[Sca-cooks] Pie dough

[yaini0625 at yahoo.com]

I had an animated discussion with an octogenarian regarding the difference between "table fat" vs "lard" in a recipe. We were trying to find a modern ingredient for table fat. Anyone else heard of "table fat?"
Aelina 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Stefan li Rous <stefanlirous at austin.rr.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:34:48 
To: Cooks within the SCA<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pie dough

On Feb 13, 2010, at 6:01 AM, Claire Clarke wrote:

I think there's one 14th-century French description of a pie dough being
made with little bits of lard (probably unrendered). I remember  
getting into
an... erm... animated, respectful discussion... here on this list  
several
years ago on a point of translation, with someone whose French is a lot
better than mine.

However, I'm not aware of any specific suggestions on what to do in Lent
when lard or other animal fat is out.

Adamantius

Oooh ooh oooh (to quote shaggy dog). I don't suppose you have a  
reference
for that recipe? I mean, I wonder if the lard was for the dough or the
filling?
-----------

Okay, I may have lost some of what folks were looking for here. But if  
it was lard used in a period pie recipe, check this file in the FOOD  
section of the Florilegium:

pies-msg         (178K)  9/ 6/09  Period pie crusts, meat and fruit  
pies.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/pies-msg.html

Here is one recipe from there:
<<< Source [The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchen, Stuart Peachey
(ed.)] To make a pie to keep long. You must first perboile your flesh +
press it, + when it is pressed, season it with pepper and salt whilest
it is hot, then lard it, make your paste of rie flower, it must be very
thick, or else it wil not holde, when it is seasoned + larded, lay it
in your pie, then cast on it before you close it, a good deale of
cloves and Mace beaten small, and lay upon that a good deale of Butter,
and so close it up: but you must leave a hole in the top of the lid, +
when it hath stood two houres in the Oven, you must fill it as full of
vinigar as you can, and then stop the hole as close as you can with
paste, and then set it in the Oven again: your Oven must bee verie hot
at the first, and then your pies will keep a great while: the longer
you keepe them the better wil they be: and when ye have taken them out
of the oven, and that they be almost cold, you must shake them betweene
your hands, and set them into the Oven, be well ware that one pie touch
not another by more than ones hand bredth: Remember also to let them
stand in the Oven after the Vinigar be in, two houres and more.
(England, c. 1588)

- Doc >>>

--------
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 ****


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