Week 4 - Gammon of Bacon Pie
Our week 2 winner Andrea O’Brien recently messaged us saying she hopes this week’s recipe will be something simple. Did we listen to her request? Of course not! It’s Week 4 people. Time to kick it up a notch!
This week we’re making a Gammon of Bacon Pie. That’s right Cook Off fans. It’s pastry week! The recipe is courtesy of Gervase Markham’s The English Housewife: containing the inward and outward virtues which ought to be in a complete woman first published in 1615, and goes like this:
Clear as mud? Don’t worry. If you’ve been following the Colony’s Facebook page, you’ll know that Lori and Krista have hard at work on this recipe since Monday. They’ve generously passed along the following tips and tricks:
No Gammon? No Grief. Don’t worry if you can’t get your hands on gammon, which is a bacon cured ham. Use smoked ham, smoked trotters/hocks, or any other smoked pig part instead. We know they’re not the same, but chances of finding gammon at a local grocery store (at least here in Newfoundland and Labrador) is slim to none.
Flakey Pastry? Forget About It. For this recipe you’ll need a hardy pastry that will stand up to this pie’s chunky filling and hold it’s shape when cool ... hot water pastry. There are plenty of recipes and how to videos on the web. Lori and Krista’s go to comes courtesy of Paul Hollywood.
What the Farce? Baffled by the phrase “pleasant farcing herbs”? A bit of research produced the following recipe for Gammon of Bacon (from William Salmon’s The Family Dictionary, or Household Companion, published in 1695). It provides some suggestions for period appropriate herbs:
Feel Free to Freestyle. As always, feel free to make this recipe your own. Lori and Krista report that Wednesday’s pie with brown sugar and currants received rave reviews (and plenty of requests for second helpings). The addition of apple is an obvious choice. Hannah Woolley (the Martha Steward of the 17th century) suggested adding oysters to her Gammon of Bacon Pie:
Remember.... Post a pic of your raised piggy pie on the Colony’s Facebook page to be automatically entered for both this week’s prize and our grand prize. Don’t be shy. In the Great Colonial Cook Off, every cook gets an A for effort! Deadline for this week’s recipe is midnight Wednesday, August 9th. Good luck!