Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Pigeon Pie

ON A CHILLY winter’s night a few weeks ago, we had our first East Cork Slow Food event of the year.

The title didn’t sound particularly appealing “How a Love Of Food And Literature Can Bring Your Life In A Different Direction” but eminent food historian Dorothy Cashman kept us riveted for several hours and whetted many peoples’ appetite for food history, old cookbooks and lore.

Dorothy had almost stumbled into what has now becoming an all-absorbing hobby. Good wholesome food and convivial family meals were an important part of her childhood and stirred up as they do for many of us, nostalgic and happy memories.

In 1991 Dorothy decided to take a career break from her air hostess job in Aer Lingus to learn how to cook. After three months here at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, her interest in all things gastronomic grew and eventually she retired from Aer Lingus and in 2007 enrolled on the New Product Development and Culinary Innovation MSc in DIT in Dublin.

She was intrigued by food history and old cookbooks and became particularly fascinated by the manuscript cookbooks of the great Irish houses.

Interestingly, relatively little work had been done on this area, it was almost as though it was ‘air brushed’ out of our history. Dorothy quickly discovered that the clichéd image of traditional Irish food was only part of the story.

As in every country, the food depended on the social status and economic situation of the family. The food eaten in many of the great houses was fascinating and reflected the fresh produce of the estate.

Fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit from the walled garden, orchards and greenhouses.; game during the season and fish from the local rivers and lakes, or a fish pond on the estate.

Several houses had a ready supply of squabs from their columbarium and there were many ice houses, some of which are still in existence.

The cook, with a few notable exceptions ,was local but often incorporated recipes into her repertoire that the lady of the house had obtained from friends, or had collected on the Grand Tour of Europe.

Fortunately, the lady of the house sometimes recorded the receipts, as they were then known, into a beautiful bound book in exquisite copper plate handwriting.

These manuscript cookbooks are an important social record In some instances they were written by just one person but in other cases the manuscripts were added to by several generations as in the Parsons family of Birr Castle.

The Pope family from Waterford have three books in the Library (MS 34,923/1-3) and these were added to by the members of the family from 1823 to c1890.

Dorothy discovered an extensive archive of manuscript cookbooks dating from 1700 to late 1800 in the National Library and has since embarked on a fascinating research project, a journey of discovery where each little clue opens new doors and gives new insights into our traditions and food culture.

Dorothy, stressed that there are still handwritten recipe collections around, often written in simple copy books in the back of drawers or in a box in the attic in many homes, and these are really worth rescuing.

If you think you have a manuscript cookbook that may be of interest, contact Dorothy Cashman at [e-mail]

Ballymaloe Pigeon Pie

Wood pigeons have always been very prolific in Ireland. In the country, young boys were taught how to shoot by their fathers.

Before a big dance or party in Ballymaloe House in the 1950s, the boys would ‘bag’ enough to make large quantities of pigeon pie — a relatively inexpensive and delicious way to feed a large number of people for a winter house party.

Serves 10–12

Breasts from 4–6 pigeons

Half their weight in streaky bacon

Their weight in lean beef

Bacon fat or olive oil, for frying

8 baby carrots or sticks of carrot

10–12 button onions

1 garlic clove, crushed

1–2 tsp plain flour

240ml (8fl oz) red wine

240ml (8fl oz) homemade beef stock

150ml (¼ pint) homemade tomato purée or a smaller quantity of tinned purée or tomato paste: use according to concentration and make up with extra stock roux (optional)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 tsp chopped thyme and parsley

1 quantity Mushrooms in Cream (recipe opposite)

225g (8oz) puff pastry (made with butter)

Remove the rind from the bacon and cut into 2½cm (1in) cubes. Cut the beef and pigeon into similar-sized pieces. Heat some bacon fat or olive oil in a frying pan and fry the bacon until crisp and golden. Remove to a 2.3 litre (4 pint) casserole.

Add the beef and pigeon pieces, a few at a time, to the frying pan and toss until they change colour. Add them to the casserole. Add the carrots, onions and crushed garlic to the pan and turn in the fat before adding them to the meat in the casserole.

Stir the flour into the fat in the pan, cook for a minute or so and then stir or whisk in the wine, stock and tomato purée.

Bring to the boil and thicken with roux if necessary. Pour over the meat and vegetables in the casserole. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, add the thyme and parsley and bring to the boil.

Cover and cook for 1–2 hours or until tender (this will depend on the age of the pigeons) in a low oven, 150C/300F/gas mark 2–3.

When cooked, add the Mushrooms in Cream and set aside to cool. When the pigeon stew is cold, pour it into a deep pie dish.

Roll out the puff pastry to cover the dish and bake for 10 minutes at 230C/450F/gas mark 8, then reduce the heat to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Mushrooms in Cream

10g–25g (½–1oz) butter

75g (3oz) onion, finely chopped

225g (8oz) sliced field mushrooms or flat cultivated mushrooms

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Squeeze of lemon juice

½ tablespoon parsley

½ tablespoon chopped chives

125ml (4fl oz) cream

Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan until it foams. Add the chopped onion, cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 5–10 minutes, or until quite soft but not coloured.

Remove the onion to a bowl. Increase the heat and cook the sliced mushrooms, in batches if necessary. Season each batch with salt, freshly ground pepper and a tiny squeeze of lemon juice.

Add the onions, parsley and chives to the mushrooms in the saucepan, then add the cream and allow to bubble for a few minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then set aside to cool.

Jam Pudding

This was one of our favourites, we raced home from school for lunch even faster when we knew mummy was cooking a steamed jam pudding.

Serves 4

110g (4oz) butter, at room temperature

110g (4oz) caster sugar

2 eggs, free-range if possible

A few drops of pure vanilla extract

170g (6oz) plain white flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

About 1 tbsp milk or water

3 or 4 tbsp homemade raspberry jam

Raspberry Jam Sauce

4–6 tbsp homemade raspberry jam

Rind and juice of ½ lemon

150ml (¼ pint) water

sugar, to taste

Equipment

12.5cm (5in) pudding bowl

Cream the butter, add the caster sugar and beat until white and creamy. Whisk the eggs with the vanilla essence and beat, a little at a time, into the creamed mixture.

Stir in the flour and baking powder and add a little milk or water if necessary to make a dropping consistency. Grease your pudding bowl. Spread raspberry jam over the bottom and sides.

Carefully spoon the cake mixture into the bowl. Cover with pleated greaseproof paper, tied on firmly, and steam the pudding for about 1½ hours.

Menus from the manuscripts

(Spellings are original)

Lady Tyrone’s receipt for pickling lemons, G.M (MS 34,952 National Library of Ireland)

This is from the manuscript of Mrs Baker of Ballaghtobin, who was related to the Earl of Tyrone.

Take the largest lemons, pare them as thin as possible, score them across at each end and rub them mighty well with salt for 10 days every day, then dry them at the fire or in the sun for an hour every day then put them into a close stone jar, 12 cloves of garlic, red Indian pepper and flour of mustard and sliced ginger, cover them with raw vinegar.

They are apt to grow soft if not properly done therefore to keep them hard when you are doing them, they must be kept in a room with a fire and the salt must cover them all over and the salt rubbed very well into them, three times a day not too hard to bruise the lemon and they must also be turned every time you rub them that they may not lie too long on one side.

You must tie a little turmrick up in a bag and put in the jar where the lemons are to give them a proper colour.

A Sponge Cake Miss Herbert (MS 34, 952 National Library of Ireland)

I like to think this is the diarist, Dorothea Herbert’s recipe; it is certainly by her or her siblings as they were first cousins of Mrs Baker. I have made this in half the recipe and used large organic eggs. One large cake tin is used and split to fill with cream and fresh raspberries. It was wonderful.

Beat the whites of 10 eggs to a froth for an hour with three spoons fill of cinimon or orange flower water, one pound of lump sugar powdered and sifted, the rhind of a lemon grated.

When these are well mixed add the juice of a lemon and the yolks of 10 eggs beat smooth for an hour, just before you put it in the oven, stir in three quarters of a pound of well dried fine flour, bake it in a moderate oven for an hour.

Catsup that will last twenty years (MS 34, 952 National Library of Ireland)

Terrifying! But probably works. (To rozen something is to seal it with a pine resin)

Take two quarts of strong stale beer and half a pound of anchovies wash them clean, cloves and mace of each a quarter of an ounce, of pepper half an ounce, a race or two of ginger, half a pound of shallots, a pint of flat mushrooms well boiled and salted, boil all them over a slow fire till one half is consumed then run it thro a flannel bag, let it stand till it is quite cold, bottle it and cork it close and rozen it.

A Rich Sillibub from the Cow (MS 42,134 National Library of Ireland)

First catch your cow! I doubt it would pass hygiene standards but the motion of milking from the udder would have had the desired effect.

Take what wine you like best, if it be sack, the curd will be the tenderer, mingle it with ale and sweeten it with sugar very well, ye juice and peel of a lemon.

Put yr pot or glass on the ground and milk in to it as fast as you can and make a little curd, then have a porringer of cream by you and put some upon the curd, then milk again, then cream again till your pot be full. Strew sugar on ye top.

Hot tips... from Beckett to Banville

‘From Beckett to Banville’ with Dorothy Cashman — who would have thought Samuel Beckett would give us a detailed description of how to achieve perfect toast?

Or that Thomas Flanagan would throw a punch at Jammet’s Restaurant with Janice Nugent’s remark “you don’t really improve the tin soup and the tick soup by calling them potages”?

Join Dorothy at the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine, on Saturday, May 16, at 11.30am, price €11, for more details see www.litfest.ie

Spring into action: why not create a soft fruit garden this year; Susan Turner will give a “Creating a Soft Fruit Garden Workshop” on Monday, March 2, at Ballymaloe Cookery School. This half-day intensive course will cover choosing fruit varieties, designing your garden, pruning, creating fans and cordons and propagation of soft fruit. Price €95 including a light lunch.

Or why not try a “Vegetable Garden Preparation” course on Monday, March 9; a day-long course, where Susan will provide you with the necessary skills to develop, assess and utilise sustainable organic growing techniques. Price €150 includes lunch. For further information on our horticulture courses see www.cookingisfun.ie