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Title: Mock Squab Pie
Categories: British Pie Lamb Heirloom Blank
Yield: 8 Servings

1 Recipe of your favourite pie crust
4lgTart cooking apples; like Granny Smiths, peeled, cored and s
1cSugar
1lgOnion, sliced
3/4lbStewing lamb cut
  Into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2tsDry mustard
1/4tsAllspice
1/2tsGround sage
1/4tsMarjoram
1/2tsThyme

This is my interetation of my Great Aunt Ellen's recipe. Ellen Nott lived in Cornwall all her life, never venturing as far afield as England. She would have learned to cook from my Great Grandmother Rollins who was born in 1846.

My mother started a personal cook book when she married in 1947 and collected both newspaper clippings in it and hand written recipes from relatives. This recipe was found loose on a scrap of paper in that book and is the only one in Aunt Ellen's own hand.

"Cut up some apples to nearly half fill the dish. Then cut up one nice large onion. Add 2 teaspoons full of spice, not the sweet, but what you put in pork pudding. It's sold by weight; you can get 2 ounces and keep it in a tin if its a [illegible]. Get 1/2 or 3/4 lb mutton; cut it up just like we should for a pasty and a good cup of sugar. Then more apples to fill the dish."

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Make pastry and roll out 1/4" thin. Cut out the bottom crust and line a 10" pie pan with it. Sprinkle the sliced apples with the sugar. Cut meat in 1/2" cubes and mix with the seasonings. Place half the apples into the pie, then the seasoned meat. Add a layer of sliced onions and top with the remaining apples.

Top with the second crust, crimp the edges and make 3 vent holes to allow steam to escape.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes and then reduce the heat to 300 degrees F and bake for 1 3/4 hours. If necessary place some aluminim foil on the top to prevent burning. Remove from the oven and allow to cool somewhat before serving.

Jim Weller

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