[Sca-cooks] period sandwich?

[Stefan li Rous]

Cariadoc replied to mw with:
> > Cariadoc mentioned:
> >> Some of the things in the Miscellany that might work for your 
> purpose
> >> include barmakiya, which is a thin layer of meat and onions between
> >> two thin layers of bread (as I make it, at least), <snip>
> > Huh? I haven't had a chance to go look this up in the Miscellany,
> > but this sounds like a sandwich.
>
> My fault--I should have been clearer. It's more like a pasty than a
> sandwich, since it is all baked together.
>
> You roll out two layers of dough--oil is an optional ingredient, so
> something in the bread to pastry range. You put the filling, which is
> a cooked mixture of fine cut meat and onions and stuff, on one layer,
> put the other layer on that, seal the edges and bake in the oven.
Oh! Okay this makes a *big* difference. My idea of "pastry" is much 
thinner than of bread with much less leavening. I think of bread as 
generally being at least 1/4 of an inch thick with holes and bubbles 
because of leavening and a pastry crust as being much thinner with much 
fewer holes and bubbles due to leavening. And I think of bread as being 
pre-baked. I guess pastry or at least pies, can be either pre-baked or 
baked along with the filling. Pastry is usually sealed or at least 
closed in around the edges, while I don't know that much bread is.

So yes, this sounds like a pastry rather than bread. And very like 
other medieval pies or pasties.

Oh well. I'm still wondering why the sandwich didn't become popular 
during period. Yes, it may simply not have been thought of, but I think 
there is something else involved here. Medieval breads just didn't make 
good sandwiches for some reason? Medieval bread was too chewy? They 
liked meat juice with their meat and this made a sandwich too soggy? In 
the latter case you got a sop, and not a sandwich? Humorial theory 
frowned upon the dry meat needed for a sandwich?  Oh well.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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