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Raised Pork Pie

A savory pie made with pork, flour, lard, and seasonings, baked in a jar-shaped crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raised Pork Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the hot-water pastry

  1. In a bowl, mix flour with a little salt.

  2. Make a well in the flour and pour in enough boiling water to form a firm paste.

  3. Knead the paste until smooth.

  4. Flour a jam jar and place it upside down on a board.

  5. Cover the jar with the paste, ensuring it is about 6 inches deep on the sides and even on the bottom.

  6. Set aside to harden, then roll out remaining paste for the pie top.

Fill and bake

  1. Cut pork into small pieces and season with pepper, salt, and herbs.

  2. Remove the jar, fill it with the seasoned pork, and add 1 cup of water.

  3. Cover with the rolled-out paste, prick the edges, and decorate with small paste scraps.

  4. Make a small hole in the top and bake in a preheated 400°F (200°C) oven to set the paste, then reduce to 350°F (175°C) and bake for 1 hour.

  5. Brush the top with beaten egg before returning to the oven.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pork + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,387 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the paste that holds its shape as the pie walls and lid.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and rich.
Pork steak
Provides the meat filling that cooks through during baking.
Egg
Brushed on top, it promotes browning and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Pour in just enough boiling water. Boiling water gelatinises the starch and makes a firm, workable paste; too little leaves it crumbly, too much makes it sticky and hard to shape around the jar.

“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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