A Volume of Forgotten Lore: October 2016

The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L'arte et prudenza d'un maestro Cuoco (The Art and Craft of a Master Cook)

Per Master Drake’s suggestion.

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The outcome of this recipe seems to be two products - the broth, and the roasted chicken with currants for flavour. I need something slightly different - I'm looking to make small single bite pies - but the simplicity of the recipe and the delicate yet distinctive flavours sounded just right.

I opted for store bought rolled shortcrust pastry both for time constraints, and because I have a severe egg intolerance, and I could purchase egg-free pastry easily.Estimated cooking time too long for the teeny mini pies – 12 minutes was plenty.

Redaction to make small pies, suitable for finger food, to honour a great cook.

First pass, the ‘theory’ of the redaction.

1kg chicken breast

1kg chicken thighs

2tsp cinnamon

1tbsp verjuice

1 tsp salt

2tbsp Malmsey/Sweet sherry

Purchased shortcrust pastry sheets

½ cup currants – I bought some fancy non chemical dried ones. Worth it.

Using chicken thighs and breast – chop finely. Leave the fat in.

Mix cinnamon, verjuice, salt, sherry, currants.

Add to chicken mixture

Spoon into pastry shells (cut out rounds and use mini-muffin pan as base)

Bake for 20 minutes or until done.

The actual redaction:

Not enough currants – double it – used 1 cup.

Chicken mixture ended up being 1.2kg breast, 800g dark, because that was the sizes of the pack.

Clearly, I WAY overestimated – I had enough for about 300 bite size pies. Next time, for a non-finger food requirement, I’ll do them the same way but in full sized muffin tins.

I also doubled the sherry with the extra currants – so ended up being 4 tbsp – may be easier next time to just add 80ml.

I cooked a small batch, pastry free, to taste the ratios of cinnamon/chicken/etc. No need to add sugar – the currants were sweet enough.

It was very tasty. The cinnamon flavour comes through well, without overpowering the more delicate sweetness of the currants. There’s a hint of the sherry taste as you eat it. I think the balance is about right, as a savoury dish.