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Salmon Pie, Hot

Make a short paste as follows. Take a pound of flour and spread it in a circle on a slab, lay in the centre the yolk of an egg, ten ounces of butter, half a glassful of water, and a pinch of salt. Dilute the butter with the liquid, then introduce the flour gradully into it. As soon as a firm paste is obtained, break (briser) it three times with the palms of both hands. Gather it up, and set it aside for half an hour. Well butter the inside of a round pie-mould, and set the vessel on a baking-sheet. Then make a quenelle forcemeat with ten or twelve ounces of the flesh of pike. Take about a pound and a half of fresh salmon, remove the skin and bones, and divide the flesh into squares. Chop one onion, fry it in a stewpan with oil and butter, adding a few spoonfuls of fresh-chopped mushrooms. When the moisture of the above is reduced, add two or three raw chopped truffles and the pieces of salmon. Fry over a sharp fire for a few minutes, season with salt and spices, and moisten with half a glassful of Madeira. Let the whole boil for a few minutes, keeping the saucepan covered. Mould two-thirds of the prepared paste into a ball, and roll it out into a thin, circular, flat form. Raise the sides of this paste, pressing it between the fingers so as to form a sort of bag. Lift the paste carefully, and place it on the mould, covering it well at the bottom and along the sides; cut the paste half an inch above the rim of the mould, and then mask it at the bottom and along the sides with a laver of forcemeat. Above this layer place half of the slices of salmon with some of the fine herbs; mask again with forcemeat, and pile up the rest of the fish in a dome-like shape, rising above the rim of the mould. Cover the pieces of salmon with another layer of forcemeat, and over all place the rest of the paste rolled out very thin. Fasten the edges of the pastry, pressing them together so as to render the paste thinner; cut it regularly, in order to be pinched all round with pastry pincers. With the trimmings of the paste prepare a few imitation leaves, which arrange as a rosace on the dome, in the top of which form a small cavity; cover it with three small rounds of paste of different sizes, placed one above another like a pyramid. Egg the pie, and put it into a moderate oven; seven or eight minutes later cover it with paper, and bake it for one hour and a half. On taking it out, having put it on a dish, remove the mould, and cut the dome all round its centre, through which aperture pour into the pie a little white sauce reduced, with extract prepared with wine, and the trimmings and bones of the pike and salmon. Cover the pie, and serve.