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Kingdom of Fife Pie
Kingdom of Fife Pie is a traditional Scottish recipe for a classic pie of rabbit, eggs, pickled pork and forcemeat balls cooked in a gravy made from the rabbit. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Scottish version of: Kingdom of Fife Pie.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
200 minutes
Total Time:
220 minutes
Serves:
6
Rating: 
Tags : Pork RecipesGame RecipesBaking RecipesScottish Recipes
It was the Normans who introduced rabbits to Britain, as game animals. They took generations to become established (originally on islands off the Bristol channel) and they slowly spread. As a result their arrival in Scotland was quite lake, crossing the Frith of Forth to Five even later. This recipe probably counts as one of the first rabbit-based recipes in Scotland.
Ingredients:
For the Rabbit:
1 large rabbit (with its liver)
freshly-grated
nutmeg, to taste
600ml gravy or stock (made from the rabbit)
3 tbsp butter
450g
pickled pork
6 hard-boiled eggs
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
For the Forcemeat Balls:
1 rabbit liver
120g breadcrumbs
1 rasher of bacon
freshly-grated
nutmeg, to taste
1 tsp finely-grated
lemon zest
1/2 tsp thyme, minced
salt and freshly-ground
black pepper
1 tsp
parsley, minced
milk, to bind
200g (about)
rough puff pastry
Method:
Melt the butter in a large pan, add the rabbit and its liver and fry until well browned. Season with nutmeg, salt and black pepper then pour over 1l of water and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 50 minutes, or until the rabbit is very tender.
Remove the rabbit and its liver from the pan and set aside to cool. Strip the meat from the bones and set aside. Return the rabbit bones to the pan, add 500ml water then bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until the liquid has reduced to about 600ml (about 20 minutes).
Take off the heat and pass through a fine-meshed sieve. If desired, you can thicken by whisking in a little butter mixed with flour until smooth.
Now prepare the forcemeat balls. Finely chop the cooked rabbit liver and the bacon. Place in a bowl then mix in the breadcrumbs, lemon zest, thyme and parsley. Season with nutmeg, salt and black pepper then add just enough milk to bring the mixture together. Shape the forcemeat into small balls and set aside.
Drain and slice the pickled pork then season with nutmeg, salt and black pepper. Combine the rabbit meat and the pickled pork in a pie dish then add the forcemeat balls and the quartered eggs. Pour over half the rabbit stock then roll out the pastry and use to cover the pie.
Prick the surface to make steam holes then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200°C and bake for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 160°C and bake for a further 120 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the pie is done through.
Remove from the oven, make a hole in the top and pour in the remaining rabbit stock (if the pie is to be served cold, dissolve 1 leaf of gelatine in the stock before pouring into the pie).
