Hand Raised Pork Pies
These hand raised pork pies are simply delicious, and not difficult to make, but if you make you own sausage meat in advance as I do, then there can be a fair bit of work involved, but what a luxury these hand crafted pies are on a ship, The hot water paste can be difficult if you don't have the right recipe and I have tried several, but this paste is reasonably easy to use and gives a good crisp pastry that is robust enough to maintain its integrity during baking. Expect to struggle a little the first time you make these pies, but it is a learning curve well worth the effort. This recipe is sufficient to make 16 good medium size pies.
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Pies
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Ingredients
- Hot Water Paste for 16 Pies
- 600 grams Lard
- 1200 grams All Purpose Flour
- 600 ml Water
- 3 tsp Salt
- Filling
- 670 grams Minced Pork Shoulder
- 170 grams Minced Bacon
- 1.5 tsp All-Spice
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
- 0.5 tsp White Pepper
- 80 grams Breadcrumbs soaked in milk
- The Jelly
- 300 ml Chicken Stock
- 2 tsp Powder Gelatin Powder you can use leaf gelatin
Ingredients
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Instructions
- First we will make our filling; this can be made the day before to allow the seasoning and spice to infuse.
- Place the bread in a container and add sufficient milk to make the bread wet.
- Place the minced pork, seasoning, all spice and wet bread into a machine mixing bowl and combine with the beater attachment until thoroughly mixed then remove from the machine, place in a container and place in the fridge until you are ready to make your pies, this filling can be made a day in advance.
- For the Pastry Place the flour and salt in a machine mixing bowl with a beater attachment fitted.
- Bring the water and Lard to the boil on the stove in a suitable pot then remove from the stove and carefully carry the pot to your mixing machine.
- Start the mixing machine on slow speed and pour in the hot water and fat into the flour, as the water is taken up into the flour increase the mixer to a medium speed and mix to a smooth paste and stop the machine. The pastry will still be hot at this stage as you remove it from the mixing bowl. This is important as we need this pastry to still be warm when we use it, do not let this pastry chill it will go too firm and then become brittle and difficult to mould into shape.
- I don't rest this pastry, it is sufficiently cool after mixing but warm enough to stay pliable, I keep the pastry together in one large lump so that it stays warm, you can cover with a clean tea towel or an upturned bowl. Take a suitable size piece of pastry and mould into a ball then using a rolling pin role slightly so that you have a disc of pastry to work with. then place it over the top of your upside down glass. and carefully mould around the glass, this takes a little bit of practice but you will get used to it and master the technique after just a few goes. You cans make any size of pie big or small, just remember the bigger the pie the longer it will take to bake. TIP;- If you find the pastry is sticking to the glass use a piece of cling film which has been sprinkled with flour over the glass and mould your pastry over it.
- Then turn the glass the right way up and gently ease the glass from the pastry, again this can be tricky at first that there is a tendency the pastry to stick to the glass, but prize the pastry away and don't worry if it losses it's shape slightly as you can mould it back into shape,
- Here we can see how this hot water paste has good structural integrity and is able to support its shape.
- Take a ball of your pork pie filling and place it in the pie base pressing it to fill the pie and help create that pie shape we are looking for. During cooking the meat filling will shrink and the and the space will be filled with our chicken jelly.
- Complete all the pies to this stage ready for the tops.
- take a much small piece of pastry and mould or use a small rolling pin to roll out the top just big enough to fit the top of your pie, use a small cutter to put hole on the pastry, this hole lets steam out of the pie during baking and also serves to allow you to pour your chicken jelly after cooking. I find having 2 holes works better to ensure you can pour your chicken jelly in.
- Egg wash the top edge of the pie so help your pie lid stick to the pie base.
- Pinch and Crimp the pasty top to the pie base and mould a suitable shape to the top of your pie I have use a traditional pie crimp in this image.
- Bake the pies in a pre heated oven set 165C for approximately 45 minutes or until the core temperature of the Pie reaches 85C, we want a good strong bake on these pies to ensure that the raw pork filling is thoroughly cooked and that the pastry is baked to form a nice hard crisp shell.
- When the pie are baked allow to cool on cooling wires and then place in the fridge overnight
- The following day make your Chicken Jelly using the chicken stock and gelatine. Remove the pies from the fridge and leave of the cooling wires, One of the reasons we needed to chill the pies over night was so when the jelly is poured into the pies it will set quickly.
- If you jelly leaks out of your pies allow the pies to cook again, the jelly will seal the pie when it sets and you can add more jelly, try to get a little jelly on the top of the pies for visual appeal.
- Return the pies to the fridge and chill to set the gelatine.
- When the jelly has set, cut the pies as your want
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