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Raised Crust for Meat Pies, or Fowls

A dough for a raised crust used on meat pies or fowls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raised Crust for Meat Pies, or Fowls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hot-water paste

  1. Boil water with lard and dripping or butter.

  2. Mix the hot mixture with enough flour to form a stiff paste.

  3. Knead and beat the paste until smooth.

  4. Soak a lump of the paste in a cloth or under a pan until near cold.

Shape the pie

  1. Roll the paste to the desired thickness.

  2. Cut out the top and bottom of the pie, plus a long piece for the sides.

  3. Butter the tin form.

  4. Cement the bottom to the sides with egg, pinching them together.

  5. Fill the pie.

  6. Place the cover on.

  7. Pinch the edges together.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake after filling and covering the pie.

  2. Return the pie to the oven for an additional 15 minutes.

  3. Brush the top with egg using a feather.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Water
Melts and combines with the fat to form a hot, pliable dough base.
Fine lard
Adds fat that shortens the paste, giving a tender, crumbly texture.
Dripping or butter
Adds fat and flavor, contributing richness and tenderness to the crust.
Flour
Provides structure, forming the paste that holds the pie's shape.
Egg
Seals the pastry edges and browns the top when brushed on.

The step that matters

Soak the paste until near cold before rolling. Hot-water paste is soft and sticky when hot. Cooling it until nearly cold firms the fat and gluten so it can be rolled and shaped without tearing or slumping.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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