First Attempt At A Puff Pastry Game Pie

[marsh man]

Used up some of the game before I stuck the rest in the freezer , the filling was Duck , Pheasant and Pigeon with the left over casserole veg mix , not to bad for the first attempt , if anything I cooked the filling for to long but it was still fine and I added some gravy afterwards , I done the pastry for about 25 minutes and coated it with egg wash before it went in the oven , a fair bit of room for improvement and I will do some sausage rolls with the left over pastry over the weekend

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Lovely, great colour and superb for a first go. Well done MM.   

[JKD]

Definitely a great attempt for your first pie 👏👍 I'd be well chuffed with that 😀

[hushpower]

Egg wash makes a huge difference look good

[ditchman]

that pastry is bloody perfect............jeesus you are becoming a real dab hand.....

did you surprise yourself..?

 

looks like someone "playing tents" in bed ......looks a bit lewd HHHhhahhahhahhahahaaaa

Edited Friday at 19:31 by ditchman

[JKD]

Just now, ditchman said:

that pastry is bloody perfect............jeesus you are becoming a real dab hand.....

did you surprise yourself..?

He's surprised everyone  

[marsh man]

11 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Lovely, great colour and superb for a first go. Well done MM.   

 

7 minutes ago, JKD said:

Definitely a great attempt for your first pie 👏👍 I'd be well chuffed with that 😀

THANKS .. To be honest I did not know what to expect so I took my time and done as per instructions , put the oven on at 200 and let the Red light go on first so I knew it was hot enough , it stated 25 mins but I kept an eye on it after it started to go Brown after about 14 minutes , from then on I kept an eye on it after each minute and as it turned out 25 minutes would had been about bang on , I never had a Blackbird but my wife thought of everything bless her , with me being mad on duck shooting at the time she had a duck instead of a Blackbird , the beak was a bit sharp so I put a off cut bit of pastry on first and then the main bit on top . now I know whats what I will improve on what I did and try some sausage rolls next , Greggs better look out as the man from the marsh is on his way  MM

[marsh man]

16 minutes ago, ditchman said:

that pastry is bloody perfect............jeesus you are becoming a real dab hand.....

did you surprise yourself..?

 

looks like someone "playing tents" in bed ......looks a bit lewd HHHhhahhahhahhahahaaaa

Playing tents in bed was in Gino's book , according to the news he have been a naughty boy so maybe it wasn't in his book  , as for surprising myself , if anything I was surprised how easy it was , all I done was followed instructions , rather than waste it I will use the rest of the beaten egg up for a spot of dinner before I have a look for a few Pigeons in the woods , if it is as cold as it was today then I will find somewhere a lot warmer than in some cold ole wood like my front room 

[ditchman]

where will you get your decent pork mince from.....whats that small butcher on the High street in Gorleston called........Toms mrs (Dawn) used to work there.....their meat is superb...

[TOPGUN749]

Looks perfect Marshman! 

[JohnfromUK]

Looks very nice, but one point; the head of the blackbird is meant to poke through the crust, which sits on it's shoulders.  Reason; the hollow neck and open beak on the bird allows the steam/pressure to escape (as well as stopping the pastry sagging.

Picture pinched from the internet, not my handiwork.

[marsh man]

46 minutes ago, ditchman said:

where will you get your decent pork mince from.....whats that small butcher on the High street in Gorleston called........Toms mrs (Dawn) used to work there.....their meat is superb...

I might get some off Perry's in the market place , I know the shop you are talking about in Gorleston High St  , always got some nice pies in the window 

19 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

Looks very nice, but one point; the head of the blackbird is meant to poke through the crust, which sits on it's shoulders.  Reason; the hollow neck and open beak on the bird allows the steam/pressure to escape (as well as stopping the pastry sagging.

Picture pinched from the internet, not my handiwork.

Well that's a handy tip to know John , when I first put mine on the top , the pastry went through where the beak was , so I cut two pieces off the corner of the pastry and covered the sharp bit up , that is why mine rested on the top without going through , every days a school day , THANKS for that . 

[JohnfromUK]

1 minute ago, marsh man said:

Well that's a handy tip to know John

I usually use a blackbird on a 2 person and larger pie.  On an 'individual' pie, I just make a hole to let the steam/pressure out as the blackbird uses too much room, ans also a 1 person pie is small, so the pastry doesn't sag so easily.  But your has turned out well anyway.  

2 hours ago, marsh man said:

I will do some sausage rolls with the left over pastry over the weekend

Sausage rolls I do a lot as I make them for the shoot.  I like them quite strong flavoured, so when I make mine I add a single rasher of streaky bacon under (or over) the sausagemeat and also spread a layer of English mustard on the sausagemeat before rolling the pastry over.

Sausage rolls can be frozen when cold, but I do find that when warmed up after being frozen (mine anyway) tend to be a bit 'soggy'.  Best when fresh cooked. 

[marsh man]

18 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

I usually use a blackbird on a 2 person and larger pie.  On an 'individual' pie, I just make a hole to let the steam/pressure out as the blackbird uses too much room, ans also a 1 person pie is small, so the pastry doesn't sag so easily.  But your has turned out well anyway.  

Sausage rolls I do a lot as I make them for the shoot.  I like them quite strong flavoured, so when I make mine I add a single rasher of streaky bacon under (or over) the sausagemeat and also spread a layer of English mustard on the sausagemeat before rolling the pastry over.

Sausage rolls can be frozen when cold, but I do find that when warmed up after being frozen (mine anyway) tend to be a bit 'soggy'.  Best when fresh cooked. 

Another thing I didn't give  a thought was doing enough pie filling for whatever dish you were using , I had two or three casserole dishes with the lids on but the amount of pie filling I done for one person would have only half filled them so I had some other pyrex dishes so I used one of them , that is why mine didn't sag as it was higher in the middle and had a slow sloop on to the outside , you were also right with taking the contents out while the little china bird was still inside , all of this is taken on board and will be applied on the next one I do which might be purely Pigeons or a Rabbit as most of the meat tasted the same and I go off game a bit when the season finish MM 

[ditchman]

mum told me (she was in the WAFF) she was often served up rabbit pie in the NAAFI ...it was termed on the menue (chalk board) as "Mock chicken pie"......she was based at  Neatishead one of the radar girls....

[marsh man]

12 hours ago, ditchman said:

mum told me (she was in the WAFF) she was often served up rabbit pie in the NAAFI ...it was termed on the menue (chalk board) as "Mock chicken pie"......she was based at  Neatishead one of the radar girls....

I used to sell a few Pigeons to a butcher in Yarmouth market place , he was renowned for his pies and had plenty of awards for the various competitions he used to enter , anyhow , whatever Pigeons he had leftover he used to cut all the meat off and stick them in the filling for his pies , the chap who worked there once told me that he called these pies something different for a few weeks and then started all over again , the contents in the pies were exactly the same each week and the only thing different was the name , one week it might be A Countryman's Pie , then A Poachers Pie , A Gamekeepers Pie and so on , he also said he had people only bought a certain named pie as they liked them better than the other ones even though they were all the same , the ole boy is dead now so he won't mind me telling you his trade secrets 

[ditchman]

...classic

 

was that the butchers on the markey place near what used to be the Co-operative ?

Edited Saturday at 11:31 by ditchman

[Dougy]

On 07/02/2025 at 19:11, marsh man said:

Used up some of the game before I stuck the rest in the freezer , the filling was Duck , Pheasant and Pigeon with the left over casserole veg mix , not to bad for the first attempt , if anything I cooked the filling for to long but it was still fine and I added some gravy afterwards , I done the pastry for about 25 minutes and coated it with egg wash before it went in the oven , a fair bit of room for improvement and I will do some sausage rolls with the left over pastry over the weekend

Well was it as difficult as you expected  

It looks bloody good, you got that pastry looking perfect, i dont always have eggs in and when i do i've either done my baking or dont have anything prepped up, 

Looks really good 

[marsh man]

Just now, Dougy said:

Well was it as difficult as you expected  

It looks bloody good, you got that pastry looking perfect, i dont always have eggs in and when i do i've either done my baking or dont have anything prepped up, 

Looks really good 

THANKS Dougy , I kept an eye on it for most of the second half of the time it was in the oven , I put the pie bird in the centre and put the filling in around it , when I put the crust over the top the weight of it dropped through where the beak was , so silly me put two small pieces of pastry on the beak first to stop it falling through and it wasn't till afterwards that John said that was what the pie birds were for to let the steam out , no harm done but I will know the next time if I do a double size one , if I just done one for myself I would do it without the bird in , I didn't really know what to expect , but if anything it was slightly easier than I expected , I used Jus Roll and left it in a hot oven for 25 minutes , how long do you leave yours in for ?   MM

[Dougy]

1 minute ago, marsh man said:

THANKS Dougy , I kept an eye on it for most of the second half of the time it was in the oven , I put the pie bird in the centre and put the filling in around it , when I put the crust over the top the weight of it dropped through where the beak was , so silly me put two small pieces of pastry on the beak first to stop it falling through and it wasn't till afterwards that John said that was what the pie birds were for to let the steam out , no harm done but I will know the next time if I do a double size one , if I just done one for myself I would do it without the bird in , I didn't really know what to expect , but if anything it was slightly easier than I expected , I used Jus Roll and left it in a hot oven for 25 minutes , how long do you leave yours in for ?   MM

You can put the bird in as you did, then just poke a hole in it, but they are designed with chunky shoulders to hold the pastry up. I cook my pies for about the same as you 20-25 mins obviously depending on oven, fan, gas electric etc. Your does look better than mine with the egg wash though. 👍

[marsh man]

5 minutes ago, Dougy said:

You can put the bird in as you did, then just poke a hole in it, but they are designed with chunky shoulders to hold the pastry up. I cook my pies for about the same as you 20-25 mins obviously depending on oven, fan, gas electric etc. Your does look better than mine with the egg wash though. 👍

Now come on Dougy , no way can the apprentice teach the teacher about better looking pies