Lumbardy Tartes, and a Happy New Year to You!

The New Year is upon us: 2020!  I wish us all a good year -- to everyone in the world and to the world, too.

This is the beginning of my ninth year of blogging.  I continue to be astonished that I am able to do it regularly and successfully.  My regular guest tasters have commented that my historical cooking "never disappoints", to which I respond with "Whew!"  because I know that I don't know how the recipe will turn out but I try it out on them anyway.  (But usually I have a back-up plan just in case the meal is a flop.)

For the record, this is my 190th post (!!!!) and at the time of this writing I have over 80,000 page views.  I typically see about 1000 page views in a month; compare that to the 1000 page views I had in my first year of blogging.  Again, astonishing!

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I was wandering through my local farmers market recently, enjoying my first arepas (the sauce was particularly amazing) and wondering which vegetables should come home with me, when a table full of beets caught my attention.  They were a good size -- not too big -- and they had their greens still attached, unlike what I find at the grocery store.  There were red beets and golden beets.  The price was right, too.

Once I had them home, I perused my cookbooks for ideas.  What was really appealing was Lumbardy Tartes, from Dining with William Shakespeare, by Madge Lorwin.

ISBN 0-689-10731-5

I've tried two other recipes from this book:  My Salmon is Soused and How to Pickle Mushrooms.

Today's recipe is on page 238, and is titled

"To Make Lumbardy Tartes"

Take Beets, chop them small, and put to them grated bread and cheese, and mingle them wel in the chopping, take a few Corrans, and a dish of sweet Butter, & melt it then stir al these in the Butter, together with three yolks of Eggs, Synamon, ginger, and sugar, and make your Tart as large as you will, and fill it with the stuff, bake it and serve it in.

John Partidge, The good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin

Ms. Lorwin provides the original recipe and its source and then gives us her "working version", i.e. her redaction.  That is the one I decided to try.

The Working Version

1 pound fresh young beets
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated bread crumbs
3/4 cup grated mild Cheddar cheese
1/4 currants, parboiled
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
3 egg yolks
4 tablespoons butter, melted.

The pastry
2 cups sifted unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold butter
1/2 cup cold water
1 egg, separated

I used all of the red and most of the golden beets.

Actually used 1 1/2 sticks of butter.  And water, of course!

Peel the beets -- this is best done with a potato peeler -- and grate them into a mixing bowl.  Add the sugar and stir until it melts.  Mix in the bread crumbs, grated cheese, currants, spices, and egg yolks.  Then stir in the melted butter.  Cover and set aside while you are making the pastry.  The instructions for making the pastry are on page 31.*

Divide the dough into two parts, the part for the bottom crust a bit larger than the piece for the top crust.  On a floured work surface, roll out the piece for the bottom crust to fit an eight-inch pie dish and fit it into the dish.  Then roll out the piece for the top crust.

Spread the filling evenly in the dish and cover it with the top crust.  Seal the edges with the tines of a wet fork and trim off the surplus pastry.  Punch fork holes in the crust and brush it with egg white.  Bake at 450 degrees for twenty minutes, then lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake twenty-five minutes longer.  Serve slightly warm.

*Pastry instructions from page 31:  To make the pastry, sift the flour and salt together into a large mixing bowl.  Add 1/2 cup of the butter and crumble it into the flour until it is like fine meal.  Dice the rest of the butter into 1/4-inch cubes and stir them into the flour mixture.

Add [the cold water] to the egg yolk ..., and stir until well blended.  Pour the mixture over the flour-butter mix and stir quickly until a ball of dough can be formed with the hands -- if more liquid is needed, add additional [water], one tablespoonful at a time.  

My Notes

Preheat the oven before you start!  I forgot that and had to wait after the pie was made before it could bake.

I decided to make the crust first so it could rest before I rolled it out, which I have found to be a good idea any time I make a pie crust.

I could have used my food processor to mix the butter with the flour-salt mixture but decided to mix it all by hand.  I thought the instructions to mix in some of the butter and then the rest was interesting.  I didn't just stir in the small cubes but mixed them in more thoroughly, just not as much as the 1/2 cup.

Once the water/egg yolk mixture was poured over the flour mixture, I stirred it with a wooden spoon.  The whole thing came together quickly and I didn't need my hands to form the ball.  The dough then was wrapped in plastic and placed in the refrigerator until I was ready to roll it out.

Freshly mixed.  Almost untouched by human hands.

Then I turned my attention to the beets.  After removing the tops, I weighed out 1 pound, which used all of the red beets and most of the golden beets.  The food processor made short work of grating them and, thankfully, kept the juice inside the container instead of on my clothes.

I think the red and gold are pretty!

Ms. Lorwin called for 3/4 cup of mild Cheddar cheese; I decided to use extra sharp Cheddar cheese and put in a full 1 cup.

As for parboiling the currants, I decided that what really needed to happen was to get them softened.  The currants went into a bowl, had boiling water poured over them, and then they sat for 2 minutes, after which I drained them.

When the filling was mixed, I prepared to roll the dough for the crust.

But once mixed, everything was beet red.

At first I rolled the dough on a floured countertop.  But it was pretty moist and wanted to stick to the counter despite the flour dusting, so after I did the bottom crust, I changed to using the silicone rolling mat, which made it easier to move the crust.



I used a 9 inch pie pan so the beet mixture did not fill the pan.



Instead of pricking the top crust with a fork, I used some small cutters and cut out a design.

The challenge was getting the design centered on the tart.

I really liked the advice to seal the edges with the fork.  Then I brushed the top with egg white beaten with a little water.



I watched the baking times carefully as my oven tends to cook things faster than what I expect.  Sure enough, I started worrying that the top would over-bake after 15 minutes at 450 degrees F.  It was getting brown and threatening to burn.  So I pulled the pie out for the last 3 minutes, let the oven cool to below 350 degrees F, then put the pie back in the oven while it heated up to 350.  Even then, I only let it cook another 20 minutes.

The crust was just a tad overcooked.

The Verdict

I served it as a main course, with a tossed green salad as a side dish.  The tart was pretty to see and smelled good!  The crust looked puffy, which was a good sign.

I also liked that the filling was firm enough to stay in the crust when a piece was cut -- no sliding filling at all.

Pretty!

The crust was wonderful, despite being a little overbaked.  Crispy and flaky yet with enough structure to keep its shape when served.  Buttery in flavor, too.  It didn't stick to the pan, and it was flexible, easy to roll out, and very forgiving as I tried to center it on the pan.  I think it is one of the best pie crusts I have ever made.

The filling had a dominant flavor of beets, and was just a bit sweet to enhance the savory aspect of it.  The currants added a nice chewy, sweet blast.  The spices were really subtle, and I think I would add more if I made this again.  I wanted to taste them and it was hard to tell they were there.  The butter in the filling was there but I think I would put in less just because I kept getting a buttery film on my lips when I ate it that I didn't like.

I couldn't taste the cheese at all, which makes me want to put in more.  I had room in the 9-inch pan to put in more beets and more cheese, so I think that would be a good idea.

In total, it was so good!  Flavorful, tasty, filling.  We had two pieces each as the main course.

It almost felt sinful having "pie" for dinner, especially because it was so pretty and looked like it could be a fruit-filled dessert pie.

One guest taster remarked that she liked how the texture of the shredded beets was there in the filling.  She found that very appealing and I agreed with her.

I had the leftovers reheated for lunch and was pleased to see how well the crust held up in the refrigerator and then heated in the microwave oven.  No soggy crust at all.

Success!

Since I had extra room in the pan, if I make this again I would use more beets, more cheese, and more spices. I want a crust that is stuffed full.

I thought Ms. Lorwin's direction to use 1 teaspoon grated bread crumbs was silly at first.  One teaspoon?  It seemed like it would not be enough.  But she was right:  the filling was firm enough and didn't need to have more crumbs to hold it together.  Also, the filling was not juicy, so no extra crumbs were needed to help that.  Forgive me for doubting, Ms. Lorwin!

HEADS UP!  I redid the recipe the way I wanted to try.  Tune in tomorrow for the sequel!