Crust: 1 cup semola flour 1 Tbsp sugar 1 tiny pinch of saffron 1/8 tsp salt 6 Tbsp butter ¼ cup water

Filling: 6 egg yolks 1 Tbsp water ½ tsp gelatin ¼ cup sugar ½ tsp powdered ginger ¼ cup minced dates ¼ cup minced raisins, dried currant berries, or similar

For the crust: Stir together the flour, sugar, saffron, and salt. Cut in the butter until it creates moist crumbs, leaving some small chunks of butter. Stir in the water, forming a dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge while making the filling.

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Dissolve the gelatin in the water. Beat together the egg yolks, gelatin, sugar, and powdered ginger until the mixture is very light, as light as you can reasonably get it. Then stir in the dates and raisins.

Divide the crust dough into 12 pieces, 6 of them slightly smaller than the others. Roll the larger balls out into circles and line 6 cups in a mini tart pan. Put about 2 Tbsp of filling into each cup—there will be a little extra, so divide it evenly. Then roll the smaller balls of dough to make top crusts. Leave a little bit of space, if you can, between the filling and the top crust.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

#butter #date #dessert #driedfruit #eggyolk #gelatin #ginger #historical #pie #raisin #saffrom #salt #semolaflour #sugar

(Medieval-inspired. Medieval-probable.)

Use a 9” deep dish pie tin. You also want a meat thermometer.

Pie crust:

¾ cup butter 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or semola flour ½ cup water ¼ tsp salt beaten egg whites

Filling:

2 Tbsp honey ½ cup dried fruits, minced (such as raisins, blueberries, prunes, cherries, figs, dates) 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon 3 egg yolks 2 Tbsp minced nuts 1 cup carrots, finely chopped ¾ cup fennel bulb and stalk, finely chopped 2 cups chicken, cut into about 1” cubes ½ tsp salt ½ tsp pepper 1 tsp thyme ½ tsp mace

Set the oven to 350° F and put the chicken in to cook while you make the crust and chop the vegetables.

Crust: Cut the butter into the flour until it is crumbly and there is no more dry powder. Dissolve the salt in the water, and stir into the flour to make a soft dough. Knead it a bit to get it all together. Form a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in fridge to chill until hard.

Stir together all the filling ingredients.

When the crust dough is hard, divide it in half. Place a piece of waxed paper on the counter, and sprinkle with flour. Roll out half the dough to a circle big enough to fit in the pie tin. It should be somewhat thick crust. Place the tin upside-down on the dough, and flip it over with the dough and waxed paper to get the dough inside. Remove the waxed paper and press the dough down into the tin.

Spread the filling into the pie crust.

Roll out the rest of the crust dough in the same way, using the waxed paper to lift it and place it on the top of the pie. Trim the edge of the crust and pinch the top and bottom together.

Brush the beaten egg whites onto the crust. Make a cool design on the top crust with the remaining dough! Make sure there are some cuts in the top crust. Brush the design with egg whites as well.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches or exceeds 165° F.

Variation: Use ½ cup bacon and ½ cup chicken. Use parsnips instead of carrots. Use puff pastry instead of pie crust.

#bacon #blueberry #butter #carrot #cherry #chicken #cinnamon #date #driedfruit #eggwhite #eggyolk #fairyfeast #fennel #fig #historical #honey #mace #main #nuts #parsnip #pepper #pie #prune #raisin #salt #semola #thyme #wheatflour

Makes 2 servings.

½ cup farina (if you can't find plain farina, use unflavored cream of wheat or malt-o-meal) 1 cup water 1 Tbsp pine nuts 2 Tbsp blanched almonds 2 Tbsp raisins ¼ cup prune juice or grape juice dates figs extra nuts of desired variety

Simmer the juice over low heat until it is reduced to half. Set aside.

Over low heat, whisk together the farina and water. Add the pine nuts and almonds. Cook, stirring, until it reaches desired thickness. (I like it really thick and solid, some want it thinner.)

Stir the raisins and juice into the farina.

Mince the dates and figs, and crush the nuts. Serve in bowls with the fruit and nuts on top.

I got together with a friend to do some experimental Roman cooking.

The recipe we used interpreted apothermum as a pudding. I found a second recipe that considers it a sauce for meat. However, in the original text, apothermum is in the minced dishes chapter, not the sauce chapter. The two different translations are interesting. One recipe comes up with forcemeats, the other says nuts and fruit. (Latin is weird because isn't it all, “We're pretty sure this word means this” because there are no original speakers?)

Here are the recipes:

Pudding recipe