Wooden Pork Pie Dolly

[BriCan]

I gotta try one of these pies... I keep seeing BriCan's on Instagram and it's killing me. I'll have to stalk my local "authentic" British pub and see if they serve them...

Be for warned ~~~~~

I am at a minimum of a 1000 a week ~~ but that's if I can get them made on top of everything else

Besides ~~ what do you think I am doing right now

[JerBear]

looks like you're trolling the 'net instead of filling pie orders...

[BriCan]

lap top by table ~~pie press I have golden oldies on and its a way my accounts keep me on my toes plus if my so called partner will not do any advertising of the company I might as well ~~ Rick needs some wot about U

[yotmon]

I use various size glass jars and have no problem what so ever:
I use aerosol oil to spray the jar, then dust well with flour.
Then I shape the hot water pastry into a thick circle then mould it around your jar.
Into the fridg for about half hour then it will just drop off.
Jam jars, pickle jars any jar for the size pie you want.

Hope this helps
wallie

I have still to master the art of raising the pastry. Last weekend I made two Melton Mowbray style pies following Wheels quantities on his blog containing 12oz of meat. (They were huge). Simple enough to do but when it come to getting the jar out of the pie shell, the bottom of the pastry stayed glued to the glass ! I only make them about 4 or 5 times a year so I need to practice. I think that I mustn't be greasing them enough. I use the wrapper off the lard and gave them a good rubbing, then sprinkled/coated with flour. I always seem to end up with a tear in the pastry as well, is there any remedy for this. I usually take a small piece of dough and plug it over the split and then wet the edges to for a seal. Am I leaving them too long on the jar or not long enough ? It is frustrating as the meat is good, the seasoning is good, the jelly is good, the baking is good, but that darned pesky pastry gets me every time.

[BriCan]

I have still to master the art of raising the pastry. Last weekend I made two Melton Mowbray style pies following Wheels quantities on his blog containing 12oz of meat. (They were huge). Simple enough to do but when it come to getting the jar out of the pie shell, the bottom of the pastry stayed glued to the glass ! I only make them about 4 or 5 times a year so I need to practice. I think that I mustn't be greasing them enough. I use the wrapper off the lard and gave them a good rubbing, then sprinkled/coated with flour. I always seem to end up with a tear in the pastry as well, is there any remedy for this. I usually take a small piece of dough and plug it over the split and then wet the edges to for a seal. Am I leaving them too long on the jar or not long enough ? It is frustrating as the meat is good, the seasoning is good, the jelly is good, the baking is good, but that darned pesky pastry gets me every time.

I do not do mine this way so maybe I am not the one to answer this but when I was answering JerBear I was finishing up 110 little sods

In a round about way when I started back into making the pork pies I also was having the cooked pies sticking in the tins (I did say a similar problem) I was greasing tins and then flouring them so they would not stick ~~ most if not all stuck every time ~~ remade was to leave out the flour ~~ could this also work for you in getting pastry off jar ~~ just a thought ~~ I must try with a jar when I make the next batch tomorrow

[yotmon]

Hi BriCan, thanks for the reply. I think the difference in using moulds and I assume a plunger is that its strikes the dough once to form the pastry case, whereas when hand moulding/raising the pastry i'm putting pressure in different places all around the mould, plus pushing the pastry up to it's final height. Do you bake the pie in the mould or allow the pastry to cool/set then take it out to bake ? This could be the difference with all the handling going on. When I think about it, a packet of lard is 47p and a pound of flour about 30p, so instead of whinging I should be making batches of dough and get plenty of practice in. Something to look forward to on those long winter nights.........
Incidentally, there is a Pork butchers shop still trading in my home town, it's an old Victorian corner shop and as a child I remember seeing whole pigs hanging from the meat rails on the right. They were so fresh that steam would be coming off the bodies, seeing as they were only killed at the slaughter house a few hundred yards down the road.


They reputedly make the best pork pies in the area and usually have a queue of 'old dears' around the corner waiting for the batches to come out of the oven. These pies are usually eaten hot/warm with the jelly still in the liquid state. That's how the local like them - with a chin dripping with the juices Plus if your'e not there for mid-day, then they will have sold out - think it keeps the demand up

Ste.

[BriCan]

As promised and as I had extra pastry to av a go I did, used each time 170g of pastry


Comparison for the jar I used



Getting ready to cover jar with lard



The amount of lard on jar



No flour starting to mold



Non-flour molded



Away to the fridge for 30 minuets ~~ timer set

Un-molded ~~ used a corkscrew effect to take out



Inside look after separation ~~ no holes



Outside bottom look



Same procedure except the jar is floured



Ready for the fridge ~~ note flour under lid



Flour test un-molded inside look ~~ again no holes



Outside look of the floured test



Conclusion ~~ both ways seem to work although flour method a lot easier, I used same method to remove jar from pastry both times ~~ must use a smooth bottom jar next time as you will note the twist motion was emphasized due to the ridges on the bottom of the jar

Conclusion ~~~ use more lard

HTH

[yotmon]

Hi BriCan, thanks for that - i think u are right with the amount of greasing done to the jar, I didn't put anywhere near that amount on, just wiping them with a greased paper enough to make the flour adhere to the glass.
Plus the reference to the bottom of the jar could also be critical - the one I used had a concave bottom and I think this was the reason for it detaching the base from the pastry.

Again, thanks for spending time on this problem and also the easy to follow pics.

Ste.

[DanMcG]

Thanks for the lesson Robert!!! I really want to give Pork Pies a go soon.

[BriCan]

Thanks for the lesson Robert!!! I really want to give Pork Pies a go soon.

easy peasy Dan, ... if I can do it anyone should be able to do it

And before anyone says that I do it for a living; that might be so but I have never done this before this was my very first attempt without seeing or knowing what to do. I seem to be able to see things from beginning to the end and logically seeing/knowing how it should turn out

vagreys once said to me that he would like to learn how I cure; I told him (and still do) that there is no way I can teach as I honestly do not know what I am doing ... I look at a recipe seem to know the basic steps and do it ... it just works

What bit of knowledge I have I will gladly pass on (at no charge ) the thing I have to remember is that most (if not all) do these things as a hobby at home and not on the large scale as I do

I think once I master this it will make me a better person

[wheels]

I have still to master the art of raising the pastry. Last weekend I made two Melton Mowbray style pies following Wheels quantities on his blog containing 12oz of meat. (They were huge). Simple enough to do but when it come to getting the jar out of the pie shell, the bottom of the pastry stayed glued to the glass ! I only make them about 4 or 5 times a year so I need to practice. I think that I mustn't be greasing them enough. I use the wrapper off the lard and gave them a good rubbing, then sprinkled/coated with flour. I always seem to end up with a tear in the pastry as well, is there any remedy for this. I usually take a small piece of dough and plug it over the split and then wet the edges to for a seal. Am I leaving them too long on the jar or not long enough ? It is frustrating as the meat is good, the seasoning is good, the jelly is good, the baking is good, but that darned pesky pastry gets me every time.

Cor blimey, 12oz of meat only make a 1½lb pie - that's classed as cocktail sized around here!

I too don't make pies that often, particularly now I'm on a diet. I find it a right bitch to get the paste off my wooden dolly; that said, I make it more difficult by using, what is, a high ratio of fat to flour for a raised pie. You'll find that, because of the higher fat content, you have to leave it until it's almost cold before shaping. It's worth noting that Ian Hallam (from Dickinson & Morris) often comments that pie making's a four day process. See:

http://youtu.be/rXwwDKpC0f8

Using my pastry recipe, and cooking the pie freestanding, does take a bit of a 'leap of faith' as it's such a soft paste. I do it because I'm not a lover of the 'stiffer', and thicker, pastry used on many raised pies. Until recently, I always made a back up in a tin (hence my pastry recipe's for two pies!).

As a youth, I did a saturday job on a bread delivery round. We also sold pork pies and I remember taking a 9lb circular pie (Pork Farms) to a customer. I've never seen round ones that size since; 9lb pies are now usually oblong in shape. It must have taken heck of a lot of cooking.

HTH

Phil

[yotmon]

As a youth, I did a saturday job on a bread delivery round. We also sold pork pies and I remember taking a 9lb circular pie (Pork Farms) to a customer. I've never seen round ones that size since; 9lb pies are now usually oblong in shape. It must have taken heck of a lot of cooking.

HTH

Phil

That wasn't you in the 'Hovis advert' was it ?

Next time I'll try the recipe that u have listed from Oddley and add an egg to the pastry to see if that makes a difference. And I may make 4 instead of 2, scaling down the size. Although the others were big they only lasted 3 days between 2 of us

Ste.

[wheels]

You'll find Oddley's a lot easier to handle, not particularly (or only) because of the egg, but because the fat to flour ratio is far less. His is 4:12 (33% fat), mine is 7:16 (43.75% fat). His ratio of fat to flour is far more typical of raised pie recipes. Oddley's make a smashing pie.

Phil