Those Cakes We Like … Aren’t Telling Pork Pies

We’re baking them instead.

Who's a pretty piggy? Although this one is actually a Gala Pie.

As the long, hot summer days come to an end and the new school year starts in the UK, it becomes time to enjoy the last picnics of the season and begin to think about packed lunches for school or work, and comfort food. It is also the time when thought goes into preserving fruits and vegetables for the winter, something which was of particular importance before the development of the electric home refrigerator by Fred W. Wolf in 1913. In the spirit of the changing season, today we are making pork pies, a quintessential British savoury snack and lunchbox filler, along with some piccalilli (a spiced vegetable chutney made with English mustard) to serve with them.

A Little Slice Of History

Pork pies are an intrinsic part of the history of British food, and the very language of Great Britain. “Pork pies” is Cockney Rhyming slang for “lies,” and this usage has spread far beyond London, with many a Brit being accused of telling “porkies” at some point during their childhood. Their development originated from the raised meat, and fruit or custard filled pies of the medieval period (which in turn can trace their origins to the Romans). The history of the pork pie also spans the social classes, being enjoyed by everyone from royalty to the humble day labourer. As opposed to most modern savoury pies, the pork pie is meant to be eaten cold. Pork pies use a hot water crust pastry to encase a chopped meat and jellied stock filling, rather than a shortcrust pastry encasing a meat and gravy filling.

Hot water crust pastry is pliable, but incredibly robust once baked; this made it the perfect pastry for creating elaborate pastry sculptures such as pie crusts in the shape of castles — perfect for medieval feasts. One particularly fancy example of the use of hot water crust pastry in this way is found in The Forme of Cury, a collection of medieval recipes from the 14th century, where it is used to create an extravagant, sweet custard filled pie.

Whilst the earliest record of a pork pie comes from documents recording dishes created for Richard II in 1390, the popularity of the pork pie is intrinsically linked to the working population: The development of the cheese industry in Britain led to the production of large amounts of whey, which turned out to be the perfect food for pigs. As cheese production increased, so did the keeping of pigs. This in turn led to pork becoming a cheap food for the masses, and the pork pie becoming a staple of the humble labourer’s lunch — the modern Ploughman’s Lunch (a selection of cheeses, meat, salad and bread) just wouldn’t be the same without the inclusion of a pork pie and some piccalilli or Branston’s Pickle. Today there are many variations of the pork pie available, sold as large pork pies to be served in slices, or individual pies which are perfectly suited to lunchboxes. Flavours include pork and apple, pork and chorizo, some have the Branston’s Pickle baked within the pie itself, and of course there is the classic Melton Mowbray Pork Pie, named for the Melton Mowbray Hunt. You can also bake a hardboiled egg in the centre of the pork filling to create a Gala Pie.

This recipe will make 12 individual pork pies. Your carbohydrates are 264g for the whole lot, or 22g per portion. Or you could use half the pastry and make one large pork pie which will serve 8 at 17.5g of carbohydrates per serving.

The piccalilli will add another 3g of carbohydrates per tbsp serving.

Important note: If you want to serve the piccalilli with your pork pies, you’ll need to prepare it a good 6 weeks in advance as it needs to age in a cool, dark place for 6 weeks before serving.

Your Equipment

Digital kitchen scales

Saucepan

Mixing bowls (2 large, 1 small)

Wooden spoon

Rolling pin

Muffin tin or 6” cake tin (deep sided)

Circular cookie cutters (4.5”/12cm and 3”/7cm)

Chopstick or skewer

3 x 250 ml jars (sterilised)

Your Ingredients

Piccalilli ingredients not included.

For the pastry:

265 g all-purpose flour

55 g bread flour

55 g cold unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)

65 g tallow/lard

1 tsp salt

135 ml boiling water

For the filling:

1 large brown onion (finely chopped)

380 g pork loin /roughly 4 thin pork loin steaks (finely chopped)

100 g unsmoked back bacon/chorizo (finely chopped)

1 tbsp salt

½ tbsp dried sage

¼ tsp mace or ground nutmeg

¼ tsp white pepper

¼ tsp black pepper

1 large or 2 small sheets of gelatine

300 ml chicken stock (hot)

1 beaten egg or a little milk for brushing the pastry

For the piccalilli:

250 g cauliflower (cut into mall florets)

100 g courgette (cut into small chunks)

50 g green beans or French beans (trimmed and cut into small chunks)

100 g shallots (cut into small chunks) or pearl onions (halved or left whole)

1 tbsp salt

300 ml malt vinegar

1 ½ tbsp English mustard powder

12 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp black or yellow mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp turmeric

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

100g sugar

1 bay leaf

The Important Bit

The first thing you’ll need to do is make your piccalilli as this needs to be left to age for 6 weeks before serving.

Take your cauliflower florets (250 g), courgette chunks (100 g), green beans (50 g) and shallots/pearl onions (100 g) and place them in a large bowl. Sprinkle over the salt (1 tbsp) and cover the bowl, set aside for 4 hrs.

Thoroughly rinse the vegetables under cold water and then drain.

It's packed with veggie goodness!

In a small bowl, mix 50 ml of the malt vinegar with the mustard powder (1 ½ tbsp), coriander seeds (1/2 tbsp), mustard seeds (1 tbsp), cumin seeds (1 tsp), turmeric (1/2 tsp) and flour (2 tbsp). Mix well to make a thick paste then set aside.

Heat the remaining vinegar (250 ml) with the sugar (100g), bay leaf, and a pinch of salt until the sugar dissolves. Now add the mustard mix to the boiling vinegar and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring continuously. When the mixture starts to thicken take your drained vegetables and fold them into the mustard and vinegar mix. Continue cooking for a minute or 2 as this will soften the vegetables a little whilst ensuring they still have some bite.

Pack the piccalilli into 3 sterilised 250ml jars, seal and put them somewhere cool and dark for 6 weeks. Once opened you can keep the piccalilli refrigerated for up to 4 weeks.

Try this and then try to tell me us Brits don't use spices.

If you don’t want to wait for the piccalilli you could check your local grocery store for some, or see if you can find some Branston’s Pickle.

Next it’s those pork pies.

Preheat your oven to 375F/ 190C.

Mix the onion, pork loin chunks (380 g), bacon (100 g), salt (1 tbsp), sage (1/2 tbsp), mace or nutmeg (1/4 tsp), white pepper (1/4 tsp), and black pepper (1/4 tsp) in a large mixing bowl. Cover and set aside.

For the pastry…

Take your flours (265g all-purpose, 55g bread flour), add your cold butter cubes (55 g) and rub together using your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

Heat the tallow/lard (65g) in a saucepan until it melts. Dissolve the salt (1tsp) in the boiling water (135 ml) and add this to the melted tallow/lard. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture and quickly mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a thick paste. Allow to cool for a few minutes, just until it can be comfortably handled.

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and quickly work it into a smooth ball.

Divide the ball of dough into 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other.

Roll out the larger piece until it is just under 1/4 of an inch thick. Use your circular cookie cutter to cut out 12 rounds. Use these to line the muffin tray and shape to fit the sides with the pastry coming slightly above the edge of the moulds.

Thinly roll that pastry.

Roll out the smaller piece of dough to just under 1/4 of an inch thickness and use the smaller cookie cutter to cut out 12 lids.

And bring it all together…

Fill each of the lined moulds with the pork filling and top with the pastry lids; use your fingers to press the lids into the overhanging dough to form a crust.

Use a chopstick or skewer to poke a hole approximately 1/4 of an inch wide into the top of each pie.

All ready for brushing with a little egg.

Brush the top of each pie with a little beaten egg or milk and then bake in the oven for 50 minutes, or until the pies are golden brown in colour.

While your pies are baking, soak your gelatine leaf in cold water for 5 minutes until it is softened.

Drain the gelatine and squeeze out any excess moisture.

Add the gelatine to your hot chicken stock (300ml) and mix thoroughly until it completely dissolves.

When the pies come out of the oven you should enlarge the holes in the lids if needed and carefully pour in some of the chicken stock-gelatine mixture until the pie is full.

Carefully place the pies into the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours, or preferably overnight.

Serve with with piccalilli.

Remove the pies from the muffin tin (you may need to use a knife to carefully loosen them from the tin) and serve with some cheese, a bit of salad, some freshly made bread, and a spoonful of piccalilli or Branston’s Pickle (or just the piccalilli). Any remaining piccalilli is an excellent addition to a ham or cheese sandwich, or the perfect accompaniment for a cheeseboard, or cheese and crackers.

Well done, you are now an honorary Brit.

Sadly, this does not come with the benefit of Universal Healthcare.

Join me next month for a classic British school dessert — the cornflake tart. It’s a nice, easy recipe that goes beautifully with some delicious, hot custard. And it will tide us over nicely before I share Cakes Jr.’s birthday cake with you in November.

Until then,

Share joy, share love, share cakes.