Tuesday, June 10, 2008

More pub fare: Pies


Cornish Steak Pie
"As far as I’m concerned pies should take pole position on every good pub menu, they are the definition of good honest British food..." Mike Greer, Head Chef, The Duke of Cornwall

Pork pies, for those of you who are unfamiliar with them are quintessential British pub grub, coarsely chopped or minced pork encased in crisp pastry.

Below, another version of a meat pie, with meat gravy and a vegetable, and some chips.

8 comments:

  1. Do you mean a Cornish pasty? Not the same at all as a steak pie.

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  2. That's not a cornish pasty.
    A cornish pasty is like a little stegosaurus with its legs, tail, and head bitten off....
    I never heard od a "cornish steak pie", not sure in what way it differs from anywhere else's steak pie.
    Good pub menus often include a steak pie, in which the steak has been marinaded in ale. Very tasty. A favourite of mine is to be had at The Black Sheep Brewery Bistro, in Masham, North Yorkshire.
    And that picture of a sorry little one bite thing, looking all greasy and unappetising, pretending to be a pork pie, oh dear.

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  3. What do I know about this stuff, guys? You are the ones who are supposed to be teaching ME, remember? I don't know why you even make me do the posts. Seems like you should be doing that too, if you are teaching. All I can do is steal stuff from various pub blogs and whatnot.

    Anyway that top one was apparently a pub chef's (they have CHEFS for chrissakes? - you never told me that. I always thought of pubs as sort of places for the common man) specialty he makes for that one pub. The pub was called the Duke of Cornwall, and he called it a Cornish steak pie. I don't know. He SAID it was a pub...

    And the middle one, the one that looks greasy and deep-fried, I don't think that is as small as it looks. But I found it as an illustration for a recipe for pork pie. Somewhere.

    And the bottom one just looks like a damn enchilada with the red chile sauce replaced with brown gravy. I says.

    Soubriquet, I give you credit for TRYING to teach, at least, in your comments. At least you don't shout at me like a., and ridicule my American ignorance in these things. How am I supposed to learn? A., you should be cooking and sending me stuff, if you ask me.

    And where is Sage?? He already writes cookbooks I think. Or a food column or something. Or at least food is a hobby. Strangely silent on this stuff, he is.

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  4. Of course, to be fair, Sage has gone through the Pasty and Ploughman's lunch bit pretty thoroughly on a previous post, I think.

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  5. I heard my name mentioned...

    Pork Pies are made with hot water crust pastry... see the goddess of English cuisine here

    http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/old-fashioned-raised-pork-pies,1777,RC.html

    Even a picture to highlight it..

    It is argued that the Melton Mowbury Pork Pie is the greatest living institution of the british picnic but there are many copies that do not provide the same quality of produce.

    I hadn't heard of a cornish steak pie until I did a search and found the following recipe from the Duke of Cornwall Pub in St Austell (pronounced saintoztell; definitely not a cornish pastie which I believe we have done to death.

    http://britishpieweek.co.uk/default.aspx?type=recipe&page=fa3c3f63-e33f-49bf-99c7-9e1640d1c5d1

    Please note the use of Tinners real cornish ale, not to be confused with any other substitutes calling themselves beer.

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  6. gnaaah...
    Me? Teach?
    well yes, I was a teacher once, but I escaped....
    Interesting, all that stuff.
    The Melton Mowbray pork pie is protected by european decree, and if you come from that part of the country, you might well be proud of that. But their meat is grey looking, whereas the pork pies up here are filled with pinkish colour. Why?
    Because our pies use cured pork, MM pies use raw pork. Just a matter of preference. No big deal.
    Tinners ale? Yep, it's okay when you can't get real ale!
    Good to hear there's a tin mine being re-opened in Cornwall, to continue an industry that was patronised by the Phoenicians as far back at least as 500 bc.

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  7. Sage, thank you again, and thank you for the link to the cooking site. I'm guessing the lady is famous in the food world. Like our Emeril Lagasse. Whom you also never heard of I'm sure. Sigh.

    And I am detecting a distinct rivalry (sort of) between the North and the South of England. But perhaps my intuition fails me. You are much too close together to have a real food (or anything else) rivalry. (Newcastle to London being no more than 200 miles or so distant, I'm guessing.) So I must be mistaken in that regard.

    Soubriquet, if you held a gun to my head and made me guess, that guess would be "history." English History. Phoenicians? Bogus Cognomen?? Hmmm. You must forgive my ignorance of the Romans' wanderings. The forces of Julius and Augustus spent much less time in America than they did in England, of course.

    Here's a tidbit for your trivia trunk though: did you know that people from Phoenix are called Phoenicians? Those that are not called 'Snowbirds" at least.

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  8. Phoenicians in Phoenix? What fun!
    I imagine them building their wooden ships, and with a mighty beat from the drummer, pulling their oars in unison, as they navigate the desert, looking for trading ports....
    Rivalries: yes, we do have distinct regional rivalries, desite the, to you, laughable smallness of our island.
    Our rivalries go back a long way, our ancient walled towns were built originally not to protect from overseas foreigners, but neighbouring tribes.
    We remember the parts of our country which appeased the danes, Pah! and the parts which fought. and here? we assimilated the Norsemen, traded with them. York was an important viking port.
    Also, York was for a short while under Constantius the capital of the roman empire, in the year 306 a.d, Constantine the Great was declared Emperor of Rome in the city. (constantine was the emperor who converted the romans to christianity.)
    Oh. By the way... no. not a history teacher.

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