[Sca-cooks] Question about pie crust

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Feb 10, 2010, at 4:04 PM, Jennifer Carlson wrote:

> I was checking a recipe in Forme of Cury, and had a question - if you were to make a tarte on a fish day, how would you shorten the paste?  Would oil have been used in England at this time, in lieu of animal fat?  And if so, would it have been olive oil, or another kind?

The only specific Lenten substitution I remember seeing is to use almond milk instead of eggs, with no mention of additional shortening. I suspect that their flour was somewhat softer than modern AP, and then it often contained sugar, which is a tenderizing agent, and a certain amount of almond oil in the almond milk.

They may have used something like olive oil in England, but I suspect if they did, it's not really well documented and probably not very common.

More likely the potential toughness of dough might have been addressed with almond milk, egg yolks where permissible, sugar, soft wheat flour, and then let's not forget the really important one: realistic expectations.

Adamantius






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