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Pork Pie to Be Served Cold

A cold pork pie made with short pastry, stewed pork, and gravy, glazed with egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pork Pie to Be Served Cold

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare short pastry for tarts.

  2. Butter a large deep copper mold or stewpan.

  3. Stew pork with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and grated nutmeg.

  4. Stew leftover bits of pork or bones for gravy, reducing until strong.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the bottom and sides of the mold with pastry, making it reasonably thick.

  2. Place stewed pork in the crust with gravy on top.

  3. Cover with a good crust on top.

  4. Garnish with leaves.

  5. Glaze with egg.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Cool and serve

  1. Let it cool in the mold before turning it out.

  2. Pour gravy into pie after it has cooled completely.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork, stewed
Forms the savoury filling and supplies the main meaty body of the pie.
Short pastry for tarts
Forms the thick crust that holds the filling and gives the pie its structure.
Egg for glazing
Sets on the crust surface and promotes an even golden browning during baking.
Gravy (from stewed pork or beef)
Adds moisture and rich flavour to the filling once poured in.

The step that matters

Pour gravy in only after the pie has cooled completely. Gravy poured into a hot pie stays liquid and can leak or soften the pastry. Once cooled, the gravy sets to a jelly, which keeps the cold pie moist and sliceable.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pork, pepper, egg. 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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