Cold raised-crust pie filled with seasoned chopped pork, sealed under jellied stock — Melton Mowbray PGI version is the canonical original.
The Melton Mowbray pork pie received PGI status in 2008, protecting both the geographic origin and the unique method: hot-water crust pastry molded by hand around a wooden 'dolly,' chopped (never minced) pork from grass-fed pigs, anchovy-essence seasoning, baked free-standing without a tin so the sides bow outward. The jelly is poured in through a hole in the top after baking, then chilled overnight to set.
Cut a wedge cold from the fridge: hot-water crust crackles, the pink-grey pork is densely seasoned, a thin amber band of jelly hugs the meat. Eat with sharp Branston pickle and a pint of bitter.
Hot water crust pastry is sealed with hot fat in water — the dough is malleable while warm but sets rigid as it cools, supporting itself during free-standing bake. The jelly's gelatin (from trotter collagen) liquefies during pour-in, then sets again on chilling, creating an air-free seal that lets the pie keep for a week unrefrigerated in the old days.
Variations
Melton Mowbray PGI uses uncured pork and grey filling; commercial Walker & Son cures the pork pink; gala pie adds a long boiled egg through the center — three pork pie traditions.
On the Palate
Where Pork Pie sits in the British flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
5 steps · 1 hour 30 min active + 1 hour 30 min waiting
- 140 min
Hot water crust: melt 100g lard in 100ml water, bring to boil. Pour into 350g flour with 1 tsp salt. Mix to dough; rest 30 min.
Watch outMix the flour into the fat-and-water while it's still hot — the dough must be warm and pliable to mold; let it cool first and it cracks instead of shaping.
- 215 min
While dough rests: chop 500g pork shoulder and 100g pork belly into 5mm dice. Season with 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp white pepper, ¼ tsp mace, ¼ tsp anchovy paste, 2 tbsp cold water.
- 325 min
Divide dough into 6 (one per pie). Reserve a third for lids. Mold each bottom around a small jam jar (or pie dolly). Fill with pork mixture; cap with rolled lid, seal edges.
- 495 min
Cut a 5mm steam hole in each lid. Egg-wash. Bake at 200°C for 30 min, reduce to 160°C for 60 min. Cool to room temperature.
Watch outCut the steam hole before baking, not after — without it, trapped steam swells the pie and splits the crust wall.
- 55 min
Make jelly: simmer 2 pig trotters with 500ml water, bay, peppercorns for 2 hours; strain. Pour cooled liquid through steam hole until pies are full. Chill overnight.
Watch outPour the jelly only once it's cooled to just-liquid, and stop when it wells up at the hole — too hot and it seeps into the crust; overfill and it leaks out the sides.
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