[Sca-cooks] torte vs. tart

[James Prescott]

At 01:00 -0600 2003-11-30, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>> Indeed, my wife has made me suspicious that a lot of the "tart" recipes
>> in the translations of Sabina Welserin (and Guter Spise?) really ARE
>> "torte" and not "tarts" at all...
> Ok, so what is the difference between a "torte" and a "tart"? Tarts are pies without a top pastry shell or even lacing, right?


That's probably going to depend very much on the country and / or 
cookbook that you consult.  There's no 'right' answer.

Since we're generally dealing with European cuisine when we talk
about historical food, I tend to go with Larousse Gastronomique
(1961) as being the most typically 'European' source of modern 
cooking terms.


The 'tart' in Larousse is exclusively sweet, and comes in versions 
without upper crusts, with upper crusts, and with pastry lattices.


The 'tourte' in Larousse is a two-crust savoury main dish.  The
author says "There are also sweet tourtes, but these are really
tarts...."


The 'torte', another creature entirely, is a (Germanic) cake.


Thorvald