To make a Salmon Pie

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This salmon pie was really good and very easy to make. I cheated a bit with modern conveniences such as ready made pastry, and the lobster was from a can but that all makes it really simple, I served it up as part of a dinner party and 'twas well-received accompanied by a glass of Sack on ice.

To make a salmon pie.

MAKE a good crust, cleanse a piece of salmon well, season it with salt, mace and nutmeg, lay a little piece of butter at the bottom of the dish, and lay your salmon in. Melt butter according to your pye; take a lobster,boil it,pick out all the flesh, chop it small, bruise the body, mix it well with the butter, which must be very good; pour it over your salmon, put on the lid and bake it well.

funny thing is, she spells 'pie' with an i in all the titles of the pie recipes, but in the body of the recipe it's spelled 'pye'. Odd quirky spelling was usual in the 18th century, Samuel Johnson did his best to homogenise spelling but it took a while before it caught on.

For this recipe I lined a terracotta oven dish with puff pastry sheets and then put in the butter. I used two salmon fillets, seasoning them as Hannah says to. I don't want to boil a lobster because it's really cruel, so I decided a can of lobster meat would be better. Then I don't have to ' pick out all the flesh' and 'bruise the body'  - that's been done for me by the brave fisher folk. If you can't find a can of lobster meat then red crab meat is just as good. melt butter in a pan and fry lobster/crab briefly, add a bit of creme fraiche or ricotta or perhaps a little white sauce to make it a little softer and accentuate the taste, otherwise you will need a LOT of butter.