That's right, it's pie time again! After Yinzerella sent out the announcement, I perused my cookbooks and chose chocolate angel pie as my contribution, which sounded really nice to me. I sent it in and eagerly awaited my assignment. What delectable confection was I going to be asked to re-create in my kitchen? Oh, what could it be?
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Oooh, it's something British! They have all sorts of great desserts. What will I get to make?
What the...???
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| Tongue Pie - the pie that tastes you back! |
Hmmm. Not exactly what I was expecting, but I'm not scared of a little tongue!
I was able to find a tongue easily, but I did have a problem finding gammon and veal. Those do not exist in this part of Texas, as far as I can tell. A little internet searching told me that I could substitute chicken for the veal and regular ham for the gammon, so we were off!
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| Yep, that's a tongue |
Day 1
The first step in creating this pie involved cooking the tongue. I put it in the pressure cooker for 50 minutes with water, salt, pepper, onion powder and a bay leaf. It smelled amazing, but it came out looking like this...
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| The visual appeal is not improved with cooking! |
Farm Boy kindly offered to remove the skin from the tongue for me while I was out. I immediately accepted that offer because "skinning a tongue" just isn't very high on my bucket list.
Day 2
The following day, I boiled some eggs, chopped up the now skinless tongue and mixed it with the other ingredients. I did all this first so I could deal with my first attempt at a hot water pastry. As I've mentioned before, pastry is not something I do very well.
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| Meat, meat, meat and onions. |
I didn't take any photos of the crust-making process, but it was pretty easy, except for one error on my part: the mixing bowl was waaaaay too small for the amount of flour and water involved. Oh well, what's one more bowl to wash?
The recipe instructs me to, "Line a rectangular pie mould with two-thirds of the dough," but I have nothing as tall and narrow as the mould in the picture. Big loaf pan it is.
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| Alas, no leaves. |
To the oven!
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| Crusty goodness! |
It had to bake for an hour and forty-five minutes. Somewhere around the halfway mark, it started to smell and that smell was amazing! Imagine the best beef pot pie bubbling away in the oven and that's what it smelled like. Mmmm.
At this point, it has to cool until "quite cold" and them be removed from the mould. Around 11:00 PM it was finally cool enough and I bravely tried to pop it out of the pan, but it wouldn't budge. Farm Boy and I discussed various ways to get it out, but in the end I chickened out and just left it. I poured my "aspic jelly" (the broth from the tongue, thickened with gelatine) in the holes and put it in the refrigerator overnight.
Day 3
Finally, we get to taste this beast!
So I can totally see how it would have been nice to have it removed from the pan for both the presentation and the cutting. It took quite a bit of effort to get that first slice out and it was mangled beyond repair, but after that it was fine. I think I should have poured in more aspic jelly, but I was still pleased with it overall. Look at that cheeky little egg hiding there in the center. Surprise!
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| Ta-da! |
And now for the taste test. As usual, Queen Lily was there to offer her services and opinions.
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| De-si-i-i-i-i-re! |
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| Yes, this pleases us. |
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| Give us more! Now! |
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| I mean it! |
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| Meatball says, "WTF! Where's mine??" | |
Verdict: It's really good! The hot water pasty crust is delicious. The filling was really good, but it mostly tasted like the tongue - very beefy. I can see how this would be a great picnic food. It's sturdy enough to take with you, can be eaten cold, and it's very filling. It's very labor intensive, so I don't know that I would make it again, but if I did, I would probably use leftover roast or something as the filling, instead of going to the effort of using three different meats.
Thanks once again to Yinzerella for organizing this event! Now go check out all those other pies!
Yinzerella at Dinner is Served 1972: Candy Apple Cheese Pie
Dr. Bobb of Dr. Bobb's Kitschen: Praline Pumpkin Pie
Battenburgbelle of Kitchen Confidence: Zucchini Pie
SS of A Book of Cookrye: Yul Brenner's Pie
Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers: Sagittarius Hamburger Pie
Surly of Vintage Recipe Cards: Lime Pie with Creme de Menthe
Taryn of Retro Foods for Modern Times: Lime Pie with Creme de Menthe
Poppy Crocker of Grannie Pantries: Apricot Mallow Pie
Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Chocolate Angel Pie
