Pork Pie In The Oven!

[Phog Allen]

Gents, my latest attempt at knockoff of Melton Mowbray pork pie is baking as we speak. I love the ruddy things but eat them rarely because of the fat and cholesterol bomb factor. This is not for those dieting. I have lost nearly 50lbs over the last six months or so and do not want to put it back on. I will allow myself one or two small slices and take the rest to work or send it with my wife to her work.

A bit of ingredients follow though don't get too specific. Many variations on these pies exist and mine is slightly different than a true Melton Mowbray.

About 1Kg(2.2-2.5lbs) of pork meat. The local grocer had these pre-cut packages of pork shoulder meat already wrapped in cut into about .5-.75 inch size chunks. Likely a bit too large for pies but hey, each one was about 1.3lbs and I wasn't cutting up any I didn't have to. Maybe ten percent was too large for use. Cut them right down to size and done.

About four ounce of streaky rashers from the butcher counter at the same market. They make this stuff themselves and each strip it about 6-8mm(.25 inch) thick. Perfect for this use. I diced them up, fried in a skillet til about 75% rendered and cooked and popped it in the bowl with the pork.

Seasonings; Salt and pepper. Two very big pinches each. Don't short either in a pie like this. A big spoonful of sage and a good tablespoon of ground nutmeg. Chuck it all in a good sized bowl and mix well with hands. No mucking around with a spoon on this. Like meatloaf, it just works better with your hands.

Crust. There is NO substitute for a hot water pastry crust. None. Don't attempt it. About 1000 grams or a pound + of flour, 250g(5/8 pound or so) lard, and about 300ml of water. I use all metric measurements on this since all the recipes are English and I get them directly from English sites. Sure, in days of old the measurements would have been a cup of this or a pound of that. Depending upon what granny you spoke too and how big her cups were, etc. Just look over a few videos and recipes. It is not secret how to make it. Speaking of that we assemble the crust next and you won't believe how hard and tedious this can be.

Just how tedious? Well sorry but I was pulling your leg. This has to be the easiest pastry to make of all time. I mean easy. A caution though. You will be dealing with boiling or near boiling mixtures of water and fat. Savvy? The burn factor is high. Pay attention and tell anyone trying to distract you at the time to bug off.

Put the water and lard in a medium sauce pan and get it good and hot til it is melted. Then bring just to the boil and SLOWLY pour it into your flour mix. Mix well with a wooden spoon and when well incorporated turn it out on the board and knead till good and smooth. Remember the heat warning? Make sure you do not burn yourself. Some let the hot mixed dough set for awhile to cool but I handle mine fairly hot but certainly not enough to burn. The initial mixing takes a good bit of heat out of it.

Now you come to it. Make the crust or rest? There are those who swear by both methods. Some go straight to the tin(or not as I will explain in a moment) and some rest the dough for a half hour or so to cool and make it a bit more pliable and not as soft as fresh off the hob. The other option is no tin at all which is traditional. You let the dough rest til it just so and mould pieces of it around a three inch or so jar or glass and then fill, roll our a cover, fill, seal, and bake it standing on its own. A beautiful presentation and one I will try next time.

For now get a 8 inch spring form pan and take 3/4 of the dough and roll it thin enough to cover the bottom and up the sides and just over the top. Save the other 1/4 for a lid. Once you have the bottom crust in add the meat mixture and gently pack it down into the tin. Not like your setting bricks and mortar but no big air pockets and even across the top. Roll and lay on the top crust and seal WELL around the edges. Use the handle of the spoon to make a good size vent in the middle of the crust. Cover the top crust with egg wash and pop it in a 180(350-360F) oven for 1:15-1:30 minutes. I am using my Thermapen to check and will remove it when meat temp is about 145F. A pie this thick will continue to cook for a long while so raw meat is no issue to me.

Let it cool to just warm and then you add gelatin to it. You should technically use cooked pork juice/broth since the gelatin that is natural in it would do the trick. However, I will be using chicken broth with gelatin powder. About 250-300ml(1 cup or so) of jelly broth will do it. Heat the broth and make sure the gelatin is well dissolved. Use a funnel and pour it in the vent hole on the pie. Don't rush it. This will take a bit. The meat in the pie will have shrunk away from the crust a bit and this will make an area for the jelly to settle. Let it set till well cooled and then slice and each with thoroughly indecent amounts of brown sauce. HP or Daddy's preferably.

I will try to get photos of the finished product.

 

[Shave_Rat]

Awesome Todd! I am pretty personally very familiar with that style of pie crust, and that style of pie as well, for reasons explained below.

So, coincidentally enough, I spent yesterday at a middle age/medieval recreation sort of thing, a group to which I belong. Part of the group is a cooks guild, at the end of the event, we have a multi-course feast made by the guild. One of the courses yesterday was a chicken pie (using a period chicken filing with fruits and such, not the modern savory style). The type of pie you are making is medieval period style, and crust recipe, often referred to as a "coffin pie". I have made them at home with various fillings, even did them with the mold the base, fill it, lid and bake.

If you are going to do that, I'd suggest, from experience, work the dough while warm a good bit with kneading, adding in some extra flour sprinkled in. Due to the science of the crust and how gluten forms, don't worry, you won't make it tough. I also put mine in the refrigerator for a good hour or two, that really helps it setup and makes the mold hold shape better. Also highly suggest, do not substitute another fat for the lard, go with the lard, it just works best!

Below are some food history tidbits on these pies, in a spoiler so you can skip it if that's boring to ya. lol

Spoiler

There are several reasons this type of pie developed in the period it did. First, they were always the molded free standing style, meaning you didn't need several baking dishes to make them, which was cost prohibitive to have. You only needed one mold, and they would use whatever they had around for that... a wooden bowl, or even just a small log they took the bark off and sanded down. If they were being fancy, they would add a handle to the log and keep it as a full time mold.



The other advantage was that after the pie was baked, and as it cooled, once the gelatin or gravy/liquid was poured in, the would use wax, more melted lard/fat, or even honey to seal up the hole in the top crust. This made the meat pies shelf stable without any other preservation needed. So they were a way to put food into a cupboard for later without worry of it spoiling. If if the very outside of the crust started to get a moldy spot or two, the contents inside were still perfectly safe, so they could scrape that part of the crust off, or even just slice away those sections of crust and not waste anything else.

Lastly, this also made a complete meal extremely portable while still keeping it preserved and safe/good to eat. These evolved over time into other more modern portable pastries, like the Cornwall pasty, reported to be common for miners to put into a small travel sack and take into the mine as a meal. They could hold just one corner of the crust, eat everything else, and toss the little bit they had to hold, since keeping your hands clean in that job is not possible, but preventing you from ingesting coal dust on your food.

Yeah, sometimes I'm a food history geek as a hobby. lol

 

[Phog Allen]

Dustin, indeed. A good coffin is a good thing indeed. I absolutely love savoury pies and my next adventure will be a Fidget pie. Much the same as the pure pork pie but also contains apples, onions, potatoes, and some dry cider and cream for the liquid. I saw one made on YouTube with shortcrust pastry(pie crust for those don't bake or don't take interest in such things) and while it looked good, I was thinking hot water pastry all the way. I don't know if it is traditional. The first time I made a hot water crust I was thinking it would never work. Everything about shortcrust pastry is turned on its head with these. I don't know if I have ever had a flakier crust than that first Melton Mowbray copy. How do you think it would work with fruit filling? Custard?

And the Cornish pasty is very universal amongst immigrants from the Isles. All my mum's kin came out of the Allegheny area and the Ohio valley. All of them coal miners and many died young from black lung. They ate these all the time. One side would have meat(if they were lucky) and the other would sometimes have a fruit filling like apples or cherries. Most times it was just potatoes and whatever root vegetables they had laid up. That lot lived hard lives. Very hard.

 

[Shave_Rat]

Dustin, indeed. A good coffin is a good thing indeed. I absolutely love savoury pies and my next adventure will be a Fidget pie. Much the same as the pure pork pie but also contains apples, onions, potatoes, and some dry cider and cream for the liquid. I saw one made on YouTube with shortcrust pastry(pie crust for those don't bake or don't take interest in such things) and while it looked good, I was thinking hot water pastry all the way. I don't know if it is traditional. The first time I made a hot water crust I was thinking it would never work. Everything about shortcrust pastry is turned on its head with these. I don't know if I have ever had a flakier crust than that first Melton Mowbray copy. How do you think it would work with fruit filling? Custard?

And the Cornish pasty is very universal amongst immigrants from the Isles. All my mum's kin came out of the Allegheny area and the Ohio valley. All of them coal miners and many died young from black lung. They ate these all the time. One side would have meat(if they were lucky) and the other would sometimes have a fruit filling like apples or cherries. Most times it was just potatoes and whatever root vegetables they had laid up. That lot lived hard lives. Very hard.

I have done a fruit dessert coffin pie with the hot water crust. I added 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to my original savory crust... Mine I converted to cups for the flour and lard, but looking at yours, we used about the same measurements/ratios, and since my crust didn't come out really that sweet, you'd be fine using 3-4 tablespoons of sugar in yours as well for a dessert crust.