They say that making a pork pie is a three-day process. This one’s taken two days. I made the pastry in the morning and formed the pie in the evening, then cooked the pie the following day.

This is the first time that I’ve used this method. I saw it on Instagram, posted by London butcher HG Walter.

It’s a work in progress, but as a first attempt, I’m very pleased with it. I’d go so far as to say that it’s the easiest method I’ve used to make a pie.

Where I’ll make changes the next time I make it, I’ve put a line through what I did this time and added the new details.

Here we go then:

First, we’ll make the pie jelly. Many people use stock and gelatine for this, but the traditional way is to make a jellied stock using pigs’ trotters.

I’ve got a couple of trotters here along with an onion, a stick of celery and a couple of carrots. You can add herbs if you want. I boil this in 1½ litres of water in an Instant Pot for 50 minutes. I’d simmer it for 3 – 4 hours if I didn’t pressure cook it. I strain it into a bowl, cool it and put it in the fridge to check that it sets to a jelly; if it didn’t, I’d boil it to reduce it further. As you can see from the photo, it did; it ain’t pretty, but it’s jellified! There’s enough here for 9-10 pies; I’ll freeze it in 150 g portions.

Next, we need to make the pastry

225 g Plain flour (AP Flour)
100 g Lard, softened and in small, thin pieces
60 g Water
3 g Salt

Put the water and lard into a small saucepan and put it on a very low heat; we want to melt the lard before the water boils. When it boils, tip it into a bowl containing the flour and salt and mix it with a spoon until it comes together and there’s no dry flour.

Wrap it and put it in the fridge.

A few hours later, or the next day, take it from the fridge and work it a bit to get it malleable. Do this a couple of times until it’s just a bit firmer than Play-Doh.

Next we’ll prepare the meat

I use pork shoulder meat for my pies and select pieces with 80/20 visible lean; you’ll need to mince/grind it through a #12 plate. Alternatively, you could chop it finely by hand. You need 225 g of prepared meat for a 1 lb pie:

225 g Pork shoulder, chopped
2.2 g Salt
1 g 1.3 g White pepper, ground
0.3 g Sage, rubbed (about ¾ tsp) optional
A pinch of ground mace; add more if you like mace

Mix it together.

Now we’ve got to form the pie.

I’ve done pies in tins; I’ve raised them using a traditional pork pie dolly; I’ve tried all sorts! I think that this way is the easiest yet. I saw it on Instagram in a reel by butcher HG Walters.

I rolled out the pastry between two sheets of baking paper to 3-4 mm thick, then I cut a square (ish) piece that I put the meat onto. I whisked an egg with a pinch of salt and I brushed the pastry with water around the meat with it. I then re-rolled the remaining pastry into a larger square and placed it over the top. I noticed afterwards that the video shows them putting the top pastry piece on diagonally.

I got it a bit one-sided, so I added a strip of pastry to the bottom edge. You can see my patching in the picture below. I then put a pastry cutter upside down over the domed meat and used it to push the pastry together before using a larger cutter to cut the pastry into a circle large enough to leave pastry to crimp.

The pie was then turned the right way up, crimped, and a band of baking paper was tied around it. I made a couple of holes 1 cm hole in the centre for the jelly, and after I took the photo, I brushed/glazed the top of the pie with some of the egg.

Note: you should have half the pastry left over.

I put the pie in the fridge overnight to set the pastry.

I cooked the pie at 180°C, 360°F, gas mark 4 for 1 hour, reduced the heat to 160°C, 325°F, gas mark 3 and cooked it for a further half hour.
I cook the pie at 180°C, 360°F, gas mark 4 for 1½ hours, removing the paper band after 1 hour.

I let it cool before adding the (warmed) jellied stock through the holes central hole that I made in the pastry. It’s handy to have a small funnel to do this. I put the pie in the fridge to set the stock. The next day, I topped the pie up with some of the remaining stock.

Enjoy!