I had a go at making pork pies before.. You can find that here..

https://cookingwithmrfitz.com/2016/01/18/hand-raised-pork-pies-from-scratch

For some reason making them from scratch at home is very different to helping out my pal in his unit on the farm! Where he turns out plenty of super delicious porky pies.. as well as superb meat pies too! 

Yet this is all about the home cooked pork pie..the GB classic.. why bother making them at home when you can get very good quality ones from the stores (and most definitely from my pal!).. 

Well how pleasing is it (or damn frustrating!).. to make super tasty things yourself.. Well it is for me.. !! 

So here we go.. 

Lard and water weighed out.. 

Boiled up..

Added to the flour .. here I added in some Japanese chicken broth seasoning.. just to make that pastry lip smackingly tasty! 

Mix it together with a wooden spoon.. work it up a little with your hands when it’s cool enough to handle! You gotta work quite quick before it starts to set and then it just cracks.. 

Now these are hand raised pies .. I don’t have a ‘dolly’ or what ever people use.. (My pals pies are all hand raised too!).. So that’s the method I am employing here..👐

It’s a little bit tricky.. 

Rolling out the pastry .. popping the meat ontop.. and working it and working it to get it to stand up.. you will find your own way of doing it! 

And then popping a circle of pastry on the top and pinching it all together.  

The hole in each is to let the steam out.  and also to be able to pour the jelly in! 

Now what about that meat filling?  
I haven’t made sausages for a while now.. 

https://cookingwithmrfitz.com/?s=Sausages&x=0&y=0

I must soon!

The meat for these are from some excellent red ticket free range Berkshire pork sausages.. Do try to put the best meat inside the pies.. after all with all that hard work that’s going into them!

De skinned and pimped with various things. Marjoram, thyme, nutmeg, mace, white pepper, cayenne pepper, coriander flake, and some other bits.. (Perhaps I got a wee bit carried away! )..ahem..
So that’s the meat filling..

Now.. 

The jelly.. Love it or hate it.  It just has to be in it.  And seeing how I am not holding any trotters at the moment it has to be powdered gelatine with pork cube ala mpw.  

Pies in the oven for over an hour to get them all brown and lovely.  The egg wash helps this along nicely. 

  
Then the pork ‘jelly’ poured into the tops.. now this moment is where you see if you have any leaks.. And yup.. Two leaky pies., nothing you can do about that apart from try to tip them about a bit to get that pork jelly into then on leaky side (does that actually make sense?).. Umm yeah! I think it does..

  
They now need to cool in the fridge all day or overnight to set firm.. 

And what a treat they are! Well worth the effort.well worth it indeed.. 

The great British pork pie.. The rest of the world? You don’t know what a delight you are missing!

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