Brooks’s pie

Brooks’s pie , from Clubland Cooking by Robin McDouall. “Pies,” he explains, “are an essential feature of club life.” ( Clubland 77) August clubs like Brooks and Travellers have their signature pies. Unlike Travellers’, a pie to serve cold.

“Monsieur Jean-Claude Seraille, the chef of Brooks’s, gave me this recipe for their club pie.”

Preheat the oven to 350˚.

“‘Cut into cubes the following meats, equal amounts of each: Turkey, Beef, Veal, Lamb and Chicken, previously cooked. Line a dish-pan with short-crust pastry and place the meat in this. Add a little aspic jelly and cook for 1 ½ hours in a medium oven. When cooked, cut a ½ inch circular hole in the top and pour a little more hot aspic jelly mixed with herbs into pie until full. Leave in fridge one day before serving.’” ( Clubland 79)

Notes:

-The recipe is a little unhelpful in failing to specify amounts but not much. The proportions of meat are not particularly important and it is easy enough to eyeball the quantity that will fit in the pie dish you have selected. The same observation applies to the pastry.

-The pie is unusual for a cold pie in specifying short rather than hot water pastry. Either alternative is appropriate. The bfia recipe for short pastry appears in the practical ; instructions to make hot water pastry are included in the recipe for raised pork pie in our recipes.

-Pork jelly packs more punch than aspic but of course takes longer to make; lucky Londoners can purchase readymade ‘trotter gear,’ at least some of the time, at St. John.