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Bartemian Tarts
1 cupful sugar 1 lemon 1/4 lb. chopped candied citron peel Crisco flake pastry 1 egg 1 cupful raisins 1 tablespoonful melted Crisco 1/4 teaspoonful salt Roll pastry thin and cut out large cakes of it. Beat egg, add sugar, Crisco, rind and strained juice of lemon, salt, citron, and raisins. Mix and put tablespoonfuls of mixture on each of pastry cakes, wet edges of paste and fold like old fashioned turn over. Do not stick with fork or juice will run out. Lay turn overs on Criscoed tins and bake in hot oven from twelve to fifteen minutes.
Sufficient for twelve tarts.
A Banbury-style turnover from one of the early Crisco promotional books, so the fat is named in the ingredient list rather than described. Nothing here is difficult; the details that matter are the oven and the seal.
- CriscoAny solid vegetable shortening works, and butter makes a better-tasting pastry if you do not mind a firmer crust. "Criscoed tins" simply means greased baking sheets; parchment is easier and the filling will leak less destructively onto it.
- Hot ovenThe book gives no temperatures; somewhere in the region of 425-450F is the usual reading. The short bake of twelve to fifteen minutes depends on a good heat: the pastry has to set before the sugar-and-juice filling boils through the seam.
- Do not ventThis is the hinge. Unlike a fruit pie, these are sealed shut on purpose. The filling is mostly sugar and lemon juice and will run out of any hole, then caramelise onto the pan. Wet the edges well and press or crimp firmly.
- Candied citron peel1/4 lb is roughly 2/3 to 3/4 cup chopped. Citron (the fruit, not lemon peel) is now a holiday item in most shops; candied mixed peel or candied orange peel is an acceptable stand-in, chopped fine so the turnovers close cleanly.
- "Rind" of the lemonMeans the zest only, grated, with none of the white pith. One lemon gives roughly a tablespoon of zest and 2 to 3 tablespoons of juice.
- RaisinsA cupful of whole raisins makes a lumpy filling in a thin pastry round; chopping them coarsely gives a mixture that spreads and seals better.
- Size and yieldTwelve tarts from this quantity of filling means fairly large rounds, roughly 4 inches. A pastry made with about 2 cups of flour should be about right for twelve.
- CoolingThe filling comes out of the oven extremely hot and sticky. Let them sit five to ten minutes on the pan before moving them, or the seams tear.
This belongs to the family of English fruit turnovers headed by the Banbury cake and its American cousin the Banbury tart "m the same pairing of candied citron, raisins, lemon and egg folded into short pastry. The odd name Bartemian appears rarely in print. The book itself is a period document of a different kind: A Calendar of Dinners was written by Marion Harris Neil for Procter & Gamble to promote Crisco, the hydrogenated vegetable shortening launched in 1911, which is why the fat is named as a brand in the ingredient list and why the tins are "Criscoed" rather than greased.