[Sca-cooks] Funeral foods ...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Apr 6, 2006, at 11:46 PM, Judith L. Smith Adams wrote:

>   So, we have reason to think that baked meats are crusted pies or  
> casseroles...

In the 17th century you also start to run across various  
quelquechoses, florentines, and various other names for a collection  
of items, often baked under puff pastry. At around the same time we  
also start to see "puddings" moving away from a sausage form factor  
toward puddings steamed or boiled in a cloth, or baked in a dish.  
These last also often involve a pastry shell and/or cover.

> Might/does it also refer to a haunch or hunk of something meaty  
> baked in a crust, like a Wellington?

I sort of want to say no, but can't really rule it out, either. In  
general, though, I don't think an oven is a really efficient way to  
convert fuel into cooked meat in really large pieces. Although the  
Romans appear to have baked hams wrapped in pastry (which they  
probably removed for service, and they may or may not have eaten the  
pastry).

>
>   And, medievally, was "coffin" the term for both a pastry  
> enclosing food and a burial box?  I've never noticed!   In recipes  
> I've seen so far (not such a large sample yet) there's no sense of  
> punning about calling the pastry a "coffin," but do you/does anyone  
> here know of it being a literary pun, by Shakespeare or anyone else??

I'm not sure. Probably, but I can't put my finger on any specific  
examples, and then, of course, I couldn't say what relationship  
exists between the two concepts in non-English-language terminology.  
But in English, there are several period terms for the box one buries  
a corpse in, while today there are normally only two, and only one  
also can refer to a pastry shell.

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04