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Venison and Hare Pie
In making this pie be sure that both the venison and the hare are thoroughly well kept. Take the flesh in one piece from a neck of venison, and cut it to the length of the pie-dish; season with salt, cayenne, and pounded mace. Divide the hare into pieces convenient for serving. Take out the bones, and fill the cavities with good veal forcemeat. Line the edges of a pie-dish with good pastry. Lay the venison in the centre, and arrange the pieces of hare closely round it. Put forcemeat in the dish to fill up the empty spaces, and lay two or three spoonfuls of jellied gravy on the top. Place the cover on the pie, and ornament according to taste. Bake in a well-heated oven. When done enough pour into it, through a pointed strainer, a little additional gravy. This gravy may be made as follows. Put the bones and trimmings of the hare and venison into a saucepan with a slice of lean ham, six or eight peppercorns, two cloves, a little salt, and as much stock or water as will cover the ingredients. Simmer the liquor till it is pleasantly flavoured and so strong that it will jelly when cold. Let it cool, clear it entirely from fat, and it will be ready for use. If preferred, the pie may be made entirely of venison. Time to bake the pie, two hours. Probable cost, hare, from 3s. 6d.; venison, very uncertain.
A raised-game pie of the old English sort, built on two animals and a stock made from their bones. Nothing here is difficult, but the timing assumes tough, well-hung meat and a hot brick oven.
- "Thoroughly well kept"This means hung — game aged in a cool larder for several days to a week or more to tenderise and deepen the flavour. Buy game already hung from a butcher or dealer rather than attempting it at home, where temperature control is guesswork.
- Cut of venisonA neck of venison is the tough, well-worked collar, which is exactly right for two hours in the oven. Modern venison loin or fillet would be grey and dry long before the pastry set; use shoulder, neck or haunch trimmings instead.
- HareA hare is a large animal, several pounds dressed, and a dealer may joint one on request. Boning the saddle and legs is the fiddly part; ask for it done, or substitute rabbit, which is milder and needs the same treatment.
- Veal forcemeatA stuffing of minced veal, suet or fat pork, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, herbs and egg to bind. Minced pork shoulder with a little fat works as well and is far easier to buy; season it firmly, since it has to hold its own against the game.
- "A well-heated oven"The book gives no temperature. A hot oven to set and colour the pastry, then a moderate one for the remainder of the two hours, is one modern reading; cover the crust once it has browned if it is taking too much colour.
- The jellied gravySimmer the bones and trimmings until the liquor is well flavoured and strong, then let it cool and lift off every trace of fat, as the recipe directs. The test is the stock itself: it must set firmly when cold, so keep reducing until a spoonful sets on a cold saucer.
- Pouring it inA "pointed strainer" is a conical strainer, which both strains the gravy and directs it into the pie through a hole in the lid. Pour it in when the pie comes out of the oven, so it runs into the gaps left as the meat shrinks.
- The costsShillings and pence, from a period before deer farming. Hare was a regular item of the game dealer's trade and could be given a price; the note that venison is "very uncertain" reflects a much less regular supply, much of it from private parks and estates.
This belongs among the composite game pies that were a fixture of the Victorian cold table — dishes assembled from whatever the shooting season produced, bound together with forcemeat and set in their own jelly so they would keep and travel. The pairing of venison and hare is practical rather than gastronomic: both are lean, dark, strongly flavoured meats that dry out on their own, and the veal forcemeat supplies the fat and moisture neither can. Venison in nineteenth-century Britain came from private deer parks and Scottish estates, and was traded as well as given, increasingly so once the railways reached the estates. Hare, by contrast, was common enough to be a staple of the game dealer's window, and the book gives a price for one — from 3s. 6d. The insistence on hanging reflects standard practice of the day, when game was expected to be aged well past the point most modern cooks would accept.