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Chicken and Leek Pie
SALT AND PEPPER CELERY SALT I SMALL ONION, MINCED I BAY LEAF 2 PARSLEY SPRIGS I SPRIG THYME 6 YOUNG LEEKS PIE PASTRY 14 POUND COOKED HAM I TEASPOON MINCED PARSLEY 1/4 CUP CREAM OR EVAPORATED MILK Cook chicken whole with seasonings, onion, bay leaf, parsley sprigs, thyme and 1/2 cup cold water to each pound: simmer very slowly at least 2 hours. Pour off broth, and let chicken and broth stand until chicken is cold and broth jellied. Parboil leeks a few minutes, split them and cut into i-inch pieces. Cut chicken into service pieces, lay in a deep dish with thin slices cold boiled ham, pieces of leek, parsley, and jellied broth. Cover with pastry and bake, setting dish in shallow pan of boiling water. When pastry cover is done and browned, take it off and pour in heated cream. Replace pastry cover. Good either hot or cold. Veal, ham, beef or lamb may be substituted for chicken. Whatever meat is used, most of the work of preparation is done in advance, which is always an advantage when entertaining in a permanent camp.
A cold-set chicken pie built in stages: the bird is poached and its broth chilled to jelly, then everything is assembled cold and baked under a pastry lid. The hinge is the jellied broth — it must be firm enough to hold its shape when the dish goes into the oven, or the filling turns to soup and the pastry base steams away.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A pastry-topped dish of this kind wants 400F until the crust is set and coloured, roughly 35 to 45 minutes; the filling is already cooked and only needs heating through.
- The water bathSetting the pie dish in a shallow pan of boiling water keeps the filling from bubbling out and the sides from scorching. Use a roasting pan and pour in an inch of already-boiling water so the oven does not lose heat recovering.
- Poaching liquidHalf a cup of water per pound of bird sounds sparse but is deliberate — it produces a strong, concentrated broth that gels on chilling. Keep the pot barely trembling and covered; a hard boil will cloud it and toughen the breast.
- Getting the jelly to setA whole chicken with its skin and bones gives enough natural gelatine. If your broth is slack after a night in the refrigerator, reduce it further and re-chill rather than proceeding with liquid stock.
- LeeksA few minutes in boiling water, as the recipe says; longer and young leeks collapse into strings. The recipe parboils them first, then splits them and cuts them into inch lengths -- rinse well between the layers, where grit hides.
- Evaporated milkA camp-kitchen staple because it needed no refrigeration. Ordinary heavy cream is a straight substitute and richer; warm it before it goes under the lid so the pie is not chilled at the last moment.
- Lifting the lidCut around the crust with a thin knife and lift it off in one piece if you can. Pouring the hot cream in at this stage keeps it from curdling or forming a skin during the bake.
- YieldNo weight, dish size or number of servings is given. A chicken with the ham and leeks will fill a deep dish and serve roughly six. Served cold, the jelly firms again and it slices cleanly.
Chicken and leek under a pastry lid belongs to a long tradition of English cold pies, kin to the raised and 'jellied' pies carried to picnics and shoots in the nineteenth century -- the jelly from a well-reduced broth bound the filling, and the sealed crust helped keep it. Its appearance in an outdoor-cooking book turns on the last line: everything but the baking happens beforehand, which the recipe itself calls an advantage when entertaining in a permanent camp. Boiled ham laid in with the fowl is a familiar pairing, the cured meat seasoning the mild poached one.