Veal-and-Ham Pie
INGREDIENTS for good-sized pie.-2 lbs. of veal cutlets, 1/2 lb. of boiled ham, 2 tablespoonfuls of minced savoury herbs, 1/4 teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, 2 blades of pounded mace, pepper and salt to taste, a strip of lemon-peel finely minced, 3 hard-boiled eggs, ½ pint of water, nearly 1/2 pint of good strong gravy, puffcrust. AVERAGE COST, 4s. Cut the veal into nice square pieces, and put put a layer of them at the bottom of a piedish; sprinkle over these a portion of the herbs, spices, seasoning, lemon-peel and the yolks of the eggs cut in slices; cut the ham very thin, and put a layer of this in.
Proceed in this manner until the dish is full, so arranging it that the ham comes at the top. Lay a puff-paste on the edge of the dish, and pour in about 1/24 pint of water; cover with c crust, ornament it with leaves, brush it over with the yolk of an egg and bake in a well-heated oven for 1 to 1½ hour, or longer should the pie be very large.
When it is taken out of the oven, pour in at the top, through a funnel, nearly pin of strong gravy: this should be made sufi VEAL, POTTED. ciently good that, when cold, it may cut in a firm jelley. This pie may be very much enriched by adding a few mushrooms, oysters or sweetbreads; but it will be found very good without any of the last-named additions.
TIME.-1 hour, or longer should the pie be very large.
SEASONABLE from March to October.
A raised-flavour cold pie of the Victorian sideboard: veal, ham and hard-boiled egg baked under puff pastry, then filled through a hole in the lid with a strong gravy that sets to jelly. The gravy is the whole point, and everything else follows from it.
- The gravy must setThe liquid poured in after baking has to be gelatinous enough to firm up cold — a stock reduced from veal knuckle, trotter or wing tips, not a thin broth. Poured in while the pie is still hot so it runs into the gaps, then chilled overnight. If it does not gel, the pie will be soggy rather than sliceable.
- Oven"A well-heated oven" is all the book gives; no temperature is stated. Bake hot enough to set and colour the puff pastry, then more moderately so the veal cooks through without the crust burning. The recipe allows 1 hour, or longer should the pie be very large; the pastry will be done long before the meat.
- Water in the dishOnly a small quantity goes in before baking — roughly a quarter of a pint for a pie of these proportions. Too much and the filling boils, lifting the lid and leaving a hollow under it.
- Pounded maceTwo blades, crushed in a mortar, come to somewhere in the region of 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of ground mace. Nutmeg can stand in, used sparingly; the two are closely related in flavour, mace the more floral of them.
- Veal cutletsThe recipe wants lean boneless meat cut into neat squares; shoulder or leg works better than loin chops, which are wasteful here. Pork shoulder is sometimes used where veal is hard to source, and behaves much the same under a crust.
- The eggsBeeton uses only the sliced yolks in the layers. Keeping the whites out avoids the rubbery, greyish texture cooked egg white takes on after an hour in a pie; the whites are worth saving for something else rather than adding in.
- Steam hole and funnelThe recipe says only that the gravy goes in at the top through a funnel once the pie is out of the oven; it does not say when the hole is made. Cutting it in the lid before baking is one way, and the ornamental pastry leaves are often said to disguise it. A small funnel or a piping bag makes the gravy filling manageable.
- ServingA pie of this quantity will feed perhaps six to eight. The jellied gravy shows it is intended to be eaten cold, with pickles or a sharp salad; served hot the jelly melts and the effect is lost.
- Cost and seasonThe 4s. average cost and the March-to-October season reflect a market in which veal was a spring and summer meat and no reliable refrigeration existed. Neither constraint applies now.
Veal-and-ham pie belongs to the great English tradition of cold raised and dish pies made to be carried, sliced and eaten away from the kitchen — picnic hampers, cricket luncheons, cold suppers on servants' days off. The jellied gravy is doing real work: it seals the meat from air, keeps it moist and, before refrigeration, extended the pie's usable life by a day or two. Veal was the natural partner for ham because it is mild and pale and gelatinous enough to enrich the setting liquid, while the ham supplies salt and colour; the sliced egg yolks running through the cut face were as much a matter of appearance as flavour. Beeton's suggested enrichments — mushrooms, oysters, sweetbreads — are a reminder that oysters were still cheap bulk in mid-Victorian Britain and went into pies and stuffings as a matter of routine rather than luxury.