[Sca-cooks] Veal Pie, Garlic sauce

[Patrick Levesque]

#1: I tried this evening the veal pie from Terence Scully's edition of the
Neapolitan cookery collection (# 71 of the collection).
It's actually a veal and fowl pie. This being just a test I used only
chicken (370 g) and veal (470 g). So almost 2 pounds of meat. According to
the recipes, the meat must first be boiled, then onions and raisins and
spices are added, followed by beaten eggs and verjuice. He mixture is next
baked. 
As Scully points out, it is not sure whether this is boiled and baked in the
same recipient, or if it is transferred in a pastry shell for the second
step. I chose the second option. Here's the redaction.

I cut the meats in dice-sized cubes, cooked in briefly in melted butter and
oil (instead of veal fat, which I don't have), then added a glass of water,
put a lid on the pan and let everything boil for a few minutes. Added one
chopped onion and about a quarter of a cup of raisins, along with salt,
pepper, cinnamon and cloves. I let it boil while I beat 2 eggs, which I
added to the mixture, also adding about a third of a cup of verjuice. I then
dumped everything in a (store-bought) 9-inch pastry shell, covered with
another shell, threw in the oven (pre-heated to 350) for 45 minutes.

Final results was declared yummy by my two usual guinea pigs :-) I
purposefully left out the cured ham from the recipe (although I can see how
it would add to the taste).

As I'm planning tables of 8 for this feast I'll probably keep the pastry
shells; for a large family reunion I'd need to find a larger recipient and
try it the period way. For the feast I'll try and add quail as well, or
whatever fowl I can get at a decent price in March.

#2: I also prepared a batch of Platina's strongly colored garlic sauce
(crushed almonds [or walnuts], garlic, breadcrumbs, must or cherry juice).
The color was disappointing: it ended up in a nice Pepto-Bismol shade of
pink. The taste seems ok, I'll see exactly how well it suits my purpose
tomorrow evening. 

The recipe calls for the must to be boiled half an hour; I skipped that part
with the sour cherry juice, but maybe if I used sour cherry syrup the result
would be more satisfactory. To be continued...

Petru