More than a filling: how pies went upper crust
Pie perfectionist Stosie Madi, chef-owner at the Parkers Arms, is running through a list of things she won’t have in her kitchen: “We don’t have any machines. We could have a pastry roller and a dough mixer. Most people order in meat already cut up from the butcher, then cook it off. But we don’t.”
Instead, the pie-making at this handsome rural inn near Clitheroe, Lancashire, is reassuringly laborious. Madi buys whole animals, butchers them and renders fat from the carcasses to use in her pastry. Non-premium cuts, such as the shoulder, are then seasoned, marinated and cooked on-the-bone: “Otherwise, the flavour is too sanitised.” The meat sits in its juices overnight, before being broken down into pie filling. Co-owner Kathy Smith then uses a hot-water pastry, spiked with egg yolk to give it a light, melting quality, to hand-shape, crimp and seal every meat pie.
It is a mammoth task. Parkers can sell up to 500 pies in a busy week, such as British Pie Week (until March 9). But pies have put Parkers on the map. It was ranked eighth in last year’s Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs, while the Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner described Madi’s venison and pork pie as: “A true thing of beauty.”
Instead, the pie-making at this handsome rural inn near Clitheroe, Lancashire, is reassuringly laborious. Madi buys whole animals, butchers them and renders fat from the carcasses to use in her pastry. Non-premium cuts, such as the shoulder, are then seasoned, marinated and cooked on-the-bone: “Otherwise, the flavour is too sanitised.” The meat sits in its juices overnight, before being broken down into pie filling. Co-owner Kathy Smith then uses a hot-water pastry, spiked with egg yolk to give it a light, melting quality, to hand-shape, crimp and seal every meat pie.
It is a mammoth task. Parkers can sell up to 500 pies in a busy week, such as British Pie Week (until March 9). But pies have put Parkers on the map. It was ranked eighth in last year’s Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs, while the Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner described Madi’s venison and pork pie as: “A true thing of beauty.”
Source:
theguardian
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