[Sca-cooks] Fw: Meep! - Needing quick beef pastry recipe!

[Susan Laing]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions - I ended up going with Edouard's
suggestion of "To make Pyes"

I found some stewing steak on sale; boiled it on a low temperature until it
was cooked and then whizzed it through my food processor to make the ground
beef.

I then substitued currants for the raisins (since I had a large packet of
currants left over from another event and wanted to keep the costs down) and
chopped prunes. I *was* planning on adding the chopped dates but the ones I
had bought turned out to be really dry and tasteless so I left them out of
the final mix.

Instead of making the pastry I used premade puff pastry and cut it into
squares.  The final item was triangular in shape; very flavoursome and
turned out to be a bit hit for the lunch time eaters (we reheated on site
prior to serving)

Marion de Paxford
*************
Sprach the Edouard - There's also this one:

To Make Pyes.   [ http://www.medievalcookery.com/recipes/pyes.html ]

Filling:
1 lb. ground mutton or beef
1/4 cup prunes, chopped
1/4 cup dates, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch saffron, ground

Crust:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 egg yolk, beaten
6 Tbsp. butter, softened
water

Mix the filling ingredients and set aside. Cut the butter into the
flour thoroughly. Mix in egg yolk and enough water to let the dough
hold together. Separate into eight portions and roll out. Place one
eighth of the filling into each, fold over, and seal with water. Bake
at 350 degrees F until crust is golden - about 30 minutes.

Source [A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye, Anne Ahmed (ed.)]: To make
Pyes. Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced and ceasoned wyth
pepper and salte, and a lyttle saffron to coloure it, suet or marrow a
good quantite, a lyttle vyneger, prumes, greate raysins, and dates,
take the fattest of the broathe of powdred beyfe, and yf you wyll haue
paest royall, take butter and yolkes of egges, and to tempre the flowre
to make the paeste.