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Pork Pie
Take one pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of lard, and half an ounce of butter, rub about two-thirds of the lard into the flour, and melt the rest with the butter in a small quantity of hot milk and water; skim it well and mix it in slowly with the flour, adding a little salt and some more of the milk, if found necessary to make the paste of the desired consistency; knead it thoroughly and raise the crust to an oval shape; cut some rather lean pork into slices, season it with chopped sage, salt and pepper, and a very little each of cayenne and mace; put the pork into the crust and cover it; trim the edges of the paste, moisten and press them together. Then roll out the trimmings of the paste, cut them into leaves, moisten at the bottom, and ornament the top of the pie with them, leaving a small hole in the top of the crust. Place it in a moderate oven and bake for two hours or more, according to the size of the pie; then with the trimmings of the pork prepare some well seasoned gravy, and when the pie is done filter it through the hole at the top of the crust, serving either hot or cold, as may be desired.
This is a hand-raised hot water crust pie of the English type, standing free without a tin. The paste is the hinge: it must be worked and shaped while still warm or it will crack rather than stretch.
- Quantities in modern termsOne pound of flour is about 3 1/2 cups; a quarter pound of lard is 1/2 cup, and half an ounce of butter is a scant tablespoon. The milk and water is unmeasured — expect roughly 3/4 to 1 cup total for a workable paste.
- "A moderate oven"Around 350F. The recipe calls for a moderate oven throughout; if you prefer, a hotter start of about 400F for the first 20 minutes will help set the standing crust before dropping to 350F, but that is a modern adjustment, not what the text asks for.
- Working the hot crustMix and knead while the fat-and-liquid mixture is still hot, then shape immediately. Once it cools it becomes short and brittle. "Raise the crust" means moulding it up the sides by hand, traditionally over a floured jar or wooden dolly.
- Two-thirds and one-third of the lardThe division is deliberate: the rubbed-in portion gives shortness, the melted portion scalds the flour and makes the paste plastic enough to stand. Do not melt it all.
- The porkRather lean shoulder, cut in slices or 1/2-inch dice rather than ground, is what gives the sliceable texture. A little fat is wanted; wholly lean meat bakes dry.
- Internal temperatureTwo hours at 350F will normally carry a filled pie well past the 145F the pork needs, but the mass of cold meat inside a thick crust is slow. Check the centre with a thermometer through the vent hole rather than trusting time alone.
- The gravySimmer the pork trimmings, bones and skin to a stock that sets firm when chilled, season it strongly, and pour it in warm through the top hole as soon as the pie leaves the oven. It fills the gap left by shrinking meat and jellies as it cools.
- Serving and yieldA pie from a pound of flour serves six to eight. Served cold it wants a full day in the refrigerator for the jelly to set; hot, it should rest 20 minutes before cutting.
The raised pork pie is an English form — Melton Mowbray and the wider Midlands trade in them are the best-known examples — built on a hot water crust stiff enough to serve as its own baking vessel, a technique that predates cheap metal pie tins and survives because it produces a pie that travels. Its presence in Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection reflects how thoroughly the Waldorf kitchen drew on the standard English domestic repertoire alongside its French cooking; much of the book reads as a reference file rather than a hotel menu. The seasoning here is the traditional English one: sage above all, with mace and a suspicion of cayenne, a combination generally traced to the older practice of potting and preserving pork, where warm spices were expected to carry a cold dish.