There are three elements to this dish: stock, filling, and pastry. After a scrutinizing the recipes of several chefs, I decided to use Nigel Slater as a guide to filling and stock, while following my cousin Olly’s instructions for pastry (the latter having run his own pie business in a previous life).
1 pigs trotters
bones from pork
1 rib celery
1 onion
1 carrot
1 bunch parsley stalks
4 black peppercorns
Throw all ingredients into a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Lower to a simmer and cook for 11/2 hours. Strain into a container, allow to cool, and then chill in fridge overnight.
Next day wake up and cancel any appointments for the next 4 hours or call in sick to work. You will need some time. (Not realizing this I spent the morning fiddling with pastry while fretting over what else I should be doing i.e. wrestling with the finer points of Durkheimian sociology for one of my MA classes. It was fruitless. Pigs trotters hold infinitely more appeal for me than protracted definitions of social phenomena.)
Begin with the pastry:
1/2 lb. lard
1/2 pt. water
1 lb. all purpose flour
1 egg beaten to brush pastry
Put the lard and water in a saucepan and heat almost to boiling. Stir roughly into the flour to make a soft ball of dough (at this point it will smell like a heavenly kitchen in which pounds of bacon are sizzling and mountains of bread are baking in the oven!) Wrap in cling film and allow to cool to just warmer than body temperature.
Meanwhile, make the filling:
1/2 kg boned pork shoulder
125 g pork belly
125 g streaky bacon
2 good sprigs of thyme, finely chopped
2 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 large pinch ground mace
1 large pinch ground white pepper
1 large pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Dice all the meat very finely. Add all other ingredients to the bowl and mix well.
Preheat the oven to 180C/ F. Lightly grease and flour a dozen muffin tins (or a deep cake tin with removable base for one large pie). When the pastry has cooled until it is just warm to the touch, unwrap it, pull off a third for the lids and set aside, and roll out the rest into a thick round. Cut into small rounds to fit the muffin molds and press into base and sides, making sure there is a small lip around each rim. Fill with the meat mixture leaving a little room at the top. Roll out the remaining dough, cut into lids and poke a small hole in the top of each round. Brush the rims of the filled pastry with beaten egg and press a lid onto each, crimping and sealing well to avoid leaking. This is crucial!
Place muffin tins (or single cake tin) in the oven on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes (30 mins. for large version). Lower oven temperature to 160C/ F and continue baking for 60 minutes (90mins.) until pale golden. Brush tops with beaten egg and return to oven for a further 30 minutes.
When the pies are done pull the stock from fridge and remove the layer of fat. You should have a nice jelly beneath. Heat to boiling, transfer to a jug, and then pour into the hole in each lid with the aid of a thin funnel. Chill pies overnight to set the jelly.
After all the fretting and sweat, and pigs trotters, my pies turned out a minor success: the pastry wonderfully rich and crumbly yet well cooked; the filling far more toothsome and and flavorful than any store bought version. So why to do I not proclaim this a major success? I am not known for culinary modesty.The one disappointment was the jelly. As I explained above, the theory is simple: pour the liquefied stock through the hole in the top of the pies. If all goes well it will seep across the top of the meat and down the sides creating that ethereal layer between crust and filling. So much for theory. My attempts to inject the stock into my pies failed, even when I ran to the store and armed myself with a fine-nosed funnel. There just wasn’t enough space between the crust and filling. I think this was due either to not sealing the crust well enough or to filling the molds too full of meat (hence the provisos about leaving room above the filling and meticulously sealing the tops to the bases).
That said, I am generally pleased with the outcome of my first attempt. The pies pass the taste test with flying colors and though they may lack artistry they will provide me with many scrumptious pack lunches over the next few months. It would be ideal for a picnic. I already have a mental image of sitting on top of a hill, blown by the wind and flushed from a hike, biting into the crumbly pie and washing it down with a bottle of cloudy cider.
lovely pies - but they are usually not moulded in a tin. The pastry is raised around a wooden dolly, a round wooden stick about the diameter of a jam jar. Being made from wood prevents the pastry from sticking to the dolly as the pastry is raised. This also results in a high lip, once the pork mixture is in place, the lid is placed INSIDE the lip - retaining the jelly.
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