A
short while ago I posted on the topic of tarts (here, and here) and several of
you asked for a little more on vaunts
and flampoints. I love getting
special requests, and do try to accommodate them - so, here are a few more
words on these old-fashioned types of tart.
First,
the vaunt. The Oxford English Dictionary
says this is “a kind of fruit pie” and admits that the word is of obscure
origin. In the recipe given below however, the thin omelet-like sheets of egg
which form part of the construction are themselves referred to as vaunts, and
in at least one French-language cookery book of the era (Ouverture de Cuisine, 1604)
they are called votes. Take
note, OED.
The
first reference to a vaunt in written English is given as occurring in 1508 in
Wynkyn de Worde’s Boke of Kervynge
[Book of Carving, ] and the first recipe that I know of for a vaunt appears in
the Good Huswifes Handmaide for the
Kitchin (1594.) The recipe includes beef marrow, which seems strange to us
today for a fruit pie, but in past times fatty bone marrow was commonly
included in such dishes to add richness.
To make a Vaunt
Take marrow of Beefe,
as much as you can hold in both your hands, cut it as big as great dice. Then
take ten Dates, cut them as big as smal dice: then take thirtie Prunes and cut
the fruite from the stones, then take halfe a handfull of Corrans, washe them
and picke them, then put your marrow in a cleane platter, and your Dates,
Prunes, and Corrans: then take ten yolks of Egs, and put into your stuffe afore
rehearsed. Then take a quartern of Sugar, and more, and beat it smal and put to
your marow. Then take two spoonfuls of Synamon, and a spoonful of Sugar, and
put them to your stuffe, and mingle them all together, then take eight yolkes
of Egs, and four spoonfuls of Rosewater, straine them, and put a litle Sugar to
it. Then take a fair frying pan, and put a litle peece of butter in it, as much
as a Walnut, and set it vpon a good fire, and when it looketh almost blacke,
put it out of your pan, and as fast as you can, put halfe of the yolkes of Egs,
into the midst of your pan, and let it run all the bredth of your pan, and frie
it faire and yellow, and when it is fryed put it in a faire dish, and put your
stuffe therein, and spread it al the bottome of the dish, and then make another
vaunt euen as you made the other, and set it vpon a faire borde and cut it in
faire slices, of the breadth of your litle finger, as long as your Vaunt is;
then lay it vpon your stuffe after the fashion of a lattice window, and then
cut off the ends of them, as much as lyeth without the inward compasse of the
dish. Then set the dish within the Oven or in a baking pan, and let it bake
with leisure, and when it is baken ynough the marrow will come faire out of the
vaunt, vnto the brim of the dish. Then draw it out, and cast theron a litle
sugar, and so you may serue it in.
Now
for the flampoyne or flampoint (or flaumpeyn etc.) The OED
defines this as “a pie or tart ornamented with pointed pieces of pastry,” and
suggests that the name comes from ‘flame
point’ or flan pointé.
I
give you a recipe for flaumpeyns from
Forme of Cury (1390.) They are
shallow tarts (an inch deep) filled with minced pork and cheese.
Flaumpeyns.
Take fat pork y sode. pyke
hyt clene. grynde hit smale. grynd chese & do ther to with sugur and gode
poudours. make a coffyn of an ynche depe & do this fars ther inne. make a
thynne foyle of gode past & kerve out ther of smale poyntes. fry hem in
fars. and bake hit up, & serve hyt forth.
No comments:
Post a Comment