Home › The Principles of Cookery › Raised Pies, to Form
Raised Pies, to Form
Take as much pastry as it is intended to use for the pie. Cut off as much as will be wanted for the cover, and form the remainder to the shape of a cone. Flatten the sides with the palms of the hands, and when they are quite smooth squeeze the point down a little, and press the knuckles of the left hand into the middle of the pastry till the inside is hollow. Knead it well with the fingers, and be careful to have every part of an equal thickness. Fill the pie, roll out the remainder of the pastry to the size of the top of the pie, moisten the edges with a little egg, and lay on the cover. Press this down securely, and pinch it with pastry pincers. Make a small hole in the centre of the pie, and ornament with pastry leaves, chains, or any fanciful designs. Brush all over with egg, and bake in a well-heated oven. When the pie is done enough, take it out, and pour in a little good gravy which will jelly when cold. If a mould is used, butter it, and line it with good firm pastry. Fill the pie, roll out the cover, moisten the edges of the pastry, lay it on, and press it down securely, so that the edge of the pie may be raised slightly above the cover. Pinch the edges with the pastry nippers. Make a small hole in the centre, and lay upon the pie pastry ornaments of any description. Brush over with egg, and bake in a well-heated oven. Take it out, draw out the pin which fastens the side of the mould, and take the pie out carefully. If it is not sufficiently browned, put it into the oven a quarter of an hour longer. Raised pies should be served on a neatly-folded napkin, and garnished with parsley.
This is a method rather than a formula: it assumes you already have a hot-water crust stiff enough to stand up on its own, and tells you how to shape it. Everything depends on the pastry being warm and pliable but not slack.
- The pastry it assumesHand-raising needs a hot-water crust — flour worked with hot fat (usually lard, sometimes with a little butter added) and boiling water, not a cold-shortened flaky paste. Shortcrust or puff will slump the moment you press your knuckles into it. Work the dough while it is still warm; once cold it cracks rather than stretches.
- Even thickness is the hingeThe instruction to "be careful to have every part of an equal thickness" is the whole job. A thin patch on the wall will burst under the weight of the filling and its rendered fat, and the pie will empty itself onto the oven floor. Aim for roughly 1/4 in throughout, and keep the base no thinner than the sides.
- "A well-heated oven"The book gives no temperature and names no stages. In modern terms a hot oven to set the standing crust, dropping to a moderate heat for the long bake, suits the method — something like 400-425F falling to 350F. A raised pie of 2-3 lb will want roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Where the filling goes in raw, check the centre with a probe pushed through the steam hole to be sure it has reached a safe temperature.
- Pastry pincers and nippersBoth names refer to the same small scissor-like or tweezer-like tool used to crimp a decorative edge. A pinch between finger and thumb, or the back of a knife, does the same work.
- The hinged mouldThe "pin which fastens the side" belongs to a raised-pie mould whose sides are pinned so they can be opened out and the baked pie lifted free. A modern springform tin, buttered and lined, serves the same purpose; a loose-bottomed cake tin will also do if you are content with straight sides.
- The gravy that jelliesThis means a well-reduced stock made from pork or veal bones and trotters, or ordinary stock with gelatine dissolved in it. Pour it in hot through the centre hole as soon as the pie leaves the oven, in small amounts, letting each addition settle; it fills the gap left as the meat shrinks. Then chill thoroughly before cutting.
- ServingCold raised pies cut cleanly only after a night in the refrigerator. The folded napkin and parsley are Victorian table dressing and can be left behind without loss.
Hand-raising is the oldest way of building a pie in English cookery: before tins were cheap and common, the crust was the vessel, moulded upright around a wooden block or the cook's own fist and stiff enough to hold a filling with no support at all. Medieval accounts call such a case a coffyn, and the technique is traditionally associated with the Melton Mowbray pork pie, where raising the crust by hand around a dolly forms part of the protected description. By the time Cassell's was compiled in the later nineteenth century the hinged tinned mould had arrived, and this entry gives both methods side by side: hand-raising for those with the knack, the mould for those without. The elaborate leaves, chains and "fanciful designs" reflect a period when a cold raised pie was a centrepiece of the buffet or supper table rather than everyday food, and was judged as much on its ornament as its filling.