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Beefsteak Pie
Rump-steak is good for this purpose. 2 pounds will be sufficient for a half a dozen people. Cut the steak into long, narrow strips; lay a strip of fat on each, dust with salt and pepper, add a very little shredded onion or shallot, and just a suspicion of mace. Dredge lightly with flour, and roll each strip. Lay these in the bottom of a baking-dish having the edge lined with paste; pour in sufficient water to cover the meat, add a little more seasoning and a dredging of flour. A few chopped mushrooms or oysters will add greatly to the flavor of the pie. Cover with a crust rolled a little more than a half-inch thick, slash the top to allow the escape of steam, put bits of butter on the top, and bake in a moderate oven for two hours.
A plain English steak pie of the older kind, where the filling cooks from raw inside the crust rather than being stewed first. Two hours at a steady moderate heat is what makes it work.
- Oven temperatureA moderate oven here is 325-350F. Any hotter and the pastry will colour and dry long before the beef and its water have turned into tender meat and gravy; tent the top loosely with foil once it is browned.
- The cutRump steak of the period is a hindquarter cut, leaner than the shoulder cuts. In an American market, chuck, blade or bottom round is likely to behave better over two hours than anything sold today as rump steak. Avoid tenderloin or strip steak entirely.
- "A strip of fat on each"The lean strips are wrapped or paired with beef suet or fat trimmings, which baste the meat as it cooks. Ask a butcher for beef fat, or substitute a thin slice of unsmoked bacon per strip.
- Crust thicknessHalf an inch is unusually thick even for a suet or short crust; a quarter inch browns and cooks through more reliably. If you keep it thick, expect the underside to stay soft where it meets the gravy.
- "A suspicion of mace"A pinch, no more than an eighth of a teaspoon of ground mace for two pounds of beef. Mace was a common warm spice in English meat pies and is easy to overdo.
- Paste"Paste" is simply pastry. Lining only the rim of the dish, then laying the lid over, is the traditional deep-dish method and avoids a soggy bottom crust.
- OystersIf you use them, tuck them in among the meat rather than stirring them through; two hours will firm them considerably in any case, so mushrooms are the safer of the two options for a long bake.
- The liquidWater to cover gives a thin, floury gravy. Beef stock, or water with a spoonful of Worcestershire, gives the depth a modern palate expects. Fill only to just below the crust so it does not boil over.
- YieldAs stated, two pounds of steak serves six with potatoes or a green vegetable alongside. A 2-quart deep dish is about right.
Beefsteak pie belongs to the same family as the pub steak and kidney pie: cheap braising beef, a little fat, an onion, and a crust to catch the gravy, all cooked in one dish so the oven does the work unattended. The instruction to cut the meat into strips, season them, dredge with flour and roll them up is characteristic of nineteenth-century English cookery, where the flour both thickened the liquor and helped seal the meat. The optional oysters reflect a period when oysters were cheap and plentiful rather than a luxury, and they turn up often in Victorian beef pies and puddings. Mace was a common warm spice for beef pastry in Britain.