erehweslefox
Sous Chef
OK, so I posted in the reference section, a great new cookbook I found Seven Centuries of Medieval Cooking by Maxime de la Falaise. She includes in this a recipe from Ancient Cookery, 1381 for an apple pie. I have been working on pie skills this month (wife loves pie) so I thought I'd tackle it. If you are unfamiliar with medieval recipes, they usually don't have quantities, and the ingredients are often subject to question, so it can be fun figuring out how they work. I think a notable thing with this pie recipe for me, is it uses no sugar at all (and it wouldn't be something a medieval cook would have access to). So here is my recipe, informed by Ms. de la Falaise, and a couple other I have read. It turned out quite nice.
Ingredients:
For crust:
1 stick and 1 tbsp salted butter, slightly soft
2 cups flour (8.5 oz)
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, well beaten
4-5 tbsp cold water
a touch of cinnamon (if you like your pies to taste cinful)
1 egg yolk for glazing
For filling:
1 stick and 1 tbsp salted butter
8 baking apples cored, peeled, sliced thin (I used granny smith)
4 pears cored, peeled, sliced thin (like a pear/apple ratio where apples win in quantity, YMMV)
1 cup dates, diced
1 cup raisins (a lot of folks soak their raisins before using, don't do that here, the apples and pears will bleed a lot of liquid, in the baking the raisins soak up the liquid. They have a role)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp cloves
2 tsp cardamon
ground ginger to taste
1/2 tsp saffron (optional)
Some notes, This is different from the recipe in Falaise's book, because I incorporated some others that I found that exclude sugar (which a normal medieval chef would not have had access to, or not a lot of it). It might seem scary, but there is enough sweet in the fruit to make this a sweet not a savory dish.
If you live in an apartment building:
1 Machete, or large axe.
This also seems to make more filling than dough. So either cut back on the filling, find something else to do with it, or make more dough. It isn't enough for a double quantity of pie, but I got the dough right and didn't want to mess terribly with the proportions. I can tell you any leftover filling is great on pancakes Sunday morning (this is a great Saturday afternoon recipe, when combined with a big medieval feast)
To make the dough:
Sift salt and flour together as thorough as possible. If you want to add cinnamon to the dough do so at this point, light hand though, this is already gonna be cinnamon and clove heavy. Add butter cut into chunks and fold in, or attack like a ninja with two table knives going opposite ways yelling 'hyaa!' until it looks like little pearls. Add beaten egg and as little water as you think you can get away with. Flour up your hands, and adding water and pinches of flour as you can get this to a ball of dough. Wrap it in waxed paper or cellophane and let it chill in fridge for at least 40 minutes.
For Filling:
Melt butter in deep saucepan, and add spices, get it to just near a boil leave it there a minute or so, and add all fruit. Reduce heat and simmer slow for about 25 minutes. Let cool for at least 20 minutes.
Pie TIME!
A 9" or a 10" pie plate can be used. I'd use a plate, not a tin, this recipe tends to weep a bit. A ceramic pie plate, or even a metal one beats out one of the cheap disposable ones. In any event, dust it with flour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bring the dough back into play, and reserve about 1/3 of it. Keep that cold. The rest roll out to about an inch larger than your pie pan, and press in. Fill with filling. Roll out the rest of the dough into a round, or cut into strips (if you are feeling artistic). Put that on top and crimp the edges. cut a couple vent slits symmetrically to let the gas out. Beat up that egg yolk, and baste the top with it.
Bake at 350 degrees F for an hour, let cool about two hours. you have a pie.
This is where the machete and axe comes in, if you have done this right, the entire building will smell like apples, cloves, and dough. When people come to your door, either suggest trades for liquor and other commodities, or brandish weapon.
This does, due to the step I think of pre cooking the filling, and the spices involved, really send out a lot of smell. I will say, this recipe makes for my beloved 9" pie plate a leftover of filling. Beloved Plate is also thick ceramic, so it might be as little as 7" in measurement, it yields four large, or eight small pie slices. and my crust was thick. I think you could do this with a 10" pie plate and it would work. I whipped up some bisquick cobbler with the rest, and sent it home with my dinner guests, and some of the people in my apartment building (who know darn them, that when they smell something good they get leftovers, I have a deal with them on that, they in return don't throw a fit when I set off the smoke detectors if it *doesn't* go well)
Cheers all and hope you enjoy this interpretation on a medieval recipe. I think it came out well without any added sugar, but if you do the filling with your favorite crust, let me know. Oh and here is the original, which is public domain:
For to make Tartys in Apples:
Take good apples and good spices & Figs and rasians and Pears and when they are well braid color with safron well and do it in a coffin and do it forth and bake well.
Coffin means pie dough, they were goth but not THAT goth.
Cheers,
TBS
Ingredients:
For crust:
1 stick and 1 tbsp salted butter, slightly soft
2 cups flour (8.5 oz)
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, well beaten
4-5 tbsp cold water
a touch of cinnamon (if you like your pies to taste cinful)
1 egg yolk for glazing
For filling:
1 stick and 1 tbsp salted butter
8 baking apples cored, peeled, sliced thin (I used granny smith)
4 pears cored, peeled, sliced thin (like a pear/apple ratio where apples win in quantity, YMMV)
1 cup dates, diced
1 cup raisins (a lot of folks soak their raisins before using, don't do that here, the apples and pears will bleed a lot of liquid, in the baking the raisins soak up the liquid. They have a role)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp cloves
2 tsp cardamon
ground ginger to taste
1/2 tsp saffron (optional)
Some notes, This is different from the recipe in Falaise's book, because I incorporated some others that I found that exclude sugar (which a normal medieval chef would not have had access to, or not a lot of it). It might seem scary, but there is enough sweet in the fruit to make this a sweet not a savory dish.
If you live in an apartment building:
1 Machete, or large axe.
This also seems to make more filling than dough. So either cut back on the filling, find something else to do with it, or make more dough. It isn't enough for a double quantity of pie, but I got the dough right and didn't want to mess terribly with the proportions. I can tell you any leftover filling is great on pancakes Sunday morning (this is a great Saturday afternoon recipe, when combined with a big medieval feast)
To make the dough:
Sift salt and flour together as thorough as possible. If you want to add cinnamon to the dough do so at this point, light hand though, this is already gonna be cinnamon and clove heavy. Add butter cut into chunks and fold in, or attack like a ninja with two table knives going opposite ways yelling 'hyaa!' until it looks like little pearls. Add beaten egg and as little water as you think you can get away with. Flour up your hands, and adding water and pinches of flour as you can get this to a ball of dough. Wrap it in waxed paper or cellophane and let it chill in fridge for at least 40 minutes.
For Filling:
Melt butter in deep saucepan, and add spices, get it to just near a boil leave it there a minute or so, and add all fruit. Reduce heat and simmer slow for about 25 minutes. Let cool for at least 20 minutes.
Pie TIME!
A 9" or a 10" pie plate can be used. I'd use a plate, not a tin, this recipe tends to weep a bit. A ceramic pie plate, or even a metal one beats out one of the cheap disposable ones. In any event, dust it with flour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bring the dough back into play, and reserve about 1/3 of it. Keep that cold. The rest roll out to about an inch larger than your pie pan, and press in. Fill with filling. Roll out the rest of the dough into a round, or cut into strips (if you are feeling artistic). Put that on top and crimp the edges. cut a couple vent slits symmetrically to let the gas out. Beat up that egg yolk, and baste the top with it.
Bake at 350 degrees F for an hour, let cool about two hours. you have a pie.
This is where the machete and axe comes in, if you have done this right, the entire building will smell like apples, cloves, and dough. When people come to your door, either suggest trades for liquor and other commodities, or brandish weapon.
This does, due to the step I think of pre cooking the filling, and the spices involved, really send out a lot of smell. I will say, this recipe makes for my beloved 9" pie plate a leftover of filling. Beloved Plate is also thick ceramic, so it might be as little as 7" in measurement, it yields four large, or eight small pie slices. and my crust was thick. I think you could do this with a 10" pie plate and it would work. I whipped up some bisquick cobbler with the rest, and sent it home with my dinner guests, and some of the people in my apartment building (who know darn them, that when they smell something good they get leftovers, I have a deal with them on that, they in return don't throw a fit when I set off the smoke detectors if it *doesn't* go well)
Cheers all and hope you enjoy this interpretation on a medieval recipe. I think it came out well without any added sugar, but if you do the filling with your favorite crust, let me know. Oh and here is the original, which is public domain:
For to make Tartys in Apples:
Take good apples and good spices & Figs and rasians and Pears and when they are well braid color with safron well and do it in a coffin and do it forth and bake well.
Coffin means pie dough, they were goth but not THAT goth.
Cheers,
TBS
Thanks.
