Veal Olive Pie is a traditional British recipe, based on Mrs Beeton's recipe of 1861, for a classic dish of slices of cooked veal topped iwth bacon and stuffed with veal forcemeat that are rolled, packed into a pie dish, soaked in gravy and cream, covered with puff pastry and oven baked. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Veal Olive 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
VEAL OLIVE PIE (Cold Meat Cookery).
895. INGREDIENTS.—A few thin slices of cold fillet of veal, a few thin slices of bacon, forcemeat No. 417, a cupful of gravy, 4 tablespoonfuls of cream, puff-crust.
Mode.—Cut thin slices from a fillet of veal, place on them thin slices of bacon, and over them a layer of forcemeat, made by recipe No. 417, with an additional seasoning of shalot and cayenne; roll them tightly, and fill up a pie-dish with them; add the gravy and cream, cover with a puff-crust, and bake for 1 to 1-1/2 hour: should the pie be very large, allow 2 hours. The pieces of rolled veal should be about 3 inches in length, and about 3 inches round.
Time.—Moderate-sized pie, 1 to 1-1/2 hour.
Seasonable from March to October.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
8 thin slices cut from a cold fillet of veal
8 thin rashers of bacon
100g veal forcemeat
1 shallot, finely minced
cayenne pepper, to taste
250ml veal or beef gravy
4 tbsp cream
1 batch of puff pastry
Method:
Arrange a slice of bacon on each slice of veal. Mix the forcemeat with the shallot and season to taste with cayenne pepper then spread about 1 tbsp over each veal and bacon sandwich. Roll these tightly to form your olives then pack tightly into a pie dish, with the seam side down so that they cannot open.
Pour over the gravy and cream then cover with the puff pastry. Make two steam holes in the top then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for about 70 minutes, or until the pie is cooked through and the pastry is well risen and golden brown. Serve hot.
