[Sca-cooks] Medieval History Magazine (was meatpastiesand theirlongevity)
KristiWhyKelly at aol.com
KristiWhyKelly at aol.com
Mon Feb 23 10:53:00 PST 2004
Hello,
While a little later than Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery books, this recipe
below from Sabrina Welserin's cook book does call for boiled water and butter to
be mixed with flour. It was then shaped baked then filled.
Grace
61 To make a pastry dough for all shaped pies
Take flour, the best that you can get, about two handfuls, depending on how
large or small you would have the pie. Put it on the table and with a knife
stir in two eggs and a little salt. Put water in a small pan and a piece of fat
the size of two good eggs, let it all dissolve together and boil. Afterwards
pour it on the flour on the table and make a strong dough and work it well,
however you feel is right. If it is summer, one must take meat broth instead of
water and in the place of the fat the skimmings from the broth. When the dough
is kneaded, then make of it a round ball and draw it out well on the sides with
the fingers or with a rolling pin, so that in the middle a raised area
remains, then let it chill in the cold. Afterwards shape the dough as I have pointed
out to you. Also reserve dough for the cover and roll it out into a cover and
take water and spread it over the top of the cover and the top of the formed
pastry shell and join it together well with the fingers. Leave a small hole.
And see that it is pressed together well, so that it does not come open. Blow
in the small hole which you have left, then the cover will lift itself up. Then
quickly press the hole closed. Afterwards put it in the oven. Sprinkle flour
in the dish beforehand. Take care that the oven is properly heated, then it
will be a pretty pastry. The dough for all shaped pastries is made in this
manner.
In a message dated 2/23/2004 1:01:19 PM Eastern Standard Time,
edouard at medievalcookery.com writes:
Below are the relevant recipes from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery
Books. In them I can find references to pre-baking the coffin, to
coloring it with saffron and egg yolks, and to putting a top crust on
it, but I do not see any notes about the thickness of the coffin walls,
whether they were edible, or the ingredients or methods used for making
them.
Are there any other sources or recipes mentioned to document their
methods? I am concerned that the "hot liquid fat poured into flour"
way of making a crust is a (relatively) modern one that arose from a
faulty source or assumption and is unintentionally being promoted as
period without supporting evidence (e.g. probably period because it's
very rustic looking - thick and inedible).
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