Medieval Meatpies

Last weekend I experimented in the kitchen after reading the website Gode Cookery. I made 2 large medieval meatpies drawing from the basic recipie. I cheated using store bought deep dish crusts, but the rest was fairly authentic.

These are the ingredients I used:

1 1/2 lb beef stew meat
1/2 lb pork
1/4 lb chicken breast
6 dried figs
12 dried dates
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup chopped nuts (mixed)
8 egg yolks
1 cup red wine
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp nutmeg


I boiled all the meat first in a 2 qt pot with just enough water to cover it. After the meat cooled, I ran it all through a food processor to grind it down to almost paste. (there were still some shredded bits in it) I transfered the meat mush to a very large bowl, then ran the dried fruit in the processor to coarsely chop it. I then mixed the dried fruit and meat with the egg yolks, wine, and nuts. It still seemed too dry, so I reduced the broth from boiling the meat down to about 1/2 cup and mixed it in too. The pie crusts were pre-baked and cooled, then filled to the top will the meat mixture. I didn't put top crusts on the pies so they are a bit dry. The pies cooked at 400 for about an hour, the last 15 minutes I put them on the top rack to brown a little.

They turned out fairly well, sort of like sweet meatloaf. One of my coworkers said the presentation needed work, as the filling looked like Alpo. They tasted better with a bit of mustard when hot, but were ok when cold. I wouldn't add figs next time, the seeds made it taste gritty.