Steak and Kidney Pie

[Rico]

I will be making a steak and kidney pie this afternoon, and was curious to know if the puff pastry I see called for in most of the recipes is required to maintain the 'authenticity' (not to start any discussions about the semantics of authenticity) of the dish, or can one just use a regular savory pie crust?

[jackal10]

I prefer a regular not flaky crust.

Even better one made with a savoury fat like dripping

Even better still make a steak and kidney pudding, with the meat sealed in suet pastry.

Pie is just a stew with a pastry lid.

Pudding, on the other hand, where all the goodness has been sealed in, and gently cooked for a long time is something wonderful

Add some oysters and mushrooms and you get Dr. Marigold's Pudding, as described by Dickens:

"I am a neat hand at cookery, and I'll tell you what I knocked up for my Christmas-eve dinner in the Library Cart. I knocked up a

beefsteak-pudding for one, with two kidneys, a dozen oysters, and a couple of mushrooms thrown in. It's a pudding to put a man in good

humour with everything, except the two bottom buttons of his waistcoat. Having relished that pudding and cleared away, I turned the

lamp low, and sat down by the light of the fire, watching it as it shone upon the backs of Sophy's books"

[Harters]

I'd regard ordinary shortcrust, not puff, to be the more "traditonal" (to avoid getting hung-up on "authentic". And it;s certainly my preferance.

[PoppySeedBagel]

A lot of very old pie recipes call for puff pastry, mind, though I don't know about S&K, specifically.

To quote Jane Grigson (from memory) these days we prefer short crust.

I love S&K pie but agree with Jane - puff gets too slimy when mixed with gravy IME.

[Harters]

Steak & kidney pie (or snake & pygmy as we always called it as kids) is a regular on pub menus and I love it. But I always ask first about the pastry. If it's puff, I won't order it. Bought in ones are usually puff; shortcrust is a good sign it's been made on the premises.