SC - Game Pie Help!

[Philip & Susan Troy]

lorix wrote:
> 
> It has to be cooked in a reasonably slow oven with the pastry (except
> for that hole) all covered by foil for about 30 mins to an hour - so the
> pastry doesn't burn.  When it is cooled, the aspic which has been made
> using the stock obtained from the bones of said game (cooked for about
> the same time as the pie) is poured into the pie.

Pies of this sort, using raw meats as a filling, and later filled up
with a flavorful liquid or other air excluder, seem to appear first in
17th-century English sources. Elinor Fettipace, Sir Hugh Plat, and
Kenelm Digby are all good sources for this sort of thing.

As descendants of the medival crustades, some pies of this sort, in the
early 17th century, seem to have a wine sauce, thickened with eggs,
poured into them. Later in the 17th century, many game pies are filled
with clarified butter for long keeping. I'm not sure when the first of
the aspic-filled pies occurs, but I wouldn't be surprised if the
practice occurs first in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.

On the other hand, many roast or baked meats have  a naturally occurring
jelly that congeals around the bottom of the meat as it cools. If one
were to simply add more, to keep the meat moist, it probably wouldn't be
especially amiss or out of character with meat pies to which no separate
sauce is added.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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