[Sca-cooks] Standing crust

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Nancy Kiel:
>I've had good luck using 18th & 19th century receipts (haven't had 
>occasion to research a period standing crust).  They called for 
>boiling the fat & water together, and a lot of kneading.
>Also, I thought a "standing crust" meant more specifically a 
>completely closed pie form, not intended to be eaten.

A standing crust is one made independently of a pie pan or pate mold. 
It... stands. Modern ones, at least, are intended to be eaten, as in 
English pork pies, that sort of thing.

One of the things about hot-water doughs is that period pie doughs 
seem to occasionally, or maybe often, call for egg yolks. (See Ein 
Buoch Von Guter Spise, Digby, etc.) You can't boil the liquid to add 
to your pastry if the liquid is egg yolk, so even though there's a 
lot of talk about raising a coffin, these are presumably made with a 
cold pastry. Or at least, the small bits of evidence we have would 
seem to point that way, if not conclusively.

Adamantius