Russian Fish Pie and Epigrams of Lamb

I love old cookery books, they not only offer interesting and different recipes from what we eat now and how we eat now, they also show a glimpse of life in the past on a plate.

In this recipe book which came free with the G.E.C. cooker my mum had, there is a recipe for Russian fish pie… so how is it different from ordinary fish pie? Consulting the recipe I see that the ordinary pie is white fish flaked into a savoury sauce and topped with mashed potato then baked in the oven. The Russian variety is baked within an envelope of rough puff pastry (does anyone make this any more) with one hard-boiled egg cut into quarters and one tomato then baked in a hottish oven. This sounds a lot like a coulibiac, but an English 1960’s version.

What a performance to make Epigrams of lamb… bone a breast of lamb, remove the gristle, remove the skin and the fat, then either stuff with a veal forcemeat ( breadcrumbs, herbs, suet, salt and pepper) rolling and tying it with string, or sprinkle with herbs; then make a stock from the bones of the lamb, simmer the rolled up lamb with an onion and a carrot in a stock for an hour and a half… (after describing all that they then say you can just stew the lamb breast and then bone it and remove the skin and fat, stuff and roll it!) That is not the end of it. Once you have your cooked roll of stuffed or herby lamb, cut it into rounds, dip it in egg and bread crumbs and fry it, meanwhile making the lamb stock into either Brown or Tomato sauce to serve with it. (Brown sauce – fry onions, add flour, add lamb stock, add carrot, turnip and onion, salt and pepper, simmer and strain; Tomato sauce – fry bacon, onion, carrots, add tomatoes, stock, cook for thirty minutes, sieve and thicken)

I know we live in a faster society and have a huge number of time-saving devices, and perhaps are not economical enough to use less popular cuts of meat… but do we really have the time, or the enthusiasm for making epigrams of lamb? Would it really be worth it? Would they actually taste of very much after all those processes? I’m sorry, but I don’t intend to find out!!