Cleared out my freezer of the older meat and ended up with a hare, a pheasant, half a dozen pigeons and a few rabbits so of course I decided to make a pie out of them! Starting with the recipe;
For the filling:
For the pastry:
OPTIONAL Extra stock (game or chicken) and gelatine leaves if you really love loads of jelly in your pies
For a dish, I'd strongly recommend using a spring form tin
Method:
Start with the pie filling. Take all your meat off the bone and remove any large pieces of sinew before cutting into small chunks no larger than 1 inch cubes but preferably half this size. Slice the pork belly thinly
Fry your onions and garlic in a pan until they are soft but not too coloured, this should take about 15 minutes on a medium-low heat. Allow to cool completely
In a large mixing bowl, combine your wild meat, onions and garlic, pork mince and pork belly and then add the following spice:
Set your oven preheating to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and grease your tin. Line the bottom and halfway up the sides of your greased tin with a piece of baking parchment.
To make the pastry, add your lard and water to a saucepan and get it on the hob to melt but do not let it boil, fat and water can be nasty.
In another large mixing bowl weigh out your flour and optionally you could add mustard powder, mace, white pepper and nutmeg to the flour to make it a bit more interesting. Add a tsp of salt here too.
Once your lard has melted, pour a glug at a time into the flour and mix it with a wooden spoon (this is a good workout) until about 1/3 of the liquid is combined with the flour, then pour the almost all the rest* in and continue combining. It will be very hard to combine well with a wooden spoon, and once it has cooled enough to handle you should knead it with your hands. If you want to do this outside of the bowl you can do so without needing to add any flour. Work quickly while the dough is hot.
*hold about 50ml back, just to make sure the dough doesn't become too wet. It should be smooth and soft but able to hold together if rolled out
Once the dough is combined and smooth you need to roll it out while it is still warm. Separate the dough into 3/5 and 2/5 pieces, the 2/5 being for the lid/decoration and the 3/5 for the bottom and sides.
Roll out the 3/5 piece to around half a centimetre thick and once you have this done it can be easily picked up and placed into the dish you have by placing the rolling pin atop it at one end, and rolling the pastry around the rolling pin (being careful not to squash it too much) and then unrolling it over your pastry dish.
Press the pastry into the corners with your fingers and make sure that there is too much pastry than is necessary! To have a good bind with the lid, pastry should be overflowing from the sides and coming out of the dish so when you place the lid on top, you can press it into this excess pastry and then trim off any extra after this.
Now it is time to add the filling. Do this evenly and try to remove any pockets of air by pressing down on the filling as you add it. Try to make it either flat on the top or domed on the top so you have a nice even surface to your pie lid once the pastry is added.
Once the filling is added, set to one side and roll out the lid using exactly the same method as before.
When the pie lid is rolled out, apply some eggwash to the pastry on the sides where the pie lid will join to. Roll the pie lid onto your rolling pin and add it to the pie, pressing the lid and the sides together with your two thumbs to create a nice effect around the edge of the pie.
Egg wash the whole lid, and add a few holes for steam to escape and an optional adding of stock+gelatine later for those that love jelly.
If you want to add a bit of decoration, cut out whatever you fancy from the pastry and stick it to the pie lid which is now covered in egg wash, and eggwash whatever decoration you add too.
Next it's into the oven. Depending on your pie dish deepness it should take about an hour. My pie dish is about 3 inches deep and it took 1 hour 30 minutes, with the first half an hour at 200C and the next hour at 180C.
Check your pie at 30 minutes, if it is starting to colour too much then turn the oven down by 20C and move the pie down a shelf in the oven. Below is a picture of my pie after half an hour, which is when I decided it would need longer to cook through at a lower temperature as to not burn the pastry.
For checking if the pie is cooked I would strongly recommend use of a probe, and the temp you're looking for is 72C. If you're old school then just make sure the juices are running clear on the top of the pie. See the ones in the picture are still pink.
Don't cut the pie open to check if it's cooked. If in doubt, another 10 minutes isn't gonna hurt.
If you've chosen the optional step of adding extra jelly, get a small amount of well-flavoured stock on the hob, add a couple gelatine leaves to some cold water and once they're soft chuck them into the stock to dissolve before removing the stock from the heat. Once the stock has cooled slightly, add it to a bottle or piping bag (I used a sandwich bag and cut the corner off when I needed to) to pour gently into the pie later.
When you're happy it's cooked through you must leave it alone to cool! Put it on the side and leave it for a few hours. A thick pie like this may take 3 or more hours to cool before you can put it in the fridge. Make sure you do not cut into it. If you've chosen to add extra jelly, add the stock with gelatine through the holes at this stage.
Leave it overnight, put it in the fridge if you can and check your handiwork in the morning.
With a little bit of luck, you'll have a beautiful game pie with a fantastic pastry and heaps of jelly inside!
Serve with lashings of picallily, OR if you're feeling very fancy, before you cut into it you can make up a sharp cranberry chutney to pour over the top and leave to set again to get a wonderful build-in accompaniment to your pie! I save that one for Christmas
Enjoy!
For the filling:
- 2 onions
- Garlic to taste
- 300g pork mince
- 300g pork belly
- As much game meat as required to fill a very large pie dish (I used about 1 kg)
- Nutmeg (ground)
- Mace (ground)
- Mustard seeds
- Mustard powder (Coleman's...)
- 100g dried apricots/something to add sharpness (I used a red onion chutney I made for a cheeseboard a couple nights ago)
- Herb of your choice, parsley or thyme work well (chopped finely)
- 900g plain flour
- 350g lard
- 400ml water
- 1 beaten egg
For a dish, I'd strongly recommend using a spring form tin
Method:
Start with the pie filling. Take all your meat off the bone and remove any large pieces of sinew before cutting into small chunks no larger than 1 inch cubes but preferably half this size. Slice the pork belly thinly
Fry your onions and garlic in a pan until they are soft but not too coloured, this should take about 15 minutes on a medium-low heat. Allow to cool completely
In a large mixing bowl, combine your wild meat, onions and garlic, pork mince and pork belly and then add the following spice:
- 1tsp mace
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1tbsp mustard seeds
- 1tbsp mustard powder
- Dried apricots or your replacement
- Chopped herbs
- 2tsp of salt
- 1tsp of pepper
Set your oven preheating to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and grease your tin. Line the bottom and halfway up the sides of your greased tin with a piece of baking parchment.
To make the pastry, add your lard and water to a saucepan and get it on the hob to melt but do not let it boil, fat and water can be nasty.
In another large mixing bowl weigh out your flour and optionally you could add mustard powder, mace, white pepper and nutmeg to the flour to make it a bit more interesting. Add a tsp of salt here too.
Once your lard has melted, pour a glug at a time into the flour and mix it with a wooden spoon (this is a good workout) until about 1/3 of the liquid is combined with the flour, then pour the almost all the rest* in and continue combining. It will be very hard to combine well with a wooden spoon, and once it has cooled enough to handle you should knead it with your hands. If you want to do this outside of the bowl you can do so without needing to add any flour. Work quickly while the dough is hot.
*hold about 50ml back, just to make sure the dough doesn't become too wet. It should be smooth and soft but able to hold together if rolled out
Once the dough is combined and smooth you need to roll it out while it is still warm. Separate the dough into 3/5 and 2/5 pieces, the 2/5 being for the lid/decoration and the 3/5 for the bottom and sides.
Roll out the 3/5 piece to around half a centimetre thick and once you have this done it can be easily picked up and placed into the dish you have by placing the rolling pin atop it at one end, and rolling the pastry around the rolling pin (being careful not to squash it too much) and then unrolling it over your pastry dish.
Press the pastry into the corners with your fingers and make sure that there is too much pastry than is necessary! To have a good bind with the lid, pastry should be overflowing from the sides and coming out of the dish so when you place the lid on top, you can press it into this excess pastry and then trim off any extra after this.
Now it is time to add the filling. Do this evenly and try to remove any pockets of air by pressing down on the filling as you add it. Try to make it either flat on the top or domed on the top so you have a nice even surface to your pie lid once the pastry is added.
Once the filling is added, set to one side and roll out the lid using exactly the same method as before.
When the pie lid is rolled out, apply some eggwash to the pastry on the sides where the pie lid will join to. Roll the pie lid onto your rolling pin and add it to the pie, pressing the lid and the sides together with your two thumbs to create a nice effect around the edge of the pie.
Egg wash the whole lid, and add a few holes for steam to escape and an optional adding of stock+gelatine later for those that love jelly.
If you want to add a bit of decoration, cut out whatever you fancy from the pastry and stick it to the pie lid which is now covered in egg wash, and eggwash whatever decoration you add too.
Next it's into the oven. Depending on your pie dish deepness it should take about an hour. My pie dish is about 3 inches deep and it took 1 hour 30 minutes, with the first half an hour at 200C and the next hour at 180C.
Check your pie at 30 minutes, if it is starting to colour too much then turn the oven down by 20C and move the pie down a shelf in the oven. Below is a picture of my pie after half an hour, which is when I decided it would need longer to cook through at a lower temperature as to not burn the pastry.
For checking if the pie is cooked I would strongly recommend use of a probe, and the temp you're looking for is 72C. If you're old school then just make sure the juices are running clear on the top of the pie. See the ones in the picture are still pink.
Don't cut the pie open to check if it's cooked. If in doubt, another 10 minutes isn't gonna hurt.
If you've chosen the optional step of adding extra jelly, get a small amount of well-flavoured stock on the hob, add a couple gelatine leaves to some cold water and once they're soft chuck them into the stock to dissolve before removing the stock from the heat. Once the stock has cooled slightly, add it to a bottle or piping bag (I used a sandwich bag and cut the corner off when I needed to) to pour gently into the pie later.
When you're happy it's cooked through you must leave it alone to cool! Put it on the side and leave it for a few hours. A thick pie like this may take 3 or more hours to cool before you can put it in the fridge. Make sure you do not cut into it. If you've chosen to add extra jelly, add the stock with gelatine through the holes at this stage.
Leave it overnight, put it in the fridge if you can and check your handiwork in the morning.
With a little bit of luck, you'll have a beautiful game pie with a fantastic pastry and heaps of jelly inside!
Serve with lashings of picallily, OR if you're feeling very fancy, before you cut into it you can make up a sharp cranberry chutney to pour over the top and leave to set again to get a wonderful build-in accompaniment to your pie! I save that one for Christmas
Enjoy!
Last edited:
