[Sca-cooks] process approach to food history - custard tarts!

[Jessica Tiffin]

At 01:43 PM 12/9/03 -0600, Christianna wrote:
>My French Toast entry/article (in the Florilegium now) is the same way, a
>retrospective of recipes over several centuries.  Lady Temair did an entry
>on Blancmange this past weekend that was similar, I think she told me she
>had over 27 sources and 50 recipes!
Strangely enough, I have just done this with custard tarts, for an A&S 
display - collected bunches of recipes across times and countries, and 
cooked four separate versions for people to taste and compare.  I did it in 
a bit of a hurry, though, and was wondering if the list could suggest 
recipes I'd missed.

I have the following:
Daryols  (Form of Cury, English 14th c)
Doucetes  (Harlein MS. 279, English 15th century)
Flathons (Harleian MS 279, English 15th century)
Flathonys (Harleian MS 4016, English 15th century).
Diriola (Martino, Italian 14th c)
Custard Pie (Platina, Italian 15th c)
Bunches from Sabina Welserin (German 16th c):
36 To make an English tart
78 An egg tart
104 If you would make an egg tart
122 To make a cream tart
128 To make an egg tart
135 An egg tart
187 How to make milk tarts
A yellow Tart and A white Tart (Gervase Markham, The English Housewife, 
1683, first edition 1615)
To make an almond custard (Robert May, The Accomplisht Cook, 1660)
Almond-milk flans (Chiquart, 15th-century French)
Menagier mentions cream flans in his menus, but gives no recipe.
Apparently there's a cream tart of some sort in Sent Sovi, but I don't have 
a copy.

I've basically included only tarts (no stand-alone custards), and nothing 
that includes cheese or rice.  I've included the almond versions, as the 
fast-day substitutions are interesting.  (The Elizabethans innocently mix 
cream _and_ almonds instead of substituting, which I found rather 
amusing).  What about the Spanish sources? any contributions?

I'll stick the whole thing up on my website once I've edited it and what 
have you.

grateful for any additional recipes,
JdH

Jehanne de Huguenin (Jessica Tiffin) * Drachenwald Kingdom Chronicler
Shire of Adamastor, Cape Town, South Africa
melisant at iafrica.com ***  http://users.iafrica.com/m/me/melisant
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