Table of Contents

HCR Field Notes

Name: Mackenzie Fox and Madi Whitman

Date and Time: 

2021.05.09, 01:10 pm

Location: Home Kitchen

Subject: Strawberry Tart (Crust/Paste)

No recipe is provided by the author for a tart crust, so we found a recipe, by way of medievalcookery.com, from a 1575 cookbook for “short paest for tarte.” As we primarily wanted to test the tart recipe itself, we decided to follow the interpretation of this crust/paste recipe on medievalcookery.com to save time and ingredients.

I decided to test this crust recipe before working jointly with Madi later in the afternoon as I had no experience making pastry crust. Here are the notes that I wrote by hand at the time, transcribed:

Mixed salt, four, and saffron in a large bowl

Sliced 4 tbsp. Butter and microwaved for 10 seconds and then 5 more seconds to soften

Separate yolks using a plastic water bottle

Stirred until crumbs formed/largest butter chunks were separated

Used hands to work mixture while gradually adding water until it just sticks together - used about ⅜ cup, as interpreter recommends - Yolk very stick

Covered with kitchen towel and waiting 30 minutes

After 30 minutes, rolled out onto floured cutting board

Transferred to pie dish, then trimmed edges

Decided dough needed to be worked slightly more as spots of dry flour remained; worked briefly before repeated these steps.

Attempted to test bake the trimmings

Baked at 425 F for ~12 minutes, as that seemed to be a common temperature for pre-baking pie crust in modern recipes

Sampled test bake- notes: saffron is very present, but a bit odd? It gives floral, “saffrony” notes, but unsure how it would taste in the context of a sweet pie/tart

[Inserted post-hoc] - Also test baked pillsbury pie crust in same manner to compare texture and flavor; texture was noticeably flakier and flavor less floral, but both seemed to be recognizably pastry crust nonetheless; re-used this pillsbury crust to test Ice options later, including a rather nasty lightly beaten egg white/sugar/rosewater mixture and the meringue we made

After meeting with Madi, we first made this crust again (I did not take notes, sadly) and then attempted to recreate the “Ice”:

Made meringue after failed attempts by hand w/hand mixer - added 5 tbsps. Sugar (granulated, refined) + ½ tsp of rosewater

Test baked Merinque for 15 mins at 350 F (using the Pillsbury crust as the base) - notes: good, maybe underbaked as a bit eggy

For filling used:

3 cups strawberries

~⅓ cup sugar

Less than ¼ tsp. Cinnamon

~2 tbsps. Minced fresh ginger - tasted mixture before baking - strawberries deliciously sweet and cinnamon-y

[Inserted post-hoc]: Mixed together rosewater, sugar, and butter before applying to top of pie crust; I spread the butter in three quadrants, but placed it on as a single clump in the fourth to test different application methods as the author is unclear how to apply the morsel/mixture to the crust; results seemed to suggest little meaningful difference in browning/concentration of the glaze produced, but perhaps spreading was a bit more even. Overall provided little flavor in light of the powerful saffron in the crust.

Baked at 350 F for 30 minutes  - increased to 400 F because it was baking slowly; added meringue to one quarter at ~30 minutes in

Meringue starting to brown a few minutes (~10) after putting it on

Slightly more fragrance from oven (almost no smell thus far) after increasing oven temp - smell crust baking (?)

Opened oven a crack at ~40 minutes - liquid bubbling beneath vent

Added more meringue at about 45 minutes

Took out of oven after ~ 55 minutes

Crust is fairly evenly brown - pockets where butter sat have more color

Strong whiff of saffron from crust

Also a big whiff of strawberry near vents

[Inserted post-hoc]: Cut open after resting ~ 2 hours. Notes: Saffron again overpowering and strange, but filling well-balanced and delicious. Has a very warm spice combination, and is quite sweet, if a bit soupy from the strawberries. It seems underfilled after baking. Meringue sadly sagged as it was exposed to humidity; taste seems to have faded as well. Overall decent, but the crust is pretty hard to enjoy; not sure i’ll finish the tart.

Name: (Also the name of your working partner)

Date and Time: 

2021.[Month].[Day], [hh]:[mm][am/pm]

Location:

Subject:

Name: (Also the name of your working partner)

Date and Time: 

2021.[Month].[Day], [hh]:[mm][am/pm]

Location:

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Name: (Also the name of your working partner)

Date and Time: 

2021.[Month].[Day], [hh]:[mm][am/pm]

Location:

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