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Grouse Pie
Singe and draw three young grouse, and remove their feet, necks and pinions; divide their bodies each into three pieces, and put them in a stewpan with the pinions and some chopped bacon; fry and put in six ounces of chopped ham (raw), a bunch of sweet herbs and parsley and a little salt and pepper. When the ham is cooked add about eighteen mushrooms cut in halves, and one tablespoonful of chopped onion; pour in two tablespoonfuls of white wine and reduce the liquor. Take the stewpan off the fire and let the contents cool. Arrange the meat in a piedish, with hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters amongst it, pour over the gravy through a conical-shaped strainer, and cover with puff paste; brush the crust over with whites of eggs, and place in a hot oven until done. Take the pie out of the oven, lift the crust, pour in a little more thickened game gravy, and serve either hot or cold.
A late-Victorian game pie built the classical way: the birds are browned and part-cooked on the stove, cooled, then finished under puff paste. Two things carry the dish -- a genuinely hot oven so the pastry rises rather than steams, and a separate pot of well-reduced game gravy to add at the end.
- Sourcing the birdsWild grouse is legal game but seasonal and rarely sold in American markets; a British or specialist game dealer is the usual source, and shot birds may carry lead fragments. Three young grouse are roughly 3 lb of bird in total. Poussin, guinea fowl or eight to ten quail give the same structure, with a much milder flavor.
- Singe and drawPlucking, singeing off the down over a flame and drawing the innards were kitchen work in 1896. Order the birds oven-ready. "Pinions" are the wing tips; they go into the pan here, presumably for the gelatin they add to the gravy, and can be discarded before assembling.
- Dividing the birdsThree pieces per bird means two legs and the breast on the bone, or split the crown in two if the bird is large. Bone-in pieces hold their juices; grouse breast is very lean and turns dry once past medium.
- Sweet herbsA bunch of sweet herbs is a bouquet garni -- thyme, bay, marjoram or savory tied with the parsley stalks so it can be pulled out. It is removed with the straining, not eaten.
- Reduce the liquorTwo tablespoons of white wine is deliberately small. The point is to deglaze and reduce to a syrupy glaze, not to make a stew; there should be almost no free liquid before the pan comes off the heat, particularly as more gravy is poured in through the lifted crust after baking.
- Oven heatThe book says only "hot oven"; that term is usually rendered today as somewhere around 425-450F. Start the pie at that heat to set and lift the puff paste, then drop to about 375F to finish. Total time depends on the depth of your dish; the filling is already partly cooked, so the crust dictates the timing.
- Egg-white glazeBrushing with white alone gives a pale, glassy, crisp finish rather than the deep brown of a modern whole-egg wash. Either works; the white browns much less, so judge doneness by the pastry's rise and crispness, not color.
- The gravy poured in at the endThe recipe assumes a stockpot of thickened game gravy already standing in the kitchen. Make it in advance from the necks, backs and trimmings, reduced hard and lightly thickened; a good reduced brown chicken or veal stock stands in. Lift one corner of the crust and pour it in hot through a funnel.
- Yield and servingEnough for about six. Served cold, the gravy should be gelatinous enough to set -- add a little of the liquid from simmering the bones, or the pie will be dry when sliced the next day.
Oscar Tschirky's Cook Book (1896) was compiled while he was maître d'hôtel at the Waldorf, and its game chapters record what a large American hotel kitchen was expected to do with game birds. Cold game pies of this kind descend from the English tradition, made in shooting season and eaten from a sideboard or carried out to a shoot -- which is why the recipe ends by telling you it may be served either hot or cold, and why the extra gravy is added through the lifted crust after baking rather than before. The technique of browning the birds with bacon and raw ham, reducing wine to a glaze, then baking under puff paste is straight French practice, and the hard-boiled eggs quartered among the meat are a very old English pie habit, filling out the dish and marbling the slice. The fact that Oscar assumes the reader has thickened game gravy standing by says a good deal about the book's intended audience of professional and well-staffed kitchens.