Chicken Pie
Cut up two young chickens, place in hot water enough to cover, (as it boils away add more so as to have enough for the pie and for gravy to serve with it), boil until tender; line the sides of a four or six quart pan with a rich baking-powder or soda-biscuit dough quarter of an inch thick, put in part of the chicken, season with salt, pepper and butter, lay in a few thin strips or squares of dough, add the rest of chicken and season as before; some add five or six fresh eggs or a few new potatoes in their season, season liquor in which the chickens were boiled, with butter, salt and pepper, add a part of it to the pie, cover with crust a quarter of an inch thick, with a hole in the center the size of a tea-cup. Keep adding the chicken-liquor as needed, since the fault of most chicken pies is that they are too dry. There can scarcely be too much gravy. Bake one hour in a moderate oven. Veal pies are similarly made, omitting eggs, and using two or three pounds veal to a quart of dough. Add to liquor left in pot a table-spoon of butter mixed with flour to a paste, season with pepper and salt, for gravy, adding water if needed.-L. A. C.
A deep-dish stewed chicken pie lined and topped with biscuit dough rather than pastry. The recipe's own warning is the important one: the pie must be kept wet with the cooking liquor, or the dough drinks it all and the filling turns to dust.
- The hinge: gravyAdd hot chicken liquor through the central vent as the pie bakes, at least once or twice during the hour. Biscuit dough is thirsty, and a pie that looks generously moist going in will be dry coming out.
- Moderate ovenAround 350 to 375F. At an hour, the top crust should be well browned and the liquid bubbling up through the vent hole.
- The vent"A hole in the center the size of a tea-cup" means roughly 2 to 2 1/2 inches across, not a knife slit. It is there so you can pour liquor in, not merely to let steam out.
- Pan sizeA four- to six-quart pan is a deep casserole or Dutch oven holding 4-6 quarts, not a pie plate. Two chickens fill it; expect to serve 8 to 10.
- Young chickensTwo "young chickens" of the period were small birds, perhaps 2 to 2 1/2 lb each. Two modern 3 lb fryers or one 5-6 lb roasting chicken cut up will do; simmer gently, not at a rolling boil, until the meat pulls from the bone, about 45 minutes to an hour.
- Soda-biscuit doughThe recipe allows either a baking-powder or a soda-biscuit dough, rolled a scant 1/4 inch. Roll and line at the last moment; chemical leavening starts working as soon as the liquid goes in, and dough that sits gets slack.
- The eggs"Five or six fresh eggs" is ambiguous in the original. It may mean hard-cooked eggs, peeled and halved or sliced, layered with the meat; it could equally mean raw eggs broken into the filling to set in the gravy. Either works, and hard-cooked is the easier option in a pie this deep.
- Seasoning the liquorThe broth carries all the flavour, so taste and salt it properly before it goes into the pie. The finishing gravy is butter kneaded with flour to a paste and whisked into the simmering leftover liquor; the recipe gives a tablespoon of butter but does not say how much flour.
- The veal variationTwo or three pounds of veal, shoulder or breast, to a quart of dough, stewed the same way, with the eggs omitted as the recipe directs. Veal is lean, so the butter in the seasoning matters.
Deep biscuit-crusted chicken pie of this kind belongs to a much older English tradition of raised and covered meat pies, adapted to households that had a reliable supply of chemical leavening. Baking powder became widely available in American kitchens from the mid-century, and soda biscuit dough was faster, cheaper and more forgiving than butter pastry, which is why so many regional pies of this period are topped with what amounts to a dumpling. The Dixie Cook-Book, like many compilations of its era, was built from reader and subscriber contributions, hence the initials "L. A. C." at the end. The instruction that there "can scarcely be too much gravy" is the voice of someone who had eaten a great many dry ones.