(An excellent family dish.)
A tin mould of the construction shown in the plate, with a perforated moveable top, and a small valve to allow the escape of the steam, must be had for this pasty, which is a good family dish, and which may be varied in numberless ways. Arrange at the bottom of the mould from two to three pounds of mutton cutlets, freed, according to the taste, from all, or from the greater portion of the fat, then washed, lightly dredged on both sides with flour, and seasoned with salt and pepper, or cayenne. Pour to them sufficient broth or water to make the gravy, and add to it at pleasure, a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup or of Harvey’s sauce. Have ready boiled, and very smoothly mashed, with about an ounce of butter, and a spoonful or two of milk or cream to each pound, as many good potatoes as will form a crust to the pasty of quite three inches thick; put the cover on the mould and arrange these equally upon it, leaving them a little rough on the surface. Bake the pasty in a moderate oven from three-quarters of an hour to an hour and a quarter, according to its size and its contents. Pin a folded napkin neatly round the mould, before it is served, and have ready a hot dish to receive the cover, which must not be lifted off until after the pasty is on the table.
Chicken, or veal and oysters; delicate pork chops with a seasoning of sage and a little parboiled onion, or an eschalot or two finely minced; partridges or rabbits neatly carved, mixed with small mushrooms, and moistened with a little good stock, will all give excellent varieties of this dish, which may be made likewise with highly seasoned slices of salmon freed from the skin, sprinkled with fine herbs or intermixed with shrimps; clarified butter, rich veal stock, or good white wine, may be poured to them to form the gravy. To thicken this, a little flour should be dredged upon the fish before it is laid into the mould. Other kinds, such as cod, mullet, mackerel in fillets, salt fish (previously kept at the point of boiling until three parts done, then pulled into flakes, and put into the mould with hard eggs sliced, a little cream, flour, butter, cayenne, and anchovy-essence, and baked with mashed parsneps on the top), will all answer well for this pasty. Veal, when used for it, should be well beaten first: sweetbreads, sliced, may be laid in with it. For a pasty of moderate size, two pounds, or two and a half of meat, and from three to four of potatoes, will be sufficient; a quarter of a pint of milk or cream, two small teaspoonsful of salt, and from one to two ounces of butter must be mixed up with these last.[[115]]
[115]. A larger proportion of cream and butter well dried into the potatoes over a gentle fire after they are mashed, will render the crust of the pasty richer and finer.
CASSEROLE OF RICE.
Proceed exactly as for Gabrielle’s pudding (see Chapter [XXI].), but substitute good veal broth or stock for the milk, and add a couple of ounces more of butter. Fill the casserole when it is emptied, with a rich mince or fricassee, or with stewed oysters in a béchamel sauce. French cooks make a very troublesome and elaborate affair of this dish, putting to the rice to make it “mellow,” a great deal of pot-top fat, slices of fat ham, &c., which must afterwards be well drained off, or picked out from it; but the dish, made as we have directed, will be found excellent eating, and of very elegant appearance, if it be moulded in a tasteful shape. It must have a quick oven to colour, without too much drying it. The rice for it must be boiled sufficiently tender to be crushed easily to a smooth paste, and it must be mashed with a strong wooden spoon against the sides of the stewpan until all the grains are broken. It may then, when cool, be made like a raised pie with the hands, and decorated with a design formed on it with a carrot cut into a point like a graver. For a large casserole, a pound of rice and a quart of gravy will be required: a bit of bread is sometimes used in filling the mould, cut to the shape, and occupying nearly half the inside, but always so as to leave a thick and compact crust in every part. Part of the rice which is scooped from the inside is sometimes mixed with the mince, or other preparation, with which the casserole is filled.
A GOOD COMMON ENGLISH GAME PIE.
Raise the flesh entire from the upper side of the best end of a well-kept neck of venison, trim it to the length of the dish in which the pie is to be served, and rub it with a mixture of salt, cayenne, pounded mace, and nutmeg. Cut down into joints a fine young hare which has hung from eight to fourteen days, bone the back and thighs, and fill them with forcemeat No. 1 (Chapter [VIII.], page [157]), but put into it a double portion of butter, and a small quantity of minced eschalots, should their flavour be liked, and the raw liver of the hare, chopped small. Line the dish with a rich short crust (see page [337]), lay the venison in the centre, and the hare closely round and on it; fill the vacant spaces with more forcemeat, add a few spoonsful of well-jellied gravy, fasten on the cover securely, ornament it or not, at pleasure, and bake the pie for two hours in a well heated oven. The remnants and bones of the hare and venison may be stewed down into a small quantity of excellent soup, or with a less proportion of water into an admirable gravy, part of which, after having been cleared from fat, may be poured into the pie. The jelly, added to its contents at first, can be made, when no such stock is at hand, of a couple of pounds of shin of beef, boiled down in a quart of water, which must be reduced quite half, and seasoned only with a good slice of lean ham, a few peppercorns, seven or eight cloves, a blade of mace, and a little salt. One pound and a half of flour will be sufficient for the crust; this, when it is so preferred, may be laid round the sides only of the dish, instead of entirely over it. The prime joints of a second hare may be substituted for the venison when it can be more easily procured; but the pie made entirely of venison, without the forcemeat, will be far better.