Venison Pasty (Bottom of the dish put)

What survives here is the closing half of a game pie: birds laid in a dish, moistened with broth, sealed under puff paste and baked. The instructions assume a cook who already knows how to joint and season the birds.

• Oven heatThe fragment gives no oven instruction; puff paste generally wants a hot oven to lift, so something in the region of 400-425F is a reasonable modern setting. An hour at that heat suits a covered dish of birds in broth; if the top colours too fast, cover loosely with foil after about 30 minutes.
• Half a pint of brothAn imperial half pint is 10 fl oz, a scant 1¼ US cups. It should come no more than halfway up the birds, or the paste lid steams from beneath and stays sodden.
• PartridgesWild grey or red-legged partridge is lean and small — one bird per person, or two split birds for three. Farmed partridge is fattier and rather more forgiving; skinless chicken thighs are a workable supermarket substitute and want the same treatment.
• Don't overbake the birdsA full hour will dry partridge breast badly. Jointing the birds and using legs and thighs in the pie, with the breasts added late or served separately, gives a far better result than baking them whole under the crust.
• The ledge of the dishA Victorian pie dish had a broad flat rim. Strips of paste were pressed onto it, dampened, and the lid laid over so it had something to grip. A modern pie dish with a lip works the same way; without one, the crust shrinks off the sides.
• Egg washBeaten whole egg, as directed, gives a good gloss and colour; a yolk-heavy wash colours more deeply still. Cut a vent in the lid, or the steam from the broth will lift the paste and split it.
• A raised crustThe alternative offered points to a cross-reference (par. 735) not included in this fragment; a raised pie of this period would normally be a free-standing crust moulded by hand rather than baked in a dish, a substantially different technique.