[Sca-cooks] Standing crust

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Alex Clark:
>At 11:34 PM 2/16/2004 -0500, Doc wrote:
>>Cut the shortening into the flour, mix in water a bit at a time, 
>>roll out. . . .
>
>Does anyone know of any period documentation for cutting fat into 
>dry ingredients like this? The earliest pastry recipe that I know of 
>with cut fat is from Digby, and the fat is mixed into the dough, not 
>into the dry ingredients.

There's a French pastry recipe in verse, I think from the late 
fourteenth century, here:

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/menagier/menagier11.html#English

My own English translation of it is, at best, an alpha version, but 
it speaks of the dough being a bit rough ("Les croutes, un poi 
rudemont"), which might argue in favor of fat being broken or cut in. 
Elsewhere in the recipe there's a reference to diced fat bacon, but 
it's not absolutely clear to me whether this is an ingredient in the 
pastry of in the filling of the pastry.

I believe there's a recipe in Markham, which, while late, is earlier 
than Digby, anyway, for making rough coffins (essentially preserving 
containers) for meats, out of rye. I'll see if I can find it.

Adamantius