COLONIAL CODFISH PIE, WITH CRUST
The Boston Fish Pier: Recipes for Sea Food (1913)
Line a deep baking dish with a biscuit crust.
To make the curst, sift together four cups of flour, one heaping teaspoonful of soda, and two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar (or in place of these three heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder), and one teaspoonful of salt. In this rub one-half cup of shortening and about a pint of milk, that is, enough to make a medium soft dough. In rolling out the crust spread butter on twice and fold and roll out.
Take a pint of picked-up salt codfish, cover it with boiling water, let it stand two minutes and drain. Pour on more water, and, after it has stood, drain dry.
Upon the crust of your baking dish put a layer of this codfish, sprinkle it with bread crumbs, pepper (a little salt if you find the fish fresh), small pieces of butter, and some cream sauce (made by thickening one pint of boiling milk with two teaspoonfuls of flour and seasoning with salt and pepper). Break over the fish, bread crumbs and seasoning three or four eggs, carefully preserving the yolks.
Repeat these layers, codfish, bread crumbs, cream sauce, and eggs, put on the top crust, cut a few holes in the centre to let out the steam, and bake till the crust is a delicate brown.
|