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My mother was born in Nova Scotia, Canada and this is a Canadian dish that we grew up with. It is time consuming to make and a lot of work but well worth it. 10 pounds all purpose potatoes 2 chickens (or 6-7 pounds) salt pork salt and pepper to taste Boil the chicken in water, cover completely with water, adding salt and pepper until cooked. Let cool and separate the bones from the chicken, breaking it into pieces. Save the broth. Peel the potatoes. They will all need to be grated and dried. The traditional way is to grate the potatoes and then put the pulp into a cloth sac or using cheesecloth to squeeze out the liquid. You may use a juicer that separates the pulp from the liquid (though some people say this method grates the potatoes too fine, depending on the juicer. I use a Braun from the 1970s). Measure the liquid that is removed from the potatoes. Place grated potato pulp in a large bowl, dutch oven size. Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Reconstitute the potato pulp with the chicken broth replacing the amount of liquid that was removed. Stir constantly until no lumps remain. Add water if you do not have enough liquid, or if it appears very thick. Should be a thick sticky apple sauce consistency. It will be gray in color. Using a large pan (17"x12"x2"--disposable aluminum pans work fine), prepare the pie as follows: Slice the salt pork into thin strips (like bacon). Grease the pan generously with margarine. Lay about 5 slices of salt pork on the bottom of the pan. Spread half of the potato mixture on top of the salt pork. Spread the boned chicken on top of the potato mix. Add remaining potato over the chicken. Lay about 5 more slices of salt pork on top of the potato. Bake at 400 degrees for 2 hours, or until top is browned. Discard salt pork once cooking is completed, slice and serve. |