No. 2380

Veal Tart or Pie a la Dickinson

Tarte de Veau a la Dickinson

Suppress all the fat and sinews from a kernel of veal; cut it up into thin slices, having them an inch and a half in diameter. Butter a pie dish (Fig. 183) that can go into the oven; set slice of bacon and ham on the bottom, and over these the sliced veal, alternated; season with salt, pepper and parsley; add finely cut-up potatoes, chopped shallots or onions, then continue to fill with the same until the dish is quite full and well rounded on top; pour some clear gravy (No. 404) into the bottom, lay a small band made of puff paste parings on the edge of the dish, and a flat of the same paste on top; cut away the surplus paste around the dish, decorate and egg the pie over twice; bake it in a medium oven for one hour and a half for a dish containing a quart.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A layered veal-and-potato pie under a puff paste lid, from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894). The instructions assume a professional kitchen with stock and paste trimmings already on hand.

The hinge: fill it high and seal it wellThe dish is packed "quite full and well rounded on top" so the pastry rests on the filling rather than sagging into the gravy as the meat shrinks. The paste band around the rim is what the lid adheres to; brush the band with egg before laying the top on, or the crust will lift away in the oven.
"A kernel of veal"The kernel, or nut, is the cushion muscle from the leg — what a butcher now sells as veal top round. Ask for a solid piece rather than cutlets, since you want slices about 1½ inches across, cut thin. Veal round is very lean, which is why bacon and ham line the bottom.
Clear gravy (No. 404)Ranhofer's clear gravy is a strained, unthickened brown gravy. A good unsalted veal or chicken stock stands in; a modest amount, perhaps ½ cup for a quart dish, is enough. It should moisten the bottom layer, not submerge the filling, or the potatoes will collapse into the gravy.
Medium ovenThe book gives no temperatures; a moderate oven, in modern terms roughly 350°F, suits it. Ninety minutes at that heat cooks the potatoes and renders the veal tender without drying it. If the pastry colors too fast in the first half hour, lay a sheet of foil loosely over the top and remove it for the last fifteen minutes.
Puff paste paringsA professional kitchen had scraps left from trimming other pastries; these re-rolled trimmings puff unevenly. Ready-made all-butter puff pastry works, rolled about ⅛ inch thick. Rest it in the refrigerator after cutting the decorations so they hold their shape.
Egging twiceThe second coat of beaten egg goes on after the first has dried to the touch — a few minutes is enough. Two thin coats give the deep gloss expected of a dressed pie, where one thick coat tends to pool and scorch.
Potatoes and shallotsCut the potatoes thin, about the thickness of the veal, so the two cook at the same rate; a waxy variety holds its slices. "Finely cut-up" probably means thinly sliced here, though the text does not say. The shallots are raw going in and will sweeten over the long bake.
Yield and servingA quart dish serves four as a main course. Let it stand fifteen minutes before cutting so the juices settle; serve it in the dish, cut in wedges through the crust.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire set down in print — some three thousand numbered recipes cross-referencing one another, as this one refers you to No. 404 for gravy. The "à la Dickinson" tag belongs to a habit Ranhofer shared with his era's grand kitchens: naming dishes for patrons, and Delmonico's regulars included much of the city's commercial and political class. Who the Dickinson in question was is not recorded in the book, and such names were often attached to a dish once and never traced again. The construction itself is older and plainer than the name suggests — a raised or covered meat pie layered with bacon, ham and potato, closely related to the English veal-and-ham pie and to French tourtes of sliced meat baked under paste. Placing it among the "Miscellaneous Entrées" rather than the roasts marks it as a made dish, served in its own dish partway through a long menu.