Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Yes, they were baked into a pie, which, nursery rhyme poetic license aside, properly describes the range of meats the British cover with pastry and covet to this day as one of their national dishes. Here is how U.K. chefs are reclaiming meat pies.
Andy Lynes reports.
If the Union Jack were a food, it would be a meat pie, the combination of savory filling and crisp crust that's been part of Great Britain's national identity for centuries. In her seminal book English Food, the late Jane Grigson writes: "The idea of making boxes of pastry, or coffins as they were called in the Middle Ages, and filling them with pork and game, has been with us so long, and so enjoyably, that it is impossible to imagine an English table without them." Thirty years on from their first publication, her words still ring true.
Although under siege by American doughnuts, Italian gelato, and Japanese sushi, there's still a place for British meat pies in London's famous Harrods food hall. The evocatively named Beef Growler (minced beef flavored with horseradish and beets), Gala Log (a long rectangle of pastry filled with ground pork and harboring whole boiled eggs at its center), and Yorkshire Relish Pie (an unlikely combination of pork, mustard, mild Wensleydale cheese, and chicken breast) offer a window onto an arcane world of British tradition kept alive by artisan pie makers such as Burbush's of Penrith in Cumbria.
From casual diners to Michelin starred establishments, meat pies are proving popular not only with customers but also with chefs, who are rediscovering their convenience and cost effectiveness. "Its so user-friendly for service, it makes life incredibly easy," says Marcus Wareing, executive chef of The Savoy Grill in London. "All the flavors are there, everything's finished. It's just a case of warming it through."
The Savoy sells around 30 individual pies a day during lunch and early supper, with the classic steak-and-kidney and chicken/ham/mushroom being the most popular. Wareing keeps a close eye on quality, and all the short crust, puff, and suet pastry for the pies are made in the hotel's kitchens. Although he admits it's a good way of using up the trimmings from à la carte meat dishes, he won't compromise when it comes to the filling. "You must treat a pie with the same respect you treat a fillet of beef, a sea bass, or a lobe of foie gras. It can't become a dumping ground to put any old stuff in. When you cut into the pie, you should see nice pieces of meat in there."
The steak-and-kidney pies are made traditionally, but Wareing has added his own fine dining twist to the recipe. After sealing pieces of rib, sirloin, or fillet and the kidney, he sautés sliced onions and mushrooms and deglazes the pan with red wine. He then adds a reduction of brown ale and beef jus. The filling is cooled before being cooked in a suet pastry crust. "They're steamed first and then finished in the oven, giving the pie a sort of soggy aeration on the bottom and a crisp top crust. It's a really nice combination."
At Sir Terence Conran's Paternoster Chop House in the City of London, the capital's financial district, head chef Peter Weedon buys half carcasses of rare breeds of British beef, lamb, and pigs from a nationwide network of small scale suppliers for his "beast of the week" program. The meat is butchered in-house. The prime cuts become main courses, while meat from the forequarter is diced and minced for traditional hot water crust pies served in cold slices as a starter. Even the fat gets rendered for the pastry. "It's a complex process," Weedon says. "It takes two days to make the pies, so we're not making life easy for ourselves, but it's a good selling point and it's easy at the point of service. Each of the 120 slices sold each week is accompanied by a homemade relish such as piccalilli (cauliflower and onions in vinegar, mustard, and turmeric) or pickled walnuts to provide some acidity to balance the richness of the crust, fat content of the meat filling, and the pie's layer of rich meat jelly.
Pie Chart Lest any Yank or Continental type trolling for treats at Fortnum & Mason or strolling the food halls at Harrods become confused by the displays of meat pies in various guises, here's a lexicon that can only enhance appreciation and final choice: Cornish pasty: A savory short crust turnover, semicircular in shape, traditionally filled with diced beef, onions, turnips, and potatoes, and eaten by itself as a lunch dish. The raw filling is cooked inside the pastry. Other varieties include leek, bacon, hard-boiled egg, and even curry. To drink: Camel Valley sparkling Pinot Noir Rosé 2003 Game pie: Served cold, the pie is made from a mixture of game meats layered with bacon strips and sausage meat, cooked in a hot-water crust and finished with aspic. It could serve as the centerpiece of a grand buffet. To drink: Denbies Redlands 2004 Raised pie: A hot-water crust, made by heating water and lard together and mixing them with flour to form a dough, is traditionally "raised" by hand around a cylindrical wooden mold. It can be filled with veal, game, chicken, or rabbit but is most well-known as a pork pie, the most famous of which comes from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. Finely diced pork is typically seasoned with spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and anchovy essence. Once cooked, a jellied stock is poured in to fill gaps where the meat has shrunk. The pie is eaten cold with pickles or relishes. To drink: bottle fermented English sparkling cider from Somerset Distillery Shepherd's pie: An anomaly in the world of pies as the mix of minced lamb, carrots, and onions cooked in stock is topped with mashed potatoes rather than pastry. The version made with beef is called cottage pie. To drink: Sharpham Beenleigh Red 2003 Steak/kidney/oyster pie: Rump steak, kidneys, onions, mushrooms, and oysters cooked in a thickened beef stock, then baked in short crust pastry. The lid of the pie can also be made with puff pastry. The recipe is thought to have originated in Sussex in the mid-19th century and first appeared in Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. At the time, oysters were commonplace in the U.K. and would have been a cheap way to add flavor and heft to the pie. To drink: Harvey's Porter Ale —A.L. |
Cass Titcombe is putting his knowledge and experience in developing pies for the retail sector to good use at the recently opened Canteen restaurant in London's historic Spitalfield's market. With its clean lines, bench seating, and open kitchen, the restaurant is a sort of European take on the wildly successful Wagamama noodle bar concept, except here the biggest seller is steak-and-kidney pie rather than chili beef ramen. With over 400 hungry Londoners a day to feed, pie making at Canteen is done on a near industrial level. "We make 40 kilos [88 pounds] of filling at a time, which is enough for 160 250-gram [8-ounce] single portion pies. I've learned a few tricks over the years of developing pies. I add some dried porcini powder and Worcestershire sauce, which gives the steak pies a really nice savory flavor. I've also come to the conclusion that there's no need to fry off the meat before adding it to the mix."
Although in the past he's been responsible for creating the decidedly un-British Thai green chicken curry, Titcombe is keeping things more straightforward with the 10 varieties of pies he makes at Canteen, including chicken and ham/leek/mushroom. "Beef and horseradish is as outlandish as it gets," he admits, "although our gravy is quite random. It's made from beef, pork, chicken, and some game stock that's thickened with a roux made with flour and the fat from our daily roast."
Philip Howard was inspired to offer a hot game pie to his lunch customers at the Michelin two-starred The Square in Mayfair after taking part in a TV program. "I was asked to create a British game dish for Greatest Dishes in the World," he recalls. "In England, we don't do all those elegant complex French game dishes. Our cooking heritage isn't about fancy recipes. But I do think something like a well made and wholesome game pie is a great thing."
Howard makes the pie from a combination of grouse, pigeon, partridge, and venison and gives it a personal touch with the addition of raisin puree. "I've got a really sweet tooth, and I like sweetness in savory dishes. If you cook game and you serve it pink, it retains its moisture, but once it's thoroughly cooked, as in the pie, it has the potential to be dry, so it needs lubrication. The raisin puree adds sweetness and some moisture to the dish."
The pie is served with a pool of celeriac puree, rutabaga/carrot mash, and savoy cabbage. "Lunchtimes, when people's palates aren't as advanced as they are in the evenings, simpler, more humble dishes are more appropriate, so the pie works as the primary component. But in the evenings we put a tiny version made from duck leg meat on the plate purely as a garnish for roasted wild duck with butternut squash and black trumpet mushrooms."
Rutland Water in the East Midlands is renowned for game, which is often featured on Aaron Patterson's menu at the luxury country house hotel Hambleton Hall. His saddle of venison with braised then caramelized endive with fondant potatoes, cabbage, and smoked bacon served with venison/chocolate sauce was the inspiration for a surprising, refined take on the humble Cornish pasty. The original—a turnover of beef, onions, turnips, and potatoes wrapped in short crust pastry—was, legend has it, the preferred lunch of Cornish tin miners.
"We braise some topside of venison, then mix it with shredded endive that's been sweated down with sugar, orange juice, and cream until it's velvety and thick," Patterson notes. "We then grate some dark bitter chocolate on top and wrap it in a disk of short crust folded over and crimped along the edge. The sweetness of the endive and the bitterness of the chocolate go really well with the venison." Patterson plans to serve them as "pocket warmers"—a hot snack for shooting parties to munch on while out hunting.
You couldn't find an ingredient more representative of the North of England than cow heel. The Lancashire born Michelin starred chef Nigel Haworth puts the gelatinous cut into the steak-and-cow heel pudding he serves at his Three Fishes gastropub in Mitton. Although Haworth possesses his own herd of rare breed British White cattle, he buys the heel from his tripe supplier, who boils and bleaches it for him. As the raw ingredients, including beef shin and onions, are steamed for four hours in a suet crust, it's not strictly speaking a pie. But, as Haworth points out, the recipe can be adapted by cooking the filling first and then baking it in the crust. "Pies are an abused treasure," says Haworth. "They've been bastardized over time, and a lot of young chefs don't have the skills to make them. But they should be as much a part of our heritage as pasta is to the Italians ."
