Other empanadas on a spit

Carolyn Nadeau’s translation of Francisco Martinez Montino’s, The Art of Cooking, Pie Making, Pastry Making, and Preserving: 1611

page 163

Translation:

Other empanadas on a spit:

Take thin cuts of veal shank ready for grilling and pound then with the back of the knife. Lard them and let sit in a marinade made from the same veal to which spices have been added. Then skewer them on a thin spit so that they are tightly packed together. On one skewer you can make three empanadas that are each two fingers apart. Once (they are) roasted, make a delicate dough, without sugar. Knead it a lot so it becomes elastic and roll it out thin. Bring the spit to the table. Smear lard on the sheet of dough and wrap it around a third of the cuts three or four times. Then put paper which has been greased with lard, over the top of it. Tie it up on the ends and in the middle. Then repeat with the other two turnovers. After all are done, put them on to roast until the dough is cooked through and browned. Remove the paper dot with lard and grate sugar over the top.

Redaction For this Event:

Take thin slices of veal and pound them flat.

In preparation for this camping event, I sprinkled them with Francisco's spice mix* and a bit of olive oil then vacuum sealed and froze the veal for transport.

At the war, the meat was placed on skewers and then roasted on a spit to partially cook.

As an expedient for camping, I used pre-made empanada skins.

After the veal was partially cooked, I removed it from the skewers and wrapped it in dough. I then re-skewered the packets.

Unfortunately, we had neglected to bring kitchen parchment, so the dough packets were wrapped in aluminum foil and returned to the fire.

These empanadas were tasty, but this redaction is in need of much refinement.

The main lesson learned is that I need to double skewer both the meat when roasting and the empanadas when cooking. Otherwise gravity keeps one side to the fire and one away resulting in un-even cooking.

*Francisco's spice mix is 4 parts black pepper, 4 parts ginger, 2 parts nutmeg, 1 part cloves, and a bit of saffron.