Title: Great Pies England, 15th Century
Categories: British Medieval Beef Poultry Main
Yield: 10 Servings

1 1/2	lb	Pastry
1 1/2	lb	(3 cups) Minced beef
1/2	c	Shredded or grated suet
2	ts	Salt
1/4	ts	Pepper
1	lg	Roasting chicken; cut in serving pieces
1		Duck; cut in serving pieces
2	sm	Game birds (Quail, snipe, or woodcock) cut in pieces
1	ts	Salt
1/4	ts	Pepper
2	tb	To 4 tb raw beef marrow; chopped
4		Hard-boiled egg yolks, chopd
4		Dates; halved
1/2	c	Prunes; chopped
1/2	c	Raisins
4		Cloves
1/2	ts	Mace
1	ts	Cinnamon
1/4	ts	Saffron
1 1/2	c	Stock
"Gret	e Py	es"

: "Roll out the pastry and line a 12" pie or casserole dish with it. Mix the minced beef and suet together and season with salt and pepper. Spread some of this forcemeat over the pastry. : Parboil the birds for 15 to 20 minutes in the stock. Arrange them on top of the forcemeat and season with salt and pepper. Pack the remaining forcemeat between the birds. Chop the marrow, egg yolks, dates and prunes and spoon over the birds with the raisins. Sprinkle with the spices and pour over the stock. Cover with a pastry lid and bake at 350f for 1 to 1-1/2 hours."

The original: " Take faire yonge beef, And suet of a fat beste, or of Motton, and hak all this on a bord small; and caste thereto powder of pepper and salt; And whan it is small hewen, put hit in a bolle, and medle hem well; then make a faire large Cofyn, and couche som of this stuffur in. Then take Capons, Hennes, Mallardes, Connynges, and parboile hem clene, take wodekokkes, teles, grete briddes, and plom hem in a boiling potte; And then couche al this fowle in a Cofyn, And put in eurych of hem a quantite of pouder and salt. Then take mary, harde yolkes of egges, Dates cutte in ij (II, i.e. 2) peces, reisons of coraunce, prunes, hole clowes, hole maces, Canell, and saffron. But first, whan thou hast couched all thi foule, ley the remenaunt of thyne other stuffur of beef a-bought hem, as thou thenkest goode; and then strawe on hem this: dates, mary, and reysons, &c., And then close thi Coffyn with a lydde of the same paast, And putte hit in the oven, And late hit bake ynogh; but be ware, or thou close hit, that ther come no saffron nygh the brinkes there-of, for then hit will neuer close."

From "Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books" in Maxime de la Falaise' _Seven Centuries of English Cooking_ Grove Press, 1992. Typos by Jeff Pruett. (the spelling in the above quote from the original is retained). From: Jeff Pruett Date: 19 Dec 96 National Cooking Echo Ä

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