Gala/porkk-pie

[gideon]

Hi,I know this isn't sausage related but has anyone got a good recipe for gala pork-pie, the one with the egg in the middle?, I've just made some Melton-Mowbrey style pork pies which were excellent. I now want to have a go at gala pie but I'm a little puzzled with the egg side of the recipe, my main worries are that the eggs will be come over-cooked in the baking process. I was thinking about soft-boiling the eggs but I'm still worried that two+ hours in an oven may make them have the texture of squash balls!!

[Paul Kribs]

gideon

I am intending to make a Gala Pie a bit nearer to xmas, and this is the recipe I will be using. I have made it before but as a Veal & Ham version and it was very good, but the veal was expensive.

Ingredients:

450 g (1 lb) lean minced pork
100 g (4 oz) boiled ham, minced
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1/4 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp ground bay leaves
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2 medium onions, finely chopped
salt and pepper
100 g (4 oz) lard
350 g (12 oz) plain flour (can be wholemeal if preferred)
1 egg yolk
3 eggs, hard boiled and shelled
2 tsp powdered aspic jelly

Method:

1 Grease a 1.4 litre (2 1/2 pint) loaf tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

2 Put the first 7 ingredients in a bowl and add 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and mix well.

3 Put the lard and 200 ml (7 fl oz) of water into a saucepan and heat gently to melt. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and tip in the flour with 1/2 tsp salt. Mix well to form a soft dough, and then beat the egg yolk into the dough. Cover with a damp tea towel and rest in a warm place for 20 mins, do not allow to cool.

4 Use two thirds of the pastry to line the prepared loaf tin. Press in half the meat mixture and lay the 3 eggs down the centre. Fill with the remaining meat mixture.

5 Roll out the remaining pastry and use to cover the pie. Make a hole in the centre of the pie. Bake at 180� C (350� F) (gas mark 4) for 1 1/2 hours. Leave to cool for 3 - 4 hours.

6 Make up the aspic jelly with 300 ml (1/2 pint) water and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Pour the aspic through the hole in the top of the pie until full. Chill the pie for 1 hour to set the jelly. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour before turning out.

I will not be using aspic when I make it as I have some proper jelly made from pig skin and bones.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[gideon]

Thanks paul, I'll give your recipe a try for this xmas I might have a trial run this weekend. I too will be using a jellied stock, I made some last weekend and used it for a couple of melton mowbray pies, they turned out great, only this time I will strain the stock through a finer strainer to get a clearer jelly. By the way I'm going to have a go at turning my own pie dollies, can you suggest a suitable wood eg Maple or cherry?
Thanks again,
Gideon

[Paul Kribs]

gideon

Pretty much any hardwood is OK for turning a pie dolly. I have made them from Ash, Roble, Oak and Steamed Beech. Maple or Cherry will do fine but steer clear of softwood. I would also recommend that you make the blank by laminating 3 or 4 boards. It will be a lot more stable than turning out of a solid blank, and somewhat cheaper. Just use a PVA glue to laminate. I sealed mine with 4 coats of sanding sealer. Good Luck with it.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[Paul Kribs]

Made the Gala Pie. Same as the recipe above but left out the lemon rind, but added a tblsp of anchovy essence, and used proper pork jelly instead of the aspic. cooked at 170�C for 1 hour 50 mins.





There were a few voids after cooking but were filled by the jelly (you can see this in the end I cut off).. the following slices were better, closer texture of the meat etc Very nice tasting with the jelly keeping it all moist and succulent.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[J.P.]

Oh yes, that looks lovely!

I made some pork pies a few months ago, but the crust was really heavy and gave me some hellish indigestion!

Not my fort�, pork pies.

I do want to try them again some time soon.

[Paul Kribs]

J.P.

Try the pastry recipe posted above, I think the egg yolk makes a difference. This pastry was as enjoyable as the filling, even the wife liked it and commented on it as a 'nice' pastry. It will suffice for pork pies and that is the recipe I will use from now on.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[J.P.]

Will do.

But don't expect an update for at least a month.

It'll take that long just to digest Xmas!!

[gideon]

Hi Paul, Happy new year to you and your family,
your gala pie does indeed look delicious, I followed your recipe and I must say that it was an outstanding success, I've had requests for more from all the family over the holiday period.I too added the anchovy essence,as i'd had some success using this in your raised pork pie recipe.I have frozen quite a lot of stock for the jellying of future pies, do you know if this would have any effect on the quality or taste of the stock?

[Paul Kribs]

gideon

I'm glad it turned out successfully. There is no problem at all with freezing the jelly. I waited for my stock to solidify and go cold and then portioned it and vacuum packed it before freezing, but if you just put it into polythene bags and suck out most of the air before sealing, it should be fine.
My gala pie lasted just 2 1/2 days.. just me and the wife.. think it's called gluttony

Regards, Paul Kribs

[Spuddy]

Blimey Paul!!
Careful, you'll start looking like your avatar!

[Paul Kribs]

Spuddy

I'm getting there it seems to be going on a lot quicker than it came off. I've put nearly a stone back on over the festive period I'll have to try eating thinner sausages, and smaller bites of pork pie... that might work..

Regards, Paul Kribs

[Rik vonTrense]

I made a couple of pork pies last weeek roughly following Pauls website recipe and they turned out great.

I used all belly pork that was rather on the lean side but I cut all the skin off and diced it then boiled it for an hour with a little bit of pork sausage spice mix. I later added this to the filler meats.

I diced the pork nice and small and also added 20% cooking bacon a la Tesco I spiced them well and added some mustard seed and a teaspoon of fennel and put them in the fridge overnight to marinate.....the meat did smell nice the followingf day.

I made up the hot water pastry but had to keep adding a bit of flour to it so I could handle it...I eventually got it so I could raise it up my former without it immediately collapsing, I gently packed in the meat and crimped the top on and gave it the egg wash.

My former made a pie about 5 inches across and four inches high but although the crust was quite cool by now and the meat was near zero the pie seemed to be growing across the width and sinking in height......but it had a nice pop belly just like a melton mowbray.

When it came out of the oven though it must have been all of eight inches across and two inches high....still pot bellied though.

When it had cooled I filled it with the juice from pork skin I had boiled and when it had chilled in the fridge overnight

It was really succulent and the jelly made it and I must say that the piecrust was the best I had tasted on a pork pie....I usually leave the crust on a Melton Pie but I ate every crumb of this crust.

Anyway the round one has nearly gone but I think next time I will mince the meat through my coarse plate and add some colour to the meat as it does look a bit insipid just plain cooked pork.

The rest of the meat I used in a loaf tin shape and being a bit short of meat I opend a couple of small tins of Tesco cheepo ham they were selling at chrimmer to make up the cavity....I have yet to open this one up but it looks very well.......I use a crimping method on all of my pies that looks very professional .....

with my left hand I press my index finger and thumb together so that it makes a "V" and with my right hand using only my middle finger...I press this into the "V" with the top and bottom pastry layers between then it makes a very nice flute and this goes all round the outer perimeter of the pie. Difficult to describe but very easy and quick to do.

.

[pokerpete]

gideon

I'm glad it turned out successfully. There is no problem at all with freezing the jelly. I waited for my stock to solidify and go cold and then portioned it and vacuum packed it before freezing, but if you just put it into polythene bags and suck out most of the air before sealing, it should be fine.
My gala pie lasted just 2 1/2 days.. just me and the wife.. think it's called gluttony

Regards, Paul Kribs

Here's a trick I learn't with an egg that you might try with your Gala Pie.
Measure the amount of distance in your baking tin where the meat content will be. Find an offcut of plastic pipe(terrain), the same diameter as an egg, and cut it to the same length. Then buy two closed end caps for the pipe. Fill the pipe with rehydrated dried egg(not sloppy), put the other cap on then freeze it until required.
Then run the pipe under a tap and push out gently. Place on your 1/3rd layer of meat mix, then cover with the rest of the mixture. Obviously this will give a pleasing look after slicing the pie.

If you are doing a roast pork leg, you can remove the leg bone, and using the same method as above, only with a thicker pipe fill it with stuffing then shove it down the bone hole before roasting, of course stitch up the hock end as well. Miles better than trying to stuff a wet stuffing mix down the hole.