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

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