Leicestershire pork pie or Melton Mowbray pork pie is a traditional British cold meat pie. The filling is prepared from fairly coarsely chopped pork, baked in dough mixed in hot water. After baking, a liquid galantir is added to the pie (in this case, a supersaturated pork broth with spices): the meat expands during cooking, and contracts with subsequent cooling. Jelly fills the formed voids, which helps to keep the cake for a long time and keep it moist [1] . The dish is served as an appetizer, separately or with homemade pickles, with salad.
| Melton Mowbray or Leicestershire Pork Pie | |
|---|---|
| English Melton mowbray | |
 | |
| Included in national cuisines | |
| English cuisine | |
| Place of origin | Great Britain |
| Components | |
| The main | pork, galantir (jellied meat), dough on hot water |
Content
History of a dish with a protected geographical indication
Although baking options with cold-consumed meat are known almost throughout England, the recipe for this cake has become traditional for the city of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire , by whose names it is known throughout the world. The local nobility first appreciated the practicality of the form and its fullness when hunting foxes at the end of the 18th century, drawing attention to the quite modest meal of grooms and servants [2] . Since then, the dish has undergone minimal changes. The pork is chopped with a knife, but not to the state of minced meat, the filling is manually formed into a shell of dough mixed in hot water. Unlike other English pork pies, Melton Mowbray is baked without hoops or shapes, so they take on an irregular, characteristic “onion shape”, slightly wider below [3] . Such recipe elements were officially fixed; in 2008, the European Commission, 10 years after considering the application, assigned the dish the status of PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) [4] . Additional requirements have been added, the relevance of which is caused by the development of modern technologies. In the preparation should be used only pig meat, which was not subjected to additional processing: fermentation, salting, pickling; when growing animals, artificial additives in feed and antibiotics should not be used. The use of freshly slaughtered, unprocessed pork gives the product on the cut a naturally gray rather than pink color, which is another sign of PGI [2] . The Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association (MMPPA) was established to control the production and distribution of geographically protected products .
Other Options for English Pork Pies
In England, a variation on the theme of pork pie - Gala pie (≈ Holiday cake) is widespread. In it, chicken meat is added to pork, and a boiled egg is placed in the center.
Such a cake is usually baked in the form of a long bar, similar to a loaf of bread. When serving, it is cut across, and on the slice of each serving all the filling elements are visible: yolk, protein, meat. The most skilled cooks, so that each piece was the same, and there were no portions only with the edges of the protein, previously made the so-called “long egg” ( English long egg ). To do this, they separated the proteins from the yolks and cooked them in turn in special cylinders. Currently, such a product is produced at food enterprises, in addition, some kitchen processors have a function for making a “long egg”.
Another option for Melton Mowbray is Picnic pie (≈ Picnic Pie). Usually they are smaller, and as a rule, additional ingredients are added to the pork filling: apples, berries, pickles, bacon and so on. In some cases, the solid top of the pie is replaced with a pastry lattice, which makes the filling open.
Notes
- ↑ Pork Pie | Traditional Recipe
- ↑ 1 2 History of Melton Mowbray Pork Pie (inaccessible link) . Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association. Date of treatment December 29, 2016. Archived on May 2, 2015.
- ↑ Authentic Melton Mowbray (Unavailable link) . Date of treatment December 29, 2016. Archived July 4, 2015.
- ↑ Pork pie makers celebrate status . Air Force (04.04.2008). Date of treatment December 29, 2016.
Links
- MMPPA official website
- Melton Mowbray recipe at home.
- Melton Mowbray recipe at home (Russian) .