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Fowl Pie, Mock Strasburg
Bone a pheasant, fowl, and a brace of partridges, and cut the meat into piece about two inches in length, and a quarter of an inch in thickness. Allow to every pound of meat half a tea-spoonful of salt, a good pinch of pepper, a piece of butter about the size of an egg, and four truffles. Put the meat, flavouring, and truffles in a covered baking-dish, arranging, in layers, first meat, then seasoning and butter, then truffles, and bake for one hour in a moderate oven. Next prepare the gravy, by stewing down the bones of the fowl, pheasant, etc., with a very small piece of garlic, two shallots, some nutmeg, a tea-spoonful of salt, one clove, a spoonful of sugar, a dessert-spoonful of brandy, a table-spoonful of sherry, and a pint of water. Stew until the gravy is reduced to half the quantity, when strain, and pour it on the meat. Cover carefully, and return the dish to the oven for two hours; if left uncovered until cold, the butter will rise to the surface. If a covered baking-dish is not at hand, a stone jar will answer the purpose, though, in the latter case, the meat would require to be turned out of the jar before sending to table. Probable cost, 18s. to 20s. Sufficient for eight or ten persons.
A boned game terrine rather than anything with pastry, despite the name. It is meant to be baked slowly, sealed under its own butter and jelly, and served cold.
- The hinge: keep it coveredThe long second bake happens under a lid, so the meat cooks in its own fat and reduced stock with little evaporation. Use a heavy lid, with foil under it if it is loose. The recipe itself notes that if the dish is left uncovered until cold, the butter will rise to the surface.
- Oven temperatureA Victorian 'moderate oven' is usually taken as somewhere around 350F/175C, though the equivalence is approximate. For three hours of total baking, 300-325F/150-160C is a safer choice and gives a better texture in lean game.
- Quantities of birdsA brace of partridges is two. With a pheasant and a fowl that is four birds, boned, which is why the yield is eight to ten. "Fowl" here means a mature boiling hen; a 4-5 lb chicken is the modern stand-in, and it will be more tender than the original intended.
- Butter the size of an eggRoughly 2 oz/55 g per pound of meat. That is a great deal of butter by modern habit, but it is the preserving medium as much as a flavouring, so do not cut it if you plan to keep the dish cold for a day or two.
- TrufflesFour truffles per pound of meat is a lavish allowance, and the recipe's own costing of 18s. to 20s. for the whole dish reflects an expensive one. Preserved black truffle in small quantity, or a mix of dried porcini with a restrained amount of truffle paste, gets you a defensible version; truffle oil loses most of its aroma over a long bake.
- The gravyStewing the carcasses down to half a pint gives a strongly gelatinous stock, which is what sets the dish. If your reduction does not wobble when chilled, add a couple of split chicken feet or a pig's trotter to the bones before reducing.
- VesselA lidded cast-iron casserole or an ovenproof terrine works. The "stone jar" alternative is a stoneware crock, and the recipe's warning still applies: a straight-sided jar has to be unmoulded, so line it if you want a clean turn-out.
- ServingChill overnight, take it to the table in the dish, and serve in slices or spoonfuls with the jelly and butter. Bread, pickled walnuts or a sharp fruit jelly suit it, though the recipe specifies no accompaniment.
The name promises Strasbourg, meaning the celebrated pâté de foie gras of that city, which by the middle of the nineteenth century was sold across Europe in tins and terrines and stood as the byword for luxurious potted meat. English cookery seems to have answered with "mock" versions: no forced goose liver, but boned game, plenty of butter, truffles if the household could run to them, and a slow sealed bake that produced something sliceable and keepable. Cassell's includes it among the fowl pies, and the frank costing of 18s. to 20s. tells you who the recipe was for: a household that could buy a pheasant, a brace of partridges and a boiling fowl at once, and that wanted a cold centrepiece for a sideboard or a shooting-season luncheon.