Veal Pie
750. Take some slices of a knuckle of veal; lay them at the bottom of a pie-dish, with alternate layers of ham or bacon; season between each layer with pepper, salt, and portions of hard-boiled eggs, cut in slices, between the meat. Fill up the dish in this way, then pour in some gravy made from the bones, with a little mushroom ketchup, and a very small quantity of Worcestershire sauce; cover with short crust, or good puff paste, and bake. 751. A Richer Veal Pie. -Cut steaks from a knuckle of veal; season them with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a very little clove in powder. Slice two sweetbreads, and season them in the same manner. Lay a puff paste on the ledge of the dish; then put the meat, yolks of hard eggs, the sweetbreads, and some oysters, up to the top of the dish. Lay over the whole some very thin slices of ham, and half fill the dish with stock made from the bones; cover, and when it is taken out of the oven, pour in at the top, through a funnel, a few spoonsful of good veal gravy, and some cream to fill up; but first boil it up with a tea-spoonful of flour.
Two versions of the same pie: a plain veal-and-ham with hard-boiled egg, and a richer one with sweetbreads, oysters and a cream liaison poured in after baking. The hinge in both is the meat — a knuckle of veal is shin, and it will not become tender in the time a pastry lid takes to colour.
- Knuckle of vealThis is the shank or shin, sold today as veal osso buco or stewing veal. It is collagen-heavy and needs long, moist cooking; slice it off the bone thinly and expect a covered bake of about two hours rather than the 40 minutes a pastry crust wants.
- Oven and crustThe recipe says only 'bake', giving no heat or time. Working at 325-350F suits the filling; if the pastry is browning before the meat is done, lay foil loosely over the top. Puff paste generally benefits from an initial 15 minutes at 425F before dropping to 325F.
- The paste on the ledgeThe strip of pastry pressed round the rim of the dish gives the lid something to seal against. It is worth keeping — without it the crust shrinks and the gravy boils out.
- Mushroom ketchupNot tomato ketchup. It is a thin, dark, salty mushroom extract, still sold by some British makers; a mixture of soy sauce and a little mushroom soaking liquor is the nearest substitute. Season the gravy lightly, as the ham and the ketchup both bring salt.
- SweetbreadsOrder them in advance from a butcher. They should be soaked in cold water, blanched briefly, pressed and trimmed of membrane before slicing, or they will be spongy in the pie.
- OystersShucked oysters need almost no cooking. Tuck them into the centre of the filling rather than near the top or edges, and accept that after a two-hour bake they contribute flavour to the gravy more than texture.
- The cream finishBoiling the cream with a teaspoon of flour before it goes in is what stops it splitting or running thin inside the hot pie. Do it in a small pan, then pour it through a funnel into the pie-vent while everything is still hot so it spreads through the filling.
- YieldThe recipe gives no dish size or quantities beyond 'fill up the dish', so scale to the dish you have. Both versions are good cold the next day, when a gravy made from the bones will set to a light jelly.