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Medieval Recipe Translations

Tart de Bry

PERIOD: England, 14th century | SOURCE: Forme of Cury | CLASS: Authentic

DESCRIPTION: A cheese tart


ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

174. Tart de Bry. Take a crust ynche depe in a trap. Take yolkes of ayren rawe & chese ruayn & medle it & þe yolkes togyder. Do þerto powdour gynger, sugur, safroun, and salt. Do it in a trap; bake it & serue it forth.

- Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). New York: for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.


GODE COOKERY TRANSLATION:

Tartee. Make a pie crust an inch deep in a pie pan. Take yolks of eggs raw & Autumn cheese & mix it & the yolks together. Do there-to powder ginger, sugar, saffron, and salt. Do it in a pie shell; bake it & serve it forth.


INGREDIENTS:

  • One nine-inch pie shell
  • Raw Egg Yolks
  • Cheese - a semi-soft, but not so soft that it can't be grated. See note below.
  • Ginger (powder)
  • Sugar
  • Saffron
  • Salt
DIRECTIONS:

Combine the final 6 ingredients - the mixture needs to essentially be grated cheese held together with the egg yolk; the final consistency should be slightly runny. Place this filling in a pie shell and bake until the pastry is golden brown and the filling has set.

The original recipe implies that Brie cheese is to be used; however, "chese ruayn," also called "rewen" or "rowen" in other Medieval sources, was Autumn cheese, made after the cattle had fed on the second growth. This was apparently a semi-soft cheese, but not as soft as a ripe modern Brie: one period recipe says to grate it. It appears to be the same cheese called fromage de gaing in France.

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Tart de Bry © 2000 James L. Matterer

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