Ingredients
Potato and bacon pie
Method
- Peel, wash and dry the potatoes, then slice thinly.
- Roll out half the pastry and line the dish, leaving about 2 cm overhang. Add a layer of potatoes, salt, pepper and some onion. Continue layering potatoes, bacon and onion until used, to the stated 10 cm filling height.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C /392°F. Pour the crème fraîche over the potatoes. Roll out the rest of the pastry for a lid. Moisten and roll the overhanging edges together to seal. Brush with egg yolk and cut several vents with a knife.
- Bake for 1½ hours. Remove and serve immediately with a small salad.
Equipment
Deep pie dish; Rolling pin; Pastry brush
Notes
- Potatoes: use firm-fleshed potatoes as listed. Wash and dry them, then cut thin slices before layering with the chopped onion and bacon.
- Dish size: the Method describes a 10 cm filling height but gives no diameter. Keep that missing size in mind when choosing a deep pie dish; no exact tin dimensions are supplied.
- Sealing: leave about 2 cm pastry overhang. Moisten and roll the edges of the base and lid together, brush with egg yolk and cut several vents in the top.
- Baking time: allow the written 1½ hours at 200°C, plus preparation. The source's thirty-minute total omits the bake and cannot be used as the complete schedule.
- Serving: serve immediately with a small salad. A chicon salad is a traditional Picard accompaniment; Marchesseau does not specify the leaves.
- Yield: the source gives this ingredient batch without a person count or exact pie-dish diameter. Keep those limits in mind when planning portions.
About this dish
Bisteu, also called bisteux, belongs to Picardy's country cooking, where a potato pie could be dinner in itself. The Le Tréport-Mers tourist office describes its place in farm kitchens during the colder months, with a salad of chicons, or endives, alongside. Its account places the pie's beginnings around the nineteenth century. Potatoes and pork remain the defining combination recognised by the regional culinary organisation Gastronomie Hauts-de-France.
In Pierre Marchesseau's recipe, raw potato slices alternate with onion and thin smoked bacon inside shortcrust pastry. Crème fraîche goes over the filling before the lid is sealed. As the pie cooks, those simple layers soften together and take on the richness of the cream and bacon.
The preparation is straightforward, but the long bake is essential to this version's character. The filling cooks inside its pastry case while the egg-brushed lid turns golden. It is a substantial pie, served hot with the small salad Marchesseau recommends.
Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Recettes et Terroirs.