Recipes

Pork pies. My dad used to make great pork pies. Sadly I never actually wrote down his recipe. Not sure if he did either. So, after being disappointed by many a store- or market- bought pork pie, even in the mother country, I had to once again delve into the interweb and combine the results with my fuzzy memories for this recipe. Then, later on, I found this instruction from John Kirkwood on youtube (part 1 and part 2) which was gold, highly recommended if you are about to set off on making your first pork pies. So this recipe is an updated version, for hand raised pies. So good.

This recipe makes 10-12 x 2″ diameter hand raised pies. Well, they start about 2″, then relax to 3″ on cooking. Or about 12 large muffin sized pies, if you want to start with tins. But hand raised look so much nicer.

Timing: I mixed the pastry and prepped the meat the night before, then in the morning it took me about 1-2 hours to hand-raise the pastry and fill them one at a time. Then chill again for most of a day/overnight. Then about an hour to cook, and about 30 mins to make the stock and fill. Then it will take maybe 3 hours in the fridge or overnight to cool. But it is so worth it.

Filling

• ~1200g pork. This means about 100g per small pie. About 1/2 of this should be pork shoulder (tasty bits). There should be 4-5 bacon rashers (rind removed) and about 1/4-1/3 should be a fatty cut, like side or belly (rind removed). The rest can be more shoulder or mince. It is this balance of meat to fat, as well as the variety of sizes of the meat that is key to a great pork pie. The meat you want sizes from ~1-2cm chunks (typically you want maybe 1-2 of these per muffin sized pie) and the rest typically a reasonable bit finer (0.4cm and below). The mince is kinda cheating, some purists wouldn’t use it, I think mainly because it doesn’t necessarily come from a flavourful cut, but also the texture is too fine. Note you want lumps of fat in there too, the 0.4cm size (or larger if you like). Note, if you are using muffin tins, I found about 800g was enough. 
• 1/2 tsp anchovy essence (I’ve used anchovy oil, but I guess a fully ground anchovy would do too). Or worcestershire sauce. 
• 1 heaped tsp dried sage (or equivalent fresh. about half of this I would mix through the meat well, and the other I barely mix in, so there are still pockets of flavour. 
•  1 tsp thyme (maybe)
•  1/2 tsp nutmeg/mace
•  1/2 tsp allspice
•  salt and pepper (white and/or black, 1tsp or so)

The additions are the controversial bit, as always. Purists might just use salt and pepper. Melton Mowbray have the addition of the anchovy, which I think gives it a hint of depth. Sage and pepper for me is key, as is having pockets of flavour. What I don’t like is a uniform texture and flavour, every bite should be a new textural and flavour experience, what with the different levels of herb, different proportions of fat, and sizes of meat.

Split the meat into 100g rough balls ready to put in the pastry. Don’t squish too much – you want a coherent ball but not a solid lump of meat. You also want the meat to ‘dome’ the top bit of pastry a little, rather than it lying flat across the top.

Pastry

Traditionally this would be a hot water pastry, as per below. Dad used shortcrust pastry, Aunty Betty’s recipe I think. I’m not sure why. I kinda like the dense robustness of the hot water crust. Shortcrust pastry would be more crumbly, but perhaps more familiar to work with. But then hot water crust is heralded by others as being rather easy (e.g. see this recipe and discussion from the Guardian), and it really is the traditional way. It should be nice and robust, crispy on the outside, and soft in the inside. 

One of the first recipes I tried used a 3:1:1 ratio by weight of flour:butter:water. But this ended up being very difficult to work, especially after it had cooled. The recipe here (incidentally a great resource on how to make these pies) called more for a 2:1:0.8 ratio, so I modified the original recipe a bit, adding more oil (note butter has a lower fat content than lard to start with). For my last batch, I decided to just use some lard, to make it easier on myself because I’ve amassed too many friends that I give these to so now I need to make double batches. The first lot was a little too on the fat side, it got a little too soft. So I upped the flour a little, dropped the fat a little, and added a little water (all by 50g). This worked a treat.

The recipe below should make enough for 12 individual hand-raised pies (or 12 large muffin tins).

• 800g flour 
• 300g butter and/or lard (I used about half of each)
• 300ml water
• <2tsp Salt (if using salted butter, use less, if lard or unsalted, use more – pastry needs some salt)
• 1 beaten egg for brushing

Sieve the flour into a large bowl, add the salt. Bring the butter/lard, and water close to a boil in a saucepan. Pour into the flour and knead until it comes together and becomes smooth. If required, poke a few holes all over the dough with your fingers, and add more water, kneading it in. It will become easier to work after resting, but if it is tearing badly now, it will be more difficult to work later. Kneading develops the gluten a little – you want this for a nice robust pastry.

Cover in glad wrap or put in a sealed ziplock or container, and rest for at least 3 hours, if not overnight. This stops it from contracting back up when you roll it out. Nothing worse than making lids and coming back to place them and they are all too small…

For my mould (a small, straight-sided glass, ~ 2″ across), I worked with ~90g of pastry for the base, and about 28g for the lid. But maybe test it out with the first few with the mould you have, and correct the ratios from there. My scales are pretty inaccurate. Keep everything you are not working with under a tea towel or in a large ziplock, so it doesn’t dry out. I generally weigh everything out, shape into balls or discs, and then store them in a ziplock at room temperature. I now shape them one-by-one, filling them as I go, so nothing dries out and I don’t go mad trying to raise the bases.

For the bases, see the video by John (part 1 and part 2 here) for how to shape them. Basically, make ‘hockey puck’ shapes, then push the mould down into it, encouraging the pastry up the edge of the mould with your little fingers. You can work with it this way, or flip it over, easing the pastry down with your palms (but I do find it more likely to stick this way). You want to end up with an even pastry, with a nice flat edge. Some tips might include:

• Use loads of flour on the mould, and regularly re-dust especially in the early stages of shaping. But try not to get too much flour on the outside and edges of the pastry (it will dry it).
• Try not to squish the edges, work mainly from below them.
• Fix tears, early, and often. My current pastry recipe is easy to fix with just overlapping and the heat of my hands. if it is really bad, maybe consider using a little water to glue it together.
• If it starts to feel too ‘floppy’ just put that one aside (or in the fridge) and let it cool down. Go ahead with the others, and come back to it. My current recipe is much better at being reformed than prior ones.
• Don’t stress too much – relax those shoulders, especially as you may be at this for several hours!

The lids are much easier. Just roll out to a rough circle, and cut around a suitable sized round thing (I used the rim of a pint glass). And pre-cut the hole (making the hole slightly larger that the funnel you want to use for the jelly as it will shrink a little on cooking). I put the small amount of scraps from the lid together with the next base, to make life easier with less wastage.

Note the pastry should be pretty easy to work, but while you can re-combine then re-work it, it is not quite the same, and is harder the second time over. Best is to be gentle, and patient, and get it right the first time.

If you are not hand-raising them, but rather using large muffin tins, I recommend greasing and laying a strip of baking paper over each muffin hole to help lift the pies out halfway during cooking. Shape each into a rough ball and roll out the base. Drape and then press it into the tin – you want it to be relatively even around, and to hang over the edges just a little. You don’t need to be too perfect, you can cut off the excess, but you definitely don’t want holes in the base, and you want to minimise the holes in the pastry all up.  I’ve also seen small springform cake tins (?4″) being used for slightly larger pies, which seemed like a great option, as you can remove the edge for baking to get that classic bulging shape.

Place the pork balls into the tins (as balls – don’t squish them down, you want spaces for the all-important jelly to go). They should come to or slightly above the level of the base. Then brush the edges with water/egg, and place the lids, first pinching them closed until they are the same thickness as the other parts of the pastry, then crimping them well to fully close them. You can make the crimps quite deep, they will become smaller with baking. It is essential to fully close the pie (except of course the hole in the top). Did I mention it is essential to make sure that edge is completely sealed? 

Give the pies a good egg wash – all over the sides and the lids (or just the lids if in a muffin tin).

Bake hand-raised pies on a parchment lined or greased tray for 20+ mins at 200C, or until golden. After we drop the temperature they will darken up slightly, but not too much. You want to get the colour now – to try and crank it up later will just result in more juice escaping (not bad, but not ideal). Further, if they are not golden when you turn the temperature down, they are more likely to slump during baking. So make sure they are golden before dropping the temperature. Turn the tray around, and finish cooking for ~40 mins at 170C. Test internal temp is at least 75C (preferably higher) with a meat thermometer stuck through the top holes.

If they are in tins, bake initially at 180C, take them out of the tins at 20 mins (you might need to encourage them with a blunt knife). Then finish cooking (20-30 mins) on a (baking paper lined) tray, so the sides crisp too. 

Fill with jelly after they’ve been out of the oven for about 45 mins, so the meat can shrink a little, but while still warm.

Jelly

This is all important to make the pies moist, and add another textural element.

You might need about 400ml of stock, with enough gelatine to make it set relatively strongly but not too ‘hard’ (you’ll need to consult your gelatine instructions for this, mine suggested 1 packet for 500ml, which was ok, but 1 packet for 400ml would also work). Pork or chicken stock, whatever you have – if you want to get real fancy you’d make the jelly with a hock or something. While the jelly is still hot, use a small funnel to pour into the pies. We use the little funnel that came with a hip flask, but I’m also considering using a metal piping nozzle. This is good, because it is sharp enough to poke a nice clean hole into the pastry tops, and the perfect size to not be tempted to overfill it too much and end up with a big spill. Dab off spills with paper towel. The meat should have shrunk a bit, to give you room to fit some stock in. Do a bit at a time, letting it sink in before pouring more in. Sometimes the pastry will leak at the join, but as long as the jelly gets up to there that’s ok. If you really can’t get jelly through the hole, you can always poke a few small holes in the lid near the edge, and fill it that way. Let cool 3 hours or overnight or until jelly is set. 

Keep in the fridge, but ideally let them come to room temp before eating. Other people seem to insist on eating pork pies with branston pickle (chutney), or mustard, but I feel like that might be a result of not having the flavours/textures speaking for themselves, or enough jelly in there to keep them moist – I’d say they shouldn’t need any additions. Not sure how long they last… sadly never that long in our house (I typically give most away to some of our UK friends – because I know what it is to miss pork pies – or trade for some Canadian tourtiere).