Subject: British Meat Pie _RECIPIES_?

From: [email-masked]
Date: 14 Jul 1993 22:38:24 GMT

Ok then... does anyone have any good British Meat Pie Recipies?  I seem to
remember a description of a meat pie that Rohald (sp?) Dahl described in a
childrens book he wrote (Danny, the Champion of the World) with the flaky
crust, the meat and hard boiled eggs buried here and there within....

   Any Recipes?

   How about "Toad in the Hole"?

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From: [email-masked] (Terry Nutter)
Date: 15 Jul 93 05:09:17 GMT

Hi.  Someone writes,

>crust, the meat and hard boiled eggs buried here and there within....

Modern or historical?  Pie (as in large, and possibly open) or pasty (as
in hand-held little thing)?  Puff crust or ordinary pie crust?  Meat only
or other stuff?

I have a number of medieval recipes for pies (ordinary crusts) with meat
in them, but for someone expecting a modern steak and kidney in puff pastry
shell pie, they'd be, well, unexpected....

Cheers,

Terry Nutter     Blacksburg, VA     [email-masked]     (703)552-1598

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From: [email-masked] (Leigh Ann Hussey)
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 17:28:22 GMT

Okay!  The original poster got back to me by email and asked specifically
for the recipe, so I'm posting it here for general, er, consumption.
It's not out of a historical cookbook, though I betcha I could find a 
similar in Mrs. Beeton or some such if I went digging for it.  Here goes:

(I said:)
>Actually, I expect that champion Danny's pie is along the lines of the
>veal-and-ham pie with hardboiled eggs that's in the Time-Life "Foods of the
>World" series "Cooking of the British Isles" installment.

VEAL & HAM PIE (from Time-Life's COOKING OF THE BRITISH ISLES, adapted
without anything like permission...)

2 T softened butter			1 t dried sage
2 lb lean boneless veal in 1/4" cubes	2 t salt
1 lb lean smoked ham cubed ditto	1/4 t pepper
1/4 c chopped parsley			4 hardboiled eggs
6 T brandy				1 egg yolk combined w/ 1 T heavy cream
6 T chicken or beef stock		1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 T fresh lemon juice			2 c chicken stock
1 t grated lemon peel			hot water pastry (see after)

Preheat oven to 350degF.  Grease the bottom & sides of a 10x5x4 inch loaf pan
with the butter and set it aside.  Toss the meat, herbs, brandy, stock,
lemonstuffs, salt and pepper together in a big bowl until thoroughly mixed.

Break off about 1/3 of the pastry and set it aside.  Roll out the rest on
a lightly floured surface, into a rectangle about 20x10" and 1/4" thick.
Line the loaf pan with it.  If you want to do it the traditional way, you'll
want to take the lump of 2/3 of the dough, put it in the loaf pan and raise
it up the sides by pressing & forming with your fingers.

Fill the shell a little less than halfway with the meat mixture, then arrange
the hardboiled eggs lengthwise down the center of the long axis.  (The
recipe here says line up pickled walnuts too, but as they're both optional 
to the recipe and bloody hard to get, I left them out; 8-10 is the recommended
number...)  Cover up the eggs with the remaining meat to within 1" of the top.

Roll out the last 1/3 of the pastry into a 4x13" rectangle and drape it over
the top of the pie; trim off the excess and scallop the edges if you like.
Cut a round hole in the middle of the pie; you're going to pour gelatin
thru that hole in a little bit.  Brush the entire exposed pastry surface
with the egg/cream mixture; if you want to get fancy you can cut leaves and
such out of the leftover pastry bits and glue them down with the egg/cream
mixture.

Bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 2 hours or until the top is
golden-brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool 15 min.  Meanwhile, sprinkle
the gelatin over the cold chicken broth in a saucepan and let it soften a
bit, then turn a low heat on under the pan and simmer, stirring constantly,
until the gelatin is all dissolved.  Now pour the gelatin thru a funnel
into the hole you cut before.  Cool the pie to room temp, then refrigerate
for at least 6 hours, or until the gelatin is set.  Ideally, remove it 1/2
hour before you want to serve it.

To unmold and serve the pie, run a sharp knife-blade around the inside edges
of the loaf pan and dip the bottom of the pan in hot water.  Put a plate over
the pan, and turn the whole affair upside-down; rap the plate on a table if
you have to, to make the pie slide out.  Turn the pie over and serve it
cut in nice thick slices.

HOT WATER PASTRY

5 c all-purpose flour		6 t milk
1/2 t salt			2 t water
10 t lard

Combine dry ingredients in a deep bowl.  Warm the liquid ingredients in a
saucepan over medium heat until the lard melts.  Beat the liquid into the
flour, a little at a time, and keep beating after the liquid is all added
until you can gather the dough into a compact ball.  Knead on a lightly
floured board for 2-3 min.  Gather into a ball again, put it in a bowl,
cover it with a towel, and let rest for 30 min before using.

[note: I've done hot-water pastries without the milk; it works as well,
and seems to be the way they did it in the Middle Ages.  I've also done
considerably less kneading, formed the "coffyn" without aid of rolling
pin, and let the dough rest in the fridge before I used it... It all works.]