Tarte of Strawberies
Mackenzie Fox, Madi Whitman, and Mellon Snyder
Summer 2021
The Recipe
Tarte of Strawberies.
Seson your Strawberyes with sugar, a very little Sinamon, a little ginger, and so cover them with a cover, and you must lay upon the cover
a morsell of sweet Butter, Rosewater and Sugar, you may Ice the cover if you will, you must make your Ice with the white of an egge
beaten, and Rosewater and Sugar.
- A Book of Cookrye - 1591 (First pub. 1584), by A.W.
Four Components:
1. Crust (and cover)
2. Filling
3. “Morsell”
4. Ice
Some Takeaways:
1. Implicit Information
2. Audience
The Crust
● Finding a Recipe
○ From A Proper New Booke of Cookery, 1575, by A. Veale:
To make short paest for tarte.
Take fyne floure and a cursey of fayre water and a dysche of swete butter and a lyttel saffron, and the yolckes of two
egges and make it thynne and as tender as ye maye.
The “Paste”
The Filling and “Morsell”
Seson your Strawberyes with sugar, a very little Sinamon, a little
ginger, and so cover them with a cover, and you must lay upon the
cover a morsell of sweet Butter, Rosewater and Sugar...
1. Cut Strawberries
2. Coated with seasoning before adding to dough
3. Added Cover
4. Decided to Mix Butter/Rosewater/Sugar
5. Tested different butter application methods
6. Baked at 350° F for ~35 minutes
● Quantities, Temperature, and Time
The “Ice”
● “Ice” ? (see photo)
● The Importance of
Experience/Prior
Knowledge
● The Value of Working
Collaboratively
Results
1) Purpose of saffron? Prestige item? Status symbol?
2) Purpose of rose water?
3) Ice hard to make by hand - another indication of tart as not an
everyday item (plus seasonality of strawberries)
4) Pies vs tarts
5) Lack of instruction for tart paste
6) How to know: MW’s reliance on past pie crust experience for
handling the crust, reluctance to use room temp butter
7) What became evident upon doing: initial confusion with “morsell” of
butter, rose water, sugar that melted on the pie
8) For whom is the book of recipes? Context? What aspects of
recipes are implicit or assumed? (how to make the paste)
9) Is baking a social activity? That is, comparing and testing recipe
together was incredibly helpful--probably also a good way to keep
track of process (eg built-in reminder for time)
Our Process
1. Identify what we don’t know
2. Conduct research and experiments to fill in gaps
3. Use experience and instinct where we have them (to our peril?)
The Crust - A Modern Interpretation
Method
1. Mix flour, salt, and saffron together in a large bowl.
2. Cut or rub the butter and eggs into the flour mixture until
it forms fine crumbs.
3. Add water a little at a time until it just sticks together - too
much water will make the dough too soft and sticky.
4. Cover with a towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
5. Roll out on a well floured surface.
