[Sca-cooks] Food Network and Master A's nightmare

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Daniel Myers:
>"Custard" may have been synonymous with "tart" in the 15th century, as
>evidenced by two of the recipes in "Two Fifteenth Century Cookery
>Books".  One is "Custarde" and the other is "Crustade", yet they are
>essentially the same - a soft-crusted, savory pie made with meat,
>broth, and eggs.

Wait a second. Is there any evidence as to what kind of pastry is
used in the custarde/crustade recipes? If not, should we assume
they're soft-crusted? In fact, since the recipes refer to coffins but
not to making "a coffin in a trap" or other indication of a pie pan,
would that not argue somewhat in favor of a free-standing/hard crust
interpretation? Certainly, there are later recipes from the 16th and
17th centuries which specifically refer to short pastes for tarts,
and even to such being used for puddings and florentines, but I'm not
sure that it's safe to assume this holds true for earlier centuries.

Adamantius