[Sca-cooks] meat pasties and their longevity outside modern cooling systems

[vicki shaw]

Sorry about the long subject line....read a Very Interesting article last
night in my Feb Medieval History Magazine about food on the campaign trail
and how a test was actually done in a Sydney biochemical laboratory on the
contents of meat pasties enclosed within a hard crust (not a puff pastry)
which completely seals the meat mix from attack by any of the many possible
pathogens that can attack food.  they tested the meat filling over a period
of four weeks, testing one each day, and the results were again and again
"no organisms isolated"  As a control they tested meat pasties purchased
from a service station [and kept in cooler!], and in each case, a week after
the purchase date, the meat was already infected with some bacillus.

The recipe is given for the outer crust and the recipe for the stuffing.
These are called Pyes de Pares.  The article is begins with a quote from
Napoleon Bonaparte:  "An army marches on its Stomach"

I would love to share this with anyone interested but I would have to scan
it It is six pages long with ullustrations.  The meat pasties look exactly
like ones I bought in Scotland, like mini pies.

Angharad

ps  went to a Nova Scola yesterday hosted by the Barony of Bergental in
Holyoke Mass.  The feast was lovely, but the highlight was the subtlety:
pastry swans filled with a cream which was topped with a raspberry sauce.