Pork Pie, Properly Made

• 600 gpork shoulder, minced coarse
• 200 gpork belly, finely diced
• 1½ tspfine sea salt
• 2 tspcoarsely ground black pepper
• ½ tspground allspice
• ¼ tspground mace
• ¼ tspground white pepper
• 1 tbspfresh sage, finely chopped
• 2 tbspcold water
• 450 gplain flour
• 1 tspfine sea salt
• 150 glard, cubed
• 50 gunsalted butter, cubed
• 175 mlwater
• 1egg yolk, beaten with 1 tsp water (for glazing)
• 500 mlstrong pork stock (from trotters or hocks)
• 3leaves gelatine (or 6g powdered, if stock isn't naturally setting)
• 1bay leaf
• 6black peppercorns
• 150 gpickled onions (optional)
• 4 tbspEnglish mustard (optional)
• 150 gpiccalilli (optional)
• 100 gcornichons (optional)
• 100 gwatercress (optional)

Method

1. 1Make the filling first so the seasoning has time to mingle while you wrestle with the pastry. Combine the minced shoulder, diced belly, fine salt, black pepper, allspice, mace, white pepper, sage and cold water in a bowl. Don't be shy with the salt here; this is the only seasoning the meat will get, and it needs to carry through a long bake and a long chill. Mix with your hands for a full minute until the filling turns tacky and binds against your palm; that bind is what gives the slice its clean, sausage-like cut. Cover and chill while you make the pastry.
2. 2Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Put the lard, butter and water in a small saucepan and bring to a proper rolling boil; the fat must be fully melted and the liquid genuinely bubbling, not just steaming. Underheated fat-water means a dough that cracks instead of moulds.
3. 3Pour the boiling fat-water straight into the well and mix quickly with a wooden spoon until it pulls together into a rough, shaggy dough. Tip onto the work surface and knead for 30 seconds until smooth and elastic. It will be hot and greasy in your hands; that's exactly right. Hot water crust is worked warm because the molten fat is what makes it pliable; let it cool and you've lost your window.
4. 4Cut off a third of the dough for the lid, wrap it tightly and park it somewhere warm; next to the hob is fine. If this lid pastry drops to room temperature it will crack the moment you try to roll it.
5. 5Flour the outside of an upturned 1-litre jam jar or a raised pie mould. Roll the larger piece of dough into a thick disc and drape it over the jar. Working quickly while the dough is still warm and supple, press it down the sides with your hands until you have a case roughly 14cm across and 8cm deep, with walls 7–8mm thick all the way round. Run your fingers up and down checking for thin patches; thin patches leak, and a leaked pie is a sad pie.
6. 6Chill the moulded case, still on the jar, for 20 minutes until firm to the touch, then carefully twist and lift the jar out. Stand the case on a baking tray lined with greaseproof.
7. 7Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. Pack the pork filling into the case, pressing firmly into the corners and mounding it a good 1cm above the rim; the meat shrinks as it cooks and you don't want a hollow cavern under the lid.
8. 8Roll the reserved lid pastry into a 15cm disc. Brush the rim of the case with egg yolk, lay the lid on top, and crimp the edges together with your thumbs in proper pinched pleats; not a fork-press, this isn't a Cornish pasty. Cut a 1cm hole dead centre for the steam to escape and the stock to go in later. Brush the whole pie generously with egg yolk for that deep mahogany finish.
9. 9Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C fan, then drop to 160°C fan and bake for a further 1 hour 15 minutes. You're looking for deep mahogany brown all over; pale gold means underdone and soggy on the base. Check the centre of the pork filling reaches 75°C for 30 seconds; continue baking if needed. If the top is racing ahead in the first 30 minutes, drape a sheet of foil loosely over it.
10. 10While the pie bakes, warm the pork stock with the bay leaf and peppercorns. If it needs gelatine to set, prepare the leaves or powder according to the packet and dissolve in the warm stock. Strain and taste for salt. Let the stock cool until barely warm and pourable. Follow the gelatine packet strength rather than assuming every leaf weighs the same.
11. 11When the pie comes out, leave it on the tray for 30 minutes to settle and stop steaming. Using a small funnel or a piping bag with the tip snipped, pour the cool stock slowly through the hole in the lid. Go in stages; pour, pause, let it seep down through the meat, pour again. Stop when it threatens to overflow. This is the stock filling every gap the shrinking meat has left behind, and it's what defines a proper pork pie when you cut into it tomorrow.
12. 12Once the pie has stopped steaming, refrigerate promptly and within two hours of coming out of the oven. Chill for at least 8 hours, ideally overnight, until the jelly is set. Take it out 20 minutes before serving and cut into eight wedges. Add any of the optional mustard, piccalilli, cornichons, pickled onions and watercress if using. Allow about 12½ hours including cooling, chilling and standing.

Per serving

kcal

670

protein

25.6g

fibre

2.7g

carbs

45.4g

fat

43g