Scappi pie recipe Re: [Sca-cooks] RE: Mamoul

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

[ Converted text/enriched to text/plain ]
On 16 Oct 2001, at 0:34, phoenissa at netscape.net wrote:

> And here's some of it: the Scappi pie recipe, as promised. It's a bit
> long=
> but worth it. Both the translation and the redaction are from Anne
> Willan=
> 's book "Great Cooks and their Recipes" - a very good survey of the >
history=
> of cooking, even beyond the SCA period :-)
>
> PER FARE TORTIGLIONE RIPIENO

Stop the presses! Hold the horses! Sound the trumpets!

I had known that much of Granado's cookbook was plagiarized from Scappi, but
since only a few of the recipes are identified as Italian, I did not know
which ones. The recipe you have reproduced below is almost identical to Granado's
"Tortillon Relleno". It must be one of the ones he... borrowed. This explains
why I could not find a definition for "tortillon" in any Spanish dictionary,
including the RAE. "Tortillon" must be Granado's Hispanicization of
"tortiglione". (Can some kind Italian-reading person tell me something about
the etymology of the Italian word?)

My apologies to those who find it too long, but I am appending a copy of my
translation of Granado's recipe to the bottom of this post, to make it easier
to compare the two.

> Knead together 2 pounds flour, 6 egg yolks, 2 ounces rosewater, 1
> ounce yea= st dissolved in lukewarm water, and 4 ounces fresh butter
> or lard that does=
> not smell bad, and quite a bit of salt, for half an hour so that the
> dough= is well worked, and then roll it out thinly and cover with
> melted butter, =
> that is not too hot, or lard, and with the pastry wheel cut all around
> the = edges of the dough that are always thicker than the rest;
> sprinkle the doug= h with four ounces sugar, and 1 ounce cinnamon, and
> then have a pound of ra= isins that have been boiled in wine, and 1
> pound of dates also cooked in wi= ne and finely chopped, and 1 pound
> of seedless raisins boiled in wine, all = mixed together with sugar,
> cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and then spread on=
> the dough with pieces of butter, and roll up the dough lenthwise like
> crep=
> es, being careful not to break the dough, and this tortiglione must
> not be = rolled up more than three turns so it cooks better, nor
> handled too much, b= ut then basted with melted butter that is not too
> hot, then beginning from = one end roll it up lightly like a snail or
> a maze; and have a pie pan prepa= red with a sheet of the same dough,
> of the same thickness, basted with butt= er, and put it lightly over
> the tortiglione without pressing it down, and c= ook in the oven in a
> moderate heat, basting with butter from time to time, = and when it is
> cooked sprinkle with sugar, rose water, and serve hot. The = pie pan
> used for the tortiglione should be open and with low sides.

> Vittoria

Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del arte de cozina_, 1599  Translation: Lady
Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll- Mann)
PARA HAZER TORTILLON RELLENO -- To make a stuffed tortillon[1]
Knead two pounds of the flower of the flour[2] with six yolks of fresh eggs,
and two ounces of rosewater, and one ounce of leaven diluted with tepid water,
and four ounces of fresh cowÌs butter[3], or pork lard[3]  which has no bad
odor, and salt, and be stirring said dough for the space of half an hour, and
make a thin leaf[4] or pastry[5] and anoint it with melted fat which should
not be very hot, and cut the edges around, sprinkle the pastry with four
ounces of sugar, and one ounce of cinnamon, and then have a pound of small
raisins of Corinth, which have been given a boil in wine, and a pound of dates
cooked in the same  wine, and cut small, and all of the said things should be
mixed together with sugar, cinnamon, and cloves, and nutmeg, and put the said
mixture spread over the pastry with some morsels of cow's butter, and 
beginning with the long end of the pastry, roll it upwards, taking care not to
break the dough, and this tortillon or roll must not be rolled more than three
turns, so that it will cook better, and it does not have to go very tight.
Anoint it on top with fat, not very hot. It will begin to twist by itself at
one end which is not very closed[6], in such a manner that it  becomes like a
snail. Have the pie pan ready with a pastry of the same dough[7], somewhat
fatty, anointed with melted fat, and put the tortillon lightly upon it without
pressing it, and make it cook in the oven, or under a large earthen pot with
temperate fire, tending it from time to time by anointing it with melted cow's
butter, and being almost cooked, put sugar on top, and rosewater, and serve it
hot. The pie pan in which you  cook the tortillones must be wide, and must
have very low edges.
A bunch of notes: 

[1] I cannot find a Spanish culinary definition for tortillon. It is an 18th
century French term for a kind of hairstyle, and a modern French term for an
art tool -- a tightly rolled piece of paper, used to blur and soften pencil
lines. The French words apparently come from the verb "tordre" -- to twist.
All of the recipes which bear this name have a rolled-up pastry  with some
kind of filling. If I had to translate the Spanish, I would render it as
something like "roll- pastry". 

[2] Remember when we were having the discussion about "flower" meaning the
best of something? I was tempted to comment that some Spanish recipes have a
phrase that I would be obliged to translate as "the flower of the flour".
Well, here it is: "flor de la harina".
 [3] Both of these phrases use the same noun: "manteca". This can mean either
butter or lard. I have translated "manteca de vaca" as cow's butter, "manteca
de puerco" as pork lard, and undifferentiated "manteca" as fat. 

[4] "Ojuela" -- literally, small leaf
 [5] "ojaldre" (sometimes spelt hojaldre). Its etymology is also from "hoja"
(leaf). The modern definition is puff-pastry. The recipes I have  seen for
pies made with ojaldre call for a rich unleavened dough with eggs and fat,
about half a finger thick. It's coated with melted fat, rolled  into a
cylinder the thickness of an arm, then sliced into pieces two fingers thick.
(Presumably these slices are then rolled out, though the recipe doesn't
specify.) It is basted with melted fat during baking, the better to separate
into leaves. ("Ojaldrar", one of those verbs which require a sentence to
translate properly.) Some recipes call for the base or top pastry of a pie to
contain a certain number of ojaldres. This tortillon recipe seems to say that
the dough can either be just rolled out thinly, or it can be turned into a
sort of ojaldre (though they are not  normally leavened, AFAIK). If the
former, I don't think it is intended to be too thin, since the roll is only
supposed to make three turns.
 [6] I gather from this that one end *should* be tightly closed, leaving the
other to expand into a snail-like trumpet.
 [7] This pastry underneath seems to function as part of the pan, not part of
the tortillon. It appears in other recipes as well. A non-stick cookie sheet
might render it unnecessary.


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann Barony of Settmour Swamp, East
Kingdom rcmann4 at earthlink.net