Huff paste facts for kids
| Type | Pastry |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | England |
| Main ingredients | Flour, suet, boiling water |
Huff paste was a special way of making a tough, strong pie crust a long time ago, especially in England. Imagine a very sturdy container made of pastry! This pastry was made from flour, a type of fat called suet, and boiling water. When cooked, this crust became very hard. Its main job was to protect the food inside the pie.
Contents
What Was Huff Paste?
Huff paste was not usually eaten because it was so tough. It was more like a cooking pot made of dough! After the food inside was cooked and eaten, the pastry shell was often thrown away. However, sometimes servants would eat the crust because it had soaked up all the tasty juices from the meat inside.
How It Was Made
The flour used for huff paste was stronger than regular flour. It was often made from rye grain that was ground coarsely, meaning it wasn't very fine. This strong flour was mixed with hot water and suet (a hard fat from around an animal's kidneys). This mixture created an early kind of hot water crust pastry, which is still used today for some pies.
The Purpose of Huff Paste
The main reason for using huff paste was to create a solid container for the pie's ingredients. Think of it as a natural food wrapper!
Shaping and Preserving Food
Huff paste could be shaped into many different forms. These shapes were often called 'coffyns' or 'coffers', which sounds a bit like "coffins" but just meant a box or container. They were similar to a Cornish pasty, which is a folded pastry filled with food.
One big advantage of these early pies was that they helped keep meat fresh for a long time, sometimes for several months! The tough pastry shell protected the food inside from going bad or getting dirty. It also made it possible to send food over long distances. People living in the countryside could send these pies as gifts to friends in other towns or areas, knowing the food would stay safe during the journey.
Blind Baking and Filling
Sometimes, huff paste shells were baked without any filling inside first. This is called "blind baking". After baking, the pastry was brushed with egg yolk. This gave it a nice golden color. Later, the baked shell would be filled with a mix of meat and spices, and then baked again.
A famous dish from Wiltshire, England, called the Devizes Pie, used huff paste. It was made with layers of finely chopped or ground meat, sometimes mixed with other parts of the animal, cooked inside a huff paste crust.
