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Leicestershire Pork Pie

A savory pie with pork filling encased in a pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Leicestershire Pork Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Season the pork pieces with salt, pepper, sage, and thyme. Set aside in a cool place.

Make the pastry

  1. Make hot-water paste by mixing hog's lard with flour and enough water to form a dough.

  2. Mould the paste into a round ball on a clean surface.

  3. Roll out the paste to a thickness of ½ inch.

Assemble and bake

  1. Shape the pie by hand, using the rolled paste to line a pie dish.

  2. Fill the pie with the seasoned pork, then cover with more rolled paste.

  3. Seal the edges and decorate the top as desired.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about two hours.

  5. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pork + thymetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pork
Provides the meat and fat that make the filling juicy and rich as it cooks.
Hog's lard
Shortens the paste, giving it a tender, crumbly texture rather than a chewy one.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the hot-water paste its structure and holds the pie shape.
Sage
Adds a savoury, herbal aroma that complements the pork.
Thyme
Adds an earthy, aromatic flavour that complements the pork.

The step that matters

Shape the pastry while it is still warm and pliable. Hot-water paste stiffens as it cools, and cold paste cracks when shaped or rolled. Working quickly while it is warm keeps the walls intact and prevents leaks and splits during baking.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, sage, butter, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Rosemaryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, sage, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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