[Sca-cooks] Seeking Period pie Crust

[Margaret Rendell]

Tomasia wrote:
>
> "The Custard Paste"
> The original comes from Libro di Cucina - Recipe "C"
> 3# white flour
> 1# Almonds
> 1/2# hazelnuts, toasted, ground
> 1/4 c. butter melted
> 2T sugar
> 2-3 T almond milk
> Make almond milk from your almonds. Drain milk
> reserving nuts and chop them well. Mix the almonds
> with the flour and the hazelnuts. Add sugar and butter
> until your dough forms. This dough works out better if
> you press it in the pan, however, if you roll slowly
> on a WELL floured surface this will work. Place in
> your pie pan. Fill. Bake. Yield:2 crusts
>   
Greetings Signora Tomasia

I, also, have been gathering period pastry recipes, but I'd missed this 
one - thank you!

I was wondering, why do you put the hazelnut meal in the pastry? I 
didn't read it that way.

This could be because I'm working from a translation (I can't read the 
original), or if you are too maybe they are different ones. I have only 
seen the translation by Helewyse de Birkestad
at

http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/libro.html

which says "Take the most white flour that you have, in the amount of 
three pounds, and take two ounces of sugar, a pound of almonds and 
thirty six hazel nuts, half a pound of raisins, twenty five dates, half 
of a quarter of an ounce of cloves.  Take a good quantity of almond 
milk, and take the flour that you have, well mixed with water so that it 
is thick.  Take a frying pan which is well greased with oil and with 
this flour make a crust, and powder it with the sugar and the said 
spices, add the crushed hazel nuts, finely chopped dates, well washed 
raisins and ground cloves and save a portion of the crust and put it 
above each part of these things and it is a tart."

I can read this as a crust made of flour and water, or maybe flour and 
almond milk, but the hazelnuts seem to me to be part of the filling, 
along with the raisins and dates.

Although it sounds yummy whichever way :)


Margaret Rendell/Emma de Lastone
Krae Glas, Lochac/Melbourne, Australia