Beatrice Hopkinson wrote: > What would be the purpose of a hard paste? > Flour and water are used as a glue and is known > to go bad - so I'm wondering what it would be > used for? Yes, huff paste would go bad eventually. But, as I said earlier, this pie is only a short-term container to allow perishable goods to get to market -- and, though the principle was unknown to medieval users, to sterilise the contents by cooking them in a sealed container, so that that they kept longer. The moist contents of the pie would also make the paste go soggy from the inside. Possibly the addition of a little suet to the huff paste would delay that. > did you mean extracted - decanted would only > apply to liquid? Yes, if you want to be picky. I was using it in the extended sense of transferring the contents from one container to another. RH ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the ANCIENT-FOOD-TECH list, click the following link: https://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ANCIENT-FOOD-TECH