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Patties, Monks'
Make some good puff-paste, and line as many patty-moulds as are required, according to the directions already given. Pare a large truffle, and mince it very finely; mix with it the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs cut into dice, half a salt-spoonful of salt, half a salt-spoonful of pepper, and as much powdered mace as would cover a threepenny-piece. Moisten the mixture with a table-spoonful of thick cream. Put a small portion into each patty, place the cover on the top, press the edges securely, and pinch them with a pincers. Bake in a tolerably brisk oven. If preferred, half a dozen button mushrooms, stewed in butter, and afterwards chopped small, may be used instead of the truffle. Time to bake, about a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 2d. each. This quantity is sufficient for three or four patties.
A small, rich filling of truffle and hard-boiled yolk sealed in puff paste. The whole thing lives or dies on the pastry: the filling is barely cooked, so the oven has to be hot enough to lift and set the paste in about fifteen minutes.
- Patty-mouldsThese are small shallow tins, roughly the size of a modern muffin or tartlet cup, lined with puff paste and given a paste lid. Bought puff pastry works; roll it thin, as the case should be mostly layers and air.
- A tolerably brisk ovenA hot oven; in modern terms somewhere around 425F, though the book gives no figure and Victorian ovens were judged by hand and eye. Puff paste needs heat to turn its water to steam quickly; a slack oven will let the butter run out and give a heavy, greasy case.
- Salt-spoonfulA salt-spoon is about a quarter teaspoon, so half of one is roughly an eighth of a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Judge by taste, since the filling is not cooked long enough to mellow.
- As much mace as covers a threepenny-pieceThat coin was about 16 mm across, so the measure is a generous pinch, well under an eighth of a teaspoon. Ground mace is potent and stale mace is dusty; use fresh.
- The truffleA single large fresh black truffle is now an expensive proposition for four small patties, which says a good deal about how prices have moved since "probable cost, 2d. each." The recipe's own alternative of button mushrooms stewed in butter and chopped fine is the practical route; a little truffle oil or a few slices of preserved truffle can push it back toward the original.
- Yolks onlyOnly the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs go in, diced small. The whites are surplus here, so cook them into something else rather than working them into the filling, where they turn rubbery.
- Sealing and ventingThe recipe asks only that the edges be pressed and pinched firmly with a pincers. If the filling looks wet, a small slit in the lid is a reasonable precaution against a seam giving way.
- Yield and servingThree or four patties, intended as a savoury or a light course rather than a meal. They are best eaten warm within an hour, before the pastry softens under the cream.
Small hot pastries of this kind were standard Victorian savoury food, served at the end of dinner or as part of a supper table, and Cassell's gives a number of variations under "Patties" with different fillings. The name is often said to follow the French style of naming a meatless dish for a religious house, in the manner of the many "maigre" dishes designed for fast days, though the book itself does not explain it: no flesh, but truffle, egg and cream keeping it far from austere. That a truffle patty could be costed at twopence apiece in the 1870s and 80s reflects a European supply, chiefly from France and Italy, that was then far larger than it is now, and truffles turn up throughout the period in forcemeats, sauces and garnishes rather than as a luxury shaved on at the table. The mushroom substitution offered in the last line is the book's habitual concession to the household that had the ambition but not the budget.