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

[Daniel Myers]

On Thursday, December 5, 2002, at 06:21 AM, Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus
Adamantius wrote:

> 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.

Mea culpa.

You are correct that there is no direct evidence for short pastes in
that recipe - I had mistakenly assumed such because of the instructions
there to partially pre-bake the crust before adding the filling.  TFCCB
was of course written very early on in the 15th century when the lines
between "tart", "pie" and "custard" were much more vague.

As for the absence of instructions to making "a coffin in a trap" or
such, I think that little can be inferred.  These recipes rarely
mention quantities at all and occasionally leave out ingredients
altogether.

On the other hand, this may be a "transitional" recipe.  The custard
like filling with enough fat in the meat and broth may soften up a thin
non-shortened pie crust.  I'll see if I can find time to experiment
with it this weekend.

Much thanks for the correction.

- Doc


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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
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