[Sca-cooks] Meep! - Needing quick beef pastry recipe!

[Elaine Koogler]

Bronwynmgn at aol.com wrote:

>How about this one:
>
>Pies of Parys
>>From Harleian MS 4016, c. 1450, as redacted in Pleyn Delit and slightly 
>adapted by Brangwayna Morgan
>
>Take and smyte faire buttes of porke and buttes of vele togidre, and put hit 
>in a faire potte.  And putte thereto faire broth, And a quantitie of Wyne, And 
>lete all boile togedidre til hit be ynogh; And then take hit fro the fire, 
>and lete kele a litel, an cast ther-to raw yolkes of eyren, and pouudre of 
>gyngeuere, sugre, and salt, and mynced dates, reseyns of corence; make then coffyns 
>of feyre past, and do it ther-ynne, and keuere it & lete bake y-nogh.
>
>
>Pastry for a 9-inch pie pan (top and bottom) or ca 24 tart shells
>1 ½ pounds mixed ground meat, including at least two of pork, veal, beef
>1 cup each meat stock or broth, red wine
>3 egg yolks or 1 whole egg plus one yolk
>½ tsp. each ginger, sugar, and salt
>¼ cup each minced dates, currants
>
>
>Put the ground raw meat in a saucepan and cover with the wine and 
>stock/broth; bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Then drain all the cooking 
>juices into a heatproof container, setting aside the meat.  Let the cooking liquid 
>cool (preferably in the refrigerator or freezer) until you can remove all the 
>fat from the top.  The draining and cooling step can be omited if you like, 
>but I often get quite a skim of fat off the top.
>   When you are ready to assemble the pie, line a pie dish with pastry.  Then 
>bring the defatted juices to a boil; beat the egg yolks (or egg and yolk) in 
>a bowl and beat in a little of the hot (but not quite boiling) stock.  Beat in 
>the rest, still off the heat; then mix together meat, dried fruits, spices, 
>and sauce and stir over low heat for a few minutes to thicken slightly.  Put in 
>the prepared pie shell and cover with a top crust (unless you are making 
>individual tarts).  Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 1 hour (less 
>for individual tarts).  As the mixture may tend to be pretty sloppy at first, be 
>sure to slit the top crust to allow steam to escape; and it may also be wise 
>to put a cookie sheet or a piece of foil under the pie pan.
>
>The recipe does say pork and veal, whereas the redaction also suggests beef; 
>I usually use a mixture of all three, or beef and pork, mostly because ground 
>veal isn't always easy to find around here.  It makes a good solid pie that 
>slices well and will hold together in the hand for eating.  I make 3 or 4 inch 
>tarts of this every year to take to Pennsic for food for the first few days - 
>they keep well in a cooler.
>
>Brangwayna
>  
>
One of my apprentices did this for a feast about a year or so ago...and 
instead of using ground meat, she cooked the whole pork roasts, then 
shredded the pork. It was INCREDIBLE!! You could do the same thing with 
beef, I believe. It completely changes the texture...and all for the 
better. This would also go with the original, where it says "smyte" 
which could be "cut into small pieces"...which would fit what they did.

Kiri

-- 
Learning is a lifetime journey…growing older merely adds experience to 
knowledge and wisdom to curiosity.
					-- C.E. Lawrence