This Hairy Bikers game pie recipe is a cold picnic pie, with venison, mixed game and bacon in red wine under a puff pastry lid. So set aside 4 hours 15 minutes plus cooling, and the Perfect Pies recipe gives 6 generous slices at roughly 1,490 calories each.
Built for carrying, they pitch it as “just right for a yomp in the country”, so it gets a baked shortcrust base. But the unnamed game pie on BBC Food is a different dish, with just a puff lid over a filling simmered 40 to 50 minutes.
Wait until the filling is completely cold before the lid goes on, so check that no steam rises when you stir it. And their pheasant pie in the same book gives the reason, because warm filling can make the pastry lid sink down into it.
Hairy Bikers Game Pie Recipe
Description
Everything happens in stages, from the long simmer to the pastry case that bakes while the filling cools. Then the finished pie needs to cool as well, because it is served cold in thick slices.
Ingredients
For the shortcrust case
For the filling
For the lid
Instructions
- Make the pastry: Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, then rub in the butter and lard with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the water to form a dough, and knead it lightly.
- Line the tin: Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface and line a deep 20cm cake tin with it. Then prick the base lightly with a fork and chill it for 30 minutes.
- Brown the meat: Cut the game and venison into rough cubes, then heat the oil in a large pan. Brown the meat in small batches without crowding the pan, and lift each batch out as it browns.
- Soften the vegetables: Cook the bacon and onions in the same pan until the onions turn translucent. Add the celery and mushrooms for 3 minutes, then stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes more.
- Simmer the filling: Return all the browned meat to the pan, then add the bay leaves, wine, thyme, stock and redcurrant jelly. Season well and simmer gently, uncovered, for about 2 hours until the meat is tender, though the exact time depends on the meat. Then leave it to cool.
- Blind bake the case: While the filling cools, heat the oven to 200°C, 180°C fan, Gas 6. Line the pastry with baking paper and beans, bake for 20 minutes, then lift them out and bake for 5 minutes more.
- Fill and top: Turn the oven down to 180°C, 160°C fan, Gas 4, and once the case is cool, pack the cold filling in well. Roll the puff pastry to about 5mm, brush the shortcrust rim with egg, and lay the lid on top.
- Bake and cool: Crimp and trim the edges, cut a couple of steam holes and decorate with the trimmings. Then brush with egg, bake for about 30 minutes until golden, and leave to cool completely before serving.
FAQs
Which game meat should I buy for it?
In Perfect Pies they only ask for 1.5kg of mixed game on top of the venison steak, without naming the birds or animals. But the version the BBC published from their Mums Know Best series names venison, pheasant, rabbit and squirrel, which gives you a good guide.
Whatever mix you buy, trim it carefully, as the Mums Know Best recipe asks, since gristle stays tough in a pie eaten cold. And if you would rather cook venison alone, their venison cobbler in Perfect Pies braises it in ale under a scone topping. Or for rabbit on its own, their rabbit stew braises it in dry cider with smoked bacon.
How is the Mums Know Best version different?
The filling is almost identical and still makes one deep 20cm pie, yet they say it serves 4 to 6 there. And the crust changes too, with an egg yolk and an hour’s chill. Then it blind bakes at 180°C for 20 minutes in a well-greased tin, without the extra 5 minutes uncovered.
My calorie figure counts every gram of both pastries, so the trimmings bring each slice down a little. But even so, 4 slices would top 2,200 calories each, while 8 thinner picnic slices come to around 1,120.
Is this a raised game pie?
No, because they use hot-water crust for raised pies, describing it as a sturdy, water-tight case, whereas this shortcrust bakes inside a cake tin. And Paul Hollywood’s raised game pie for BBC Food is built on lard and white bread flour.
Their own hot-water crust in Perfect Pies adds butter to the lard, which they reckon makes it extra good. And you can see it in action in their pork pie, where the pastry is moulded over jam jars.
Do you eat game pie hot or cold?
Cold, because both books say to cool it completely, and in Mums Know Best they suggest pickles and a glass of wine. So their hot mustard pickle, better known as piccalilli, makes a good partner, since it comes from Perfect Pies too.
They give no storage time in either book, so I follow the Food Standards Agency, which says to fridge cooked food within 2 hours. So get the pie into the fridge within 2 hours of baking, then eat it within 2 days.
What goes wrong most often with game pie?
Crowding the pan is the first trap, because meat piled in too deep sits in its own juice instead of browning. So they warn in Mums Know Best that the meat must be “sealed, not poached”.
The second is a gap in the printed method, since in neither book do they tell you to put the browned meat back in. So it goes back in with the wine and stock, otherwise you would simmer a gravy with no meat in it.
