A Feast of Ice and Fire: Modern Beef and Bacon Pie

Modern Beef and Bacon Pie

“Part of [Jon] wanted nothing so much as to hear Bran laugh again, to sup on one of Gage’s beef-and-bacon pies, to listen to Old Nan tell her tales of the children of the forest and Florian the Fool.” – A Game of Thrones

I’ve actually made this recipe before, so I knew we’d love it!  I’ve made the medieval one as well, but I know very well that we did NOT love that version.  Prunes and dates in my meat pie?  No thanks.

But the modern version of the pie is very tasty, and doesn’t have anything weird in it!

I started off by making the “bacon lattice,” and while that cooked I was able to make the dough for the pie crust.  These two things were the most difficult part of the recipe, but weren’t too challenging overall.

My bacon lattice shrunk significantly in the oven, and even though they said to make sure you make it as large as possible, there’s only so much you can do with 12 strips of bacon.  So it was a bit smaller than it probably should be.

The dough for the pie was pretty easy as far as dough goes, and just took some persistence to crumble the butter into the flour.  When I rolled it out, it didn’t stick to the surface like most dough, and didn’t even require the surface to be floured!  Hurrah for less mess!

Then the rest of the ingredients were cooked over the stove before being added to the pie shell.

Technically there was another step that I couldn’t do, since my bacon lattice was too tiny to completely cover the top of the pie.  But normally you’d cut the lattice to fit the pie, and then the bacon bits that were cut off would be mixed into the pie filling.

The lattice not being trimmed is also why my pie looks a little more square than round.

The taste was great!  It’s basically beef stew inside of a pie crust and topped with bacon.  My husband devoured the pie and raved about it!

Taste: 9/10

This was SO close to being perfect but, while the pie was savory and delicious, the flavors weren’t overly exciting or interesting.  The rosemary was a nice inclusion, though.  I’d still probably make this again, especially because my husband loved it so much.

Difficulty: Average

Getting the bacon lattice to be the right size is tricky, and I also found it a bit of a struggle to roll the dough out wide enough to fit in the pan and still have enough to cover the edges of the bacon lattice.

Cost: Average

You’ll need to purchase stew beef or chuck steak, bacon, and some vegetables.  But the recipe makes a full pie that will provide leftovers as well, so don’t be too concerned!

Suggestion:

Stretch out your bacon slices and see if you can get one or two more strips in there to make the lattice larger.