FoodNet

The spirit of cookery

1895

Page 359

Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
The contents of raised pies are generally rcujoiUs or 'fricas- sees of a more delicate kind, and less substantial, than the contents of pies of the English type ; the latter, therefore, fit Kitchiner’s definition of pies, the former do not. The diminutives, p>etits pidtes, are interesting and useful in the course of meals, as they can be got ready for service quickly by mere hotting if kept ready prepared in the larder. We now give the titles of some ragoilts and fricassees which are most commonly preferred for filling piitos, but without any reference to the outer structure or case : Pasty of Beef and Veal Farce {Pate a la Ciboidette) ; Ecujout of Cocks Combs (a la Financihre), Payout of Giblets PATES OP RAISED PIES, HOT AMD COLD 569 of Goose, Turkey, etc. ; Pclt& of Gold Veal; Pdtd of Cold Veal and Ham; Yorkshire or Christmas Pie. This is one of the most popular preparations of English cookery, and a very solid basis for the proper enjoyment of Christmas festivities. It is really magnificent and monumental, and a colossal resource of the side-table. Its convenience consists in its compendiousness, for although the birds, and even the pieces of ham, have to be taken out in order to be carved, nevertheless, this operation is relatively easy, as they are all boned. But, on the other hand, the pasty is inconvenient by its size, because it has to be consumed by strata, which may prevent any choice, even such as between goose and turkey ; and it appears to us, further, that the mixing of so many different flavours, even if producing a great all- penetrating harmony, must be destructive of the individual flavours, which are in our conception so agreeably associated with the idea of these birds of the farmyard or forest. However, the Yorkshire or Christmas Pie may be of all sizes and proportions imaginable, and in this adaptability to almost all human circumstances is to be found, next to its (juality, the main cause of its great popularity. If you fill a raised pie from the capacity of a pint to that of a gallon with mere sausage meat and some liquid aspic, bake it, and let it get cold, you have a very good supper dish ; but if you bestow upon the forcemeat particular care, make it of veal and pork, add foiol or game, boned and sliced as for a galantine, you have the condition of perfection in your hands. Have the ingredients so mixed that the meat need merely be sliced to be equally distributed and require no selection, and take particular care to have ready, either in the raised pie or in a special dish, a sufficiency of savoury •loell-spiced aspic jelly, the real represeutative of gravy with all kinds of cold meat. liaised Cold Pasties can be made with most of the fleshy materials with which hot pasties are filled ; sauces and 570 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY