Historical Food Fortnightly: Challenge #5: Pies

For this Historical Food Fortnightly challenge, I think I went a little over-board.

Pies.

I love pies.

Not just sweet pies, but savory ones too.

Besides the fact that a well made pie tastes good, I love pies because they are self contained, and aesthetically pleasing. There's also something about them that makes me think of a room full of hobbits - or a dark, smoke filled tavern where Aragorn lurks in the corner.

 Pies are portable.  Pies are sculptural.  Pies make me think of Middle Earth.

They also remind me of the past more than any other food.  They are a food that crosses nearly every century in modern history.  They cross every social border, and nearly every cultural one too.  High class pies, low class pies, foreign pies....they are everywhere you look.  They are the quintessential food of my English and Irish ancestors, and as far as food can be, pies are in my blood.

I giggled and rubbed my hands together when I read that pies (of course) were on the HSF list of challenges.

So, in honor of one of my favorite genres of food...I outdid myself and MADE 3 PIES.

Yes.  Three.

And it took me 12 looooooong hours.  How did they do it?!  I will separate each one, and give you the best run down that I can.  Pictures will be first, followed by the descriptions.

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Pie #1:  A Vegetable Pie in a Standing Crust

Standing crust after initial cooking, but pre-vegetables.

The cooked vegetable pie.

The Fricassee Sauce... no recipe here, it's just a basic seasoned rue... butter, flour, milk, salt, pepper and herbs.

The yummy vegetables ready to be devoured! 

(Don't eat this crust, it's pretty and functional, but doesn't taste good.  It eats like a rock.)

The Recipe:

 Vegetable Pie, by Sarah Martin, The New Experienced English Housekeeper

Standing Crust, by Mrs. Frazer , 

The Practice of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionary

The Date/Year and Region: English/American, late 18th century.

Time to Complete: 3 or 4 hours

How Successful Was It?: Very successful with all of the family.  It turned out exactly like I thought it would.  I would make it again, if it didn't take so long to make the crust.  I'll probably save it for special occasions.  It was a bit heart braking to have to throw away the crust when we were finished eating the vegetables.

How Accurate Is It?: I didn't alter this recipe one bit.  The only thing I can say is that I had a lot of help from the people at Savoring The Past. 

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Pie #2: Beef Pie, with Puff Paste Crust.

I savored this with brown English mustard.

The Recipe: 

Puff Paste Crust (with help from Savoring The Past)

Puff Paste - By Mrs. Frazer, The Practice of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionary

Take a pound of fine flour and half a pound of firm butter break the least half of it among the flour then wet it with about half a mutchkin half a pint of cold water and knead it very smooth If the paste stick to the table lift it up strew a little flour beneath it and when it is properly wrought up roll it out Divide the remainder of the butter into four parts take one of them and stick bits of it over the paste Strew some flour over it and give it a clap down with your hand to keep the butter from shifting then fold up the paste and continue to do so three times more when all the butter will be wrought up use it as quick as possible because it is the worse of lying.

 

or this one:

Puff Paste - By Gervase Markham, 1615, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (SERIOUSLY!!! That's the title!)

Now for the making of puff-paste of the best kind, you shall  take the finest Wheat flower after it hath been a little bak't [dried] in a pot in the Oven, and blend it well with eggs, whites and yelks all together, and after the paste is well kneaded, roul out a part thereof as thin as you please, and then spread cold sweet butter over the same; then upon the same butter roul  another lets of the paste as before, and spread it with butter also; and thus roul leaf upon leaf with butter between ill it be as thick as you think good: and with it either cover any bak't meat, or make paste for Venison, Florentine, Tart, or what dish else you please, and so bake it. 

For the hand pie filling, I did what Mr. Markham suggested every "Complete Woman" should do, and filled it with any "bak't meat" I felt like.  In this case, it was ground beef, seasoned with onions, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire Sauce.  So there.

 

The Date/Year and Region: Late 18th century, or early 1600's, depending on which crust recipe you use, England/America

Time to Complete: 4 or 5 hours...this pastry was the most time consuming.

How Successful Was It?: Delicious.  The crust was everyone's favorite part....like the flakiest, crunchiest, buttery pastry or croissant that you can find in Europe. (Not the soft, weak croissants in America.)

How Accurate Is It?: Accurate...except perhaps the ground beef filling.

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Pie #3: Strawberry Pie with Short Paste Crust and a side of Custard

Pre-cooked pie.

What they strawberry design looked like BEFORE it fell during the baking process.

The Custard.

The Recipe: 

Short Crust- By Mary Harrison, 1905, The Skillful Cook: A Practical Manual of Modern Experience

Ingredients

• 1 pound of flour
• 3/4 pound of butter
• enough cold water to mix rather stiffly
• pinch of salt

Instructions

Rub the butter into the flour until like fine bread-crumbs.

Mix with cold water, using as little as possible (if too much is used the crust will not be short).

Roll gently to make the paste bind.

If this paste is used for tarts, add one dessertspoonful of castor sugar to the flour.

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Strawberry Filling - (I followed the instructions from this recipe for the filling, but did not use their crust or presentation.) By Gesine Lemcke, 1920, Desserts and Salads

press 1/2 pint strawberries through a sieve and mix them with 3 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar; wash and drain 1/2 quart strawberries, put them in a dish, pour the mashed strawberries over the whole fruit and fill them into the tartelettes

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Custard - By John Farley, 18th century, The London Art of Cookery

The Date/Year and Region: England/America, year depends on which part of the recipe you are referring to.

Time to Complete: 2 or 3 hours...it's all a blur.

How Successful Was It?: I have to say that the flavor was excellent, but the consistency was a flop.  It was WAY too runny and wet inside of the pie.  Next time, I would thicken the sauce up before I put it into the pie.  The custard was fabulous.

How Accurate Is It?:  I followed all recipes, except I added lemon juice and cinnamon to the strawberry filling...but since I used three different recipes for the pie, I can't really say it belongs to one or the other.  So, out of the three pies, I would say this one is the least accurate.