[Sca-cooks] Pillsbury pie crusts

[Chris Stanifer]

--- Daniel Myers <edouard at medievalcookery.com> wrote:

> While some standing crusts may have been used as a preservation method 
> and were not intended to be eaten, this is certainly not the case for 
> all crusts, as evidenced by the following (emphasis added):


Yes, I believe I mentioned that *some* crusts were not meant to be eaten.



> 
> "To make Paste, and to raise Coffins. Take fine flower, and lay it on a 
> boord, and take a certaine of yolkes of Egges as your quantitie of 
> flower is, then take a certaine of Butter and water, and boil them 
> together, but ye must take heed ye put not too many yolks of Egges, *** 
> for if you doe, it will make it drie and not pleasant in eating ***: 
> and yee must take heed ye put not in too much Butter for if you doe, it 
> will make it so fine and short that you cannot raise. And this paste is 
> good to raise all manner of Coffins: Likewise if ye bake Venison, bake 
> it in the paste above named. "


This passage would clearly indicate that the crust was meant to be eaten, as some of them
doubtless were.  However, the boiling together of the flour and liquid/butter/egg mixture would
seem to offer a much different product than our modern pie crusts.  The author also mentions that
adding too much butter would create a paste "so fine and short that you cannot raise".  This is
the problem I was speaking of.  Modern commercial pie crusts tend to be very short, and may not
stand up to the stress of a free-standing mold.  Unfortunately, the original author does not give
a quantity for the butter.  I am assuming it is far less than the fat ratio used in modern
commercial pie crusts.

Your own results are interesting, but are not necessarily an assurance that they can be reproduced
by everyone :)

William de Grandfort

=====
Every heart to love will come... but like a refugee.


		
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