My sister visited my parents’ summer house this week with her new baby and I of course had to come as well. On Tuesday a lot of the family came to visit so we were eight grownups for dinner and a three weeks old baby (who is adorable). I offered to cook for everyone because hey test subjects!
I had had my eyes on trying out more postej* recipes. After looking in my recipes books and my time frame I set my eyes on a pork and chicken postej from “Middelaldermad” by by Bi Skaarup & Henrik Jacobsen – which is a 1300’s recipe. I also decided to make my game pie as it uses the same crust doughs – and I had made it before and it was good. This time I made it with beef and more grapes which worked really well.
After some poorly timed shopping my aunt and I got to work on the pies – it had gotten really late so I need a bit of help if we were to eat in a timely manner (it still got really late). I had mad the dough for the crusts earlier and she rolled out the dough and fixed the tins. I made all the fillings and assembling the pies – it is her lovely decorations. The family loved it. My father was particularly surprised that it was as good as it was. He had expected really christmasy meat but the spices are rather subtle – though re-heated the flavours stand out more. So it was a great hit
The postej is a wonderfully succulent medieval pie that is a perfect introduction of medieval cooking to modern dinners. The filling is minced pork with fried chicken pieces and fruits dotted throughout.
Find a recipe for Powder douce @ medievalcookery.com – I suggest to mix a glass full to have some future medieval recipes. Used in moderation it adds a wonderfully complex taste to dishes.
To make the postej you need can just use an oven proof dish and cover it with shortcrust and add the filling, but seriously where is the fun it that? So as with the game pie I made both a dough for the casing and one for the pie lid.
Pie crust (postejdej)
This is an unsweetened shortcrust that works very well as a the casing for medieval and renascence meat pies.
- Prep Time: 10m
- Total Time: 1h 10m
- Yield: 1 pie + some
- Category: Baking, Historical cooking, Medieval, Renaissance
Ingredients
- 500 grams wheat flour
- 125 grams butter
- 170 milliliters water boiling
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Melt the butter in the boiling water
- Put the flour in a bowl and mix it with the salt. Make an indentation in the little mountain of flour (like you do with pasta dough).
- Add in the water/butter mix, one third at a time, and mix it in with the rest, until you have a smooth pie dough.
- Add it to a plastic bag and let it rest for an hour in the fridge.
Shortcrust (postej låg)
This is an unsweetened shortcrust that works very well as a lid for medieval and renascence meat pies.
- Prep Time: 10m
- Total Time: 1h 10m
- Yield: 1 pie + some
- Category: Baking, Historical cooking, Medieval, Renaissance
Ingredients
- 250 grams wheat flour
- 250 grams wheat flour
- 150 grams butter
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 50 milliliters water optional
- 1 egg mixed for the crust lid
Instructions
- Rub the butter and flour together in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add eggs and water and mix it together until you have a smooth pie dough.
- Add it to a plastic bag and let it rest for an hour in the fridge.
Let the dough rest for at least an hour in a bag in the fridge. While that rest or you prep the chicken and perhaps have a cup of tea or great the guests. Once the filling is done you can assemble the postej itself. It takes 35-45 minutes in the oven to bake. Remember to serve it with period side dishes and bread. I served it with some cooked spinach and fresh steamed pies.
Pork and chicken pie
A wonderfully succulent medieval pie that is a perfect introduction of medieval cooking to modern dinners. The filling is minced pork with fried chicken pieces and fruits dotted throughout.
- Prep Time: 15m
- Cook Time: 45m
- Total Time: 1h
- Serves: 8
- Category: Dinner, Historical cooking, Main course, Medieval, Renaissance
Ingredients
Pork mixture
- 500 grams pork, minced
- 1 egg
- 50 grams raisin
- 1 apple, small
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- salt
- 1/2 gram safran
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Powder douce (see the link above)
Other ingrediens
- 100 milliliters wheat flour mixed with salt and peber
- 2 Chicken breasts
- 2 teaspoons cooking oil
- 1 Pie crust
- 1 Short crust
- 1 egg for brushing the dough
Instructions
Filling
- Add the safran to 1 teaspoon of boiling water to soak for 2-3 minutes.
- Mix egg, raisin, spices and the minced pork together in a bowl. Remember to add the safran.
- Core and dice the apple and add it to the pork mixture
- You want the consistency like meat ball mixture. You might need to add a little bit of flour
- Slice the chicken into bite size pieces. Coat them with the flour mix.
- Brown them quickly in some oil and perhaps a bit of Powder douce.
Asamble and bake the pie
- Grease cake tin with a removable bottom .
- Roll out the pie crust and cover the cake tin in it so it fits over the inside. Let the exeses dough hang over the edges for now.
- Add half the pork mixture to the tin and spread it out over the bottom.
- Add the browned chicken pieces so it covers up the pork.
- Layer the rest of the pork mixture over the top of the chicken.
- Roll out a lid of shortcrust to the tin.
- Fold over the edges of the pie crust so folds over the edges of the short crust.
- Decorate the pie if you like with bits of short crust. Brush with a mixed egg.
- Bake at 225 C for about 35 min until golden. Serve hot or warm.
* A postej is meat, fish or fruit dish that is inside a container of dough, what in the English medieval kitchen would be called a “coffin” of dough. It was baked in the oven or in a postej-oven which is pretty much a Dutch oven. Read more