A good crust for great pies is a traditional British recipe, based on Hannah Glasse's recipe of 1747, for a classic hot water crust pastry of a flour and egg yolk mix with suet and butter that can be used for raised pies or meat-based pies. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: A good crust for great pies.
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This is a traditional British recipe redacted from Hannah Glasse's 1747 volume The Aft of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, the classic Georgian cookbook.
A good cruſt for great pies.
TAKE a quarter of a peck of flour, rub fine half a pound of butter, a little ſalt, make it up into a light paſte with cold water, juſt ſtiff enough to work it well up ; then roll it out, and ſtick pieces of butter all over, and ſtrew a little flour ; roll it up and roll it out again ; and ſo do nine or ten times, till you have rolled in a pound and a half of butter. This cruſt is moſtly uſed for all ſorts of pies.
Sift the flour into a bowl and work in the egg. Heat 200ml water in a pan, add the suet and butter and simmer until melted. Take off the heat then skim off the fat from the surface of the water and work into the flour and egg mix.
Now add in just enough of the hot water to bring the mixture together as a dough. Turn out onto a floured work surface and roll out until just below 1cm thick. This can be used as a raised dough for making small raised pies or can be used as a thick crust for meat and game pies.
