I Hate Pork Pies

[Busaholic]

I'm itching to get Cornish pasties in here hint...hint.

 

[507021]

I love pork pies, although I don't buy them as much as I used to.

 

[Ash Bridge]

I'm itching to get Cornish pasties in here hint...hint.

Now we're talking, but only of the genuine Cornish variety and definitely not the Ginsters made for export rubbish!

 

[Bevan Price]

I love pork pies, although I don't buy them as much as I used to.

I like an occasional pork pie, preferably from Burchalls in St. Helens. Pies from other sources are very variable in taste / quality.

 

[gnolife]

the bland lifeless meat in them,

I'd be thoroughly alarmed if I found that the meat in the pork pie I was eating was not lifeless

Then again, I'd also be thoroughly alarmed to find myself eating a pork pie - I also can't stand the things, although my main complaint with them is that I don't like the pastry, I can sometimes tolerate the meat (without jelly - the only thing that jelly belongs on is dog food), again with the condition that it is completely lifeless.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Slightly off topic but I know a smashing little pub close to Kentish Town railway station that sells delicious hot pork rolls. However the mustard that comes with it is very hot! Other than that a cheese and onion roll always good well with a pint of bitter!

 

[RichmondCommu]

I've a suggestion for British airlines to make money - when you have had two or three weeks in some hot and sticky resort where food is basically chips with anything that's been freshly caught that's been running round the car-park, what price the smell of a cooking pork pie on the flight home?

I take you've never been on holiday to anywhere interesting? That's certainly not our experience of wonderful holidays in SE Asia. Or for that matter the wonderful Cote d'Azur.

 

[RichmondCommu]

I
Then again, I'd also be thoroughly alarmed to find myself eating a pork pie - I also can't stand the things, although my main complaint with them is that I don't like the pastry, I can sometimes tolerate the meat (without jelly - the only thing that jelly belongs on is dog food), again with the condition that it is completely lifeless.

Did you never have jelly at birthday parties when you were a child?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The jelly is jelly because pork pies are supposed to be served hot. Presumably in the 1980s someone had the idea to put them out cold at a finger buffet and for some reason this caught on. Warm them up in the oven, and serve with mushy peas. The "jelly" will have melted and soaked into both pastry and meat.

The ones with a layer of black pudding in are particularly tasty, as are black pudding scotch eggs.

 

[Butts]

Well I like Pork Pies, Cornish Pasties (even Ginsters ) and Scotch Eggs.

I prefer all three cold !!!

I agree with the comments about jelly in Pork Pies which I find disgusting. I prefer the Mini-Pork Pies - ones with pickle in are nice. I also like the pastry to be crispy and not soggy.

 

[AM9]

The jelly is jelly because pork pies are supposed to be served hot. Presumably in the 1980s someone had the idea to put them out cold at a finger buffet and for some reason this caught on. Warm them up in the oven, and serve with mushy peas. The "jelly" will have melted and soaked into both pastry and meat.

The ones with a layer of black pudding in are particularly tasty, as are black pudding scotch eggs.

Pork pies have been served cold, e.g. with salads, since at least the '50s and that's the way I've always had them. The pastry on conventional (i.e. not 'Melton Mowbray' style ones) is water pastry, made with plain flour, water and lard. If well made it has a flaky outer and a softer inner surface. It is used because it can be firm enough to contain cooked meat.
The jelly as has been mentioned is the natural juices of the contained meat and in my view is a pleasant part of the pie. I do admit to liking jellied eels though (probably much to the disgust of the tripe and onion brigade up north ).
In the early '70s I met a guy who worked for Walls in their Wembley factory. We had a discussion about the variation in pork pies on the market from named brands and leading supermarkets. At the time, I found the Tesco ones had dry pastry and chewy meat, whereas the M&S offering had moist meat (with jelly) and a good flaky pastry. The Walls pies were OK in texture but tasted too peppery. He said that Walls had made the M&S pies under contract and the difference between them all was down to the specification that the retailer wanted to sell. There was no standard pork pie, they came in many different qualities where you got what you paid for.
Just as with pasties, where they are made, Melton Mowbray, Cornwall, even Wembley etc., has no bearing on their quality.

 

[DaleCooper]

Pork pies have been served cold, e.g. with salads, since at least the '50s and that's the way I've always had them.

That's my experience too, what an incredibly short-sighted view to imagine cold pork pies weren't around before the 80s.

I hate pork pies.

I'm almost in agreement with yorksrob because this morning "I ate pork pie" and very nice it was too.

 

[yorksrob]

I did obtain a sausage roll in the end, so all was not lost !

 

[robbeech]

I must say I do agree with this as a rule. There's a show I do each January where one of the cast members works making sandwiches and other food for events so they often bring in things like pork pies for us. They're probably the nicest ones I've ever had but they're still average at best to me. Most of the ones you're likely to get at a buffet or in a pub and indeed all of the ones you buy in Tesco (other supermarkets are available) essentially taste like a mixture of grease and pepper.
Scotch eggs can sod off aswell as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Welly]

I know someone who had worked in a pork pie factory when he was a teenager. He told me that the factory supplied Tesco, M&S, Waitrose and Sainsbury.

They only change the wrapper between the batches! IE they are all exactly the same pie recipe!!

 

[AM9]

I know someone who had worked in a pork pie factory when he was a teenager. He told me that the factory supplied Tesco, M&S, Waitrose and Sainsbury.

They only change the wrapper between the batches! IE they are all exactly the same pie recipe!!

Well if this person can't tell the difference between pies of different shapes/sizes, appearance and constituency, let alone eating them then they either have deficient senses or they are telling porky pies!

 

[pemma]

I agree pork pies are disgusting and I like pies and pork. If they dropped the fatty jelly stuff and served them hot then it might be a different matter.

 

[backontrack]

I'm veggie so no pork pies for me.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

I know someone who had worked in a pork pie factory when he was a teenager. He told me that the factory supplied Tesco, M&S, Waitrose and Sainsbury.

They only change the wrapper between the batches! IE they are all exactly the same pie recipe!!

Well if this person can't tell the difference between pies of different shapes/sizes, appearance and constituency, let alone eating them then they either have deficient senses or they are telling porky pies!

I've also in the past worked in a pork pie factory and there as well they just changed the wrapper role between batches

 

[Calthrop]

Now we're talking, but only of the genuine Cornish variety and definitely not the Ginsters made for export rubbish!

Well I like Pork Pies, Cornish Pasties (even Ginsters )...

The jelly as has been mentioned is the natural juices of the contained meat and in my view is a pleasant part of the pie. I do admit to liking jellied eels though (probably much to the disgust of the tripe and onion brigade up north ).

I seem to be a finicky so-and-so. I have a burning hatred of Ginsters' Cornish pasties, because of the way that -- in my experience -- the firm's recipe for them seems to stipulate an ample quantity of gristle in every pasty. Owing to this, I boycott anything made by Ginsters -- regardless of whether their non-pasty wares, might be quite delicious.

I'm not a very big fan of savoury-type jelly, though can usually tolerate it. Once tried jellied eels, which I reckon one of the most loathsome things I've ever tried to eat. It seemed to me like plastic shirt-collar-stiffeners in aspic, containing almost no "meat". Yourself and the Cockneys are more than welcome to this non-delicacy ! And I tried tripe once, and decided that once was enough.

About pork pies, I'm a bit "meh" -- can take or leave them.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I've also in the past worked in a pork pie factory and there as well they just changed the wrapper role between batches

That's true for most supermarket own-branded products, not just the pork pies.

 

[Ash Bridge]

I seem to be a finicky so-and-so. I have a burning hatred of Ginsters' Cornish pasties, because of the way that -- in my experience -- the firm's recipe for them seems to stipulate an ample quantity of gristle in every pasty. Owing to this, I boycott anything made by Ginsters -- regardless of whether their non-pasty wares, might be quite delicious.

I agree, and my other criticisms are the flake type of pastry they use is not consistent with the 'proper job' plus the minuscule size, then again at least they do manufacture their products in Cornwall using (to quote wrapping information) locally sourced ingredients and therefore provide some much needed employment opportunities in a part of the world where jobs other than in the mainly tourist/holiday/farming industries etc are rather thin on the ground.

 

[D365]

I've also in the past worked in a pork pie factory and there as well they just changed the wrapper role between batches

I'm surprised that more forum members haven't worked at said factories with the number of porky pies that are sometimes told here.

Don't worry I won't let the door hit me on the way out

 

[pemma]

I'm surprised that more forum members haven't worked at said factories with the number of porky pies that are sometimes told here.

Don't worry I won't let the door hit me on the way out

David Cameron worked at one. He loved both pigs and porky pies.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Don't worry I won't let the door hit me on the way out

Nah, we'll just make you eat pork pies that have got Carolina Reapers in them

 

[Bletchleyite]

I seem to be a finicky so-and-so. I have a burning hatred of Ginsters' Cornish pasties, because of the way that -- in my experience -- the firm's recipe for them seems to stipulate an ample quantity of gristle in every pasty

Yeah, gristle puts me right off. I used to prefer Sayers' Corned Beef pasties over the regular type for that reason. Also used to like their veggie sausage rolls - tasted near enough the same as the real ones but with no danger of gristle (which I think just shows that all cheap sausage tastes of is salt). I used to amuse the staff in the one in Ormskirk by ordering a veggie sausage roll, then if they'd run out switching to a corned beef pastie.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

That's my experience too, what an incredibly short-sighted view to imagine cold pork pies weren't around before the 80s.



I'm almost in agreement with yorksrob because this morning "I ate pork pie" and very nice it was too.

They may well have been around before the 80s, but I wasn't! It always struck me as the sort of thing that became popular in that decade.

Either way, if you don't like the jelly, heating them solves the problem. That and mushy peas!

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Another example of where one firm's recipe is better than another is chicken and mushroom slices. I find that the M&S ones taste better than Ginsters plus they have more sauce in them

 

[kermit]

At some risk of wandering off-topic, anyone who knows Wigan will know of the town's partiality to a pie; These images made me laugh!

 

[Calthrop]

Yeah, gristle puts me right off. I used to prefer Sayers' Corned Beef pasties over the regular type for that reason. Also used to like their veggie sausage rolls - tasted near enough the same as the real ones but with no danger of gristle (which I think just shows that all cheap sausage tastes of is salt). I used to amuse the staff in the one in Ormskirk by ordering a veggie sausage roll, then if they'd run out switching to a corned beef pastie.

I rather like corned-beef pasties for their own sake -- not just re the minimising of the gristle menace. Vegetarian sausage rolls? -- adds yet a new dimension to "you don't want to enquire too closely as to what goes into the making of sausage" !