Sea Pie

A layered suet-crust pie of the old shipboard kind, cooked slowly with liquid in the dish so the pastry layers steam into something closer to dumpling than crust. Two things decide whether it works: keeping the heat low and keeping the dish covered.

• The hinge is the cover"This pie will burn quickly if neglected" is the whole warning. The dish must be sealed — a tight lid, or a double layer of foil crimped hard to the rim — so the liquid stays in and the interior pastry steams rather than dries. Check the liquid level once an hour and top up with hot stock if it has fallen below the lower layers.
• Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no oven setting; it says only to bake, stew, or steam the pie "gently" ("moderate-sized" describes the pie, not the oven). For a three-to-four-hour bake a low oven, around 325F (165C) or below, suits. If you steam it instead, keep the water at a bare tremble and the dish clear of the water by an inch.
• The pastry ratioHalf a pound of fat to one pound of flour is a 2:1 flour-to-fat suet crust: about 450g flour, 225g shredded suet or chilled diced butter, a good pinch of salt, and enough cold water to bind — roughly 250ml. Roll the interior layers thin, no more than 5mm, or they stay pasty in the middle.
• Dripping and suetThe recipe offers butter, dripping, or shredded suet interchangeably, and names butter first. Beef dripping is still sold by butchers; packet shredded suet, beef or vegetable, works directly. Butter makes a lighter crust.
• Salt beefModern salt beef and corned beef are usually cured less heavily than barrelled ship's meat, so long soaking is often unnecessary. Taste a shaving first; if it is very salty, soak it, and use unsalted stock or plain water for the liquid and hold back on seasoning the layers.
• "Blanched and jointed chicken"Joint a 3-4 lb bird into eight pieces and drop them into boiling water for two or three minutes to firm the surface and skim off scum, then drain. It is a clarifying step, not cooking — the chicken finishes in the pie.
• Liquid quantityThe instruction to "pour stock or cold water into the dish" is unmeasured. Aim for enough to come about two-thirds up the filling, not to cover it; too much and the top crust floats and the pie collapses on turning out.
• Turning outRest the finished pie ten minutes before inverting, and run a knife round the edge first. If the top layer of pastry looks pale after unmoulding, the pie can go back into a hot oven uncovered for a few minutes to colour.
• YieldSix to eight, as stated, and it holds heat well — the layered construction makes it a genuinely substantial main course needing nothing but a green vegetable or pickles.