Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

Storing and Planning Ahead

Refrigerated for 5 days. Do not freeze — the jelly breaks.

Making Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

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1. Start the jelly first, since it runs alongside everything else: simmer the trotters with the water, onion, bay and salt 3 hours while you make and bake the pie, then strain and chill it while the pie cools. It should set firm.

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2. Mix the chopped pork with the salt, white pepper, mace, nutmeg, sage and cold water. Fry a teaspoon of it to check the seasoning.

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3. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well.

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4. Boil the lard and water together, pour it into the well and mix quickly with a spoon, then bring together by hand.

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5. Working fast while the dough is warm, keep back a quarter for the lid and mould the rest up the inside of a 15 cm tin, or around a jam jar, to an even 8 mm.

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6. Pack the filling in tightly, doming the top slightly.

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7. Roll the reserved pastry into a lid, seal and crimp the edges, and cut a 1 cm hole in the centre.

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8. Glaze with the beaten egg and bake at 200°C / 390°F fan / 220°C / 430°F / gas 7 for 25 minutes, then at 160°C / 320°F fan / 180°C / 355°F / gas 4 for a further 80 minutes.

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9. Cool the pie completely, at least 3 hours.

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10. Warm the jelly until just liquid and pour it through the hole a little at a time until the pie will take no more.

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11. Refrigerate 4 hours before cutting.

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Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Pan and tin size.

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Tips for Success

• Shape the crust warm, within ten minutes. Cold hot water crust cracks.
• Chop the pork by hand. Mincing gives a solid grey block.
• Jelly into a cold pie only, and pour it in slowly.

Behind the Recipe

Hot water crust is worked warm and only warm. The lard and boiling water are what make it pliable enough to raise by hand, and once it cools past blood heat it cracks the moment you bend it — so shape it fast, within about ten minutes of mixing. The meat is chopped, never minced: minced pork packs solid and sets into a dense grey block, while hand-chopped shoulder stays in distinct pieces with gaps for the jelly. And the jelly goes in through the hole only after the pie is cold, or it soaks into hot pastry instead of setting in the gaps.

Good Alongside

Piccalilli · Pickled onions · A pint of bitter

Questions About Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

The Numbers per Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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