SC - Thanksgiving & Cooking gifts

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:

> Ooooohhhhhh........Game pie!........  :-)
> Do you have a recipe? sounds yummy!

A Game Pie Recipe
This is a family recipe so bear with me as I try to remember it.  The meat is
not cooked before being placed in pie & so the pie needs to be cooked in a
moderate oven for up to 4 hours to allow all of the meat to cook thoroughly.
After it has cooled, an aspic is made & poured through the steam hole in the
pastry to thoroughly coat the top of the meat (like the pork pies you can buy.
The following measures are predicated on the pie being cooked in a round
(ceramic) container with top diameter=30cm & depth of bowl = 20cm.  It is a BIG
pie.

PASTRY
500g lard
400ml water
1300g flour
* Dissolve lard in boiling water, stirring it until thoroughly mixed & then add
it to the flour.  Mix thoroughly & divide mixture using 2/3 for base & 1/3 for
top.  Roll out while still warm & line pan.  This pastry recipe has a
deliberately a high fat content.  It withstands the slow cooking process well,
although when you put the completed pie in the oven, you should cover it with
alfoil & cook initially with the alfoil for over 2 hours.

PIE
OK, this is where we get really rough in measurements, 'cause it works on 'what
you think is right'!  Basically you need about 2kg of pork mince, 1/2 kg of
streaky bacon with rinds removed & up to 2-3 kg (depends on size of pie) of game
of your choice.  Generally, we try to use a mixture of white & red meats as this
gives it a very distinctive taste & appearance.  As my father had a farm &
hunted, this used to be prepared with whatever game was in the house (eg. wild
duck, rabbit, hare, quail, pheasant & venison).  At a bare minimum, it is best
made with venison & rabbit, although turkey may be OK as a substitute or
addition to this mix.

For this to taste its best, there is a lot of wastage, since all sinews & fats
should be removed from the meats otherwise, the meat will toughen.

To start the pie, the pastry should be rolled out to about 1/2 cm thickness &
then placed into the cooking pan.  It will need to be worked to get it to fit
properly in the container & has a tendency to shrink while you are working it.
Because of the high fat content in the pie, once the pastry has cooled, if you
have formed it in a spring form pan, you can remove the exterior, since the
sides become very hard (coffyn like :-).

The pork mince is usually mixed with a variety of spices (nutmeg, mace, ginger,
black pepper etc).  Most of it is used to form a fairly thick lining over the
base & the sides of the pastry.  1/3 of the mixed game (also spiced as suits
your taste) is loosely thrown into the base of the pie.  This is then covered
with overlapping strips of bacon & spiced with black pepper on top.  Then
another layer of mixed game, then a layer of bacon, then the last layer of game
covered with bacon.

A little of the pork mince is then spread on the top as a sort of buffer.  Small
"toweres" are also made out of the mince (basically mince balls).  These towers
are spread about the top of the pie & designed to lift the pastry off the meat
by about 2cm & allow an air flow & stop the pastry from sagging.  Again, because
of the high fat content in the pastry, if such artifices are not used, the
pastry sags on to the meat & does not rise & becomes very soggy from the meat
juices released in the cooking process.

A round hole is cut thru the pastry in the middle with a diameter of at least
1cm.  Small cuts can also be made in other areas of the pie.  Pastry decorations
can be added to the pie at this stage.  Alfoil covers the pie, although a hole
must also be cut in the alfoil to sit over the hole in the pastry.  To stop the
pastry burning, the alfoil is sort of tucked into the hole a little, before
puling it firmly around the edges.

Now, it is then cooked for about 4 hours at about 180oC.  After about 2 hours,
the pie should be removed from the oven to check the colour of the meat juices.
Enormous quantities of meat juices are released when cooking this dish.
Usually, the precautions of propping up the pastry & perhaps leaving a hollow in
the meat under the center steam hole is enough to allow these meat juices to
escape as steam.  Sometimes, however, they will be released & bubble up thru the
hole & over the pastry(Pastry will then burn on the outside :-(.  This usually
will happen after 1 1/2 - 2 hours of cooking.  If the hole looks like it is
going to overflow, some of the juices may need to be spooned or siphoned out.
The pie should be covered by alfoil again and returned to the oven.  It may need
to be checked several times for this.

After about 3 - 3 1/2 hours cooking (assuming a pie of the dimension already
stated).  The alfoil can be removed and the temperature be reduced to 150oC.
The last 1/2 -1 hour of cooking is the worst, because it is usually in the last
10-20 minutes of cooking (as the pastry rapidly starts to brown and you start
worrying it is going to burn) that the meat is cooked thru.  How can you tell
when the meat is cooked, the meat juices cease to run with blood!

Whilst the pie is cooking, all bones, excess meat, & 'rubbish' meat should be
covered with water in a pan & allowed to cook slowly into a satisfying stock.
After several hours of cooking, the bones can be removed & the stock reduced
considerably.  It is this mixture (perhaps with the addition of port & cranberry
jelly during the initial boiling process) that will be used to make the aspic.
Once the mixture is reduced to about 3 cups full of liquid, several egg whites
should be added to the mix to clarify the stock.  After boiling for several
minutes, the egg whites will cook & rise to the surface (usually in strands).
The whole mix should then be strained thru muslin with the stuff left in the
muslin discarded.  If sufficient bones have been used to boil the stock, the
stock will actually set itself into aspic.  However, I tend to feel that it is
better to be safe than sorry & add several spoons full of gelatin.  If you want
to make sure that you stock will set, you can let it cool & see (aspic can
always be re-melted), or let a few drops fall onto a saucer & put it in the
fridge to see if it hardens!

Once the pie has been cooked & cooled enough so it is comfortable to handle,
pour the cooled aspic into the pie thru the hole in the top.  This will need to
be done in stages, as the aspic will soak thru the meat into any airholes.  It
should also soak around down the sides of the pie where the mince will have
contracted from the pastry.  It is worth lifting the pie & rolling it gently
from side to side to let the aspic find all of the gaps.  When the pie will not
accept any more aspic, cover it with a tea-towel, let it cool further, then
cover with foil & put it in the fridge overnight.

The pie is best served a day after serving since the meat 'matures' in the pie &
tastes much nicer.  We usually serve this with a salad of sliced oranges
(oranges, sprinkled with brown sugar & soaked in brandy for several hours), wild
rice & a crisp green salad.  Cranberry or redcurrant sauce is a nice
accompaniment.  The pastry is very rich and is quite tasty since much of the
meat juices soak into it.  However, most times people can only eat a small
amount of it since it is VERY rich.  Cooking it in a circular pie dish can cause
problems when slicing it, although I tend to prefer this look.  My father tends
to cook his pies in a rectangular pyrex dish, since it is easier to slice.  We
usually cook it in pyrex or ceramic since these do not heat in the same way as
metal & the pastry cooks better without burning.   To get the pie out of the
pan, you set the pan in a sink of hot water for several minutes & this softens
the lard that has leaked out on to the base of the pie dish & the pie will tip
out to be quickly righted on to another plate.

I have frozen these, but it does affect adversely the full bodied flavor.  The
pie is incredibly rich & a little slice goes a long way.  I served several of
these at a feast of 70, just using a venison/rabbit combination.  Each table was
served a quarter of the pie (& seconds if wanted).  It was very popular, but it
was a lot of work for a feast setting.  Usually this is a family dish for
festive occasions.

I note that the pastry recipe is actually very similar to these given in
Welserin's cookbook.  Further, the combination of the meats are similar to those
suggested in 'grete pies'.  However, the addition of aspic into the pie is
problematical for being period.  Welserin gives recipes for the making of aspic,
but it is not added into the pies.  The addition of the aspic for this recipe is
vital, because of the large airspace left between the pie lid & the meat.  If
you don't add aspic, the meat dries out.  It is not a dish that should be served
hot as it tastes nowhere as nice as when it has aged for a day or so.

Yours lengthily (without having time to re-read or edit)

Lorix


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