Tartres De Pommes [Applepie]  Taillevent (1312-1392)  Great Cooks and Their Recipes:  From Taillevent to Escoffier  Anne Willan, Michael Boys (Photographer)  page 21

 

Medieval cooks were adept at finding substitutes for sugar, which was an expensive import. Here wine and dried fruits are used to sweeten apples. Purslane, a common herb in medieval times, has large leaves and a sharp taste like sorrel. If you want to use it in this apple pie recipe, add 3 tablespoons chopped sorrel or spinach to the chopped apple mixture, with the spices.

Cut up each apple and add figs and put in well-cleaned raisins and mix them together, and put in onion fried in butter or oil, and wine and some pounded apples, soaked in wine, and with the remaining apples, crushed, put saffron and a little of various spices - cinnamon, white ginger, anise and purslane if you have it; and make two large bases of pastry and put all the mixtures in together, and press a thick layer of apple down well with the hand, and the other mixture, and after put on the lid and seal it and gild it with saffron and put it in the oven and cook it.

Apple Pie

Serves 6
 

FOR THE PASTRY:			FOR THE FILLING:
250	G	flour	1		onion, chopped
1/2	Tsp	salt	2	Tbsp	butter or oil
75	G	butter	5		dessert apples
2	Tbsp	shortening or lard	3		dried figs, chopped
4-5	Tbsp	cold water	75	G	raisins
			1,75	dl	port or sweet whitewine
			1	Tsp	ground cinnamon
			1/2	Tsp	ground ginger
			1/2	Tsp	crushed aniseed
			pinch		saffron, infused in 1 tbsp boilingwater
And:
Deep 9 inch/22 cm pie pan/tin

 

1. For the pastry: sift the flour into a bowl with the salt, add the butter and shortening or lard and cut them into small pieces. Rub with the fingertips until the mixture resembles crumbs, stir in enough water to make a pastry that is soft but not sticky, and knead lightly until smooth. Wrap and chill 30 minutes. Heat the oven to No 5/375'F/ 190,C.

 
2. For the filling: fry the onion in the butter or oil until soft but not brown, 2-3 minutes. Peel the apples, core and chop two of them, and mix them with the onion, figs, raisins and two-thirds of the port or wine. Grate the remaining apples and mix them at once with the remaining port or wine so they do not discolor. Add about a third of this mixture to the raisin mixture. Stir the cinnamon, ginger, aniseed, and half the saffron and liquid into the remaining grated apples.

 
3. Roll out just over half the pastry dough and line the pie pan/tin. Spread the raisin mixture in the bottom, put the spiced apple mixture on top, and press it down well. Roll out the remaining pastry to form a lid, place it on top, and seal the edges. Brush the top of the pie with the remaining saffron liquid and make a hole in the center for steam to escape. Bake in the heated oven until the pastry is browned, 50-60 minutes. Serve hot or cold.