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GROUSE PIE (Scotch fashion)
In Scotland grouse and steak are often prepared and fried in cutlets (see GROUSE CUTLETS), and then made into a pie, as in the last recipe. A few stewed mushrooms and hard-boiled eggs are an improvement. When the grouse is partially cooked in this way, care must be taken that the pie does not bake too long. Time, etc., according to the size.
This is a variation entry rather than a standalone recipe: Cassell's assumes you have already read the preceding pie recipe and the one for grouse cutlets. What it really gives you is a method note — the birds are browned first, so the pie is finished, not cooked, in the oven.
- The hingeBecause the grouse and steak have already been fried as cutlets, the bake is mainly there to cook the pastry and marry the gravy; the original stresses only that the pie must not bake too long. A short bake in a hot oven is enough; longer and the breast meat, which is very lean, dries out.
- Finding grouseRed grouse is a wild shot bird, sold in season (in Britain from 12 August) and never farmed. Where it is unavailable, use guinea fowl or pheasant legs and thighs; the flavour is milder but the texture holds up in a pie. Check any wild bird carefully for shot before boning.
- "Steak" hereUnspecified in the original; rump or skirt, cut thin, suits the purpose. It is there for fat and gelatine as much as flavour, since grouse alone gives a dry, crumbly filling.
- Cutlets, in this contextNot chops on a bone. The grouse is boned and the breast and leg meat flattened into small collops, then fried, as directed in the separate cutlet recipe. If they are crumbed they will soften under the gravy; plain-floured and browned works better for a pie.
- OvenCassell's gives no temperature. For a raised or plate pie with puff or short crust and a pre-cooked filling, 400F for the first twenty minutes, dropping to 350F if the pastry is colouring too fast.
- Mushrooms and eggsStew the mushrooms in butter and a little stock first and drain them; raw mushrooms will flood the pie. Add hard-boiled eggs quartered lengthwise and laid between the meat, not chopped, or they disappear into the gravy.
- GravyThe original says nothing about a gravy. If you add one, a strong game stock made from the carcasses suits it. Keep it modest -- half a cup for a medium pie -- since the filling releases more as it heats.
- YieldTwo grouse with about 12 oz of steak fills a 9-inch pie dish and serves four to six, depending on whether it is the centre of the meal or one of several dishes.
Cassell's routinely marks regional methods with tags like "Scotch fashion," and the label here is earned: the red grouse of the Scottish moors was the prestige game bird of the Victorian season, and the opening of shooting on 12 August sent birds south by rail to London clubs and hotels within a day. A pie was the practical end for birds that were not young enough to roast, and the pairing with beefsteak is the standard nineteenth-century fix for game that is lean and short of fat. What makes this version distinctively local is the pre-frying: rather than laying raw joints under a crust and letting a long bake do the work, the meat is cooked as cutlets first, which is why the entry can leave the timing as vague as "Time, etc., according to the size." The hard-boiled eggs are a very old English and Scottish pie convention, found in raised veal and ham pies as well, and they serve to bulk out the filling and slice attractively when cold.