CookEat Recipe
Cold Mixed Meat Pie with Truffle
A pastry pie lined with thin cured pork fat and filled with fine meat paste, tender meat dice, cooked ham, cured tongue and truffle.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 200 g lean veal, cut into small pieces; 100 g lean pork, cut into small pieces; 65 g butter: 60 g for the filling and 5 g for greasing the mould; 60 g thickly sliced cooked ham; 50 g thickly sliced ready-to-eat cooked cured beef tongue; 50 g soft fresh bread crumb; 1 raw boneless skinless chicken breast, about 150 g; 1 professionally prepared chicken liver, about 30 g; 1 small professionally dressed farmed quail, about 120 g before boning; 1 black truffle, about 20 g, brushed clean; 100 ml Marsala; About 250 ml ready-to-use broth, added as needed; 1 egg yolk for the fine filling; 50 g plain cured pork fatback, sliced as thinly as possible for lining; Salt and black pepper; 250 g plain flour, plus a little for rolling; 80 g cold butter for the pastry; 2 teaspoons potable food-grade alcohol, about 10 ml; 2 teaspoons sugar, about 8 g; 2 egg yolks for the pastry; Juice of 1 lemon wedge, about 1 teaspoon; 5 g salt for the pastry; Cold water, only if needed to bring the dough together; 1 additional egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for glazing.
Step 2
Use a professionally dressed, eviscerated farmed quail. Remove its head, neck and feet if present, then bone it carefully, removing all small bones and tendons. Cut the chicken breast into large pieces. Put the veal, pork, boned quail and chicken breast in a pan with 60 g butter, salt and pepper. Cook gently, adding the Marsala and then broth a little at a time for about 35–50 minutes, until the meat is tender. Add the chicken liver for the last 8–10 minutes and the truffle for the last few minutes. Check all poultry, the liver and the other small meat pieces reach at least 74°C.
Step 3
Lift out the cooked meat, liver and truffle. Put the bread crumb in the pan juices, adding a little broth if necessary, and stir to make a soft paste. Pound this with all the boned quail meat, the filling yolk, and about one-quarter of the cooked veal and pork: the portions originally weighing approximately 50 g veal and 25 g pork. Press through a fine sieve, adding a little broth if too firm.
Step 4
Cut all the remaining cooked veal and pork, the chicken breast, cooked ham, cooked cured tongue, chicken liver and truffle into hazelnut-sized dice. Fold these into the fine sieved paste, preserving distinct pieces. Keep chilled briefly while completing the pastry; assemble and bake without unnecessary delay.
Step 5
Make the pastry while the filling cooks. Rub the 80 g cold butter into the 250 g flour, then add the sugar, 5 g salt, two yolks, the potable food-grade alcohol and lemon juice. Add cold water a little at a time only as needed for a firm but rollable dough. Use alcohol sold for food or drink, never denatured alcohol. Work briefly until combined, cover and refrigerate for about 30–60 minutes. This is an estimated mixing and resting method for the source ingredient formula; do not taste raw dough.
Step 6
Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease a round hinged pie mould of about 1½ litres with the separate 5 g butter. Roll the pastry to about 3 mm thick, reserving some for a lid and a small decorative bow. Line the base and sides, sealing the joins, then line the inside of the pastry with the very thin cured-fatback slices. Fill with the meat mixture, pressing gently to remove large gaps.
Step 7
Cover with the pastry lid, seal its edge and cut a small steam vent. Brush the outside with the extra yolk-and-water glaze. Shape a small bow from the reserved pastry and bake it separately alongside the pie for about 15–20 minutes. Bake the pie for about 45–60 minutes until golden, the pastry is fully cooked and the centre reaches at least 74°C. After baking, place the cooked pastry bow over the vent.
Step 8
Allow steam to subside briefly, remove the hinged mould and divide into portions if necessary for rapid cooling. Refrigerate promptly in shallow containers within 2 hours, at 4°C or colder, and chill for about 3–4 hours or until cold throughout. Serve cold as eight small-course portions. Eat within 2–3 days, keeping refrigerated; do not leave the large pie cooling on the counter.
Step 9
For optional clear meat jelly, allow about 13 hours extra, including chilling, and prepare it in advance. You need 500 g boneless veal shank, 150 g professionally cleaned veal foot, professionally cleaned food-grade feet from 2 or 3 chickens, 2 professionally cleaned chicken heads with their necks, 2 litres cold water and salt. Cut the feet into pieces and simmer all these ingredients gently for 7–8 hours, skimming, to reduce the liquid to about half. Strain into shallow containers and refrigerate promptly, within 2 hours, at 4°C or colder until set; remove the solid fat. If a chilled sample will not set, boil to reduce further and retest. Mix another 70 g very finely minced lean veal with 1 egg and about 30 ml water, add the cold jelly and whisk over heat until boiling, then simmer for 20 minutes. Heat 2 pinches sugar with a few drops of water in a small saucepan to dark amber, dissolve carefully with a little hot broth and add sparingly for a pale amber colour. Strain hot through a clean damp fine cloth without squeezing, divide into small moulds and refrigerate promptly until softly set. Briefly warm the outside of each mould with a hot damp cloth to unmould. Serve small pieces alongside the cold meat. Keep at 4°C or colder and eat within 2–3 days of the first preparation. Discard sour jelly or anything left out more than 2 hours; never try to rescue it by boiling. This uses natural gelatin and the source reduction alternative, not an unspecified gelatin-sheet dose. For the optional jelly-filled pie, leave about 1 cm of headspace above the meat before putting on the pastry lid. Once the baked pie is cold, lift off the decorative bow and pour cool but still liquid jelly through the vent into that space, about 150–200 ml as needed. Replace the bow and refrigerate until set. Serve with additional jelly alongside; the first preparation date of the pie or jelly, whichever is earlier, determines the 2–3-day storage limit.
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