Chewetes on flesh day

Fried Chewets

Categories:	English   14th Century   pork   chicken   Meat
Original Source:	Forme of Cury
Secondary Source:	The Culiary Recipes of Medieval England
Cook:	Justin du Coeur
Meeting Date:	2014-05-18

Chewetes on flesh day. Take the lire of pork and carve it all to pieces, and hens therewith, and do it in a pan and fry it; and make a coffin as to a pye small and do therein, and do thereupon yolks of ayren hard, powder of ginger and salt. Cover it and fry it in grease, other bake it well, and serve forth.

Steps

1. Hard-boil the eggs. Cool them, and remove the yolks. Discard the whites.
2. Dice the pork and chicken, into smallish dice (1/4 - 1/2"). Heat a Tbl or two of oil in a skillet. Fry the pork until beginning to be done. Toss in the chicken, and continue frying until done. (Stop when the chicken begins to express water.)
3. Remove heat. Add the egg yolks, and smush them in with the pork and chicken. Add ginger and salt, and mix all well.
4. Roll the crust as thin as you can while still being structurally stable.
5. Drop the mixture onto the crust, 1-2 Tbl at a time; wrap in the crust to make little spheres, maybe 1.5 - 2" in diameter.
6. Either:
   -- Bake in a 350 oven for 30-40 minutes
   -- Heat 1-2 Tbl of oil in a skillet, and fry in that, turning and rolling often to try and brown them evenly on all sides. You should not need much more oil: it really just needs a little for browning.

Note

The spherical thing isn't obvious from the original recipe, but comes from Constance Hieatt's observation that the name means "little cabbages". Also, the shape makes it easier to fry them on all sides.

Consensus was that the fried version are a bit better than the baked: they came out crisper, and the flavor was improved by the frying. Baked might be improved by brushing them with something.

Flavor was generally good -- this proportion of spices and meat seems pretty well balanced. The egg turns out to be basically a binder, but works well.

The pie crust probably isn't optimal for either version of the recipe. Baked might do well with a slightly breadier dough; fried might do better with a noodlier one. Either way, make the dough as thin as possible -- even rolling the commercial crust out somewhat extra, it came out a bit too doughy. (If making for an event, consider trying wonton wrappers: they are thin and about the right size.)

Note that "lire" simply means "flesh", so there is no guidance about cut. I chose country-style ribs because they are a good slightly fatty cut that seemed like it shouldn't be too dry.

This was made for a meeting on "portable food" for camping events, and these seems like they should do well for that. They are basically spherical pasties, and ought to keep decently for a while.