[Sca-cooks] Medieval History Magazine (was meatpastiesand theirlongevity)

[KristiWhyKelly at aol.com]

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).