Beef Tart or Pie a la Perez

These pies are made in deep china dishes (Fig. 183), suitable to be put in the oven. Butter the bottom of the dish and garnish it with a thin layer of finely minced onions; over this put a layer of cooked potatoes cut into thin slices, and on top of the potatoes a thick layer of slices of tenderloin of beef; season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, chopped parsley, and chopped-up mushrooms; set a few whole egg-yolks here and there, then cover with another layer of onions and potatoes, both minced fine. The dish should now be quite full of the dressing, and dome-shaped on top. Roll out some cuttings of puff paste (No. 146) to an eighth of an inch in thickness; cut from it a band half an inch in width and sufficiently long to reach around the edge of the dish; wet the edge, and set the band over it, moisten and cover the whole with a rolled-out flat of the same paste an eighth of an inch in thickness; press down the paste on to the band, at the bottom of the dome, and cut away the superfluous paste all around the dish, outside the edge; then with a small knife cut grooves into the band through its thickness. Make a hole in the center of the dome in the paste, decorate around this with imitation leaves made of paste, brush it twice with beaten egg, and set the pie on a baking sheet. Cook it for an hour and a quarter in a moderate oven, and should it threaten to brown too soon cover with sheets of wet paper, and when ready to serve pour into the pie an espagnole sauce (No. 414), reduced with some clear gravy (No. 404). Set it on a dish over a folded napkin.