Dried Pies
"Take a fish that has been cleaned and deboned and make a shallow incision on either side of its spine, and season well, inside and out, with salt and good spices that have been mixed together. Then take a slightly thick dough, arrange and wrap the fish in it, and cook in the oven slowly until cooked through."
The Art of Cooking composed by Maestro Martino of Como (14th/15th century)
notes
For the paste, I used a standard pastry dough though would suggest making one up with butter melted in water (this should be warm but not hot) taking up enough butter to form a thick pastry dough (the little water that may come up with it will be enough). For the fish, I used smelts because I had so many and they are right easy to clean and debone (even though the bones are so small).
spices
Here I mixed together a combination I have really grown to love, this being pepper, grains, long pepper, cubebs and galengal. Yes, they will produce a very peppery flavour, but combined with the right amount of salt, the combination works very well on fish. Just be sure not to overdo it on the spicing if you wish to taste the fish, light flavoured fish will, of course, require less.
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