Home › Chicken, Rook, or Rabbit Pie › Chicken, Rook, or Rabbit Pie
Chicken, Rook, or Rabbit Pie
753. Cut up two young fowls; season with white pepper, salt, a little mace, and nutmeg, all in the finest powder, and also a little cayenne. Put the chicken, slices of ham, or fresh gammon of bacon, forcemeat balls, and hard eggs by turns, in layers. If it is to be baked in a dish, put a little water; but none if in a raised crust. By the time it returns from the oven, have ready a gravy made of the knuckle of veal, or from a bit of the scrag with some shank-bones of mutton, seasoned with herbs, onions, mace, and white pepper; put as much gravy as will fill the pie-dish; but if made with a raised crust the gravy must be put in cold as jelly, clarifying it with the whites of two eggs after taking away the meat, and straining it through a fine lawn sieve. When rabbits are used instead of chicken, the legs must be cut short, and the ribs must not go in, but will help to make the gravy. Rooks must be skinned and put to soak in milk, taking care to remove the liver and back. They are then treated like the chicken described above. The crust should be of puff-paste (see par. 732).
A cold-weather raised pie in the older English manner: layered meat, jellied gravy poured in after baking, and a crust that is either a dish lining or a free-standing hot-water case. The single decision that governs everything is which of those two you are making.
- Dish pie versus raised crustBaked in a dish, a splash of water is enough because you top the pie up with hot gravy on the way out of the oven. In a raised crust the gravy goes in cold and set, so it firms into jelly and holds the slices together when carved cold. Do not mix the two methods.
- Oven heatThe original gives no temperature. For a modern oven, a raised crust wants about 425F for the first 20 minutes to set the pastry, then 325-350F for a further hour and a half or more; a dish pie is straightforward at 350-375F until the meat is cooked through and the pastry browned. Chicken should reach 165F at the thickest part.
- Two young fowlsTwo birds, jointed; young fowls of the period would have been on the small side. Two birds will fill a large deep dish, though the recipe states no yield; halve it for a small household.
- Gammon of bacon"Fresh gammon" here most likely means unsmoked, or only lightly cured, leg of pork rather than the pink brined gammon steak sold now. Thick slices of unsmoked bacon or a piece of raw ham cut 1/4 inch thick both work; if you use modern cured gammon, cut the added salt.
- Forcemeat ballsSmall balls of minced veal or pork bound with breadcrumb, suet and egg, seasoned with the same mace and nutmeg. Keep them under an inch across so they cook through in the time the pie takes.
- The jellied gravyThe point of the veal knuckle, mutton scrag and shank bones is gelatine, not flavour alone. Simmer them several hours, strain, chill and check that the stock sets firmly; if it does not, reduce further rather than adding gelatine to a pie meant to be eaten cold. Clarifying with egg white is only needed if you want the jelly clear.
- Hard eggsHard-boiled, peeled, and laid in whole or halved between the layers. They slice attractively but water out slightly, so pat them dry before they go in.
- RooksRook is not a market bird and you will not find it in a shop; the recipe survives from an era of farm pest control. Removing the back and liver and soaking in milk is the traditional answer to the bitterness the bird is notorious for. Pigeon or wood pigeon breast is the usual modern stand-in.
- RabbitFarmed rabbit is mild and lean; the ribs really are best kept out of the pie and put to the stockpot, as directed, since they shed small bones. Rabbit dries faster than chicken, so the bacon layers matter more.
Pies of this kind served as cold larder food in English households: baked in a strong crust, filled with jelly to exclude air, and cut over several days. The interchangeability of chicken, rook and rabbit in one recipe suggests a kitchen provisioned by whatever came to hand, seasoned identically with mace, nutmeg and a little cayenne, spicing common in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English cookery. Rook pie was associated with the spring rook shoot, when young birds were culled from the rookery; it is remembered in regional cookery long after it left the table, and the recipe's insistence on removing the back and liver and soaking the flesh in milk is the traditional answer to its strong, faintly bitter taste. That the jelly is made separately from veal knuckle and mutton bones, rather than from the pie's own juices, suits a household with a stockpot always going.