Historic Cookery at Hampton Court Palace….unofficially!
Chastelete, Easter 2016
These are pretty much all of the images I took of the chasteletes being built over the four days of the Easter cookery event 2016. Read the full post for a description of the process and thinking behind it and do click on the images to enlarge them.
As you look, you’ll notice gaps in the process where I was off doing something else when things moved on apace with the chastelete…one day we’ll be able to concetrate on the one subject, one day. For now though, you’ll have to make do with these I’m afraid:
Chastelete -The recipe. Copied from Forme of Cury
The tray is lined with flour to fill in the dents
The first sheet of paste driven out
Placing the first base on the tray
Offering up the ceramic jar as a size guide
Trimming the paste to make the first cylinder
Marc is thinking “thicker” but doesn’t want to say it out loud!
Robin tries to roll a cylinder
Perhaps the rolling pin will be better?
The rolling pin was used to press the joint against
Joining the first cylinder
Nope…that’s not good
This really doesn’t look like it’ll work
Yes…it’s a pork leg!
The second trial cylinder
Not so good
The first cylinder was clearly a failure…3 and 4 though seemed to be a success
A rough sketch for ideas purposes
Third time’s the charm!
That seemed to work…so all speed ahead then
Zak mincing pork to fill the main redoubt
Adrian works on some paste cannons
Drying in the airing cupboard…the bucket on the top shelf has the main redoubt formed around it
The ‘leather dry’ paste free of formers
To give you an idea of the thickness of the paste…probably around 5 – 7 mm
This will be the base of the chastelete
Adrian levels the tray out with flour
Robin transfers the base paste onto the flour lined tray
Trimming the base to fit
Robin successfully moves the redoubt without breaking or deforming it
Guaging the area for the egg wash ‘glue’ with his hand
Pulling the redoubt onto the first knife
Second knife slid in…now ready to lift
Pretty sure Robin didn’t breathe for the whole of the transfer from board to base
Removing the excess from the turrets
Same ‘on knife’ technique to transfer the turrets as the main redoubt
Offering up the first turret
Robin cuts some excess away to get the best fit
Trimming to fit the angle of the wall
Adding egg to attach the turret to the base
Manipulating the 2nd turret for the best fit
Ready to go to the oven
A final sealing with beaten egg
and into the oven she goes
The first of many peeks!
Peeking in the oven you can see it starting to dry out
Tweaking the case as it deforms with the heat
Out the oven…blind baked with extra sighs of relief
Meanwhile in the kitchen…anything you can do…
Adrian chose a 5 lobed design for his and Dave’s effort
Dave and Adrian had a production line going…with eager assistants
Adrian and Dave’s final, blind baked version
Adrian and Dave’ version blind baked
Boiling the almonds
Robin and Adrian make the almond cream by tammying the boiled ground almonds through a cloth
The dyed marchpane
The fruit puree
The hand made mince
Sliding off of the tray and onto a board…aaaannd breathe.
Good enough to eat
A man who’s as pleased as pie!
To give a better idea of size….around 16″ in length
Foreground: Marchpane…dyed with parsley juice
Foreground: Pounded and stewed fruits
Foreground: Almond cream
Foreground: Custard, dyed red(ish) with cochineal…because they couldn’t find where the saunders had gone
10 minutes after the pie was taken into the office….carnage!
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