[Sca-cooks] strange recipe

[Jennifer / Guenievre]

Well, if it was actually *lard*, like the kind you use for making pastry
crusts, the "scraping" makes more sense, to me anyway (pull the top of a
knife over the top to get scrapings - you'd get smaller pieces more quickly
than cutting it up, and the smaller pieces would make the "washing the salt
off" part more efficient, I suppose).  And if you are making something
custardy, maybe the water would interfere with it setting, if you left too
much in it from the washing.  I can't imagine how the final product would
turn out - I mean, I'm sure it can't be as bad as it *sounds*...

Guènievre



> -----Original Message-----
> From: sca-cooks-bounces+generys=blazemail.com at ansteorra.org [mailto:sca-
> cooks-bounces+generys=blazemail.com at ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of
> Devra at aol.com
> Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 11:28 AM
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] strange recipe
> 
>         I was just looking through Rabisha's Whole Body of Cookery
> Dissected
> and came across this:
>      To Make a Bacon Tart
> Take three pounds of lard or thick fat bacon, scrape it as you do butter
> for
> a dish, put it in water a little warm to draw out the salt, then take it
> into
> a dry cloath and draw up the moisture, put it into a stone mortar and beat
> it
> well together with the yolks of eight eggs, when well beaten into a dish,
> set
> it over a slow fire keep it continually stirring till you have brought it
> like
> cream, then press it through a strainer, season it with sugar, three or
> four
> graines of Amber-greece, or musk, close it between two sheets of paste in
> a
> patie-pan, or else indore it with melted butter, and bake it quick, and
> send it
> up hot.
> 
>      I read this, and parts made perfect sense, and parts just stumped me.
> Is this really bacon (streaky American breakfast bacon) or is it salt
> fatback?
> How do you scrape it like butter?  It's clear enough about the blanching
> (to
> remove some of the salt) and then drying it...though why you bother when
> you're immediately putting it into a pan with egg yolks I can't see.  Ok,
> so then
> you cook the fat and eggs together (sort of like making a custard) and
> strain
> it (in case of lumps?) and season it. Then you put it into a pastry-lined
> pan
> and put a lid over it, OR you spread melted butter over it, and bake in a
> quick
> (Hot?) oven...
> 
>      A sweet custard tart? A savory and sweet tart? Obviously you don't
> need
> to add salt, because the fat will still have plenty, even after
> blanching....
> 
>      Not exactly a quiche Lorraine.  Though I will say that Rabisha's
> directions are pretty clear.
>      Devra
> 
> 
> 
> Devra Langsam
> www.poisonpenpress.com
> devra at aol.com
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