There is a dish called "Sjömansbiff" in Scandinavia - literally "Sailors' steak". It is also made in layers, in a pot, and boiled. You make it by slicing potatoes and onions and layer them with thinly sliced beef (or ground beef in Denmark). Season well with salt, allspice and freshly ground pepper. Cover with water and boil until done. So the whole "layering things and boil it" was used on ships all over, I guess. Top class content, as always. Thank you!
@@bigbertil9377 Vet inte hur gammal du är, men det var rätt vanligt förr i världen. När jag gick i plugget under 80- och 90-talet fick vi det ett par ggr per termin.
The pie crust wasn't meant to be (and indeed it was not) eaten either, that's a very relatively recent thing in the history of pies. The crust itself was the cooking/storage vessel, it was discarded afterwards, the same way we discard the foil/plastic wrap today.
Fun fact: this dish is known in Quebec as "cipaille" which is pronounced pretty much the same as "sea-pie". I never knew but upon research it seems like it really is derived from English "sea-pie", but there's some folk etymologies about it coming from "six-pâtes" as in six layers of dough.
Italians have a Marinara sauce, basically a mariner's or sailor's sauce. Everybody knows it's made mainly out of tomatoes with no seafood ingredient whatsoever. Now it makes sense to me, because guys who spent weeks at sea during those days would love nothing more than the taste of fresh tomatoes!
Completely understandable. "If I see one more..." I work in tech but at home I'm comparatively a luddite. This and email is the only social media I do, and I'm typing this on a 5-year-old laptop. Not that I can't have more, I don't want it. I'm very glad that my girlfriend isn't a urologist.
Your raccoon lesson was one of the first ones we learned when we moved to our farm. Where we previously live we used the back deck as overflow refrigeration during winter. At our farm, this practice didn’t survive the first try. By the way, opossums and skunks have zero fear of humans at night and are really good at making off with food as well.
Adding some potato, carrots, peas, and onion to that would be amazing. Layering the dough inside is a great idea, pie crust is my favorite part of savory pies.
Your stolen pie story is pretty funny. I'm surprised you were surprised! If we need to store anything, as in using outdoors as a refrigerator, it goes in the trunk of the car - between squirrels, raccoons, and groundhogs, we will lose anything left out.
@@b_uppy I'm lucky we don't have tons of black bear so no worries putting food outside in my car to cool. But in winter I often store stuff in my jeep when doing big cooking projects for dinners lol or whilst prepping foods for easy meals cuz if I left anything on my deck the squirrels/crows and neighborhood dogs (and possibly my own fur kiddos) would be all over it. No bear in winter.
I made one of these a couple years ago for a Napoleonic era naval dinner with friends. It weighed in at eleven pounds; stuffed with two decks of pork, beef steak, chicken based force meat, with vegetables and spices in a raised coffin (which I researched on your channel). It was an awesome experience, and much enjoyed by our gathering. Thank you for your inspirational video during the trial of preparing my culinary behemoth! All my best...
Racoons be like: "Guys, remember the legendary meats pie our ancestors enjoyed 300 years ago? I think we found it! Let's take it, for historical reasons..."
The Aubrey-Maturin series of books is one of the best historical fiction stories ever! It is amazing to see the foods described in them come to life on your channel!
@@greenpedal370 That's subjective, nutritionally yes sailors had it better than the lower classes did on land. But the people on land would have had far more tasty food since fresh fruit and vegetables would be avalable, and on rare occasions fresh meat that hasn't been salted.
This was fascinating to see how creative the cooks were onboard ships. An interesting option to consider when camping and you want to be a little creative with the campfire. It seems that you can use a wide variety of ingredients for the pie.
I often feel like a limited pantry curries more flavour than a limited one, because the scarcity bakes creativity. Then, when used in plenty, we have a beautiful bounty to love.
Could be very good for making use of predator meat while hunting on the trail, since that is most safely eaten after being boiled. Toss in some foraged herbs…could be quite the enlivening meal.
These videos are so informative and wholesome and well-made. While it is many years off, when I do have kids I plan on showing them all of these videos.
When the Mary Rose was raised from the Solent in 1982 one of the mysteries they found was a huge pile of bricks on one of her lower decks. Eventually, via archaelogy and experimental archaeology, they worked out that these bricks had originally been an onboard oven, for baking bread and for the serious cooking of foodstuffs. Mary Rose sank in 1545, so if Tudor-era English sailors knew how to bake on board a wooden ship, I'm sure the sailors of the British Colonies - and the Americas - could do it too.
@@botbtquarrel4072 If you think about it, a brick, pottery, or clay oven is likely safer on a wooden ship than an open fire. Unless it breaks it will keep the fire contained and away from the wood of the ship.
Hello everyone, For all of the Aubrey and Maturin fans out there, I would recommend a cookbook called Lobscouse and Spotted Dog. All of the recipes in the novels have been recreated to the best of the authors ability. A very good companion to the novels, which are, in my opinion, some of the best literature of the Twentieth Century. All the best Sam
Great cookbook! A got it as a Christmas present from my mother15 years ago and it is wonderful. Not just to cook with(every year, early in Christmas week, I make one of the recipes; This year's recipe: Warden Pie p.184), but to read as a bit of gastronomic history. Still has a prominent place on my cookbook shelf in my kitchen.(The large majority of my cookbooks have migrated to my library as I am unlikely to ever use them again for recipes.)
Great stuff. Thank you for the spelt version of the series of books, as I could not catch what John was saying. I am a fan of C S Forester Horatio Hornblower series myself
In Quebec, we have something similar called "Cipâtes" or "Cipaille" (same thing, you just mix it all with cut potatoes and onions). Traditionnaly, we eat it during the winter holidays. It goes best with ketchup. Another awesome video by the way and a nice holiday to you all !!! 🐧
@@cherub6303 Untrue lol. But also "Ketchup" does not always refer to that American tomato jam! Personally I always have my cipaille with some traditional Quebec fruit ketchup
I've been going through tough times recently and your channel has been a light in the darkness. Every night I turn on a few videos and instantly feel comfort. Thank you for putting out such consistent and enjoyable content.
When I was a Peace Corp volunteer living in a hut with no electricity we made steam bread. Similar except that the bread bowl was NOT covered with water. There was just a couple of inches of water in the big pot. The top was very moist and inside the bread was a lovely spongy texture. I liked it. Not as much as baked bread, but it worked when there was no other option. Thanks for this video. It took me back to the days....
I was surprised to see how well that crust turned out!! I honestly thought it would be a bit mushy. Throw some gravy in that, with potatoes, and peas and carrots, you've got yourself a feast!!
As much as I like crust, I think Simmons' suggestion to sprinkle the layers of meat with flour as an alternate to the interior crust sound better and with the added water you gave a nice gravy too.
Yep, I was surprised when he started layering crust - recipe just said dust all the meat with flour, which would result in a wonderful gravy, as you said.
I think the classical and old world nature of your videos are wonderful. I hope you keep posting them for a long time. I now watch two different cooking shows on youtube and yours is one. Exceptional to keep the old world alive. It's almost as exciting as it is calming.
For anyone interested the Aubrey and Maturin book series he mentions had its first book adapted into the movie "Master and Commander" which is pretty popular but few people seem to know its based on a book series, Id recommend you check it out if you liked the movie, its a long series but the books are relatively short.
I've heard so many people gush about the Master and Commander series I need to just bite the bullet. I don't think I've ever seen books so highly recommended but also without the surrounding HYPE you see from culturally popular books. The fact that they still capture people so much tells me they are well worth it.
Here in Quebec (Canada) we call it Cipaille (pronounced Sea Pie) even amounts of beef, chicken and pork mixed with onions and layered with potatoes (ex: 3 lbs of meat for 3 lbs of potatoes) the meat is seasoned with concentrated chicken bouillon, line a Creuset baking dish with pie crust, layer meat and potatoes cover with pie dough fill it up with chicken bouillon (mixed accordindly with water) pop on the cover and in the oven for about 5-6 hours making sure it stays wet (adding bouillon mix), our feast every Xmas eve, Cheers!!!!!!!!
I’ve read the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien and have wanted to see an authentic sea pie for ages. Thank you for making this video! I will be making my own Sea pie later this winter, when it’s good and cold.
Reminds me of a French Canadian layered meat pie called cipaille - pronounced phonetically as sea-pie. Makes me wonder if both these dishes had a common origin.
This is inspiring. My boat actually does have a (small) oven but I'm thinking I need to find a way to incorporate a recipe like this into my own repertoire while underway. Even if it ends up being a multilayer pot pie in the aforementioned oven!
I first watched you channel after looking for the food from Aubrey/Maturin novels many years ago. I love all your videos but I still enjoy the "naval" ones the most. Thank you for your great work and stay save in these difficult times.
I always am thrilled to find another Aubrey/Maturin fan. Being the Captain’s Chef had to be a challenge. Aubrey loved to eat, and his favorite was pickled hogs head. Maturin hardly ever ate anything but loved opium. I’m almost ready to read it all again.
I'm on my fifth read-through of the series now. There is a companion cookbook available called "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog" full of recipes from the period. Edited to add: I'm also a former sub sailor. :)
Just made one of these pups. I added onions to the top layer of chicken and baked at 350 for an hour and ten minutes as I don’t have a pot big enough to boil it. If you guys take the notion to try it out, you will not be disappointed! Hearty and delicious. Don’t be afraid to salt that bad boy though! If I learned one lesson, it’s that without a healthy dose of salt, it teeters towards blandness. But even so, you can always add a dash on your plate, and Bob’s your uncle! Enjoy! Thanks for this awesome video!
Sounds an awful lot like a British savoury "pudding" or dumpling" pie, the most famous of which would be a "steak & kidney pudding" [or Baby's Heads/Heids depending on the part of the country you're from]. Though those are usually steamed & not boiled & have the addition of suet to the pastry; both of which make it lighter & less soggy. On reflection the fact that you immersed it fully in the water makes it closer to a "rag pudding" which predate the use of a ceramic bowl and were wrapped in a cloth [cloot - where we get the name of my childhood favourite, a "clootie dumpling]. If you fancy trying one of those look up a "Buckingham Bacon Badger". There's no badger in it [though you could cook those thieving raccoons], its thought the name badger refers to an old term for a Trade Dealer [especially one that sold flour].
I boiled a turkey dinner with a half of turkey and dressing stuffed under the leg and breast area. No water added just a rack in large pot, drippings were awesome for gravy.
I've never heard of a pie like that before. I'd imagine the pie crust is like dumpling dough, in that fashion. The pie does look really good. Also, the raccoons have great taste in food. Cheers!
I love the Patrick O'Brian series too! There is a fan book out there: "Lobscouse & Spotted Dog" by Anne Chotzzinoff and Lisa Grossman Thomas "Which it's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels" that folks might be interested in. It has recipes for all the things they eat in the book series.
As a lover of a traditional northern meat pudding, I am definitely a fan of this, I loved steamed piecrust and any doughy kinds of food. This looks so good!
There's a flavor combination in Chinese cooking called "Fish Fragrant" and it has no fish. It is often used on fish though. I'm guessing the sea pie is made for the sea. Edit: called it!
Jon, I had a similar experience one Thanksgiving with a pumpkin pie I had set out to cool on our back deck. Went out to get it a couple hours later...and all that was left was the aluminum pie plate, clean as a whistle. Not a crumb!
I always love in Jon's videos when he tries the food the music always shifts to the more jaunty sounding opening music Its like in a climactic battle in an anime when the main character unlocks his true potential and wins the day
I have made this dish. In the local French it is "chiapelle" which sounds like "sea pie". They still have a festival featuring it. I cooked mine in a dutch oven over charcoal. The center of the pie is filled with broth/water, so it almost boils from the inside out. I imagine the recipe evolved differently in different places. Thank you for sharing your recipe with us. Stay safe and stay warm
My French-Canadian grandmother made a dish she always called "Pate" , which my mom never understood, as pate was something else. She made it with wild blueberries, and layered the dough exactly like this dish - layers of blueberries/sugar/butter/piecrust. It's one of my best childhood memories with flavour beyond compare. I just googled it now, and apparently, Cipaille is sometimes called CiPATE!! My grandma used the old Cipate or Cipaille method of layering the pie crust, but used fruit instead of meat.
I so enjoy watching these recipes, but as someone with celiac's disease, I have yet to find a gluten free simple pie crust that will hold up to the kind of cooking you can do with wheat. so I just savor my memories of the taste of a really good crust. enjoy your delicious looking pie!
Did they never have ovens on ships? I remember reading about the superiority of ships with a bread oven on one of the lowest decks. Supposedly the heat of it warmed the ship, helped evaporate bilgewater, and improved morale. It let fresh bread be baked daily, bringing sacks of flour rather than hardtack. Was that just a suggestion?
Large ships had ovens, usually made of iron. In the USA you can visit _USS Constitution_ and see one for yourself. In the UK you can visit _HMS Victory_ which has a massive oven.
@@jacksons1010 I'm curious how they handled making any kind of fire aboard a wooden sailing ship. For the video recipe you still need fire to boil water. What did that look like? And if there was a way to have a fire and boil water, why was it so hard to enclose that and make a crude oven?
"Give me a cup of tea, Babbington, there's a good fellow. My fingers are too numb to turn the tap." "The tea has gone by the board, sir. Would coffee do?" "Anything, anything, so long as it is warm and wet. Is there any sea-pie left?" They showed him the empty dish. "Why, here's a pretty thing," he cried. "All night on deck, and no sea-pie." --H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O'Brian
Thanks for the shout out to my favourite book series of all time! I've always wanted to know what a sea-pie looked, smelt and tasted like too, and now I am inspired to try my own hand at it. So far, syllabub is about as far as I've gotten in preparing recipes popular in the 18th century, sea-pie is next for sure!
I have to admit, as a seafood lover I was a bit disappointed that this did not contain seafood. Nevertheless, it's another interesting look at life at sea in the 18th century! Thanks!
Why not make it with seafood just use shrimp cod with a little salt pepper etc let your mind work have fun if it turns out bad the raccoons have to eat to
Love the Aubrey-Maturin series! I've read them three or four times and use them as reference books for the novel I'm writing. Thanks for these informative and creative series of videos!
After watching this video on the weekend I decided I really wanted to try. So I made one today, and it's really amazing! I never would have thought the pie crust would be crusty at all, but it definitely is, and the flavours are so wonderful, for spices I put salt and pepper, plus garlic, onion, celery and mushrooms, for meat I just used beef cut into roughly 1cm pieces.
Townsend, since the Christmas season is coming up, I was wondering what the parents would give the children for Christmas gifts in the 18th century? (Video idea possibly??)
I would guess it might be something ordinary to us but exotic/ rare to them. For example, in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Pa brought back canned oysters and a SINGLE orange for each of his girls at Christmas during the 19th century. This was in the Midwest US when those items would not have been easily available. Otherwise, maybe things like wooden handmade toys for boys and dolls and thread/ cloth for girls. Probably depends on the age of the child. An older teen might just appreciate some new fabric she and Ma would sew into a dress for her.
When I inherited my great grandma's recipes (cooking and cleaning), many of her units of measurement were quite different than I'm used to. It was fun looking them up though. She used drams in most everything.
Love love love your videos. Your passion, your voice, your excitement all adds to a wonderful experience. When I was a civil war reenactor I used recipes from that era. I am an accomplished cook and half the fun of Olde recipes was decoding the language used. Fortunately 19th century isn't as far removed at 17th century, but I understand completely your passion. Thank you for making and sharing these glimpses into the past.
Raccoons stole 2 cans of cat food off my porch the other night. Apparently they figured out the built-in openers on the cans. They are dextrous and smart, and they do clean everything up beautifully!
John, your honesty (and sense of humor) about you missing test-pie is wonderful. We all know that sh!t happens sometimes - and all you can do is shrug it off and move forward. 🙃 Love the channel (and the recipes), BTW!
@@chloeedmund4350 Very similar to John's. I just use different meats (usually cured, as when I camp, I'm out in the sticks for a good while). I use a bit less butter than John (and I am not a fan of nutmeg like he is, but we all have our preferences, though i think I'm going to try it), and I use cayenne to taste. But the technique is the same. Get your crust, seal an internal pot, boil it, and enjoy. :) I like it sometimes instead of a camp style bake, as the crust just has a different texture, one I really like.
I've had to adapt to a primal/keto diet but I still watch Townsends regularly because I love the vibe, the history and the recipes. This is such a great channel.
In New France it became Cipaille (pronounced just like sea pie). It's started with sea pie. Sea pie is a meat pie with many layers of dough. They translated it to six pates, meaning six layers of dough (and the pronunciation is still similar to sea pie). Then it became Cipaille, a kind of meat pie with a lot of dough.
I had thought 'seapie' was a reference to 6 layers, roughly what 6 would sound like in French. When I made mine about 7 years ago, I used salt beef, salt pork, and chicken. 3 layers of meat and 3 of paste.
Reminds me of the 'steak and kidney pudding' my grandmother used to make back in England. That had gravy in it though and, although covered with muslin and tied wasn't submerged. The water was kept about 3/4 of the way up the 'pudding bowl', in a lidded pot, checked often and topped up as needed. It was turned out before being cut and the pastry was made with lard rather than butter. Delicious!
Now, based off of your historical knowledge of this dish and how it was made back in the day, do you think that the raccoons who stole your piecrust were actually levitated towards it on the scent wafting through the woods?
They were raccoons... scavengers...they don't care... they're probably like hey guys we need.a team here... smell that right there...uhh yeah we get it away from here into those woods and we can all have some. Hey Barnaby...Skooter... Turkey...Bubba...get off your rinnged butts and on my count we move that smells good stuff from here to there. One...two...three...let's go guys.
@@kittyhawker4464 Okay, that's all well and good, but what I'm asking is was the aroma of the pie crust so POWERFUL and INTICING that it LIFTED the raccoons off the ground, and toward the pie? Maybe the visible scent even took on the form of a human hand and beckoned welcomingly to the crust on the windowsill? These are serious scientific and historical questions here.
@@KnaveMurdok absolutely, and I would say the steam also beckoned to them by making the form of a finger for sure. the flavors and aromas of the 18 th century always do
I thought your story about the missing pie was going to end with you sleep eating it all yourself. I'm not disappointed at the ending, but I really wanted for you just to say you wolfed the thing down.
I'm fascinatedby this. For some reason I imagined it would be like stargazy pie. Big fan of the O'Brian books too. I guess a pie like this would go down grateful, as Jack would say!
This reminds me of a dive bar in Atlanta GA. Where me and my Mom would go to occasionally because they had a dish called The Seahawk, it Was Delicious! It was like a seafood pie with scallops and crab and lobster and a cheese sauce made with white wine, Absolutely Fantastic!
Your sea pie doesn’t much resemble the one that always springs to the front of my mind, although I can’t remember which of O’Brian’s books it’s in. Yours is… thoroughly cooked, with nary a yielding, gelatinous lump of poultry to be found ;) I’m very anxious to give it a try!
I still can't belief that nobody on the west actually figured out steaming back then. All you need is a simple stone, and 2 pots of different size. Put the stone on the bottom of the larger pot, put the smaller pot containing the food to be cooked, add some water just midline the smaller pot, and boil. So simple, and this recipe even came incredibly close to doing it if they add much less water, yet somehow it's not done.
Well the same thing can be said for baking in the East. It wasn't until you had contact with Europeans did you start to make baked sweets, breads and other things.
@@peachesandcream8753 that's what makes it even more unbelievable. Baking is so much more complex, yet they done it so easily while missing the absolutely simpler thing.
@@kueapel911 I guess its because boiling is easier. We did develop steamed puddings in England eventually but steamed vegetables never caught on until recently. I'm not sure why.
Really cool!! Totally going to try this!! My son and I have a channel (been a while since we uploaded due to some issues) where we review MRS's. This looks REALLY cool to try, thus sparking a possible addition to what we do for this spring. I appreciate YOU and the added inspiration.
I had sea pie once just the other day. Couldn’t believe someone just left one of those out on the back porch.
LOL do you know what was used to make that big hole in the middle !!!!!
Now are you trying to tell me that this guy isn't thinking of your culinary joy?
@Sketchazoid I got a pie for ya it’s made of road apples
This made me laugh out loud, thank you sir 🧡
Thief. 😉
There is a dish called "Sjömansbiff" in Scandinavia - literally "Sailors' steak". It is also made in layers, in a pot, and boiled. You make it by slicing potatoes and onions and layer them with thinly sliced beef (or ground beef in Denmark). Season well with salt, allspice and freshly ground pepper. Cover with water and boil until done.
So the whole "layering things and boil it" was used on ships all over, I guess. Top class content, as always. Thank you!
That sounds really good too. I gotta try that too. Thanks for sharing.
I believe you're supposed to cover it with porter, which makes it absolutely delicious. Or maybe that's just how I have always done it.
Have you ever tried it? Wondering how it tastes.
Aldrig hört talas om, låter gott dock
@@bigbertil9377 Vet inte hur gammal du är, men det var rätt vanligt förr i världen. När jag gick i plugget under 80- och 90-talet fick vi det ett par ggr per termin.
I just realized that pie crusts were actually the “covering” for food. With no foil and plastic wrap the crust sealed the food.
There was waxed cloth...
They used to refer to the pie crust as a 'coffin'.
@@amethystrose5270
That's interesting...
The pie crust wasn't meant to be (and indeed it was not) eaten either, that's a very relatively recent thing in the history of pies. The crust itself was the cooking/storage vessel, it was discarded afterwards, the same way we discard the foil/plastic wrap today.
@@bigfatchubbybritboy9445
What's your source?
Fun fact: this dish is known in Quebec as "cipaille" which is pronounced pretty much the same as "sea-pie". I never knew but upon research it seems like it really is derived from English "sea-pie", but there's some folk etymologies about it coming from "six-pâtes" as in six layers of dough.
And the French in the North Bay area now call it Cie Pie
I prefer my tortiere
@@TigerofRobare Both are good.
I went to the comments to say exactly this but you beat me to it. My whole life I thought it was six-pates until this video
Came here to say exactly that. But I prefer my Mémère tourtiere over her six-pate. But her recipes are from Manitoba and not Quebec.
One thing I learned in Newfoundland is that fishermen crave anything but fish when they return home: steak, spaghetti, or ham but no fish!
Never fished out of Newfy but spent a large part of my life out of New Bedford and Gloucester MA, and I can confirm this
Italians have a Marinara sauce, basically a mariner's or sailor's sauce. Everybody knows it's made mainly out of tomatoes with no seafood ingredient whatsoever. Now it makes sense to me, because guys who spent weeks at sea during those days would love nothing more than the taste of fresh tomatoes!
as a newfoundlander i do love this guys recipes
newfie steak. fried balogna.
Completely understandable. "If I see one more..."
I work in tech but at home I'm comparatively a luddite. This and email is the only social media I do, and I'm typing this on a 5-year-old laptop. Not that I can't have more, I don't want it.
I'm very glad that my girlfriend isn't a urologist.
Your raccoon lesson was one of the first ones we learned when we moved to our farm. Where we previously live we used the back deck as overflow refrigeration during winter. At our farm, this practice didn’t survive the first try. By the way, opossums and skunks have zero fear of humans at night and are really good at making off with food as well.
what about bigfoot?
@@JafuetTheSameBigfoot is worse, immune to small arms
Adding some potato, carrots, peas, and onion to that would be amazing. Layering the dough inside is a great idea, pie crust is my favorite part of savory pies.
Mushrooms. Mushrooms too.
Some apple and raisins would be one way to go, or chicken, bacon and cheese.
@@hermitoldguy6312 pork with apple is the best.
a cheese sauce on the side
Great day,ya'll are making me hungry. Its 7pm and dark,but I'm thinkin about going outside and building a fire and gettin my lodge dutch oven out!
This man is the Bob Ross of the cooking world.
Except his happy accidents aren’t so happy when it means burning the food lol
Your stolen pie story is pretty funny. I'm surprised you were surprised! If we need to store anything, as in using outdoors as a refrigerator, it goes in the trunk of the car - between squirrels, raccoons, and groundhogs, we will lose anything left out.
If the same specific animal steals a pie every day. Would you consider it groundhog Day? c:
Y’all think Australia’s a crazy place but we don’t have several orders and species of mammals stealing our porch pies 😂
We use our BBQ as our "winter fridge" 😊
That works great in a lot of places but in Lake Tahoe your car would he torn apart...
@@b_uppy I'm lucky we don't have tons of black bear so no worries putting food outside in my car to cool.
But in winter I often store stuff in my jeep when doing big cooking projects for dinners lol or whilst prepping foods for easy meals cuz if I left anything on my deck the squirrels/crows and neighborhood dogs (and possibly my own fur kiddos) would be all over it. No bear in winter.
I made one of these a couple years ago for a Napoleonic era naval dinner with friends. It weighed in at eleven pounds; stuffed with two decks of pork, beef steak, chicken based force meat, with vegetables and spices in a raised coffin (which I researched on your channel). It was an awesome experience, and much enjoyed by our gathering. Thank you for your inspirational video during the trial of preparing my culinary behemoth! All my best...
Well done, I made Soused Pigs Face last year, it was delicious
Racoons be like: "Guys, remember the legendary meats pie our ancestors enjoyed 300 years ago? I think we found it! Let's take it, for historical reasons..."
Ha I love this comment!
Meanwhile at the trash panda town meeting..... lol great comment.
his raccoon story is so wholesome. whenever someone hasnt seen this channel im gonna show them this episode
🤭🤣😁
Best comment 👌
The Aubrey-Maturin series of books is one of the best historical fiction stories ever! It is amazing to see the foods described in them come to life on your channel!
I made Soused Pig's Face last year... it was delicious
I can only imagine how excited sailors were to reach land and have something fresh and unboiled to eat
Now you understand why Barbossa was so fond of apples?)
The story goes that sailors were better fed at sea than the population in general.
@@greenpedal370 That's subjective, nutritionally yes sailors had it better than the lower classes did on land. But the people on land would have had far more tasty food since fresh fruit and vegetables would be avalable, and on rare occasions fresh meat that hasn't been salted.
I was raised on this. As a french acadian this was and still is our traditional Christmas meal
This was fascinating to see how creative the cooks were onboard ships. An interesting option to consider when camping and you want to be a little creative with the campfire. It seems that you can use a wide variety of ingredients for the pie.
I often feel like a limited pantry curries more flavour than a limited one, because the scarcity bakes creativity. Then, when used in plenty, we have a beautiful bounty to love.
Could be very good for making use of predator meat while hunting on the trail, since that is most safely eaten after being boiled. Toss in some foraged herbs…could be quite the enlivening meal.
These videos are so informative and wholesome and well-made. While it is many years off, when I do have kids I plan on showing them all of these videos.
How to nerd right. I feel ya.
When the Mary Rose was raised from the Solent in 1982 one of the mysteries they found was a huge pile of bricks on one of her lower decks. Eventually, via archaelogy and experimental archaeology, they worked out that these bricks had originally been an onboard oven, for baking bread and for the serious cooking of foodstuffs. Mary Rose sank in 1545, so if Tudor-era English sailors knew how to bake on board a wooden ship, I'm sure the sailors of the British Colonies - and the Americas - could do it too.
In the stories of greece the even talk about cooking on board. No specific references to baking I can recall, but the food was cooked on occasion.
The Mary Rose was also a huge ship, I imagine she had room for an oven which might have been a luxury smaller vessels couldn't afford
@@botbtquarrel4072 If you think about it, a brick, pottery, or clay oven is likely safer on a wooden ship than an open fire. Unless it breaks it will keep the fire contained and away from the wood of the ship.
@topher nolastname A storm at sea meant no cooking at all for the duration of the storm, all flames except lanterns were extinguished.
I assume is wasn't whether it was possible but whether it was commercially viable
Interesting how this looks a great deal like a proto-type for a modern "pot pie"
Hello everyone,
For all of the Aubrey and Maturin fans out there, I would recommend a cookbook called Lobscouse and Spotted Dog.
All of the recipes in the novels have been recreated to the best of the authors ability. A very good companion to the novels, which are, in my opinion, some of the best literature of the Twentieth Century. All the best Sam
Great cookbook! A got it as a Christmas present from my mother15 years ago and it is wonderful. Not just to cook with(every year, early in Christmas week, I make one of the recipes; This year's recipe: Warden Pie p.184), but to read as a bit of gastronomic history. Still has a prominent place on my cookbook shelf in my kitchen.(The large majority of my cookbooks have migrated to my library as I am unlikely to ever use them again for recipes.)
Seconded! I have that and it’s wonderful.
I have that one too! My sister got it for me for Christmas a couple years ago. Love it.
Great stuff. Thank you for the spelt version of the series of books, as I could not catch what John was saying. I am a fan of C S Forester Horatio Hornblower series myself
@@axelkolle9994 Pro Tip - try and read the books in strict sequence, as the character development across the books is really well portrayed.
In Quebec, we have something similar called "Cipâtes" or "Cipaille" (same thing, you just mix it all with cut potatoes and onions). Traditionnaly, we eat it during the winter holidays. It goes best with ketchup. Another awesome video by the way and a nice holiday to you all !!! 🐧
Nothing goes best with ketchup. If it “needs” ketchup, it’s not good😢
You would pronounce "Cipaille" as "sea pie" with a French accent
@@cherub6303 Untrue lol. But also "Ketchup" does not always refer to that American tomato jam! Personally I always have my cipaille with some traditional Quebec fruit ketchup
I've been going through tough times recently and your channel has been a light in the darkness. Every night I turn on a few videos and instantly feel comfort. Thank you for putting out such consistent and enjoyable content.
I hope things get better for you, friend. Also check out Max Miller's Tasting History. :)
I hope things have been on the mend. I agree about Max Miller.
I'm happy to say I got through it for now :) thanks for the recommendation, it helped as well.
Right there with ya Zach! I keep telling myself it can’t last forever, and these things must come and go
When I was a Peace Corp volunteer living in a hut with no electricity we made steam bread. Similar except that the bread bowl was NOT covered with water. There was just a couple of inches of water in the big pot. The top was very moist and inside the bread was a lovely spongy texture. I liked it. Not as much as baked bread, but it worked when there was no other option. Thanks for this video. It took me back to the days....
@4:35, I can almost hear Chef John say "having fun is a must, if you're the captain of your crust"
I was surprised to see how well that crust turned out!! I honestly thought it would be a bit mushy. Throw some gravy in that, with potatoes, and peas and carrots, you've got yourself a feast!!
As much as I like crust, I think Simmons' suggestion to sprinkle the layers of meat with flour as an alternate to the interior crust sound better and with the added water you gave a nice gravy too.
I think I saw that method used in a stew to marble the meat. You roll the beef in flour then cook it.
Yep, I was surprised when he started layering crust - recipe just said dust all the meat with flour, which would result in a wonderful gravy, as you said.
I think the classical and old world nature of your videos are wonderful. I hope you keep posting them for a long time. I now watch two different cooking shows on youtube and yours is one. Exceptional to keep the old world alive. It's almost as exciting as it is calming.
My french Canadian mother makes this dish.
Cipaille (Sea Pie) an old French recipe.
For anyone interested the Aubrey and Maturin book series he mentions had its first book adapted into the movie "Master and Commander" which is pretty popular but few people seem to know its based on a book series, Id recommend you check it out if you liked the movie, its a long series but the books are relatively short.
I've heard so many people gush about the Master and Commander series I need to just bite the bullet. I don't think I've ever seen books so highly recommended but also without the surrounding HYPE you see from culturally popular books. The fact that they still capture people so much tells me they are well worth it.
This is the most fascinating channel I've ever come across.
This one and Tasting History with Max Miller.
Here in Quebec (Canada) we call it Cipaille (pronounced Sea Pie) even amounts of beef, chicken and pork mixed with onions and layered with potatoes (ex: 3 lbs of meat for 3 lbs of potatoes) the meat is seasoned with concentrated chicken bouillon, line a Creuset baking dish with pie crust, layer meat and potatoes cover with pie dough fill it up with chicken bouillon (mixed accordindly with water) pop on the cover and in the oven for about 5-6 hours making sure it stays wet (adding bouillon mix), our feast every Xmas eve, Cheers!!!!!!!!
I’ve read the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien and have wanted to see an authentic sea pie for ages. Thank you for making this video! I will be making my own Sea pie later this winter, when it’s good and cold.
Have to re read those novels, I thought there was an oven mentioned....
Did you see the film Master and Commander? I've never read the books, but I enjoyed the film. How does it compare?
I think Jack Aubrey would call this one a three-decker.
I read all the Aubrey-Maturin books back around 2003-2005, and I borrowed them all from our host above.
i have made the circumnavigation a couple of times.
The Sea Pie derived from Cipaille in french or Cipâte are still very popular in Québec.
Reminds me of a French Canadian layered meat pie called cipaille - pronounced phonetically as sea-pie. Makes me wonder if both these dishes had a common origin.
This is inspiring. My boat actually does have a (small) oven but I'm thinking I need to find a way to incorporate a recipe like this into my own repertoire while underway. Even if it ends up being a multilayer pot pie in the aforementioned oven!
I first watched you channel after looking for the food from Aubrey/Maturin novels many years ago.
I love all your videos but I still enjoy the "naval" ones the most.
Thank you for your great work and stay save in these difficult times.
I always am thrilled to find another Aubrey/Maturin fan. Being the Captain’s Chef had to be a challenge. Aubrey loved to eat, and his favorite was pickled hogs head. Maturin hardly ever ate anything but loved opium. I’m almost ready to read it all again.
@@sawahtb one day Townsend should make sauced hogs head and recreate the floating island from the Galapagos.
@@sawahtb "Killick! Killick, there! Light along the toasted cheese! D'ye hear me, there?"
@@comsubpac What about Drowned Baby?
I'm on my fifth read-through of the series now. There is a companion cookbook available called "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog" full of recipes from the period.
Edited to add: I'm also a former sub sailor. :)
Just made one of these pups. I added onions to the top layer of chicken and baked at 350 for an hour and ten minutes as I don’t have a pot big enough to boil it. If you guys take the notion to try it out, you will not be disappointed! Hearty and delicious. Don’t be afraid to salt that bad boy though! If I learned one lesson, it’s that without a healthy dose of salt, it teeters towards blandness. But even so, you can always add a dash on your plate, and Bob’s your uncle! Enjoy!
Thanks for this awesome video!
I am impressed with those pie-making skills.
Sounds an awful lot like a British savoury "pudding" or dumpling" pie, the most famous of which would be a "steak & kidney pudding" [or Baby's Heads/Heids depending on the part of the country you're from]. Though those are usually steamed & not boiled & have the addition of suet to the pastry; both of which make it lighter & less soggy.
On reflection the fact that you immersed it fully in the water makes it closer to a "rag pudding" which predate the use of a ceramic bowl and were wrapped in a cloth [cloot - where we get the name of my childhood favourite, a "clootie dumpling]. If you fancy trying one of those look up a "Buckingham Bacon Badger". There's no badger in it [though you could cook those thieving raccoons], its thought the name badger refers to an old term for a Trade Dealer [especially one that sold flour].
A sea pie has as much sea in it as a Shepherd's pie has shepherds in it.
I... need to change my recipe
Sea water would make it nice and salty.
Okay. I guess that depends on where you had your shepherd's pie made!
I boiled a turkey dinner with a half of turkey and dressing stuffed under the leg and breast area. No water added just a rack in large pot, drippings were awesome for gravy.
I've never heard of a pie like that before. I'd imagine the pie crust is like dumpling dough, in that fashion. The pie does look really good. Also, the raccoons have great taste in food. Cheers!
Kinda like a suet pastry pie, typical example being a steak and kidney pudding
I was thinking 'dumpling' as well! This may be a pie we need to make!
@@davidgraemesmith1980 I was thinking this sounded a lot like a pudding.
I love the Patrick O'Brian series too! There is a fan book out there: "Lobscouse & Spotted Dog" by Anne Chotzzinoff and Lisa Grossman Thomas "Which it's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels" that folks might be interested in. It has recipes for all the things they eat in the book series.
Bryson Quebec has it's own sea pie (cipaille) festival. Very serious business up there.
THANKS for sharing!
“Cipaille” is such a cool way of translating “sea pie”. Like not translating the words themselves, just the phonetics.
@@dt5092 Another version was six pates, cipates.
@@dt5092 very quebecois, we have to remember cajuns came from there.
@@KairuHakubi Cajuns came from Acadia, not Quebec. Modern day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
As a lover of a traditional northern meat pudding, I am definitely a fan of this, I loved steamed piecrust and any doughy kinds of food. This looks so good!
There's a flavor combination in Chinese cooking called "Fish Fragrant" and it has no fish. It is often used on fish though.
I'm guessing the sea pie is made for the sea.
Edit: called it!
Jon, I had a similar experience one Thanksgiving with a pumpkin pie I had set out to cool on our back deck. Went out to get it a couple hours later...and all that was left was the aluminum pie plate, clean as a whistle. Not a crumb!
Hello"
Racoon approved! When you said you left it outside I immediately thought "what ate it?"
I always love in Jon's videos when he tries the food the music always shifts to the more jaunty sounding opening music
Its like in a climactic battle in an anime when the main character unlocks his true potential and wins the day
I have made this dish. In the local French it is "chiapelle" which sounds like "sea pie". They still have a festival featuring it. I cooked mine in a dutch oven over charcoal. The center of the pie is filled with broth/water, so it almost boils from the inside out. I imagine the recipe evolved differently in different places. Thank you for sharing your recipe with us. Stay safe and stay warm
My French-Canadian grandmother made a dish she always called "Pate" , which my mom never understood, as pate was something else. She made it with wild blueberries, and layered the dough exactly like this dish - layers of blueberries/sugar/butter/piecrust. It's one of my best childhood memories with flavour beyond compare. I just googled it now, and apparently, Cipaille is sometimes called CiPATE!! My grandma used the old Cipate or Cipaille method of layering the pie crust, but used fruit instead of meat.
It is the same dish, your locals adopted it and spelled the name "sea-pie" in french.
I so enjoy watching these recipes, but as someone with celiac's disease, I have yet to find a gluten free simple pie crust that will hold up to the kind of cooking you can do with wheat. so I just savor my memories of the taste of a really good crust. enjoy your delicious looking pie!
Have you tried Cup4Cup + xanthan gum + sour cream one?
Was the best result when I was trying options for my celiac gf.
Being from Fort Wayne, I can attest to Indiana racoons having a very discerning palate.
Surely if the meatpie wasn't good those little furred goblins wouldn't have stolen it
I actually want to make this. This looks delicious. Also thank you for teaching me how to make pie crust.
Love this channel, I definitely watch it more during this time of year.
I love that story of the raccoons - thieves of the forest...clearly it's a great dish!
They're also thieves of suburbia. Raccoons do not discriminate in that respect.
Did they never have ovens on ships?
I remember reading about the superiority of ships with a bread oven on one of the lowest decks. Supposedly the heat of it warmed the ship, helped evaporate bilgewater, and improved morale. It let fresh bread be baked daily, bringing sacks of flour rather than hardtack. Was that just a suggestion?
Large ships had ovens, usually made of iron. In the USA you can visit _USS Constitution_ and see one for yourself. In the UK you can visit _HMS Victory_ which has a massive oven.
@@jacksons1010 I'm curious how they handled making any kind of fire aboard a wooden sailing ship. For the video recipe you still need fire to boil water. What did that look like? And if there was a way to have a fire and boil water, why was it so hard to enclose that and make a crude oven?
@@lookoutforchris I'll bet it was small, efficient, and well contained, like a hibachi style.
'SELDOM WAS SUCH A FINE PACKAGE SEEN in our Officer's Mess!' The Wardroom voted a round of Grog for the cook!
Killick was delighted!
A glass of wine to you sir!
Fascinating as always! Can't wait to try my own "spin" on this the next time I go camping.
"Give me a cup of tea, Babbington, there's a good fellow. My fingers are too numb to turn the tap."
"The tea has gone by the board, sir. Would coffee do?"
"Anything, anything, so long as it is warm and wet. Is there any sea-pie left?" They showed him the empty dish. "Why, here's a pretty thing," he cried. "All night on deck, and no sea-pie."
--H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O'Brian
But does anybody know about euphroes? (caught a shout-out to P. O'B in Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon", referencing this obscure bit of rigging)... 🤣
I bet it is good cold, too.
Thanks for the shout out to my favourite book series of all time! I've always wanted to know what a sea-pie looked, smelt and tasted like too, and now I am inspired to try my own hand at it. So far, syllabub is about as far as I've gotten in preparing recipes popular in the 18th century, sea-pie is next for sure!
I have to admit, as a seafood lover I was a bit disappointed that this did not contain seafood. Nevertheless, it's another interesting look at life at sea in the 18th century! Thanks!
Just swap chicken and ham for fish and shrimp. Doesn't have to be exact to the recipe.
Why not make it with seafood just use shrimp cod with a little salt pepper etc let your mind work have fun if it turns out bad the raccoons have to eat to
Love the Aubrey-Maturin series! I've read them three or four times and use them as reference books for the novel I'm writing. Thanks for these informative and creative series of videos!
Great show. Man what a recipe, seems like you could put any of your leftovers in and make a new meal.
After watching this video on the weekend I decided I really wanted to try. So I made one today, and it's really amazing! I never would have thought the pie crust would be crusty at all, but it definitely is, and the flavours are so wonderful, for spices I put salt and pepper, plus garlic, onion, celery and mushrooms, for meat I just used beef cut into roughly 1cm pieces.
Townsend, since the Christmas season is coming up, I was wondering what the parents would give the children for Christmas gifts in the 18th century? (Video idea possibly??)
This is a great idea!
Awesome idea. Hope he uses it.
Less beatings
Oh, that's a cool idea! Even just interesting regional celebration differences would be really neat
I would guess it might be something ordinary to us but exotic/ rare to them. For example, in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Pa brought back canned oysters and a SINGLE orange for each of his girls at Christmas during the 19th century. This was in the Midwest US when those items would not have been easily available. Otherwise, maybe things like wooden handmade toys for boys and dolls and thread/ cloth for girls. Probably depends on the age of the child. An older teen might just appreciate some new fabric she and Ma would sew into a dress for her.
When I inherited my great grandma's recipes (cooking and cleaning), many of her units of measurement were quite different than I'm used to. It was fun looking them up though. She used drams in most everything.
I love this TH-cam channel. Someone ate your pie! Merry Christmas to the raccoons! 🤣🎁🎄
This was cool. Definitely need to do more sailors/seafarers meals
The pie was good Mr. Jon...but needs nutmeg ~ Raccoon Federation
Love love love your videos. Your passion, your voice, your excitement all adds to a wonderful experience. When I was a civil war reenactor I used recipes from that era. I am an accomplished cook and half the fun of Olde recipes was decoding the language used. Fortunately 19th century isn't as far removed at 17th century, but I understand completely your passion.
Thank you for making and sharing these glimpses into the past.
Raccoons stole 2 cans of cat food off my porch the other night. Apparently they figured out the built-in openers on the cans. They are dextrous and smart, and they do clean everything up beautifully!
You are such a champion. Thanks to you and your team for doing what you do, it's such a relief from the daily craziness that is the modern world.
I went on a see food diet when I quit smoking.
John, your honesty (and sense of humor) about you missing test-pie is wonderful. We all know that sh!t happens sometimes - and all you can do is shrug it off and move forward. 🙃
Love the channel (and the recipes), BTW!
Roll on, John. This is similar to a pie I've made when camping, over the many years of my life. Keep on keeping the traditions alive, my man! :)
I bet that pie making was in-tents. :>
@@theblackbaron4119 Oh, I like that. Well played, my friend. :)
What’s the recipe?
@@chloeedmund4350 Very similar to John's. I just use different meats (usually cured, as when I camp, I'm out in the sticks for a good while). I use a bit less butter than John (and I am not a fan of nutmeg like he is, but we all have our preferences, though i think I'm going to try it), and I use cayenne to taste. But the technique is the same. Get your crust, seal an internal pot, boil it, and enjoy. :) I like it sometimes instead of a camp style bake, as the crust just has a different texture, one I really like.
"Ar Bandit me matey, we gots a sea pie to share." "Off to the woods with it then, Rocky me pal!"
I just love your genuine enthusiam when you taste this dish! Great story about the racoons too.
I've had to adapt to a primal/keto diet but I still watch Townsends regularly because I love the vibe, the history and the recipes. This is such a great channel.
It reminds me of a suet beef pudding that we still have in the UK.
In New France it became Cipaille (pronounced just like sea pie). It's started with sea pie. Sea pie is a meat pie with many layers of dough. They translated it to six pates, meaning six layers of dough (and the pronunciation is still similar to sea pie). Then it became Cipaille, a kind of meat pie with a lot of dough.
I had thought 'seapie' was a reference to 6 layers, roughly what 6 would sound like in French. When I made mine about 7 years ago, I used salt beef, salt pork, and chicken. 3 layers of meat and 3 of paste.
thats the quebecois version, "6 pate pie"
Racoons were testing it. That looked divine. I would love to try a sweet version with layers of fruits.
Jon, the Racoons said to give you 5* and big thanks!
Reminds me of the 'steak and kidney pudding' my grandmother used to make back in England. That had gravy in it though and, although covered with muslin and tied wasn't submerged. The water was kept about 3/4 of the way up the 'pudding bowl', in a lidded pot, checked often and topped up as needed.
It was turned out before being cut and the pastry was made with lard rather than butter. Delicious!
Now, based off of your historical knowledge of this dish and how it was made back in the day, do you think that the raccoons who stole your piecrust were actually levitated towards it on the scent wafting through the woods?
They were raccoons... scavengers...they don't care... they're probably like hey guys we need.a team here... smell that right there...uhh yeah we get it away from here into those woods and we can all have some. Hey Barnaby...Skooter... Turkey...Bubba...get off your rinnged butts and on my count we move that smells good stuff from here to there. One...two...three...let's go guys.
@@kittyhawker4464 Okay, that's all well and good, but what I'm asking is was the aroma of the pie crust so POWERFUL and INTICING that it LIFTED the raccoons off the ground, and toward the pie? Maybe the visible scent even took on the form of a human hand and beckoned welcomingly to the crust on the windowsill? These are serious scientific and historical questions here.
@@KnaveMurdok absolutely, and I would say the steam also beckoned to them by making the form of a finger for sure.
the flavors and aromas of the 18 th century always do
Thank you, sir!
Buckets of love from Nebraska!
Never thought I'd be so interested in 18th century food but here I stand corrected and I'm thankful for it.
I've never made one of your recipes but your smile is infectious
Chopped apples would be delicious layered with these meats. TFS!
Love me a sea-pie. Last one I made was fat bacon, venison and rabbit on the three decks. Great channel, keeping traditions alive is really important.
I thought your story about the missing pie was going to end with you sleep eating it all yourself. I'm not disappointed at the ending, but I really wanted for you just to say you wolfed the thing down.
It seems very similar to a british 'pudding' that's popular today which has steamed pastry (usually with suet beef and kidney)
Keep the recipes coming.
I'm fascinatedby this. For some reason I imagined it would be like stargazy pie. Big fan of the O'Brian books too. I guess a pie like this would go down grateful, as Jack would say!
You're not supposed to feed the wildlife, John 🤣
Glad you at least found the dishes
This reminds me of a dive bar in Atlanta GA. Where me and my Mom would go to occasionally because they had a dish called The Seahawk, it Was Delicious! It was like a seafood pie with scallops and crab and lobster and a cheese sauce made with white wine, Absolutely Fantastic!
Your sea pie doesn’t much resemble the one that always springs to the front of my mind, although I can’t remember which of O’Brian’s books it’s in. Yours is… thoroughly cooked, with nary a yielding, gelatinous lump of poultry to be found ;)
I’m very anxious to give it a try!
I still can't belief that nobody on the west actually figured out steaming back then.
All you need is a simple stone, and 2 pots of different size.
Put the stone on the bottom of the larger pot, put the smaller pot containing the food to be cooked, add some water just midline the smaller pot, and boil.
So simple, and this recipe even came incredibly close to doing it if they add much less water, yet somehow it's not done.
Yeah. Like our Peace Corp steamed bread.
Well the same thing can be said for baking in the East. It wasn't until you had contact with Europeans did you start to make baked sweets, breads and other things.
@@peachesandcream8753 that's what makes it even more unbelievable. Baking is so much more complex, yet they done it so easily while missing the absolutely simpler thing.
@@kueapel911 I guess its because boiling is easier. We did develop steamed puddings in England eventually but steamed vegetables never caught on until recently. I'm not sure why.
this channel is pure gold !!! . so relax so pure
Those raccoons probably never ate so well before in their lives. A feast to remember!
They'll be back & in greater numbers.
Really cool!! Totally going to try this!! My son and I have a channel (been a while since we uploaded due to some issues) where we review MRS's. This looks REALLY cool to try, thus sparking a possible addition to what we do for this spring. I appreciate YOU and the added inspiration.