[Sca-cooks] "The Great Custard Tart Caper"

[Stefan li Rous]

I just added this file to the Florilegium, which I think some folks  
here might be interested in. This is a fairly comprehensive article on  
custard tarts including some tables comparing various different ones  
by ingredients, country of origin, cooking methods etc. It also has  
several appendixes full of different custard recipes and some  
redactions.

Custard-Tarts-art (42K)  7/18/09  "The Great Custard Tart Caper" by  
Baroness
                                     Jehanne de Huguenin, OP.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-SWEETS/Custard-Tarts-art.html

"The Great Custard Tart Caper"
A&S CULINARY RESEARCH PAPER
submitted to the Drachenwald A&S Faire 2004
by Baroness Jehanne de Huguenin, OP.

Custard tarts! Gosh, there are a lot of them in medieval cookbooks.  
The humble cream or custard tart ; a basic open pastry shell filled  
with some mixture of cream or milk and eggs with sugar ; seems to have  
been a staple of the medieval feast, across a wide range of times and  
places. The Goodman of Paris (French, 14th century) takes their  
ubiquity so much for granted that he specifies "milk tarts" and "cream  
flans" on his menus without ever actually giving a recipe (Menus XIII,  
XIV, XV, XVII, Hinson 5). This is not, however, a problem, since a  
positive embarrassment of recipes exists, ranging from the 14th  
century to Elizabethan times, and covering England, Germany, France,  
Italy, and Spain. A basic custard, although without the pie crust, is  
found as far back in the classical Roman cookbook of Apicius (4th-5th  
century A.D.). While having examples from a good spread of times and  
cuisines, I am also sure there are recipes I have not found, so this  
remains something of an ongoing project as I stumble across new ones.   
<snip>

Not to be confused with the other type of capers. :-)

I have a file on them, too.
capers-msg        (22K)  1/30/08    Use of capers in medieval food.

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 ****