium).

First thing that you should notice is that the initial Take and make a leaf 
of good pastry with a rolling pin, a foot broad and twice as long (?).  Does 
not specify making a round anything.  In fact by specifying that it should be 
a foot (12 inches) broad and twice as long it, in fact, is describing a 
rectangle.  It then goes on to describe the making of 4 "coffins" specifying 
that they should be the circumference of the forearm and 6 inches deep.  
Think of a rectangular castle with a 6 inch high tower on each corner of the 
rectangle.

When I made mine I did in fact make it the size specified, however, since the 
recipe seems to assume that the initial paste is used both for the floor and 
walls of the castle, I found that the best way to do this was to cut in 6 
inches at each corner and turn the walls "up" from the outside.  Your corners 
are then sealed by attaching them to the towers with flour and water paste 
and baking the whole.  If you do this then the overall height is no more than 
6 inches and the widest horizontal portion is only 12 inches.  Most ovens can 
handle these proportions (smaller than most Christmas turkeys)

After you bake the pastry castle (BTW I found that using stone ground whole 
wheat flour made for a sturdier castle and looked like a stone castle wall 
when baked)  you can then fill the center and the towers with various foods 
(I used hedgehog meatballs in the center and sauces for dipping in two of the 
towers with sliced strawberries in the third tower and gosh I don't remember 
what in the forth)  The castle then becomes an interesting serving dish which 
also happens to be edible and quite tasty.  This is esp. true if you have 
sauces in the towers so that guests can tear off part of the castle wall and 
dip it in the sauce.  I don't think that my Chastlete lasted more than 15 
minutes beyond final judging because a horde of castle eaters descended on it 
and ate every crumb.  I am planning to repeat it on a greater scale for one 
of the courses in a feast I am doing soon, I will plan on doing one Chastlete 
per table of 8.  Seems like a grand way to present a course. <g>

Hope this helped

Lady Constance de la Rose
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