Rook Pie

Ingredients

• six or eight freshly-killed young rooks
• a pound of chuck steak
• half a tea-cupful of stock or water
• a small slice of butter
• salt
• pepper
• pounded mace

Method

1. 1

   Skin and draw the rooks, cut out the backbones, season with salt and pepper, and place in a pie-dish with stock.

2. 2

   Cover with a crust and bake for two hours.

3. 3

   After cooling, cover with good pastry, ornament, and bake until done.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 1599. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Rook Pie. — Rooks require long stewing, or they will not be tender. The breasts are the only parts of the birds which are really worth xising, and when the other portions are put into the dish, care should be taken to cut out the spine and the flesh near it to the width of three- quarters of an inch, or the pie will have a bitter taste. Many cooks lay the birds in a dish. season them with pepper and salt, put a coarse fiour-and-water crust over them, and then bake them for a couple of hours ; the next day they remove the common crust, lay good pastrj- over them, and bake the pie in the usual way. The following recipe will, however, be found very good : — Take six or eight freshly-ldlled young rooks. Skin without plucking them, and to do this cut the skin round the first joint of the legs, and draw it over the head. Cut ofi: the necks, draw the birds, and cut away the legs, backs, and wings. Cut a pound of chuck steak into neat squares, pepper these, and lay them in a pie-dish, poui-ing over them half a tea-cupful of stock or watei"; cover the dish closely, and balce the meat till it is almost done enough. Lay the breasts of the rooks upon the steak, wath a small slice of butter upon each. Spi-inkle over them a seasoning of salt, pepper, and pounded mace

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.