Pieathalon! Steak & Mushroom Pie

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Pieathalon! This year, even more retro bloggers have traded pie recipes, and now you get to enjoy the results.

• Yinzerella Dinner is Served 1972
• The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en Web Series
• Saucy Cherie at cookbookcherie.wordpress.com
• Our old friend Dr. Bobb of Dr. Bobb’s Kitschen
• Yesterday’s Menus
• Ashley at A Pinch of Vintage
• Bittersweet Susie
• Battenburgbelle
• Kelli from Kelli’s Kitchen
• Erica Retrochef from Retro Recipe Attempts
• Taryn from Retro Food For Modern Times
• Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers
• Clara at Heritage Recipe Box
• Poppy of Grannie Pantries
• S. S. of A Book of Cookrye
• RetroRuth from Mid-Century Menu
• Sarah at Directionally Challenged Cooking
• Mandee from Vintage Recipe Cards

The Retro Recipe household got to try Steak and Mushroom Pie, contributed to the Pieathalon by Battenburgbelle. It’s from the 1955 edition of A Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium.

Steak and Mushroom Pie Follow the directions given on page 40 for Rabbit Pie, but use 1 1/2 lb. beefsteak and 4 oz. mushrooms for filling.

Steak and Mushroom Pie is a short recipe, but let’s refer to the recipe for rabbit pie…

Rabbit Pie 1/2 lb. flaky pastry 1 small rabbit Seasoned flour 1 hard-boiled egg 1-2 rashers bacon Forcemeat balls (p. 78) Chopped parsley Stock or water Egg to glaze 1. Make pastry. Dip rabbit joints in seasoned flour (mix 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1 tbsp. flour). 2. Put rabbit, chopped egg, cut-up bacon, forcemeat and parsley in dish, and half-fill with liquid. 3. Put a strip of pastry round dampened rim of dish, moisten strip, cover, and flake the edges. 4. Scallop edges boldly, make a slit for steam to escape, decorate, and glaze with beaten egg.

Oh, I see, it bounces me to yet another recipe…

Forcemeat Stuffing and Balls

4 oz. breadcrumbs 2 oz. suet 1-2 oz. bacon or ham (optional) 2 tsps. chopped parsley Rind of 1/2 a lemon 1/4 tsp mixed herbs Salt and pepper Beaten egg 1. Make the breadcrumbs by rubbing stale bread on a wire sieve; discard crusts. 2. Chop the suet, if necessary, also bacon or ham, if used, and the parsley. Grate the lemon rind. 3. Mix all the ingredients together with a little beaten egg, until the stuffing will bind well. 4. Forcemeat balls should be neatly shaped, rolled in a little flour and fried or baked till brown.

WELL. Now that we’ve finally compiled an extensive shopping list and have all three recipes open on the laptop, let’s start putting everything together!

Hahaha, whoops, how did that rabbit get in the photo? 😉

One thing that I couldn’t get hold of was suet. We called a couple of local butcher shops and none sold suet; butter sounded like a reasonable substitute, so into the weird stuffing thing it went.

It was crazy assembling this. Delicious steak. Nice mushrooms. Then eggs… bacon… stuffing balls? It was something of a relief to cover it all with pastry and hide it in the oven.

“Well, crap. I forgot to add the liquid.” “What?” “It was supposed to have broth or something in it. I was looking at the wrong recipe when putting it together. Uh, should we eat it anyway?” “… Do you really want to cook it again?” We ate the pie.

Overall, this was a complicated and strange pie. The steak and mushrooms were rich and delicious. The bacon and eggs were OK, but not terribly special. The forcemeat stuffing balls were rather unpleasant, though, and their flavor didn’t go well with the beef. (Rabbit tastes more like chicken, and a meaty stuffing might be better with that.) But most importantly, we had fun making it. Swapping recipes with friends is awesome — and a big THANKS to Yinzerella for organizing it! Go enjoy the rest of the Pieathalon participants!