Hamburger Pie

This is not a hamburger.

This is also not a pie.

The recipe this was based on, however, is called “Hamburger Pie” for no better reason than that was the name that its contributor chose to call it.

The recipe is from the book Our Favorite Recipes by The Ladies of St. John’s Ev. Lutheran Church, in West Bend, WS. Copyright 1949. This is a nifty fundraiser cookbook. It stands out because all the pages are hand-written, and many of them have little cartoon-like illustrations. Most of the recipes look pretty good, too.

Here is the one that I chose:

Hamburger Pie

2 T. fat
1 onion, sliced
2 c. canned tomatoes
3/4 lb. ground meat
salt and pepper

Brown onion and meat in fat add tomatoes – season. Cook until thick in 9 inch skillet. Put biscuit dough on top and bake in hot oven 425 deg. 20 minutes.

Savory Biscuit Dough

1 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 t. celery salt
4 T. fat
1 t. parsley
3/4 cup milk
1/2 t. poultry seasoning

Mix and sift dry ingredients. Cut in fat with [pastry] blender – add milk – mix thoroughly – Pat out and cut biscuits.

Mrs. Robert Fuge

Looking at this recipe, I realized that Mrs. Fuge made a mean baking powder biscuit, but that she cared little about her filling. So… I improvised. This is my version:

Lisa’s Hamburger Pie Filling

1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 minced cloves garlic
1 lb. ground meat
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 cup water
2 T. corn starch
2 bouillon cubes (beef, vegetable, or mushroom)
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1 can mushroom stems & pieces (4 oz), drained
1 T. Italian seasoning

Fry up the first five ingredients in a large frying pan until ground meat is no longer pink.

Meanwhile, boil water and bouillon cubes.

In a small bowl, dissolve corn starch with 2 T. cold water. Add to boiling water/bouillon mixture, and stir with a wire whisk until thickened.

Add thickened bouillon mixture to meat mixture, stir, then add tomatoes, mushrooms, and Italian seasoning. Turn heat down to simmer and continue cooking while you make the biscuit dough, as per original recipe.

When biscuit dough is ready, transfer filling to a casserole dish and cover with biscuits. Bake as directed in original recipe. After baking, let the dish set for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

This is good. I was actually correct in my observation that Mrs. Robert Fuge made a mean biscuit. These are AWESOME. I didn’t have poultry seasoning, or fresh parsley, so I used 1 1/2 t. of Italian seasoning in its place. I think that whatever seasonings you choose to use for this, you can’t really go wrong. It’s all in the biscuit.

Baking powder biscuits are not like the layered biscuits we get out of a can. You don’t knead them, roll them, and fold them over ten times to create 1024 layers (!) as you would with the layered type. You also don’t drop them down on a pan. Baking powder biscuits have very little fat, and so are barely mixed, then patted down on a lightly floured surface. The more you handle them, the more chance the gluten in the flour has to interact with the milk and become stretchy. Stretchy is great for yeast breads. Stretchy biscuit dough just makes tough biscuits. So, be gentle.

And have fun with it, already. It’s only hamburger pie, but the biscuits are what make it worthy of Cookbook Obsession.