[Sca-cooks] Salmon pasty (bratan pye foalley)

[Stefan li Rous]

Cailte replied to someone with:

<<<
> That link is busted - :(.
>
> Could you give me an idea what it was based on
> region/time period/manuscript or anything of the sort?

sorry.  i did print it out a while ago.  i just so
happended to have my recipe book w/ me as i was preparing
a class for this weekend "follow that feast", for the
curious potential feast steward.

the scenario was an early irish feast as i recall.  there
is a lot of congecture with the early period food, much
based on what is available locally at the time and what is
left in writings other than recipes.

i am sorry it is busted. it was a great source for early
period ideas and recipes. >>>

My apologies. I'm afraid I've been a bit slow on this, but Hauviette  
did send me her feast review and menu for her "A Feast At Carrick  
Fergus" but probably because I ran across some problem, I haven't  
gotten this online in the Florilegium yet.

I will try to get her article online in the next few days.

 From her article:

"Our feast is based upon the 12th C Castle, Carrick fergus, located  
on the eastern coast of Ireland in the modern county of Antrim,  
province of Ulster. The castle was built by Normans, however the area  
has a history prior to that time."

Salmon pasty (bratan pye foalley)

Pastry
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup lard
10 Tblsp cold water

Mix the dry ingredients. Cut in the lard with a pastry cutter or two  
knives. Add the water and mix with hands. Ensure that the pastry is  
wet enough to hold itself when squeezed in your hand

Filling
1 can salmon (prepared in brine)
1 cup shredded old cheddar cheese (the cheddaring process is a modern  
one, but the strong taste of the cheese is more important, as well as  
the prohibitive cost of other types of cheese more appropriate, such  
as farmers or Gloucester)
3 threads of saffron crushed , mixed in 1 tsp water and heated to  
release the flavour and colour
1 tsp white pepper
Debone salmon. Mix ingredients. Lay in pastry and close. Bake 350  
degrees 30 minutes or until golden brown

This is from her introduction:
"Both fresh water fish and seafood were eaten by the Irish peoples.  
There were many methods to cook and preserve fish as Anne Wilson  
points out in Food and Drink in Britain, that "salmon from the river  
Bann and other Irish rivers was still in demand, no longer smoked as  
it had been three thousand years earlier, but barrelled in brine and  
sent to west England ports during the 12th Century". In addition she  
states that fish could be boiled, fried or simmered in broth in the  
"cytel" the Anglo-Saxon version of the iron cauldron.
In light of the above I have incorporated fresh fish by cooking it in  
a beer batter as in period "frittours" (see recipe later) and by  
using a preserved salmon in brine (canned salmon, recipe also follows)."

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****