preoccupations: the meat pie

looks like a muffin, but really it’s a nicely flaky crust shaped like a muffin that contains a mixture of pork, beef, onions, carrots, peas, and other sundry things. and baked together for close to an hour, it definitely hits the spot. if we consider the shape of the pie, i find it a bit lacking – i think what is really needed is a muffin top pan (or, no pan at all) so that the pie is shallower.

but let me start from the beginning. what i was aiming for was basically comfort food – but luscious, stick-to-your-ribs, mind-blowing, “this is just a meat pie??!” comfort food.

i especially love things that you eat with your hands, and that is what a meat pie is (yes, i realize the photograph has a fork in it). we eat with forks and knives so often that it’s surprising and completely sinful to eat something with your hands, which hide the food object while you consume it furtively. a meat pie is different from buns, muffins, cookies, rolls, all of those other things that we eat with our hands. you can cradle it in your hands, and there is something about a completely sealed pastry enclosure that makes you think it must hold something wonderful inside. because it’s handheld, you can be completely selfish and keep it all for yourself, unless you’re a generous soul, and this makes it all the more sinful because you don’t want to share it with anyone. and this is what a meat pie should be.

i would say the pastry lived up to what the pastry should be: buttery, flaky, slightly thick so it was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside where the juices cooked into it. and the meat pie is one of the cases in which i will use an egg wash (fruit pies get the whole milk and sugar treatment). mmm. i used the pastry recipe from richard sax’s home desserts, which is to say, i got the ingredient amounts from it; i always make the pastry the same way. and i’ll tell you – i thought that it was going to be tough and rubbery this time because the dough was a little stretchy, but i think it was just that i didn’t chill the dough sufficiently (it was on the top level of the fridge for an hour). unfortunately, the pastry was a little ugly shapewise, because i didn’t cut the pastry into identical shapes and kind of patched them together, but i think i could work out a good system in the future.

the filling wasn’t as good as the pastry, but i thought it did the job pretty well – it just didn’t reach the heights that the filling is supposed to reach. once you’ve committed to doing the work to bite into the thing, whatever is inside better be good. i originally was going to leave the house and get some potatoes, so i could blend the mashed potatoes with the ground beef/pork mix that i had, but i decided not to because i was lazy (and poor). so i did some onions in bacon fat and thyme, with a bit of a sherry reduction as the onions browned. then i did the beef, adding some of the leftover pizza sauce (reduced crushed tomatoes, basil, and onions) i’d made for new year’s and some sour cream to keep it from getting too tough. i did a bit of peas and carrots (frozen, sorry…) and mixed all of it together with a couple of eggs and breadcrumbs mixed with sour cream and the meat juices, and a couple tablespoons of maple syrup for good measure. fold that up into the pastry and pop it in the oven for an hour until the pastry is browned, and you’ve got your meat pies.

so let’s talk about this filling. flavorwise, i thought it was great – the seasoning was right, and the meat to veggie ratio was good (i think it could have used a bit more veggies). i was particularly pleased that there was about the right amount of liquid in the meat pie – which is to say that there wasn’t too much at all, so you don’t bite into it and spill it all over yourself. but i think it was the wrong decision to use the ground meat – there’s something about a meat pie that wants you to really be able to bite into it, and the ground meat just isn’t quite assertive enough. so maybe little bars of steak with a little more chew would have been appropriate in this case. let me differentiate here between two different kinds of meat pies: the type i made today are handheld, but there is also the type that’s large and that you eat slices of. the larger ones, i think, are best made with ground meat because it will slice more easily; however, for a handheld little beauty, i think it would be better to use more discrete pieces of meat.

and there you have it: my first try at meat pies. i think the most disappointing thing was the shape of the pie, and in the future i’ll make them by hand without a mold, instead of using a muffin pan.

since the meat pie was such a hodge podge of stuff, i’m including just the recipe for the pastry here:

go-to pie and pastry crust

2 1/2c flour
1/4t baking powder
2T sugar
1/2t salt
2 sticks butter
5-8T cold water

1. mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl. cut half the butter into small pieces and toss in the dry ingredients. mix together the butter and dry ingredients with your hands, two knives, or a pastry blender (i prefer my hands) until it resembles coarse meal. it will turn slightly yellow. if you use your hands, then the motion you want is basically rubbing the flour and butter together between your fingers to moosh them together.

2. cut the other half of the butter into small pieces and toss into butter-flour mixture. rub into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until the butter is in pieces the size of small peas – the mixture will turn slightly more yellow.

3. add 5 tablespoons of cold water one tablespoon at a time, sprinkling the water into the mixture and turning it over so the water is somewhat evenly distributed. toss dough together until it comes together, adding more water by the tablespoon if you need more. the dough shouldn’t feel overly wet – just very slightly damp.

4. divide mixture in half and press into a ball. flatten the ball into a disc on top of a large (18″ long) piece of plastic wrap, then wrap tightly. make sure the edges aren’t cracked – push the edges of the crack together. chill at least an hour. when you roll it out, put another piece of plastic wrap on top of the disc so you don’t need to use flour (cheap trick, yes, but it does work wonderfully well).

[makes enough for a 9″ pie – top and bottom crusts]