[Sca-cooks] Coffin Construction

[Barbara Benson]

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 3:20 PM, V A <phoenissa at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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. :-)


Thank you for all of your insights. I had been working with the idea
that they would not be edible. From the "water and flour" description
I assumed it wouldn't be intended to be eaten.

Since you translated the entire manuscript I was wondering if you
could suggest what would be the best combination of "spices" to go
into this dish. Would garlic be out of line? I have been spending most
of my time with the Martino stuff so that is where my brain is at. Is
there significant spicing differences between that and the Tuscan
methods?

I also want to Thank you for providing this translation for everyone
to work with. Without the efforts of you and Helewyse my feast would
be greatly diminished.

Grazie!

--
Serena