[Sca-cooks] Flour Recommendation?

[Terry Decker]

>
> --- Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>> If your dough is soft, then you may have too much
>> fat in the mix or you
>> haven't worked it hard enough to properly form the
>> gluten.
>
> I used the same quantities of fat and flour, and
> worked them both the same amount - dough using butter
> is softer than that using Crisco.
>

I was speaking in the general case rather than as a differentiation between 
fats.  Different fats will give varying results, but the more of any fat you 
add, the softer the dough in general.

<clipped>
>
>> To quote Ivan Day, "Pies of this kind were
> constructed from a 'standing
>> crust' made by mixing boiling water and butter into
> the flour.  Once
>> cold, this stiff gluten-rich pastry was ideal for
> raising these complex
>> structures, though it did not make for particularly
> good eating."
>> (Eat, Drink & Be Merry)
>
> What source does he provide for this?  This sounds
> like the traditional English method for making pie
> crusts, but isn't the only method I have seen in the
> primary sources (e.g. rubbing or cutting the fat into
> the flour).
>

I gather he has quite a bit of practical experience at raising standing 
crusts and has written on the process.  In this case, the information is 
taken from a recreation of the Duke of Newcastle's feast from the latter 
half of the 17th Century as given in Patrick Lamb's Royal Cookery, with pie 
designs taken from Robert May Accomplisht Cook and Edward Kidder Receipts in 
Pastry and Cookery.  All three sources are well outside SCA period but 
probably of use in considering this subject.

> Further, one recipe for pie crusts in "The Good
> Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchen" specifically warns
> the cook not to use to many egg yolks as it will "make
> it drie and not pleasant in eating" which contradicts
> the common assertion that standing crusts were
> *always* inedible (I will grant that they may have
> sometimes been inedible).
>
> - Doc

But is it a "standing crust?"  I've encountered a few recipes that make 
interesting and edible crusts, but really need a tart pan to hold their 
shape.  I suspect the "inedibilty" may be more likely for the hard, 
hand-raised coffin, than some of the softer pie shells.  It might be 
interesting to assemble all of the pastry recipes and try to categorize them 
by the ratios of their ingredients, but that is work for the future.

Bear