Happy Pie Day!

OK, so maybe it isn’t a REAL holiday, but when you live with enough geeks and engineers, well, yeah it is.

In any case, I’ll confess I do have rather a strong fondness for baking shows in general and I’m kinda-sorta a fan of the Great British Baking Show. While watching it, I got introduced to hand-raised pies, something I’d never had neither eaten nor attempted . In several episodes, I watched bakers wrangling with a hot water crust pastry (which is definitely not typical today) and a ‘pie dolly’ (wooden cylindrical mold) upon which they were to ‘raise’ the pie crust into shape. It was really fascinating.

And we all know what happens when this particular author gets fascinated, right? Yep, right down the research rabbit hole. So here we go…

From medieval times, pie were a staple food and more often than not, contained savory rather than sweet fillings. Crusts proved an excellent way to contain and store food, and made it easy to travel with it. As such, many crusts were not really intended for eating but for creating a cooking and storage vessel for the dish as in this recipe.

OF PASTRY.

For a common crust to send abroad, or to keep long, according to the bigness of the pie you intend, make the paste with common flour, a little butter, salt, and warm water.— This crust is not proposed for eating, but to keep the inside properly.

Clermont~The Professed Cook

That is not to say all crusts were not intended for eating. Hanna Glass provides a recipe for what looks to be a hot water crust pastry for a hand raised pie, without the ‘not for eating’ warning.

A standing Crust for great Pies.

TAKE a peck of flour, and six

pounds of butter, boiled in a gallon of water; skim it off into the flour, and as little of the liquor as you can; work it well up into a paste, then pull it into pieces till it is cold; then make it up in what form you will have it. This is fit for the walls of a goose pie.

Hanna Glasse~The Art of Cooking Made Simple and Easy

Claremont in a slightly later cookbook suggests a version of puff pastry to used for a raised crust.

Puff Paste.

Paste for raised crust is made firmer, by using more flour and less butter; it is done with warm water: let it rest some time, then raise it upon paper for puff-paste. Use about a pound of butter to a quarter of a pound of fine flour, some salt, and cold water to work it.

Clermont~The Professed Cook

As I read these old recipes, I’m struck both by the lack of measurements and the lack of instructions about specific techniques. Obviously, they were meant to serve as reminders not exact guides, and relied on the reader having some sort of familiarity or experience to draw from.

The same approach is evident in these recipes for fillings for hand-raised pies made with these crusts.

A Calf’s-head Pie. Take a calf’s head and parboil it j when it is cold, cut it in pieces, and season it well with pepper and salt: put it in a raised crust, with half a pint of strong gravy; let it bake an hour and a half. When it comes out of the oven, cut off the lid, and chop the yolks of three hard eggs small; strew them over the top of the pie, lay on three or four slices of lemon, and pour on some melted butter. Send it to table without a lid.

A rich Goose Pie. Take a goose and a fowl, bone them, and season them well; put the fowl into the goose, and some force-meat into the fowl; put these into a raised crust, and fill the corners with a little forcemeat; lay half a pound of butter on the top, cut into pieces; cover it, and let it be well baked. Goose pie is eaten cold.

A Ham Pie. Bone the ham, and trim it properly; in the trimming take care to cut off all the rusty fat or lean, till you come to the wholesome-looking flesh: if an old ham, soak it twenty-sour hours; if fresh, fix or eight hours, then braze it with slices of beef, slices of bacon, some butter, and hog’s lard, a large faggot of sweet herbs, all sorts of roots, and whole pepper; braze it till three parts done; then let it cool, and put it in a raised paste, with the liquid, and a gill of brandy ; bake it an hour, and let it cool before using. If it is to be served hot, skim off the fat very clean, and serve with a relishing cullis sauce, without salt.

An Herb Pie for Lent. Take an equal quantity of spinach, lettuce, leeks, beets, and parsley, about a handhandful of each; boil them, and chop them small. Have ready boiled in a cloth, a quart of groats, with two or three onions among them; put them and the herbs into a frying-pan, with a pretty large quantity of salt, a pound of butter, and some apples cut thin ; stew them a few minutes over the fire, fill your dish or raised crust with it; bake it an hour, and serve it up.

A Salmon Pie. Lard your salmon with eel and anchovies, soaked and seasoned with spices and sweet herbs chopped ; put it in a raised crust or puff-paste, as you think proper; put butter under and over, with some of the fame seasoning. Pikes, eels, or any other kind of fish, may be dressed in pies after the same manner. Make all pies of this sort pretty relishing with lemon: you may also make it without larding it, as above.

Perkins~~ Every Woman Her Own Housekeeper

Here’s a video showing the process of making a hand raised pie. Definitely not how we think of making a pie today, is it?

What do you think? Are you ready to try making one yourself? Tell me in the comments.

References

Clermont, B., and Menon. The Professed Cook ; Or, the Modern Art of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionary, Made Plain and Easy … including a Translation of Les Soupers De La Cour … By B. Clermont … The Third Edition, Revised and Much Enlarged. London: W. Davis, Etc., 1776.

Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy: Which Far Exceeds Any Thing of the Kind Ever Yet Published … London: Printed for the Author, and Sold at Mrs. Ashburn’s, a China Shop, the Corner of Fleet-Ditch, 1747.

Perkins, John. Every Woman Her Own Housekeeper; Of, the Ladies’ Library. London. 1790