ILLIANER TART
Take figs & raisins, & wash them in wine, and grind them small with apples & pears clean picked. Take them up and put them in a pot with wine and sugar. Take very fresh salmon boiled, or cod or haddock, and mince them small, & do there-to white powders & whole spices & salt, & boil it. And when it is cooked enough, take it up and do it in a vessel, and let it cool. Make a pie shell an inch deep & do the filling there-in. Place on top of this damson prunes: take the stones out; and with dates quartered and picked clean. And cover the pie, and bake it well, and serve it forth.
INGREDIENTS:
· Figs, minced
· Raisins
· Apples, peeled, cored, & minced
· Pears, peeled, cored, & minced
· White wine
· Sugar
· Cooked Salmon, Cod, or Haddock meat, minced or shredded
· White Pepper
· Whole spices - Cinnamon Sticks, Black Peppercorns, Cloves, Ginger, etc. - wrapped up in cheesecloth
· Salt
· One nine-inch pie shell with pastry lid
· Pitted Prunes
· Dates, quartered
DIRECTIONS:
Place the figs, raisins, apples, & pears in a large pot; cover with wine and add sugar to taste - it should be just slightly sweet, but not overly so. Add fish, spices, & salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Allow the mixture to cook until it has reduced and thickened. Remove the spices in cheesecloth. Remove the pot from the heat and let cool. Place the filling in the pie shell and arrange the prunes and dates on top. Cover with the pastry lid. Bake until pastry is a golden brown. Serve forth!
KNITTING CIRCLE PORK & FRUIT PIE
Take pork boiled; cut it and pound it in a mortar. Do there-to eggs, currants, sugar and powder of ginger, powder douce, and small birds there among, & white grease. Take prunes, saffron, & salt; and make a pie shell in a pie pan, & do the filling there-in; and bake it well & serve it forth.
INGREDIENTS:
· Pork, boiled until fully cooked then ground
· Eggs, beaten
· Currants
· Sugar
· Ginger (powder)
· Powder Douce - this was a medieval blend of sweet spices, almost always containing sugar & cinnamon and never pepper, and with such other spices as nutmeg, clove, cardamom, etc.
· Small, whole chicken pieces, fully cooked, bone included
· White grease (bacon fat or shortening)
· Prunes, sliced
· Saffron
· Salt
· One nine-inch pie shell
DIRECTIONS:
Combine the boiled and ground pork with the eggs, currants, sugar, ginger, Powder Douce, shortening, prunes, saffron, & salt. The final consistency should be thick and slightly runny - be sure to use enough beaten egg to thoroughly saturate the entire mixture. Place this filling in the pie shell; top with the whole, cooked chicken pieces. Bake until the pastry is fully cooked and the filling has set.
The original recipe calls for small birds (hummingbirds, sparrows, etc.), which were a common medieval feature in cooking; small, whole chicken pieces, with the bone included, are probably the closest we can come to this today. These small birds are supposed to be mixed in with the rest of the pie filling; however, since modern diners are not used to encountering unboned chicken pieces in the middle of a pie, I would recommend keeping the chicken on top, in obvious sight.