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Introduction This particular recipe is born from an exercise in backwards redacting. Backwards redacting? Technically, to redact something is to make it presentable for publication (see definition here). However, the verb has taken an expanded meaning within historical cooking circles, probably by extension. To make a pre-1600 recipe presentable for publication in the modern world often requires cobbling together a version that can be prepared by the average cook, hence, part of cleaning up a recipe is creating a modern version thereof.As of late, as part of a personal project, I've been cooking up quite a few redactions from those cookbooks I posess that contain pre-1600 recipes. However, one of the things I struggle with is the huge preponderance of eggs in period cooking. This is a problem; I can't eat eggs. Therefore, in order to have a greater variety of foods I like and can eat, I find it necessary to sometimes take a modern recipe and move it back in time--backwards redacting. This is a simple example of that, and one of my favorite recipes. Like almost everything else I have ever cooked, I didn't bother with keeping a record of quantities , I just did it. But don't worry! If you'd like something more specific yourself, the source recipe is presented at the end of this brief article and you may use it to guide you in your preparations. A Pie of Pork and Apple Take a quantity of pork and hack it to small pieces and set the pork into a large pan with a little salt and pepper, and set it upon the fire and sear it quickly, then add a quantity of broth or wine or sweet water or some of each. And thereafter shall you set it into the fire, and sethe it gently with sage chopped fine, and turnips or parsnips, or both, and apples, and onions or leeks, all hewn small, till the broth be almost consumed and it be done enow. And place this into a coffin which you have already baked empty or a bowl which can stand the fire and cover it with a crust and bake it until the crust is done, then serve it forth. And if you desire you may also put thereto lard or marrow or good butter under the crust before you bake it and then after baking it so also serve it. Comments
Here, the pie is served as part of a nice, late period meal. Wine, almonds, dates, pickled vegetables, the pie, and a pear. You can bake or boil the pork-apple mixture and then place it into a partially pre-cooked pastry or an oven-proof bowl, place the covering crust upon the mixture, and finish baking it. My preference, actually, is to bake it in the dishes (because then you can bake it all in single portions) or as if a Cornish pasty (in a folded and sealed crust). To send this recipe backwards in time, I eliminated the potato, substituting parsnips or turnips (or both) and committed to some sort of "coffin" as the cover. In period cookery, a "coffin" is a super strong pastry shell that will hold the contents of the pie for serving; however, for a traveling lunch, as above, I prefer to use oven-proof bowls with a top crust to seal the food in. The modern recipe calls for lard to dot the pork-apple mix before the final baking; I don't usually add it, but if you like, lard and appropriate medieval substitutes are listed as options above. Further, the modern recipe calls for the pork-apple mix to be baked twice (once to cook the mixture, once for the top crust. I've seared and boiled it, a la Pigges cited below. The substituted ingredients (turnips, parsnips, marrow, butter, wine) are all easily documentable as pre-1492 foodstuffs and will not be addressed here. The evidence for pork and apples cooked together as a single dish was a little more challenging, but note that the 1584 A Book of Cookrye by A.W. contains a recipe for pigs feet cooked with apples called How to boyle Pigges Petitoes. The original recipe was part of Time-Life's compilation encyclopedia, The Good Cook, specifically, the Pork volume. The original recipe can be seen here. HAPPY COOKING! Questions, comments, suggestions, thoughts? I welcome correspondence at merouda (at) hotmail (dot) com. Use your back button, or {Elyse Boucher} {Arts and Sciences Top} {A&S Heraldry} {Poopie the Pirate} {Help Support This Site} (old link bar, some still active): {Elise Boucher} {Sept Pendray} {Merouda Pendray}
This document created January, 2007 |
