Rappie Pie: A Matheson Family Tradition

• In a large pot, place the chickens, onions, carrots, and celery. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and skim the scum that rises to the top. Add the thyme and parsley. Turn the heat down to low and simmer 3 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Remove the chicken and let rest 15 minutes to cool so you can pick the meat off the bones. Leave the meat in large chunks—we will use all of it, light and dark. Strain all the chicken broth into another pot; season with salt until it’s tasty. Set the broth to a low boil.
• Now, in a very large stainles s­steel bowl, place your potato base (recipe follows on page 95 if you can’t find potato blocks). Add your hot chicken broth, 2 cups (480 mat a time, stirring it continuously with a large wooden spoon to form a dough. Keep adding chicken broth until it’s smooth, like thick cake batter.
• If you can find the blocks, there are instructions on how much liquid to add. Basically, what liquid is taken from the potato is replaced by broth, so it’s important to get that balance.
• Add the green onions to the mixture. Once again, add salt until it tastes like a solidified chicken soup.
• In a large well­ greased (Pam works besrappie pie pan or stainless ­steel hotel baking pan, pour half the mixture. Layer the chicken on top, then layer with the remainder of the potato mixture.
• Bake until you get a golden crispy top, about 3 hours. It’s okay if it takes longer because you really can’t overcook this dish. Remove from the oven and allow to rest 20 to 30 minutes so it’s not soupy and has time to set. Cut into squares and serve with molasses, hot sauce, or plain — the way I love it. Maybe add some salt and pepper. The edges, much like a lasagna, are the most sought after. Make sure you get a corner square!

To make your own base for rappie pie:

• Peel and grate 20 pounds (9 kg) PEI potatoes very finely and then squeeze out all the liquid. What will be in that liquid? Mostly water but also a lot of starch. You must save all the liquid and starch, not to use but as a measure of what you need to put back in the remaining pulp to reconstitute it properly. It’s pretty cool to see the starch settle out of the liquid. (That’s what they used to use to starch shirts!)
• The old­ school way to do this is to peel the potatoes and put them in a bucket of water so they don’t turn brown. Then finely grate a couple pounds at a time, put those gratings in cheesecloth, and wring out all the liquid you possibly can. This is very hard work.
• Many devices have been made to take some of the work out of this, but today we have a machine that anyone can buy to do this: a juicer! Keep the dryish pulp for use, and keep the juice for measuring so you know how much liquid to put back. Cut your potatoes so they fit in the mouth of your juicer. Have a bowl handy to collect all the pulp and another bowl for the liquid. When all the potato is pulped, measure your liquid by volume. That is the amount of chicken broth you will add back to make the rappie pie mix.