Lost Recipes: Warm up with these 19th century pot pies, and a 1981 champion

This week’s Lost Recipes are kind of crusty. We’re taking a look at the timeless, flakey goodness of a pot pie through recipes in the Montgomery Advertiser’s archives.

The following are for family-sized pot pies, not individual ones. Yes, kids, pot pies existed before those tiny frozen microwaveable things you eat today. Plus, instead of being pie shaped, you can make a homemade pot pie casserole dish style if you want.

Probably the most familiar one is the chicken pot pie, but you can use other meats like turkey, pork or even beef, and use various vegetables in the filling. To me, the signature part is the crust on top. It’s oh so good.

A simple pot pie crust (1892)

According to a writer from 1892, the reason so many people failed making homemade pot pie crust is that they tried too hard.

“They use cream, butter, eggs and various ingredients, all of which make the compound too rich, and, as a matter of course, the moment the air comes in contact with it down it goes.”

More: Lost Recipes: Homemade bread styles that aren't stale a century later

So keep your crust simple. With flour, cold water, a pinch of salt, and the usual proportion of baking powder, make a paste you can handle. Turn it out on a pastry board. Pat and flatten gently, using as little flour as possible.

“Then lay it in the kettle over the meat and vegetables, which must be nearly done. Boil rapidly for fifteen minutes, then take it out slowly from the fire.”

This recipe may be a little different from most pot pies, because it calls for a disassembly. The crust is broken into “dumplings” before being served.

“Remove all but the gravy, which is to be slightly thickened with flour, providing the dumplings has not made it thick enough before, which is sometimes the case. Pour the gravy over the dish and serve immediately. Made and treated this way, dumplings will be light and digestible.”

Pot pie filling with extra fresh chicken (1893)

Farm-to-table had a whole other meaning back in the 1800s, as you’ll see from this recipe for putting a freshly killed chicken into a pot pie.

“Use a fowl weighing four or five pounds. Remove all the feathers, singe off the hairs, and wipe it clean with a wet towel. Draw the bird without breaking the intestines. (I think that means to get all the organs out. Also, the recipe doesn’t say, but you’re going to want to get the meat off the bones to proceed.) Cut the meat in pieces about two inches square. Put it into a saucepan with half a pound of fat salt pork, chopped fine, a spoonful of pepper, two tablespoons full of salt, and enough boiling water to cover it. Place the saucepan over the fire where the chicken will cook gently until it is tender.”

More: Lost Recipes: Check out these pearls of oyster wisdom from 1878

Then cover it with a crust, like the one from the recipe above, and let the contents cook for another 25 minutes.

I’ve read that it’s important to let a freshly killed chicken rest a day or so before you cook it, so that the meat isn’t tough.

Grand prize winning Southern style chicken pot pie

Now let’s jump ahead about 90 years to the 1981 Advertiser-Journal Cookbook, where Mary Ellen Andrews took the grand prize in the Montgomery Advertiser-Alabama Journal recipe cookbook contest with her chicken pot pie. According to the Advertiser, she was the wife of a minister in Ozark and a mother of two sons when she won, and learned to cook from her mother.

Here’s what you’ll need to make Andrews’ dish:

• 1 cup chopped onion

• 1 cup chopped celery

• 1 cup chopped carrot

• 2 cups chicken broth

• 1 cup of half-and-half

• 1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

• ½ cup all purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon pepper

• 4 cups chopped chicken

• Parsley (optional)

• Basic pastry

Saute the onion, celery, and carrot in butter or margarine for 10 minutes. Add flour to sauteed mixture, stirring well. Cook one minute, stirring constantly. Combine broth and half-and-half. Gradually stir in broth mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly. Stir in salt and pepper. Add chicken, stirring well. Pour chicken mixture into a shallow two quart casserole. Top with pastry (again, you could use the recipe from the beginning, or just use a store-bought pastry sheet). Cut slits to allow steam to escape. Decorate with pastry cut-outs if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Garnish with parsley, if desired. This yields six generous servings.

“It’s best when it’s first taken out of the oven, and it smells so good,” Andrews told the Advertiser 43 years ago.

IF YOU TRY IT

If you decide to try one of these lost recipes, please send us a photo and a note on how it went. Send it in an email titled "Lost Recipes" to Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel at sheupel@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Lost Recipes: Pot pie wisdom from the late 1800s, and a 1981 champion