I thought I'd give you a glimpse across the divide that quietly, but defiantly, splits the pork pie world. Just a glimpse, mind. The whole pork pie thing - the endless variants of hot water pastry, how to 'raise' the pie case, whether to bake in tins, moulds or nothing at all and the murky, closely guarded subject of seasoning - is too weighty a subject to cover just now. I was making a batch of pies for a customer the other day and made pies that represent both sides of the political divide. What am I on about? Very simply, pies whose meat is pink and those whose is grey. The geography of this chasm in pie politics isn't a neat north/south split. But, as the heartland of one camp is Yorkshire and the territory of the uncured (grey) pie centres on Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, the 'north/south' heading is convenient. The pie with the pink meat gains its rosy tint from the presence of a proportion of cured meat. A style of cured filling that's shunned in the land of the Melton Mowbray pie where they're a bit sniffy about pinkness in their pies. It's as if nobody in Melton Mowbray ever made bacon or hams.... Two things mark out the midlands version (which claims to be the oldest style of pie): never using any cured meat and baking the pie free-standing without any form of support. The resultant sagging, bowed sides are the external signature of the Melton pie just as grey meat marks out the inner. I make both cured and uncured kinds and, for the record, usually bake them not in a mould, but gently supported by a ring of baking paper. So to the pictures - one pinkish, hammy and sweet, a natural partner to mushy peas and mint sauce and one uncured - haughty, pale and peppery, a pie more easily paired with chutneys or mustard. Remember though, it might be a clear view into my pies but it's only the merest glimpse of the whole subject.
I thought I'd give you a glimpse across the divide that quietly, but defiantly, splits the pork pie world. Just a glimpse, mind. The whole pork pie thing - the endless variants of hot water pastry, how to 'raise' the pie case, whether to bake in tins, moulds or nothing at all and the murky, closely guarded subject of seasoning - is too weighty a subject to cover just now. I was making a batch of pies for a customer the other day and made pies that represent both sides of the political divide. What am I on about? Very simply, pies whose meat is pink and those whose is grey. The geography of this chasm in pie politics isn't a neat north/south split. But, as the heartland of one camp is Yorkshire and the territory of the uncured (grey) pie centres on Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, the 'north/south' heading is convenient. The pie with the pink meat gains its rosy tint from the presence of a proportion of cured meat. A style of cured filling that's shunned in the land of the Melton Mowbray pie where they're a bit sniffy about pinkness in their pies. It's as if nobody in Melton Mowbray ever made bacon or hams.... Two things mark out the midlands version (which claims to be the oldest style of pie): never using any cured meat and baking the pie free-standing without any form of support. The resultant sagging, bowed sides are the external signature of the Melton pie just as grey meat marks out the inner. I make both cured and uncured kinds and, for the record, usually bake them not in a mould, but gently supported by a ring of baking paper. So to the pictures - one pinkish, hammy and sweet, a natural partner to mushy peas and mint sauce and one uncured - haughty, pale and peppery, a pie more easily paired with chutneys or mustard. Remember though, it might be a clear view into my pies but it's only the merest glimpse of the whole subject.
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