Yorkshire Christmas Pye

Noshings with Nicole made it all over TV with the pye! See the above video on when I talked about the pye on TV and see the end of the post for more videos on when it was featured!

“Nic Nic Nic Nic, can you make this? It’s what George Washington ate for Christmas!” I crack my eyelids to see a phone thrust into my face with a recipe, the glow of the light illuminates the grin on my Armo’s face. Hard to be upset with being woken from slumber when you see that kind of excitement.

”Are you crazy?” was all I could muster. I am fairly familiar with hand-raised pyes and know they can be more than tricky to make and take a long time to make. I once asked my very English (not to be confused with British) friend for a recipe and was told that is not something people make and it is something you buy.

I glanced at the ingredient list of this pye and saw cloves, parsley, winter savory, thyme, and sage and thought oh this can be good! I was concerned with the dough that traditionally acts as a cooking vessel and saw that the recipes uses a springform pan to shape the pye. This technique while not historical, will yield the same results that our forefathers loved.

Historical recipes are always interesting and can be super fun to make. If you go straight to the source, historical cookbooks, you can read the same recipes that people before us used to cook and revel in ingredient lists and spelling of words. However, it can be extremely hard to follow for the contemporary cook. Cooking measurements were different, and plenty of assumptions have to be made for techniques. You can find recipes online that are historical recipes that are adapted for today’s kitchen, but you have to know your source! Mt Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg are two of my favorite sources.

This Yorkshire Christmas Pye is from George Washington’s Mount Vernon website. For historical accuracy purposes, I didn’t amend their ingredients or methods. I added details to the recipe to help you along.

Please note that there are two changes because I think the measurements were off. I added extra milk to the dough because the dough was too dry and I reduced the weight of meat because it was too much meat for the amount of crust (it wouldn’t fit). Here’s the link to their exact recipe. Below the recipe here, I added notes to help you adapt things that might be hard for you to find.

Crust Ingredients
3 c flour
1 Tbl salt
⅔ c lard or vegetable shortening
1 c whole milk (divided)
1 egg (for assembly)

Crust Directions
In a bowl, mix 3 c flour and 1 Tbl of salt.

In a small sauce pan, melt ⅔ c of shortening in ¼ c milk. The easiest way to measure shortening is to put 1 c of water in a 2 c measuring cup. Add enough shortening to bring the water line to 1 ⅔ c line.

Bring the milk and shortening to a boil. If you’re on a gas stove, put the heat to low. If you’re on an electric stove, turn it off but leave it on the hot burner. Stir briefly. It will not fully incorporate. Add the flour mixture a little at a time and mix until homogeneous. You’ll have a crumbly mass that will not form a ball.

Drizzle in ¾ of milk into the pan while stirring. When it forms a shaggy ball, stop.

Put the ball on the counter and lightly knead it to form a smooth ball. The dough is soft so be light with your hands. Use the heel of your hand and push the top of the dough forward, fold it and repeat. After a few times, rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow it to rest for 20 minutes.

Slice off ⅔ off the dough. The easiest way to eye ball the measurement is to shape the dough into a fat, squared off loaf. Visualize where you would make two cuts to create three pieces. Make one cut, the smaller piece will be ⅓ of the dough.

On a flat surface, roll out ⅔ of the dough into a 17” diameter. We’ll put it in a 9” springform pan, but you need a large enough circle of dough to cover the high sides. Rule of thumb is to measure the diameter and height (double the height), add the two numbers together, and add a little extra.

To roll the dough, pat the dough down into a flat circle. Roll the dough out in all directions starting from the middle. After a quick roll in each direction (it will not be to size), lift the dough from the surface and rotate it. It seems like an unnecessary step but it does two things: 1) allows the dough a quick rest 2) allows us to check for sticking. If your dough is sticking, you can add a little flour or shortening on the counter. Your dough will shrink a little when you lift it.

Repeat the process. Each round, your circle of dough will become a couple inches bigger. If your dough starts to look shaggy on top, it’s most likely sticking a little to your rolling pin. You can dust a little flour on top of the dough. The small tears will weaken the structure and make it harder to mold so we make sure that doesn’t happen.

Once you have a 17” circle, it’s time to form it in the 9” springform pan. I’ve often seen people on tv roll the dough around their rolling pin to transfer it to the pan. I’ve never had luck with this method. Fold the dough into thirds like a letter then in half to create a smallish rectangle. Lay it in the bottom of the pan and gently unfold it.

Gently push the dough down to meet the seam of the pan (where the horizontal and vertical meet). Work your way up the sides of the pan and allow for a little overhang. Depending on your technique, you may end up with a strip of dough that folded on top of each other. You don’t want it too thick so you can pinch off the excess with your fingers (and use for patches or the top). Make sure you don’t have any tears in your dough or little holes that formed. If you do, you’ll have leakage, so make sure you patch any imperfections. Just make sure the new seam is invisible to the eye.

Take the remaining dough and use the same process to roll out an 11” diameter circle. Fold it into quarters. Wrap it in plastic wrap, place it on the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

Filling Ingredients
½ turkey breast skin on, boned (about 1.5 pounds)
½ of chicken (or parts skin on and boned) (about 2 pounds)
**** you want 3 ½ pounds of poultry
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp ground black pepper
Vegetable oil
1 onion (3 c diced)
2 large carrots (2 c diced)
3 ribs celery (1.5 c diced)
¼ c dry white wine
½ tsp cloves
2 Tbl fresh parsley
2 Tbl fresh winter savory
2 Tbl fresh thyme
1 lb bacon

Filling Directions
Slice the meat into ½” - ¾” tall pieces. For example, if you have a chicken breast, slice off the thin end. On the thick part, put your non-dominant hand on top of the meat, run the knife (you’ll need a sharp knife for this method) flat about ¾” under your hand. You want the pieces to be as large in diameter as possible but uniform in thickness. The larger pieces will allow the pye to have cleaner slices.

Evenly sprinkle 1 tsp of salt and 1 ½ tsp ground black pepper on the poultry. Pour enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom of a Dutch oven. Heat the oil until it shimmers. Use tongs and place the poultry skin down (you should hear a sizzle – adjust heat up to get more sizzle or lower it if it’s out of control sizzle). Add additional pieces so the pot is full but the pieces are not touching.

You can cook it in a saute pan but the Dutch oven will contain grease splatters. The poultry should grab the pan at first and as it cooks, it will release from the pan. When the underside is brown, flip it over and repeat. You’re wanting to sear the meat to build flavor. If the interior is still a little pink, it’s ok because it’ll finish cooking in the oven. If it’s starting to turn rubbery and you don’t have a glorious brown color, bump up that heat.

Poultry will shrink as it cooks so when you flip it, you can shuffle the pieces closerer so you can add additional pieces as it cooks, but careful not to crowd the pan. Put the cooked poultry on a plate.

While the poultry cooks, prep your vegetables.

Slice off the ends of the 1 onion. Cut it in half pole to pole. Remove the dry skin. Slice it thinly pole to pole, rotate it 90 degrees and slice again to create a dice.

Slice off the stem end off of two carrots. Slice off the thin end of the carrots into ¼” rounds. Slice the remaining part around the equator into about 3” pieces. Stand it on end and slice into ¼” planks. Stack the planks and slice into ¼” strips and slick cross ways to create ¼” dice.

Slice off the base end off 3 ribs of celery and the very top if it is dry. Slice the celery in about ⅓” strips going with the ribs. Slice across in ⅓” pieces. Chop the leaves.

After the poultry is finished cooking. Add the onion, carrots, and celery to the Dutch oven. Lower the heat to let the vegetables sweat out the water. Once the pan becomes dry and the vegetables are soft, add ¼ c of dry white wine and ½ tsp of ground cloves. Stir. Cook until the moisture is gone. Make sure the heat is low enough that the vegetables do not brown.

Stack 2 Tbl parsley, 2 Tbl winter savory, and 2 Tbl thyme. Chop fine and mix so the flavors will be even.

Gravy Ingredients
1 Tbl butter
1 Tbl flour
2 c chicken broth
2 sprigs parsley
2 springs thyme
4 leaves sage

Gravy Directions
Melt 1 Tbl butter in a small sauce pan. Add 1 Tbl flour and stir until smooth. Stir in 2 c chicken broth. Add 2 springs of parsley, 2 sprigs of thyme, and 4 leaves sage. Bring the liquid to right below a simmer and stir until it thickens. You want it on the thicker side for gravy. If it’s too thin, it’ll make a mess and if it’s too thick, it won’t spread in the pye.

Remove the herbs before using.

Assemble
Place a rimmed sheet pan larger than 9” in the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Lay the bacon in a single layer on the bottom of the the springform pan (on top of the bottom crust). You can use kitchen shears to cut the bacon to size.

Sprinkle ⅓ of the herb mix on top of the bacon. Spread ⅓ of the vegetable mix on top of the herbs.

Lay the turkey skin side up in a single layer on top of the herb mix. You may need to cut the pieces to fit tightly.

Cover the turkey with ⅓ of the vegetable mix followed by ⅓ of the herbs.

Add another single layer of bacon.

Add the chicken skin side up in a single layer. You may need to cut the pieces to make it fit. Sprinkle the remaining ⅓ of herbs on top of the chicken followed by the remaining ⅓ of vegetables. Put the last layer of bacon on top.

Unfold the top portion of the dough and lay it on top of the bacon. Pinch together the top and bottom crust then take a pair of kitchen shears and cut off excess dough (leave about 1” for crimping).

Take three fingers and space them out fingers width apart and touch the dough on the interior of the circle. Wedge the dough between the two spaces by using two fingers on the exterior of the dough. It should create a wave. Repeat around the entire pye. Lightly cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate about 15 minutes.

Take 1 egg and gently whisk it with a fork. Use a pastry brush or spoon to spread the egg over the top of the crust.

Remove the plastic wrap from the pye and place it on the rimmed sheet in the oven. Bake uncovered about 45 minutes. When the crust is golden brown, tent it lightly with aluminum foil and bake 45 minutes.

Allow it to cool in the pan for 1 hour. Use a sturdy spatula and move it to a rimmed tray. Cut a hole in the top of pye and pour in the gravy.


Notes
Do not try to shortcut the crust and boil all of the milk. Texture will not be right and will easily crack making it impossible to form into the pan.

You can use dry herbs. Just reduce the amounts by half.

Winter savory is hard to find. I’ve never actually tasted it myself, but I’ve substituted rosemary for it. It might not be the exact flavor but I think it covers the right notes and it’s definitely a wintery flavor.

In the gravy, you can substitute a pinch of dried thyme and a pinch of dried rosemary in place of the fresh herbs. There’s no need to remove them when you pour the gravy.

I used 2 tsp of Better than Chicken Bouillon and 2 c of water in place of chicken stock. By the time it got thick enough, I thought it was too salty. I reduced it to 1.5 tsp of Better than Chicken Bouillon.

I add the cooked chicken juice from the chicken plate into the gravy pot.