Table Talk

Duck, duck, goose?

Well, we are up to our wings in duck…pies that is.  This week marks the first week leading up to the Christmas Holidays that our seasonal pies will be available, starting of course with Duck.  Our Duck & Fig pies have become a favourite with our customers during the 3 years that we have been making them, and the calls have been coming in for the last 30 days – ‘are the pies ready yet?’.  The answer today is YES!

It all starts with the crust.

The process, I must tell you, is quite labour intensive.  First, we start with premium Ontario Duck Legs – which are slowly braised in a mixture of figs, white wine and aromatics for 2 hours.

When they are cool enough to handle, the meat is carefully stripped from the bones and set aside, while the bone and juices are dumped into a large stock pot and simmered for a day – to reduce to a rich, flavourful sauce.

For our first batch we started with 70 Kilos of duck!

Meanwhile, batches and batches of Pie Crust dough was made – using butter, lard, organic flour and local eggs.

rolling dough

Then the rolling begins.  In total we rolled out over 90 pies, tops and bottoms.  the pies are filled with the savoury filling.
pie without topMany cultures have a traditional food that resembles a meat pie in some way but the Oxford English Dictionary traces the first use of the word “pie” as it relates to food to 1303. In the Middle Ages, pies were the specialty of patissiers.
The traditional Welsh or Cornish Pasties were meat-filled pies often served as a miner’s lunch. When these laborers came to America to work they brought the recipe with them.  By the middle of the seventeenth century, pies had become an English specialty.  English cookbooks from the eighteenth century contain many receipts for meat pies, some with sweet & savoury elements – like the traditional mincemeat pie (dried fruit mixed with spices, suet or minced meat, and often some sort of alcohol).
Finished Duck Pies
This week – Bison, Sweet Potato & Cranberry Pie, and the following week we will be making Lamb with Apricot & Pine Nuts – a new addition to our ‘Seasonal’ Pie menu.
9.5″ pies are priced at $22.00 and we should have good supplies through to Christmas.

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