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Beef Pot Pie
Cut into one-inch squares two pounds raw rump of beef. Peel six small white onions, two medium-sized potatoes, cut same as the beef. Tie together two branches celery, four branches parsley and two leeks. Place in a small, clean cloth twelve allspice, twenty black peppers, two bay leaves, four cloves and one saltspoon thyme; tie the cloth up firmly. Heat well in quite a large saucepan one ounce lard, then add the meat. Season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper. Stir well with a wooden spoon, then briskly cook for ten minutes, or until the meat obtains a good brown colour, stirring once in a while. Then add one very finely chopped onion, one ditto carrot and one sound, crushed garlic; stir well and cook again for five minutes. Add the six small onions, potatoes, celery, spice, etc., and one tablespoon flour. Gently mix for one minute, then add one gill demi-glace and two gills hot water. Cover the pan and allow to boil for ten minutes. Then place the pan in the hot oven for forty-five minutes. Remove it from the oven; remove the tied celery and spice; pour the stew into a deep baking dish. Cover nicely with a pie paste; trim the paste all around the dish. Glaze the surface with an egg yolk. Make a small chimney in the centre to allow to evaporate. Place in the oven to bake for twenty minutes, or till of a fine golden colour and serve.
A French-style ragout finished under a pastry lid, written for a cook who already has demi-glace on hand. The vessel does double duty: brown, braise and bake in one pan, then transfer to the pie dish.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so the braise takes 1/2 cup demi-glace and 1 cup hot water. A saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon.
- Demi-glaceReduced brown stock thickened with roux, the backbone of the sauce and the reason so little liquid is needed. A cup of strong beef stock reduced by half, or a good commercial demi-glace concentrate, stands in; plain broth will leave it thin and pale.
- Oven heat"Hot oven" in a book of this vintage means roughly 400-425F. Set 400F for the 45-minute braise, and the same for the 20-minute bake on the pastry so it colours before the filling boils over.
- The browning is the dishTen minutes of real colour on the beef, in a pan large enough that the cubes are not crowded, is what makes the gravy dark. If the meat greys and releases liquid, the pan is too small or too cool; brown in two batches instead.
- RumpRump here is a braising cut, not a roast. Chuck or boneless short rib behaves the same way; 45 minutes at 400F is short for 2 lb of beef, so check for tenderness and give it another 20-30 minutes if the cubes still resist a fork.
- Spice bagThe cloth bundle of allspice, peppercorns, bay, cloves and thyme is a bouquet garni in a bag; a large tea infuser or a doubled square of cheesecloth works. Both bundle and cloth come out before the pie is assembled, so nobody bites a clove.
- The chimneyThe recipe glazes with egg yolk first and then cuts the vent; make sure the hole stays open through the wash. Without it the steam lifts the lid off the filling and the pastry stays slack underneath.
- PastryThe recipe calls for a pie paste over the top only, with no type specified. Chill the filling slightly before laying the paste on, or the fat melts and the lid slumps.
- YieldTwo pounds of beef with potatoes and onions serves four to six as a main course.
The pot pie of English tradition was a stew baked under a crust, and this version shows what happened when a hotel-trained French cook got hold of it: mirepoix, garlic, a spice sachet and a gill of demi-glace, all techniques from the professional sauce station rather than the farmhouse. Filippini's International Cook Book collected dishes under national labels for American households at a time when French cooking held a strong position in New York restaurants, so "beef pot pie" arrives dressed in the vocabulary of the brigade kitchen. Demi-glace in particular marks the recipe as written by someone with a stockpot always going.