Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 3 rolls of pastry; back and neck bones; lean ham; water

Modern Cookery

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

3 rolls of pastry
back and neck bones
lean ham
water

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make a hole in the center of the pastry.
Lay the rolls of pastry or a few leaves around the hole.

Make the gravy

Boil the back and neck bones with a bit of lean ham in water to make gravy.

Bake and serve

Bake the pie for 1 to 1.5 hours.
Pour the gravy into the pie after baking.

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

What each ingredient does

Pastry: Forms the shell that holds the filling and bakes to a golden, crisp crust.
Back and neck bones: Simmering releases flavor and body into the gravy.
Lean ham: Adds savory, salty flavor to the gravy.

“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.