Melton Mowbray pork pie

Name: Melton Mowbray pork pie
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: Plain flour; Olive oil; Unsalted butter; Boiling water; Lean pork loin; Chicken breast; Pork shoulder; Salt; Black pepper; Nutmeg; Gelatine; Chicken stock; 1 egg

Melton Mowbray pork pie, plated as one serving.

427 kcal a serving, against 615 for the traditional version. That is 188 kcal off, or 31%, with 25.4g of protein. Serves 8. 2 hours plus cooling.

What the traditional version is

Hot water crust pastry made from plain flour and pure lard, worked by hand while warm.

What changed, and what each change costs

Lard and most of the butter to olive oil

Lard is what makes the pastry so short and crumbly, but it's the single fattiest element and not doing your arteries any favours.

What it costs you. The pastry's different. It's no longer melting and rich, but a bit more like a good, thick olive oil crust. No one will mistake this for the original, but on the upside, your hands won't smell like a butcher's apron all day.

Pork belly out, extra-lean pork loin and chicken breast in

Belly gives you flavour and juiciness, but nearly all of its mass is fat.

What it costs you. You lose that sticky, savoury finish. What you get back is closer to a good pork and chicken terrine than a proper pork pie. Don't expect to fool the uncle who brings his own Branston.

Butter down to a token amount

With the lard already out, there's no need to double down on butter either. A tiny bit gives you just enough richness to pretend the pastry isn't completely joyless.

What it costs you. A pale, less flavourful crust. Eat it with plenty of mustard if you want to distract yourself.

Chicken stock jelly instead of pork bone jelly

A proper pork jelly is fiddly and means boiling trotters for hours. Chicken stock with gelatine isn't the local tradition, but it's cleaner and much lower in fat.

What it costs you. Jelly layer sets firmer and tastes milder. You won't get that deep porky wobble, but you also won't be scraping fat off your palate an hour later.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Plain flour
Olive oil
Unsalted butter
Boiling water
Lean pork loin
Chicken breast
Pork shoulder
Salt
Black pepper
Nutmeg
Gelatine
Chicken stock
1 egg

How it starts

Mix the diced pork loin, chicken breast and pork shoulder together in a bowl with the salt, pepper and nutmeg.
For the pastry: sift the flour into a large bowl.
Dump the dough out onto a clean surface and knead lightly to smooth it out.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish British.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	615	427
Protein	23.9g	25.4g
Fat	36.9g	15.2g
Saturated fat	15.7g	4.1g
Carbohydrate	45.2g	45.2g
Protein per 100 kcal	3.9g	6g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish British prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. gluten, eggs, milk.

The method is in the book

If this is your first Melton Mowbray, you might think it's a cracker. If you grew up with the real thing, this one's a polite nod in the general direction of pork pie. The pastry isn't quite right (of course it isn't; it's not made with lard), and the filling is more keen than juicy. But it's got a proper crust, the meat's actually meat, and it makes a mean partner for a tart gherkin. Nobody would mistake it for the original, but you won't feel like a goose ready for plucking after two slices. If you want the real experience, go to Leicestershire and buy a proper one. If you want a slice with less grim consequence, this'll do for a Tuesday and your belt will thank you.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish British, along with 56 more. Buy the paperback