Beef Steak Pie is a traditional British recipe, based on Mrs Beeton's recipe of 1861, for a classic dish of beef layered in a pie dish with spices and water that's topped with pastry and oven baked until done. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Beef Steak Pie.
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This is a traditional British recipe redacted from the redoubtable Mrs Beeton's 1861 volume Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, the classic Victorian cookbook.
Original Recipe
BEEF-STEAK PIE.
604. INGREDIENTS.—3 lbs. of rump-steak, seasoning to taste of salt, cayenne, and black pepper, crust, water, the yolk of an egg.
Mode.—Have the steaks cut from a rump that has hung a few days, that they may be tender, and be particular that every portion is perfectly sweet. Cut the steaks into pieces about 3 inches long and 2 wide, allowing a small piece of fat to each piece of lean, and arrange the meat in layers in a pie-dish. Between each layer sprinkle a seasoning of salt, pepper, and, when liked, a few grains of cayenne. Fill the dish sufficiently with meat to support the crust, and to give it a nice raised appearance when baked, and not to look flat and hollow. Pour in sufficient water to half fill the dish, and border it with paste (see Pastry); brush it over with a little water, and put on the cover; slightly press down the edges with the thumb, and trim off close to the dish. Ornament the pie with leaves, or pieces of paste cut in any shape that fancy may direct, brush it over with the beaten yolk of an egg; make a hole in the top of the crust, and bake in a hot oven for about 1-1/2 hour.
Time.—In a hot oven, 1-1/2 hour.
Average cost, for this size, 3s 6d.
Sufficient for 6 or 8 persons.
Seasonable at any time.
Note.—Beef-steak pies may be flavoured in various ways, with oysters and their liquor, mushrooms, minced onions, &c. For family pies, suet may be used instead of butter or lard for the crust, and clarified beef-dripping answers very well where economy is an object. Pieces of underdone roast or boiled meat may in pies be used very advantageously; but always remove the bone from pie-meat, unless it be chicken or game. We have directed that the meat shall be cut smaller than is usually the case; for on trial we have found it much more tender, more easily helped, and with more gravy, than when put into the dish in one or two large steaks.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
1.5kg rump steak
salt, cayenne pepper and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste savoury shortcrust pastry
water
1 egg yolk
Method:
Cut the beef into pieces 7.5cm long and 5cm wide. Arrange the meat in layers in a pie dish, seasoning between each layer with salt, cayenne pepper and black pepper. Make certain that you fill the dish with enough meat to support the crust.
Half, fill the dish with water then put a border of pastry around the edge of the dish. Roll out the remaining pastry until large enough to cover the top of the pie then brush the rim you have made with water, cover with the rolled out pastry and pinch the edges with your thumbs to seal. Trim off any excess pastry and use this to cut leaves or patterns to decorate the top of the pie, if you wish.
Prick steam holes with the tines of a fork then brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 170°C and bake for about 90 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the meat has cooked through (if the pastry is colouring too quickly cover with foil). Serve hot.
