This recipe is Ranhoffer’s response to Dickens’s Pickwick Papers and Sam Weller’s description of “weal pies.” Dickens dined at Delmonico’s in New York City while Ranhofer was chef de cuisine, but this item was not on the menu.
Veal Tart or Pie
Suppress all the fat and sinews from a kernel of veal; cut it up into thin slices, having them an inch and a half in diameter. Butter a pie dish (Fig. 183) that can go into the oven; set slices of bacon and ham on the bottom, and over these the sliced veal, alternated; season with salt, pepper, and parsley; add finely cut-up potatoes, chopped shallots or onions, then continue to fill with the same until the dish is quite full and well rounded on top; pour some clear gravy into the bottom, lay a small band made of puff paste parings on the edge of the dish, and a flat of the same paste on top; cut away the surplus paste around the dish, decorate and egg the pie over twice; bake it in a medium oven for one hour and a half for a dish containing a quart.
See Charles Ranhofer. The Epicurean: A Complete Treatise of Analytical and Practical Studies on the Culinary Art: Including Table and Wine Service, How to Prepare and Cook Dishes, an Index for Marketing, a Great Variety of Bills of Fare for Breakfasts, Luncheons, Dinners- Suppers, Ambigus, Buffets, etc, and a Selection of Interesting Bills of Fare of Delmonico’s, from 1862 to 1894 (Chicago, 1920)