American pie is a sweet tradition _ apple, pumpkin, chocolate. But in Britain, pie is baked up savory _ pork, duck, chicken, pigeon, sausage, pork.
And how. Meat pie is packed right to the ridges _ no slick sauce or crisp carrot distraction. Heated, plunked on a pool of mashed potatoes and doused with mushy peas _ that's a meal that means it.
Even the exterior is larded with lard. Hot-water crust upends everything the American pastry chef practices and preaches: cold butter, cold counter, light touch. In northern Britain, the baker starts by boiling water and lard, then grabs a wooden spoon. The result is a pie brawny enough to heft its load of pork products and tasty enough to lift the winter gloom.
