Home › Cookery › Potato Pie (Savory potato pie is made thus)
Potato Pie (Savory potato pie is made thus)
A savory potato pie is made thus: A layer of mashed potatoes placed in a pie dish and then slices of any cold meat (if chicken or veal, slices of tongue or ham may be added), and herbs, pepper and salt, sprinkled over to taste. Continue these layers alternately till the dish is full; the potatoes must well cover the top, which should have some butter added, and be brushed over with the yolk of an egg, and put into the oven till done through. A little butter on each layer is needed if the meat is not fat, and it should not be too fat.--Mrs. S.
A layered pie for using up cold roast meat, closer to a shepherd's pie than to anything in pastry. The instructions assume you already have leftovers and a hot oven going.
- "Till done through"The only real cooking here is heating cooked food and browning the top. In a 375F oven a full dish takes 30-40 minutes; the egg-glazed potato should be set and coloured. If the meat came straight from the refrigerator, allow the longer time so the centre is hot rather than tepid.
- Pie dishA deep 8- or 9-inch dish, or any 2-quart baking dish. The recipe fills to the rim, so set it on a sheet pan to catch butter that bubbles over.
- Mashed potatoesAbout 2 to 2 1/2 lb of potatoes mashed with butter and a little milk, seasoned well. Keep them stiff enough to spread in layers without sinking into the meat; soupy mash will collapse the structure.
- Cold meatRoughly 1 lb sliced or shredded cooked chicken, veal, beef or lamb. The tongue or ham is there for salt and depth, so treat it as a seasoning of a few ounces rather than a second filling.
- The butter cautionThe line about fat is the hinge. Lean leftovers bake dry, so dot each meat layer with butter; but fatty meat plus buttered mash renders into a greasy pool. Judge by what you have and go lighter on the butter with pork or duck.
- HerbsThe recipe does not say which; parsley, thyme, marjoram or savory would all be plausible choices, chopped fine. A teaspoon of mixed chopped herbs per layer is enough; dried herbs at a third that quantity.
- Egg washOne yolk loosened with a teaspoon of water or cream brushes more evenly than the yolk alone, which tends to streak and scorch on the ridges of the potato.
- GravyThe original adds no liquid, which suits well-buttered mash but leaves the meat dry. A few spoonfuls of leftover gravy or stock over the meat layers is within the spirit of the dish.
- YieldA filled 2-quart dish serves four to six as a main course.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, is full of dishes like this one: unglamorous, thrifty, and built around what the larder held after a roast. Layered potato-and-meat dishes of this kind appear in many nineteenth-century English and American household books, where "pie" often meant simply a filled dish baked in the oven, with a crust of potato, breadcrumbs or nothing at all standing in for pastry. Adding tongue or ham to pale meats such as chicken and veal was a common enough trick in the period, a way of lending savour to leftovers that had already given their best juices to the first meal. The attribution to "Mrs. S." is typical of the book, which credits contributors by initial or full name and so reads as a record of what particular households cooked rather than an author's ideal bill of fare.