Today I'm making Devonshire Squab Pie. It is a simple
and delicious dish using mutton and apples.
For this recipe you will need:
apples
onion
mutton
butter
puff pastry
fat
some stock
and for seasoning, salt
and pepper
The flavour of onion isn't much liked by the family as it's generally felt
it encourages bad breath and bloating. However, a little bit of well-cooked
onion works really well in this pie so i'm using half an onion.
Sylvia has already peeled and cored the apples so now i'm going to slice them evenly.
Squab means pigeon...
there isn't any pigeon in this pie.
And I don't know why it's called 'Devonshire' either
although coming from Devonshire I can tell you there are plenty of apples.
There are also quite a lot of sheep.
I'm now going to brown off the meat.
Mutton is one of my favorite meats. Some people think it's far superior to lamb.
Mutton is leaner and more flavoursome
and it takes on spice and strong flavours really well.
It is ideal for slow cooking, depending on your cut.
I've read that the Queen loves mutton, and she favours sheep that are over 10 years.
Now I've lined my dish with butter, I need to layer in the ingredients.
Mutton first
and now half the onions
the apples
I'm going to highly season this dish with salt and pepper.
And now to start again with the layering.
I'll now add my stock
Now this needs to go into an oven for an hour and a half
I need to cover it. I might save on my paper and use this salt paste.
Obviously I'm not going to serve it with this salt crust
so I shall just remove it
As this dish is for the family, I shall layer on now some puff pastry
to elevate it to the right kind of dish. But first I shall place in my pie funnel
as when it's cooking this will help the steam escape
and mean the mixture can boil nicely.
I'm going to cover it with this egg wash of egg, salt, and a little milk.
And now I'm going to decorate it to truly
make it suitable for the family's table.
I'm going to brush some of the egg wash on only some of the pastry
to give it an effect.
And now it needs to go back into the oven for 20 minutes.
This is a fairly plain dish, suitable for the family at supper or luncheon.
I wouldn't serve it to their guests, unless they were very well known by the family.
There you are - Devonshire Squab Pie.