Short & Sweet: the ultimate home baking conpendium
In 2007 I wanted to write a simple easy to make pork pie recipe for making at home. In part because my dad especially loved them. It was hard to find a pork pie recipe as they weren’t so popular (ok, “fashionable”) back then. Today they’re back on the table without shame. From the famous Melton Mowbray Pork Pie though to the infamous Gala Pork Pie (that’s the pork pie with egg in the middle). And perfect at Christmas with pickle or cranberry sauce.
I’d made them before, back in 1994 when St John Restaurant first opened and I was the head pastry chef. I worked on the pastry while my friend head sous-chef Paul Hughes devised the filling. All under the urging of founder Trevor Gulliver and legend Fergus Henderson. We sold them at the bar with pickles and beer. But when I started writing a weekely column at The Guardian I had a really a reason to work on the recipes and refine them.
In the classic process, you begin by combining boiling hot water with melted pork lard, adding it to seasoned flour. Gently mixed, this forms a smooth, oily dough. Once it’s warm, the dough is either rolled out or hand-raised. You then fill it with a rich blend of fatty, seasoned pork mince. The pie is carefully sealed with additional pastry and set to chill in the fridge for a few hours. Before baking, a small hole is cut at the top, a crucial step for steam release. You then brush the pie’s top and sides with a beaten egg, giving it a beautiful sheen. It’s baked until the pastry turns golden and crisp, ensuring the filling is thoroughly hot. Finally, after cooling and chilling, a savory jelly is poured through the top.
Here are the recipes for hot water crust pastry, and the final pork pie recipe, you can rely on to make a one at home:
My Hot Water Crust Pastry recipe
From the November 24th 2007 edition of The Guardian
This hot water crust recipe makes a nice fatty dough that bakes to a rich brown and holds in the wet filling and juices snugly. Both the pastry and pie are much easier than many recipes suggest, and this leads me to suspect that there has been a degree of protective ramping up of the difficulty. I mean, if you let on how manageable this pork pie business is, you might stir home bakers all around the country to make their own.
I prefer to add butter to the dough, but you can keep the pastry all lard if you simply have to. Hot water crust pastry, to my mind, is always made with rendered animal fat, either dripping (beef fat) or lard (pig fat). As I can’t think of a vegetarian filling that would suit the long cooking time it needs, this one is just for the meat eaters.
Ingredients
475g flour (half strong and half plain)
75g unsalted butter or extra lard
100g lard or dripping
125ml boiling water
1½ tsp salt
Makes 2 large 450g pork pies
Caution: hot fat can be dangerous – follow the instructions carefully.
- Rub 75g butter (or lard) into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Place 100g lard in a large saucepan and heat until it just melts. DO NOT OVERHEAT THE LARD – it should not be heated to more than 30-40C (if you are in any doubt about the temperature of the lard at this stage put it to one side and let it cool, but not harden.) TAKE THE PAN OFF THE HEAT.
- Carefully pour 125ml boiling water into the lard. Add the salt, stir until it dissolves, then pour this over the flour and mix quickly to a dough.
- Work it with a knife to begin with, then, as soon as it is cool enough to dig your hands in without scalding them, work the dough well with your fingers until it is mixed evenly and shape into a ball.
- Press the dough out on to a plate, cover with paper or cling film and leave until barely warm (about 24 – 26C)
- Lightly flour the work surface, roll the dough to about ¾ cm thick, fold it in on itself by thirds, then repeat this roll and fold again. I prefer to leave the dough until it is room-temperature cold (about 21C), as I find it produces a smoother finish. If the dough looks a bit lumpy, give it another roll and fold, then let it rest somewhere cool for 20 minutes before using.
My pork pie recipe
From the November 24th 2007 edition of The Guardian
Ingredients
¾ tsp dried sage
¾ tsp white pepper
A pinch of ground mace
A pinch of ground ginger
50g gammon, cut into tiny pieces
50ml cold water
675g boneless and fatty pork chops, cut into 1cm dice
125g gammon, cut into 1cm dice
Meat stock cube (chicken flavour)
300ml boiling water
4 tsp powdered gelatine
Enough for 2 large 450g pork pies
- Prepare the Filling: In a food processor, combine ¾ tsp dried sage, ¾ tsp white pepper, a pinch of ground mace, and a pinch of ground ginger. Remember, no need to add salt as the gammon provides enough.
- Add 50g of gammon, cut into tiny pieces, to the spice mixture in the food processor. Pour in 50ml of cold water. Blitz everything to a smooth paste.
- To the paste, add 675g of boneless and fatty pork chops and another 125g of gammon, both cut into 1cm dice. Pulse the mixture until it reaches a coarse mince consistency.
- Shape and Bake the Pie: Follow my method for shaping and baking the pie (see below)
- Prepare the Jelly: For the jelly, dissolve a chicken-flavored meat stock cube in 300ml of boiling water in a jug with a pouring lip. Sprinkle in 4 tsp of powdered gelatine and stir until completely dissolved.
- Once the pie is baked and slightly cooled, pour the jelly into each pie through the hole in the top.
- Chill Before Serving: Place the pie in the refrigerator to chill and set before serving.
How to shape a large pie pork pie with hot water crust pastry
From the November 24th 2007 edition of The Guardian
This is the easiest rather than the most traditional way and works very well. It will look quite straight-sided before baking, but will develop the traditional bulging sides as it bakes. Use a large jar about 10cm in diameter – a 750ml “le parfait” storage jar is perfect.
- For each pie, roll 350g dough to about 23cm square and cut a disc the same diameter from it. Save the trimmings for the lid.
- Stand the jar on its lid, dust the base with flour, then lay the pastry over it evenly so the edges drape down.
- Now press the dough tightly in against the sides, working it smooth with your fingers to remove any pleats of the pastry, letting it stretch to about 8-10cm in depth.
- Place the jar in the fridge for a moment to set. Once the pastry is slightly firm (after about 5 minutes), remove from the fridge and carefully prise the dough away from the jar with a blunt butter knife.
- Carefully pack the pastry shell tightly with 450g meat mixture (see below), then roll the remaining pastry to cover the top. Brush a little water around the inside top of the pastry shell, then lay the pastry lid over.
- Press it down so that it sits tightly against the meat, and up to the edge of the shell. Trim away any excess, but leave a 2cm pastry join. Pinch this together firmly with your fingers. Brush the lid and lip with beaten egg and cut a hole in the centre of the lid, pinky finger width, for steam to escape.
- Chill the pie for an hour before baking, then heat the oven to 200C (180C fan-assisted) and bake on a foil-lined tray for 1½ hours. Leave to cool for 30 minutes before pouring in the jelly (see below), then chill overnight before eating.
