Title: Beef Olive Pie (Scottish Elizabethan)
Categories: British Medieval Meat Pie
Yield: 6 Servings

		** British Measurements **
8	oz	Shortcrust pastry
6	sl	Topside beef
14	oz	Spinach & sorrel; trimmed &
		. washed w/ strawberry &
		. violet leaves if availabl
2		Green onions; finely chopped
1	ts	Fresh thyme; chopped
2	oz	Red wine
1/2	ts	Salt
2		Eggs; hard-boiled & finely
		. chopped
1		Egg yolk; hard-boiled &
		. finely chopped
2	tb	Red wine
1	oz	Currants
	pn	Ground cinnamon
	pn	Ground cloves
	pn	Ground mace
2	oz	Butter
1	oz	Raisins
6		Prunes; stoned & finely
		. chopped

Preheat the oven to 425oF / 210oC / gas mark 7. Roll out the pastry and use to line a 9-inch deep flan dish. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350oF / 180oC / gas mark 4 and continue baking for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Chop the prepared greenstuff and place with the spring onions, thyme and red wine in a large saucepan. Sprinkle with salt. Cover and cook over a high heat for about 3 minutes, or until the greens begin to wilt. Place in a colander to drain.

Beat out the meat until thin and flat. Set aside while preparing the stuffing. Place the chopped egg, wine currants and spices in a bowl. Add 2 oz of the wilted greens, chopped very fine and season with salt. Mix thoroughly. Divide the mixture equally into six and spread on each of the steaks. Top with a small piece of butter and roll up neatly. Secure with fine string or a cocktail stick.

Add the raisins and prunes to the remainder of the greenstuff and mix together well. Place the mixture in the prepared flan case. Arrange the stuffed "olives" on the greens and dot with more butter. Cover tightly with kitchen foil and bake in a fairly hot oven (375oF / 190oC / gas mark 5) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the beef is cooked.

Remove the foil and string or cocktail sticks and serve as though it were a pie.

Makes about 6 servings. ** A Book of Historical Recipes ** : by Sara Paston-Williams The National Trust of Scotland, 1995 ISBN = 0-7078-0240-7

Scanned and formatted for you by The WEE Scot -- pol mac Griogair

ORIGINAL RECIPE::

To bake an Olive-Pye (dated from 1615 AD)

"To make an excellent Olive Pye: take sweet hearbs as Violet leaves, Strawberry leaves, Spinage, Succory (chicory), Endive, Tyme and Sorrel, and chop them as small as may be, and if there be a Scallion or two amongst them, it will give the better taste. Then take the yolks of Hard Eggs, with Currants, Cinnamon, Cloves, and Mace, and chop them among the hearbs also; Then having cut out long Olives (thin slices) of a leg of Veal, roule up more than three parts of the hearbs so mixed within the Olives, together with a good deal of sweet butter. Then having raised your crust of the finest and best paste, strow (scatter) in the bottom the remainder of the hearbs, with a few great Raisins, having the stones pickt out. Then put in the Olives, and cover them with great Raisins, and a few Prunes: then over all lay good store of butter, and so bake them. Then being sufficiently bak't, take Claret Wine, Sugar, Cinamon, and two or three spoonfuls of Wine Vinegar, and boyl them together, and then drawing the Pye, at a vent in the top of the lid, put in the same, and then set it into the Oven again a little space, and so serve it forth."

From: Fred Ball Date: 30 Nov 96 National Cooking Echo Ä

previous

next