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serindeAttempted the Veal and Ham Pie this morning. Labor-intensive, yo.
The basic idea of these is that you are raising a thick, heavy crust, called a "coffin", which serves as your actual dish; no pie plate is involved. For this particular pie, it should be 8" round and 3.5" high (which mine was shorter and longer, oh well); you line it with Forcemeat, which is glopped-up meat & fat & herbs into a kind of paste; put in your meat filling; seal the top crust, except for a hole in the middle; and then quickly pour in some stock and shove it into the oven before the stock starts dissolving your crust. The benefit of this behavior is that you have a long, slow, moist cooking of your meats. Also, if you plug up the hole in the top afterwards, the sealed pie can keep for quite some time.
So, I raised my coffin, which went more easily than I expected. I made my forcemeat (which they say to use bacon, and don't specify what kind so I assume they're using American, which probably isn't right; but it don't signify). I made my filling (should have cut the pieces smaller). All of this went tolerably well. I put it all together, and found that the filling was higher than the pie. Oops. Well, so the crust will be concave. OK.
First major hitch: I had a bear of a time rolling out the top crust. It had been sitting far longer than the rest of the dough, which did not help. (I think in future I'll roll it out at the same time then wrap it in a damp towel.) But I managed to get it on. Then went to pour my cup of stock in, only to find that the damn filling was so full that I couldn't hardly get half of it into the pie. I'm not sure whether that matters, since the meats I were using in this case are reasonably tender, but nothing I could do at that point anyways. So, put it in the oven.
1.5 hours later, took it out. There was some leakage, though not too much. I let it cool a bit and cut in, whereupon TONS of juice started running out. It had not gelled into gravy at all. I don't know whether I should have dredged the meat in more flour, or whether I should have let the pie cool completely for to congeal, or whether it's supposed to be like this. I think it's not right, because you're supposed to be able to "slice it...for a pretty Side-Dish", and right now you slice it and all sorts of meat comes tumbling out.
Tastes okay anyways, but the flavors aren't really blended, which a more gravylike interior would have helped. Also, it desperately wants HP sauce, which we are out of. Woe!
In other news, yesterday's pork loin roasting turned out okay--it was indeed done by the time we needed to leave, and was remarkably juicy and nice. Mind you, I got it from the specialty pork butcher so it should have no matter what I did to it; but nevertheless, I feel a bit more optimistic about the spit-roasting thing. (OTOH, the spit itself has some design issues that vex me greatly.)
The basic idea of these is that you are raising a thick, heavy crust, called a "coffin", which serves as your actual dish; no pie plate is involved. For this particular pie, it should be 8" round and 3.5" high (which mine was shorter and longer, oh well); you line it with Forcemeat, which is glopped-up meat & fat & herbs into a kind of paste; put in your meat filling; seal the top crust, except for a hole in the middle; and then quickly pour in some stock and shove it into the oven before the stock starts dissolving your crust. The benefit of this behavior is that you have a long, slow, moist cooking of your meats. Also, if you plug up the hole in the top afterwards, the sealed pie can keep for quite some time.
So, I raised my coffin, which went more easily than I expected. I made my forcemeat (which they say to use bacon, and don't specify what kind so I assume they're using American, which probably isn't right; but it don't signify). I made my filling (should have cut the pieces smaller). All of this went tolerably well. I put it all together, and found that the filling was higher than the pie. Oops. Well, so the crust will be concave. OK.
First major hitch: I had a bear of a time rolling out the top crust. It had been sitting far longer than the rest of the dough, which did not help. (I think in future I'll roll it out at the same time then wrap it in a damp towel.) But I managed to get it on. Then went to pour my cup of stock in, only to find that the damn filling was so full that I couldn't hardly get half of it into the pie. I'm not sure whether that matters, since the meats I were using in this case are reasonably tender, but nothing I could do at that point anyways. So, put it in the oven.
1.5 hours later, took it out. There was some leakage, though not too much. I let it cool a bit and cut in, whereupon TONS of juice started running out. It had not gelled into gravy at all. I don't know whether I should have dredged the meat in more flour, or whether I should have let the pie cool completely for to congeal, or whether it's supposed to be like this. I think it's not right, because you're supposed to be able to "slice it...for a pretty Side-Dish", and right now you slice it and all sorts of meat comes tumbling out.
Tastes okay anyways, but the flavors aren't really blended, which a more gravylike interior would have helped. Also, it desperately wants HP sauce, which we are out of. Woe!
In other news, yesterday's pork loin roasting turned out okay--it was indeed done by the time we needed to leave, and was remarkably juicy and nice. Mind you, I got it from the specialty pork butcher so it should have no matter what I did to it; but nevertheless, I feel a bit more optimistic about the spit-roasting thing. (OTOH, the spit itself has some design issues that vex me greatly.)
