<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>In a message dated 7/12/2001 7:10:47 AM Mountain Daylight Time,
<BR>cnevin@caci.co.uk writes:
<BR>
<BR>
<BR><BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">My mental TV screen just isn't getting this one! Here's what I have so far:
<BR>
<BR>ConI: FoC p.142-3 (|> = thorn)
<BR>"Chastletes. Take and make a foyle of gode past with a rollere of a foot
<BR>brode, & lynger by cumpas. Make iiii coffyns of |>e self past vppn |>e
<BR>rollere |>e gretnesse of |>e smale of |>yn arme of vi ynche dep; make |>e
<BR>gretust in |>e myddell. Fasten |>e foile in |>e mouth vpwarde, & fasten |>e
<BR>o|>ere four in euery side..."
<BR>
<BR>the recipe goes on to carve battlements, cook the pastry and dictate the
<BR>fillings. My rough redaction;
<BR>
<BR>"Chatletes. Take and make a leaf of good pastry with a rolling pin, a foot
<BR>broad and twice as long (?). Make four coffins of the same pastry, upon the
<BR>rolling pin, the length of a forearm and six inches deep; (are we talking
<BR>width here or thickness?) make the biggest (ie the first piece of pastry) in
<BR>the middle. Fasten the pastry leaf in the mouth upward, and fasten the other
<BR>four in every side..."
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">
<BR>I actually did this for a competition a few years ago (in fact I think the
<BR>documentation for it may be in the florigilium).
<BR>
<BR>First thing that you should notice is that the initial <I>Take and make a leaf
<BR>of good pastry with a rolling pin, a foot broad and twice as long (?). </I>Does
<BR>not specify making a round anything. In fact by specifying that it should be
<BR>a foot (12 inches) broad and twice as long it, in fact, is describing a
<BR>rectangle. It then goes on to describe the making of 4 "coffins" specifying
<BR>that they should be the circumference of the forearm and 6 inches deep.
<BR>Think of a rectangular castle with a 6 inch high tower on each corner of the
<BR>rectangle.
<BR>
<BR>When I made mine I did in fact make it the size specified, however, since the
<BR>recipe seems to assume that the initial paste is used both for the floor and
<BR>walls of the castle, I found that the best way to do this was to cut in 6
<BR>inches at each corner and turn the walls "up" from the outside. Your corners
<BR>are then sealed by attaching them to the towers with flour and water paste
<BR>and baking the whole. If you do this then the overall height is no more than
<BR>6 inches and the widest horizontal portion is only 12 inches. Most ovens can
<BR>handle these proportions (smaller than most Christmas turkeys)
<BR>
<BR>After you bake the pastry castle (BTW I found that using stone ground whole
<BR>wheat flour made for a sturdier castle and looked like a stone castle wall
<BR>when baked) you can then fill the center and the towers with various foods
<BR>(I used hedgehog meatballs in the center and sauces for dipping in two of the
<BR>towers with sliced strawberries in the third tower and gosh I don't remember
<BR>what in the forth) The castle then becomes an interesting serving dish which
<BR>also happens to be edible and quite tasty. This is esp. true if you have
<BR>sauces in the towers so that guests can tear off part of the castle wall and
<BR>dip it in the sauce. I don't think that my Chastlete lasted more than 15
<BR>minutes beyond final judging because a horde of castle eaters descended on it
<BR>and ate every crumb. I am planning to repeat it on a greater scale for one
<BR>of the courses in a feast I am doing soon, I will plan on doing one Chastlete
<BR>per table of 8. Seems like a grand way to present a course. <g>
<BR>
<BR>Hope this helped
<BR>
<BR>Lady Constance de la Rose</FONT></HTML>