[Sca-cooks] Speaking of beets...

[Terry Decker]

>  Also, I have another question.
> Were there certain shapes for making cofyns/coffins, and did the shapes
> change over the centuries? I can't imagine anything more wasteful of space
> in an oven than a round pie tin. Weren't coffins square for the most part?
> What could you use to imitate a coffin pan? I think an 8 X 8 pan would be
> too deep, but I'm really not sure.
>
> ~Aislinn~

Bread was round, trappes were round, tart pans were round, so I see no 
particular problem with a round, free standing coffyn.  When you are talking 
about a hemispherical baking chamber (fairly common in heat mass ovens), 
square or rectangular actually wastes space.

As a baker, I would say the shape of the piece is less of an issue than 
being able to get it in and out of the oven and the shape of any pans, molds 
or utensils for preparing the dish.  In fact, I was looking at a wood-cut 
tonight of a tart shaped like a peacock where the body is formed in an oval 
pan.  I can also see where a heavy paste might have been shaped to the cut 
of meat rather than made round, square, or some other specific shape.

As for depth, in the illustrations, trappes look like deep casserole pans 
with sides that might be 4 to 8 inches deep, while tart pans have relatively 
shallow sides.  The pans you used would likely have been decided by the dish 
you were preparing and the type of paste or dough you used.

Bear