[Sca-cooks] Coffin Construction

[V A]

Ciao Serena,

I'm going to be a little contrary :-) and go totally against the grain of
everyone else's recommendation to use a lard- or butter-based pastry.  The
Anonimo Toscano recipe collection dates from ca. 1400, and that strikes me
as very early to be using fat in pastry dough.  I don't see a lot of
evidence for use of fat in pie crusts until later 15th-16th c (mid-16th you
start getting pastry fortified with butter/lard and eggs, which is a whole
other creature).  Written evidence aside, there's also the question of
simple logic: Fat is expensive, and the "coffin" is not meant to be eaten.
Why would you put all that expensive animal product into a shell that's
going to be thrown away or tossed to the poor?  Then again, if you intend
for diners at the feast to eat the "coffins", by all means use make it
delicious with lard or butter. :-)

I don't know whether it's possible to make a flour-and-water dough stand up
on its own, so I would assume you would use a pie pan.  To get the "cup"
shape described in the recipe, you can try doing what the cooks for the
"Perfectly Period Feast" did (this is the 15th-c English feast that Cariadoc
and Urtatim have been describing, which happened at West Kingdom Collegium
this past weekend).  The cooks built their "coffins" in modern springform
pans, so that they could be molded and baked in the correct shape, but could
be presented at the feast as freestanding objects, not a pie pan in sight.
Nearly all the pies were flat and shallow, but the veal pie (I think) for
the High Table looked like it was at least 6-8 inches tall!  His Grace
undoubtedly got a better look at it than I did (I was off in the corner with
the other musicians), so I will leave it to him to give a more accurate
description if necessary.  (Those "coffins" were not eaten, by the way; the
top crusts were removed, and the filling chopped and spooned onto guests'
trenchers.)

I was involved with almost every aspect of that feast *except* the food,
ironically, so I can't tell you whether the cooks used fat in their pie
crusts, or how precisely they formed them -- but I can certainly find out
for you.  Let me know if you want more information.  Good luck with the
feast!


Vittoria

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Barbara Benson <voxeight at gmail.com> wrote:

> Saluti!
>
> I know that I have been pestering the list a goodly bit in the past
> couple of weeks - this feast is driving me nuts! I don't know why this
> one is proving to be so challenging.
>
> My newest obstacle is coffin construction. I want to redact this
> recipe this weekend:
>
> Anon Tuscan Translated by Vittoria
> A cup of chicken or other fowl.
> [125] Cut chickens or fowl into pieces; dilute flour with hot water,
> and make it very stiff: then make the shape of a cup from said dough
> and put in it the aforementioned chickens with whole green grapes,
> saffron and spices, and a bit of cold water, and close it on top with
> dough, and put it in the oven or rather on top of pans; and on the top
> of the cup put a big piece of lard.
>
> And I wanted to take advantage of the experience of anyone on this
> list who has attempted coffins before. What formula did you use for
> the coffin dough (I say formula because recipe implies that someone
> will eat it)? Any tips on raising the durn things? Pitfalls? Also, one
> of the major tools I have on the site is a convection oven - do you
> think that since the coffin is sealed it would be fine in there or can
> anyone foresee problems with a convection oven.
>
> >From the recipe it seems that the crust is flour + water. Any thoughts
> on proportions?
>
> I look forward to your replies.
>
> Grazie,
>
> --
> Serena da Riva
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