English Pork Pie for Charcutepalooza

"Here in Shropshire is a farm that's frozen in time, lost in Victorian rural England..." Channeling my inner Ruth Goodman to create this honest-to-goodness Shropshire meat pie, I had my best experience of Charcutepalooza so far, which demonstrates two points:

1. At heart, I'm a baker, not a cook.
2. Although I'm genetically about one-quarter French, clearly, when it comes to meat appreciation, my inherited predilections are Rule Brittania all the way.

The English Pork Pie recipe in Michael Ruhlman's Charcutepalooza is fairly cheap, quick and simple. The filling is ground meat with a few seasonings and some chicken broth, well mixed to help it emulsify (see! I'm learning!) In my atavistic British fervour I left out the ham and garlic, which, after all, seemed a little... French. (And did I mention that Niamh and I watched watched back-to-back episodes of the latest Doctor Who season while we cooked?)

I also completely forgot to sauté the onions – thus breaking a Two Fat Ladies rule by missing an opportunity to add more butter to the dish – but they were not at all injured by being tossed in raw to sizzle in the butter, lard and pork fat that were already in the mix. And there is no aspic or gelatin in this pie. In fact, I'm delighted I didn't slave away over Madeira-soaked reductions, because there is simply no room in this pie to add any aspic.

I had planned to pick some fresh thyme from the garden, as the recipe calls for fresh, but it was so dark by the time I got to that stage that I axed the fresh thyme and used dried, but added in some sage. It was great anyway.

The crust is equal parts butter and lard with flour, water and a single egg. I thought the dough was so soggy that it would have no flakiness when baked, but it's a genius recipe: somehow it puffs up delectably (that'd be the egg). Nonetheless, it's immensely sturdy and resilient, so I was able to build a proper Medieval-style coffin for the filling. I brushed the outside not with an egg wash, but with 1% yogurt, which gave a pleasant matte finish.

There was lots of dough left over, so I baked cutout hearts on the sheet next to the pie. They were done within about ten minutes; none, however, made it to the photo stage.

I am very grateful that I laid parchment paper on the baking sheet because it was immensely helpful when it came time to transfer the pie, now piping hot and dripping with rich oils, onto a serving plate.

In the photo, the meal shared by Niamh and me, with some well boiled carrots and beans, and the final remaining jar of the apple chutney I made last year from a recipe by Audra of Doris and Jilly Cook. (The posted recipe is for a peach chutney, but if you leave out the lime you can switch out apples for peaches. In fact, Audra allowed me to include the recipe in that variation in my book.)

As I rarely eat meat these days (despite my Charcutepaloozitude), I was floored by the richness of a dish in which the crust is fattier than the pork filling (!), but I loved making it and will certainly think of incorporating it into my own Christmas seasonal rotation. And that crust! I can't wait to use the recipe again in many variations, like a huge apple pie, or a series of smaller ones. Thank you, Charcutepalooza, this month's assignment was a complete delight.