#townsend

According to Time Travel Britain.com, the first recorded recipe for a pork pie dates back to 1390 and was made for the court of King Richard II. Most pork pies in Britain contain only pork and are modelled on the famous pork pies of Melton Mowbray. Melton Mowbray was the first town to commercially produce pork pies in England. However, an older version of the pork pie, which originated in Cheshire, consists of layers of apples and pork sweetened with sugar. This recipe was also very popular at sea due to the fact that it was easy to store and therefore kept well.

This is a Cheshire Pork Pie from Hannah Glasse's 1788 cookery book ‘The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy’, which Townsend took and adapted for modern cooking.

1 ½ lbs / 700gr pork shoulder

½ cup/ 125gr. flour

2 tbsp butter + more as needed

1 medium onion, diced

1-2 tart apples, cored, peeled and diced - Alternatively, you can also use the same amount of potatoes like in this video - https://youtu.be/QsWja0-_3Ww?si=hzcU5Vn-2YpWsfE3 -

2 t. freshly ground nutmeg

about 1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon sugar and cinnamon

12 oz. (1 bottle) hard cider

Place the sliced pork in a bowl. Sprinkle pepper, salt and nutmeg over meat and mix, until the spices cover all the meat. Turn pork into greased pie dish. Cover with the apples. In a ramekin, mix the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the apples. Add the wine (if you don’t have wine, you can use apple juice). Dot the top with butter.

To make an easy pie crust, cut 3 tablespoons shortening into one cup of flour until it looks crumbly. Add 6 tablespoons cold water and mix, then turn out onto floured surface and roll. Place pie crust over top of mixture. Poke holes with fork to ventilate.

Put the pie onto a pizza sheet to catch any liquid that might bubble over and bake in a very hot oven for 50 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the liquid is bubbly. Let sit 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Previously / Legacy Tag

Transcript below:

Card Table, John Townsend, 1794

Day Two: Favorite Under-appreciated Episode 3x5: Hypocrisy, Fraud, and Tyranny

Not sure if it's necessarily under-appreciated, but it's all I could think of! I absolutely love Townsend in this one!