…to talk like this and act like that.

Stop# 4

We are still in England and making Pork Pie for the next item on our global food trip.

Pork Pie

I seem to recall a lot of references to (actual) meat pies from literature and stories about England that I read or saw when I was growing up. But none of them really stuck in my head that actually talked about how to make them, at least that I have seen and can remember anyway. There are pot pies that we seem to make a lot in the US, but they seem more like meat accented vegetable pies rather than a hefty meat pie. Pork seemed to be the go-to for these kinds of pies and I found a few traditional looking recipes that were the template for this.

I had a few challenges and firsts on this one. I had never used lard in a recipe before, never made a hot water pastry, never used gelatin outside of Jell-O stuff, and never added a fully cooked item to another fully cooked item to complete a recipe. That last one is a bit vague, but will make sense if you go through the whole thing. It was also a little surprising to me that, despite all the hot prep, this is supposed to be served cold.

# EXTRA EQUIPMENT #
small funnel
small jars for pastry forms
string or twine

# PASTRY #
7 oz water
5 1/2 Tbsp butter
2 3/4 oz lard
16 oz all purpose flour
pinch salt
1 beaten egg
1 tsp vegetable oil

# MEAT #
6 oz pork shoulder
3 oz pork belly
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 
1 egg 
Pinch salt

# FILLING #
1/2 envelope of gelatin
1 cup of ham broth
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Notes

• Sources of inspiration: The Spruce Eats and Saveur
• The two examples above are fairly different approaches. One is mostly meat, the other is meat and vegetable mix. Pick if you want to have one or the other first.
• Seems like there are lots of options for the pork to use in this dish. I went with shoulder and pork belly. Well actually, shoulder and uncured bacon.
• I minced up the meat by hand with 2 knives. This isn’t required, but I really wanted to do the 2 handed knife wielding trick.
• Hot pastry was actually kinda fun to work with.
• A point on the jars or forms for the pastry. I used Ball canning jars with a fancy design on the side. That was stupid. When you form the dough up around the sides of the jar and chill it like you are supposed to, the dough loves to stick to all those pretty designs. Use a smooth jar.
• Original recipe I followed called for sheets of gelatin. I couldn’t find that and I went with Knox unflavored envelopes.
• This is supposed to be served cold. The gelatin needs to set!

Process

• Pastry
  • Water, butter and lard into a saucepan.
  • Heat to a very low boil.
  • Mix flour, egg and salt in a heat-safe bowl.
    
  • Add in the heated water, butter and lard.
  • Mix and then knead on a floured surface til smooth.
  • Divide dough – 1/3 set aside, covered.
  • Roll out the 2/3 to 1/4 inch think.
  • Cut 6 inch circles.
  • Oil the outside of the jars.
  • Place jar in the center of the circle and form the dough into a bowl around the base. Repeat for other circles.
  • Wrap dough with a strip of wax paper and tie a string around to hold the dough in place.
  • Put the forms into the fridge.

• Fill the pastry
  • Preheat oven to 325.
  • Mince the meat however you see fit. I chopped mine with 2 knives.
  • Mix meat and spices in a bowl.
  • Add meat mix to the chilled pastry. Don’t fill all the way.
  • Cut lids to fit the tops from the remaining dough.
  • Seal lids by crimping into the pastry wall tightly.
  • Poke a small hole in the top of the pie (to fit your funnel).
  • Prepare an egg wash – beat the egg, add a bit of salt.
  • Wash the pastries thoroughly.
  • Bake for 50-60 minutes.
  • Cooking is done when pork at center is 175.

• Broth gelatin
  • Follow instructions to prepare gelatin.
  • Prepare and add ham broth and season with white pepper.
  • Add a pinch of salt if needed.
  • Let the mixture cool somewhat.
  • Pour the liquid into the pies using a funnel.
  • Leave the pie to cool and gelatin set.

• Something else: I decided to make a side to go with the pies.
  • 3 large carrots
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • A couple pinches of smoked salt
  • 1/2 tsp brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp crushed fennel
  • 1/4 tsp lime juice
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • Saute all the above until carrots are almost soft

Results and Adjustments

Almost all of my changes would be in the process.
Use smoother jars so the dough doesn’t stick. Also, letting the pies cool is actually a pretty important step. I poured warm gelatin/broth into hot pies. The result is that it spilled out of the pies and leaked through weak spots and seams. Some of the pies held it ok, but then I tried to pull them up off of the cookie sheet and I broke the bottoms…so a bunch leaked out that way. The cookie sheet probably should have been greased a bit better too.

Truth be told, I kinda freaked out a little bit when I cut into the first pie. As you can see from the photo, the pork is quite pink. I’m not really sure why mine ended up that way, but I can confirm that the temperature was at least 160, which should be more than enough. The pink really threw me off, but after I was calmed by the wife, I went ahead with claiming a success.

Let the pies cool! They are designed to be eaten cold and it is practically required in order for the gelatin to set correctly.

The taste was great! Somehow very comforting and satisfying. Some of the best, soft dough I have ever tasted. Thanks pork fat. The leftovers were awesome as well, and the wife counts this as the favorite so far.

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So, what’s next? We are done with England now, so it is time to move on to somewhere else in the UK. Wales.