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Pigeon Pie, Raised
Bone four or more pigeons, then quarter them, and fry to a nice brown in a little clarified butter. Put them in a case of good raised paste (see PASTE, FOR RAISED PIES), and fill up with layers of good forcemeat and hard-boiled eggs in slices. Truffles or mushrooms may be introduced either as components of the forcemeat or otherwise. If liked, some strips of ham, or good bacon, or a little tender beef steak may be added. Put on a lid of paste, with leaves or other devices; pin a band of paper round the mould that it may not get too dark, and bake in a very steady oven for two and a half to three hours. When done, fill up, through a china funnel placed in an aperture in the lid, with gravy made from the bones of the pigeons. Probable cost, 6s.
A hot-water-crust raised pie of the kind meant to be baked free-standing and eaten cold, sliced. The two things that decide whether it works are the crust's ability to stand up to three hours in the oven and the jellied gravy poured in at the end.
- The hinge: the gravy must setThe stock poured in through the funnel is what binds the filling and keeps a cold raised pie sliceable. Simmer the pigeon bones and carcasses with a split pig's trotter or a little pork skin so the liquid gels when chilled; pour it in hot but not boiling, in stages, as the pie cools and the filling contracts. A thin unjellied stock will simply leak out and leave hollow gaps.
- PigeonsMost likely domestic pigeons or squabs of the dovecote sort rather than street birds, though the recipe does not say. Four squab of about 12 oz each give roughly 1 1/2 lb of meat off the bone; boned poussin or quail work as substitutes, though the flavour is milder. Wild wood pigeon breasts are leaner and can go dry over three hours, so add extra fat pork to the forcemeat if using them.
- "A very steady oven"The book gives no temperature; for a raised pie of this size a moderate oven of around 325F is a reasonable modern reading. Steady is the operative word: hot-water crust that is blasted will crack and the gravy will find the crack.
- The paper bandA strip of doubled parchment or foil tied round the sides does exactly what the original says, shielding the pastry from colouring too fast during a long bake. Modern equivalent: a foil collar, removed for the last half hour if the sides look pale.
- Raised pasteThe cross-referenced paste is hot-water crust: flour worked with boiling water and lard, moulded while warm and hand-raised or pressed into a hinged pie mould. It is not shortcrust and will not behave like it; work fast while the dough is pliable and patch any thin spots before filling.
- ForcemeatRead this as a coarse sausage-meat stuffing: minced pork or veal with a good proportion of fat, breadcrumbs, herbs, mace or nutmeg, and an egg to bind. It needs to be seasoned assertively, since it will be eaten cold, when salt and spice read weaker.
- Doneness and coolingTake the centre of the filling to 165F on a probe rather than trusting the clock. Then cool the pie completely and refrigerate overnight before cutting, or the filling will crumble and the jelly will not have set.
- Yield and costA pie on four pigeons serves eight to ten as a cold cut. The "6s." is six shillings, a substantial sum for a household dish in the later nineteenth century and a fair indication that this was company food.
Raised pies -- built as a free-standing case of hot-water crust rather than baked in a dish -- are one of the oldest surviving forms of English pastry cookery, descended from the medieval "coffyn", which served largely as a sturdy container for its filling, though how far such crusts were eaten is disputed. Pigeon was a natural filling: dovecotes were a standard feature of English estates and farms for centuries, supplying young birds cheaply in season, and pigeon pie remained a fixture of cold tables, hunt breakfasts and picnic hampers well into the Victorian period. The jellied stock funnelled in through the lid seals the filling against air, which helps such a pie travel and keep as well as flavouring it. By the time this dictionary appeared the older dovecote economy was in decline, and at six shillings the dish reads as a set-piece rather than everyday cooking.