It seems to be tradition in this house to make a huge terrine at Easter, see inter alia my post from 2014. However this year we decided to be different and do a large home-made pork pie instead – and yes, do it properly with hot water pastry.
I’ve not done hot water pastry before, but N has and so did my mother occasionally, so I knew the basic idea. This is the traditional pastry for pork pie. It isn’t difficult and is actually quite forgiving. To be absolutely traditional it is made with lard; while that produces a good flavour it isn’t wonderfully healthy. It turns out that butter (which is just a bit healthier) works OK too, although it does make a slightly softer pastry.

Anyway this is what I did …
Ingredients for the Pastry [1]
|
Ingredients for the Filling [3]
|
What to do …
- Make the filling first!
- Cut the bacon into 5mm squares (do not remove the fat) and add to a large mixing bowl.
- Similarly cut the pork fillet into roughly 5mm dice and add to the bacon.
- Skin the sausages and add them with the mince to the pork.
- Add the herbs, a good grind of black pepper, and then another, and the same with nutmeg.
- Get in there with your hands and mix it all well. Set aside.
- Heat the oven to 205°C. While it heats up make the pastry.
- Grease well, and/or line with parchment, an 8″ cake tin.
- Put the flour in another large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.
- Gently melt the butter and water together in a saucepan.
- When the butter is all melted add this to the well in the flour and mix it together with a wooden spoon – it will be hot!
- When it is almost mixed, and has cooled a little, finish mixing the pastry with your hands. You should have a soft dough.
- Reserve about a third of the pastry to make the pie lid.
- Roll out the larger portion and line the cake tin; let the excess pastry flap over the edge.
- If the pastry splits, don’t panic; just use a few of the extra bits from the edges to patch the holes – it’s fine; this is how hot water pastry is so forgiving.
- Add the filling to the pie case and pack it down well.
- Roll out the lid; dampen the edges of the pastry case with beaten egg; put on the lid and press firmly onto the case using your fingers to make a pretty scalloped edge.
- Trim the edges and use the offcuts to make decorations for the lid.
- Don’t forget to cut a hole in the centre of the lid, in case you want to fill the cooked pie with jelly. [5]
- Glaze with beaten egg. Place the tin on a baking sheet.
- Cook for 30 minutes at 205°C, then turn the oven down to 165°C and cook for a further 1½-2 hours until the juices run clear on application of a skewer. (If you’re a meat thermometer fan then you need to get the centre to at least 70°C.)
- Leave the pie to cool, preferably overnight in the fridge, before removing from the tin.

Notes
[1] This should make plenty of pastry for a round 8″ (20cm) cake tin (preferably one with a removable base).
[2] Note the omission of salt as we used salted butter; add a tiny amount if you’re using unsalted butter. Similarly with the filling, the bacon may well be salt enough.
[3] No this is not too much for an 8″ cake tin; it packs down surprisingly well, which you want.
[4] Or any other good, flavoursome, pork meat like shoulder.
[5] If you wish to fill the pie with the traditional jelly, you need to do it as soon as it comes out of the oven. Use a funnel to carefully pour hot jelly into the hole in the pie lid. I didn’t bother, so I’ll leave you to work out how to make a suitable pork jelly.
[6] Having done all of that I felt that the filling needed a bit more seasoning. I note that Jane Grigson in Good Things adds teaspoon quantities of spice (cinnamon, allspice) to her filling in addition to the nutmeg. Or you might want to add a little salt. Or perhaps some garlic paste. Or a layer of sharp apple (like Bramley) in the centre of the filling.