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YALE BOAT PIE (an American recipe)
Lay in a middling-sized dish three or four pounds of steak from the under-cut of a round of beef, having seasoned it with pepper and salt. Have at hand a couple of chickens, cut into pieces and seasoned; place them on the steak, and over them one dozen and a half of fresh fat oysters without the liquor. Add half a dozen fresh hard-boiled eggs, and after damping the bottom of the dish with half a pint of strong ale, cover the whole with fresh mushrooms, adding to these half a pound of glaze or plain neat's-foot jelly; lay over the dish a substantial paste, and bake in a brisk oven. This pie is excellent for a picnic or water excursion.
A raised picnic pie in the English manner with an American college name attached. The chief problem is the oven: a "brisk" heat will set the crust long before three or four pounds of layered beef and bone-in chicken are cooked through.
- The hinge: heat, then drop itStart at 425F for 20 minutes to set and colour the pastry, then reduce to 325F for a further 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Left at brisk heat throughout, the crust scorches while the centre of the meat is still raw.
- Under-cut of a roundNineteenth-century "under-cut" usually means the muscle lying underneath a joint; applied to a round of beef the exact cut is uncertain, and top round is probably the nearest modern equivalent. Cut it into thin slices across the grain rather than leaving it as a slab, or it will be dry and stringy after two hours.
- Neat's-foot jelly and glazeBoth are reduced meat stock: glaze is stock boiled down to a syrup, neat's-foot jelly is stock from ox feet ("neat" being an old word for cattle) set firm. Half a pound is about a cup of very strong, gelatinous beef or veal stock, or well-reduced stock stiffened with a tablespoon of powdered gelatine. Its purpose is to set the juices to a sliceable jelly when cold, which is what makes the pie portable.
- The oystersEighteen oysters baked for two hours will be rubbery, and nothing can be done about that within this method. If you want them tender, use small oysters and accept them as a seasoning element rather than a texture; the liquor is deliberately omitted so the pie does not flood.
- Half a pint of strong aleAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, a generous cup. A dark mild or brown ale suits the beef; avoid anything aggressively hopped, which turns bitter under long baking.
- A substantial pasteNot puff or short pastry. This wants a hot-water crust or a suet crust stout enough to hold its shape when cold and to be cut in wedges. Cut a vent in the top and set the dish on a tray; the pie will leak.
- ChickenTwo chickens jointed means bone-in pieces, which is why the bake is long. Boneless thighs cook more evenly and are easier to serve; check that the meat reaches 165F at the centre of the pie before you take it out.
- Yield and servingServes 10 to 12 as written. Cool it completely, then chill overnight so the jelly sets, and carry it cold. If it is going on a boat or to a picnic, keep it in a cooler; a pie of this size holds heat for hours and should not be allowed to sit warm.
Cassell's flags this as "an American recipe," and the name points to the Yale boat crews of the mid-nineteenth century, when intercollegiate rowing was new and its regattas were social occasions that ran all day on the water. The pie itself is thoroughly English in construction: a layered raised pie sealed under a stiff crust and set with meat jelly, the same logic that produced the pork pie and the Melton Mowbray, which is precisely what makes it travel. What marks it as American is the extravagance of the filling, beef and two chickens and oysters and eggs and mushrooms in one dish. The claim of a direct Yale connection is traditional rather than documented; boat-club and regatta dishes were freely named and renamed in the sporting press.