Pastés de poucins à la mode Lombarde (Chicken pasties Lombard)

I was describing how old recipes are not as detailed as what we are accustomed to in modern cookbooks and looked for some examples to illustrate it.  The following recipe, from Pleyn Delit, Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks by Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler caught my attention and also tempted my tastebuds.  Chicken wrapped in bacon?  I'm in.

ISBN 0-8020-7632-7

This is one of my favorite books.  Find recipe #107, as the book has no page numbers.  The authors took it from the late 14th century manuscript, Le Ménagier de Paris.

Pastés de poucins à la mode Lombarde

In the Lombard manner, when the small chickens are plucked and prepared, take beaten eggs, both the yolks and the whites, with verjuice and spice powder, and dip your chickens in this; and set them in the pasty with strips of bacon.

Notice that the recipe does not tell you any measurements or what spices to use.  It also does not say to cook the pasties!

My Redaction

The authors provide their version but I wanted to try it myself without their help.  

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 slices of bacon

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon poudre fines spice mix (see ingredient list in the Notes below)

2 tablespoons verjuice (or you can substitute lemon juice, according to the authors)

1 batch of pasties dough or pastry dough, chilled (I used the pasties dough recipe from King Arthur Baking, click here for it.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs with the spices and verjuice.  Set aside.

Cut the chicken breasts into pieces about 1 inch thick and about 2 to 3 inches long.  Cut eight and aim for uniformity so they bake evenly.  You will probably have some chicken meat left over.

Cut the bacon slices in half.

Cut the dough into eight equal-sized pieces.  Roll out one piece to about 6 inches in diameter.

Place a piece of bacon on the dough.

Dip a piece of chicken into the egg mixture.  The spices are mostly on the bottom, so push the meat down there to pick up a nice coating of egg and spices.  Place the chicken on the bacon, then wrap the bacon around the chicken in a spiral shape.

Wet the edges of the dough with water, fold over the chicken, pressing out most of the trapped air, then seal the edges.  Flute them or press them with a fork.  Cut some venting slits in the top. 

Place the pasty on the cooking sheet and then repeat the process for the other pasties.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.  The pasty dough should have some light browning on it.

My Notes

The King Arthur Baking recipe needed more water than they listed.  I put in about 8 tablespoons and it was still too dry for rolling well.  

I actually used 3 eggs but there was so much left over that I wrote to use 2 eggs.  One might have sufficed.

The poudre fines spice mix contains cinnamon, cloves, ginger, grains of paradise, pepper, and saffron.  

I cooked the batch for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Reasonably uniform in size

Too much egg.  

First, bacon

Then chicken

Spiral wrap

I really need to work on my pastry finishing skills.

The Verdict

They were tasty!  The chicken and bacon were both thoroughly cooked, and I think they would have been better if I had taken them out at 15 minutes to make the chicken moister.

Good with green beans.

The dough was just right -- flexible enough to roll and fold and sturdy enough to hold the ingredients without (much) leaking.  My guest tasters and I commented on its good flavor.  I was happy with its texture and crispiness.  It was not a pie crust but more like a step between pie crust and bread.  I suspect the dough absorbed most of the bacon fat, which added to the overall flavor.

Chicken wrapped in bacon was, of course, flavorful, and you can't beat that.  Chicken breast always strikes me as dry, and I felt that way about this, although it was not too dry.  However, the bacon contributed some fat to improve that.  I think using chicken thigh meat would be an improvement for me.

As a group, the dough, chicken, bacon, and spices were a good blend, an enjoyable meal, and we ate them all at dinner.  

I wished to taste more of the spices, and one of my guest tasters agreed.  The spices weren't always present in a bite, and only showed themselves sometimes.  If I were to do this again, I would sprinkle the spice mixture on the dough before wrapping it around the meat.  That would ensure enough spice and that it was spread evenly across the pasty.  Still, I am not complaining about the flavor.

We also decided to try eating the pasties with a sauce.  I created a sweet-and-sour one with verjuice, honey, salt, pepper, and some ground, toasted bread crumbs as a thickener.  We poured spoonfuls over the pasty, which was a very good addition, making it moister and adding more flavor.  If you do this, aim for more verjuice than honey, and it should tingle your taste buds with that balance of sweet with sour.  I didn't measure anything, I just combined.  I heated it up in the microwave to help the breadcrumbs absorb and thicken the sauce just a little.

With sauce.  The breadcrumbs helped keep all of the sauce from running out of the pasty.

While the batch of pasties were cooking, I decided to use up the rest of the bacon and more of the egg mixture.  First I cut more chicken breast into the same size pieces I made for the pasties.  After dipping each piece in the egg and wrapping it with bacon, I rolled it in dried bread crumbs.  Those baked for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees when the pasties came out.

These were also well-received.  Quite tasty!  They were perfect little two bite morsels, and the bread crumbs added a nice crunch.

Success!  In several ways!

Cornish Pasties and a Bonus

I spent a week exploring California's Gold Country -- seeing towns like Ione, Sutter Creek, Nevada City, Grass Valley, and Jackson.  What fun!  I learned a lot about mining technology, the history of the towns (most burned down at least once), the personalities of the prominent people, and the various cultures that were imported from around the world.  The primary time period is from 1849 (when gold was discovered) to about 1900.

One group that contributed much to the advancement of gold mining technology was the Cornish miners.  They were particularly good at mining underground!  Here's a little bit about them:  http://www.nevadacountygold.com/about/gold-rush-stories/159  They brought with them their traditions, their songs, and their recipes for pasties (pronounced "past - ees", not "paste - ees").

    Picture from http://kenanderson.net/pasties/cornish.html

This traditional lunch was designed to be hearty and easy to eat. One source even claimed the miners held the fancy crust border with their dirty hands, ate the part with the filling, and then threw away the border so as to keep their food clean.

Upon visiting the Empire Mine, I picked up a flyer they published called "The Cornish Miner and His Pasty".  It, of course, contained a recipe which I decided to try.

Cornish Pasties

3 cups flour
1 cup shortening
1 tsp. salt
8 tbs. cold water (approx.)
4 tsp butter
5 potatoes, sliced thin
2 lb round stead, diced
3 onions, cut thin
minced parsley
salt, pepper to taste

Make a rich dough by mixing flour, salt, shortening, water.

I used my Kitchenaid mixer with the wire attachment to first cut the shortening into the flour and salt mixture.  It resembles cornmeal when you get it right.

Then I used the mixer again to blend in just enough water to make the dough stick together.  Use very cold water so the shortening doesn't melt during the mixing process.

It was a hot day and my kitchen matched that, so after I scrunched the dough into a ball, I covered it and popped it into the refrigerator while I made the filling.

The recipe continues with...

Divide into six parts and roll out each part about 1/4 inch thick.

I waited until the filling was made before doing this.

Combine remaining ingredients...

Now this picture doesn't show it, but this is a large bowl (5 inches high and 10 inches wide) and it is pretty full.  How am I going to fit all this into the six parts of the dough???

I had promised myself to do the recipe as it was written, so I bravely continued.

Here is one piece of the dough rolled out:

It is the requested 1/4 inch thick and turned out to be about 8 inches in diameter.

... and place filling on each section of pastry.  Fold over half and pinch edges together so that juices will not run out.

After a bit of practice, I found what seemed to be a good quantity of filling and still leave enough dough to cover it.  I didn't even try for the fancy border!  

I worked with my hands to press out the air and compress the filling so I could make a pinched border around it.  The dough did break in a few places so I expected leakage.

Cut hole in top of pastry and in this hole put a chunk of butter.  

I used a small spoon to twist a hole in the top, making nearly a complete circle and leaving the flap of dough attached.

The white stuff is the butter

The amount of butter listed in the recipe was too much for these six pasties, so I used half of it here and the other half about 30 minutes later.

Place in baking pan and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes; then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 45 - 50 minutes.  When pasties are baking good, put a little hot water through the hole of each one to keep them from becoming too dry.  May be served hot, or cold on a picnic.

"Baking good" to me meant about 30 minutes into the cycle, so that is when I poured in some hot water from my kettle and dropped in the second batch of butter.  There was leakage of juices from the breaks but not in a bad way.

So how did they turn out?

The Verdict:  Oh my, they were yummy and filling, too.  Moist and rich and flavorful.  They even made my house smell good.  I declare it a success!

I loved this quote from the flyer:

"Remember, pizza delivery and quick hamburgers were not even conceived at this early time and what you brought from home had to serve you throughout your 12 hour work day.  (While you shoveled rocks.)"

I think I would have brought all six pasties with me in order to accomplish that task!

***

Now let's return to the giant bowl of filling, shall we?

This is what was left over after I made the six pasties:

The level was only dropped down by about an inch or so.  This is a lot of leftover filling!  I figured that I could have made 3 to 4 more batches of dough to use all this up.  So I would recommend that you either reduce the filling quantities to 1/4 of what was listed or make four batches of dough.  This would get you 24 pasties.

I wasn't up to making more pasties -- did I mention it was hot? -- so I took the remaining filling and added some flour, some spices and herbs (pepper, marjoram, savory, and powdered garlic), diced carrots, and 28 ounces of chicken broth.  This turned it into a large bowl of stew.

Before cooking

I baked it, covered, for about an hour at the same 350 degrees as the pasties.  The stew also turned out delicious and so I got a bonus from my pasty recipe.

Final Note:   A quick look around the Internet shows me that there is no limit to pasty fillings except in your imagination.  Ham-and-cheese, chicken-and-vegetables; even dessert pasties with Nutella-and-strawberries or pumpkin pie filling exist.  Basically, if you have a tasty filling, wrap it up in a pastry and you have something fun to eat.  I particularly liked that the crust was thick and rich because it added to the heartiness of the taste.