Depression Era Tuna Pie with Cottage Cheese Biscuit Topping

5 from 1 vote

Depression Era Tuna Pie with Cottage Cheese Biscuit Topping

Learn how to make this Depression Era Tuna Pie with Cottage Cheese Biscuit Topping. This affordable and delicious recipe helps to stretch our grocery budget during these inflationary times.

Prep Time20

Cook Time20

Total Time40

Course: Main Course, Main Dish

Cuisine: Americana

Servings: servings

Calories: 422kcal

Author: Mary Bryant Shrader

Equipment

1 Oven-proof baking dish (13x9)

Ingredients

Tuna Pie Ingredients

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed any variety
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 cups assorted vegetables, cut into bite-sized pieces if necessary Examples include: carrots, string beans, peas, and corn.
4 tbsp unsalted butter You'll need additional butter to grease the baking dish.
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup milk, preferably full-fat
1 cup reserved vegetable cooking water
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 cans tuna fish packed in water, any variety, drained and flaked Two 5-ounce cans of tuna fish worked well for me, but you can use 1 smaller can to keep the cost lower.

Cottage Cheese Biscuit Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp dried parsley
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted optional
1/2 tsp sea salt optional

Instructions

To Make the Tuna Pie

Add the potatoes, onion, and celery to a large skillet and cover with water. Bring up to a boil, then turn to medium to simmer until the potatoes are slightly undercooked. (See video.)
Add additional vegetables and simmer for another minute or two.
Strain vegetables into a colander over a bowl and set aside. Reserve vegetable cooking liquid and measure out 1 cup.
To make the basic white sauce, add butter to the skillet over medium heat. Once melted, sprinkle flour into the skillet and cook the butter and flour mixture while whisking for about 2 minutes.
Once the butter and flour mixture has cooked, add the milk and reserved vegetable cooking water into the skillet. Turn the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking continuously until there are no lumps and the mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. (You've created your basic white sauce, which also makes an excellent substitution for condensed soup in recipes.)
Transfer the potato and vegetable mixture to a large bowl and add in the tuna fish. Mix well.
To the bowl, pour the sauce over the potato vegetable tuna mixture and mix well until everything is well coated.
Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish. Smooth out the top of the mixture and set it aside.

To Make the Biscuits

Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt through a mesh strainer into a large bowl.
To the flour mixture, add the dried parsley. Mix well.
Add the butter to the flour mixture and cut the butter until the mixture looks like fine crumbs with some larger pieces throughout that are the size of peas. (See video.) Set aside.
Add the cottage cheese to the milk and stir until the cottage cheese is distributed throughout the milk.
Make a well in the center of the flour and butter mixture and pour the milk cottage cheese mixture into the well.
Mix everything together until the flour mixture is completely coated.
Dump the mixture onto a floured flat surface and roll into a log 12 inches long and 2 inches high.
Slice the log into 16 equal biscuit pieces.
Place the sliced biscuit pieces over the tuna pie in an even pattern. (See video.)
If desired, brush the biscuit tops with melted butter and sprinkle with salt.

Baking the Tuna Pie with Cottage Cheese Biscuit Topping

Place the tuna pie on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the biscuits are a golden brown and the tuna pie is bubbling.
Remove from the oven to a heatproof surface, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, and then serve.
This tuna pie is best eaten the day it is made.

Video

Notes

Find this recipe and video at https://marysnest.com/how-to-make-a-depression-era-tuna-pie/

Nutrition