The humble pork pie is one of the great success stories of English cuisine. The combination of correctly-seasoned high quality pork with the biscuit-like crack of crisp fresh boiling-water pastry is sublime.
What other nation would take such a gem and try to wreck it by a combination of thoughtlessness and greed?
An excellent pie can only be made with excellent meat - if pork pies were a French invention the foodies would be telling us endlessly how important it is to geteverything just right. But in England we have let our heritage become debased, and many good folk know no better than to accept pies that are not made properly.
There is always someone willing to cut corners to increase profits. Yet, in an age when the wages of the baker are the biggest part of the cost it is a really false economy to use anything but the best materials. We have never wavered from our conviction that there will always be enough discerning customers who can recognise quality when they taste it, and who are willing to seek it out. We never forget that we are only here for as long as you want us to be here.
Pies are quite a well-balanced meal in themselves, and the genius who first realised that a fresh pastry case protects and enhances the meat within should be standing on a column next to Nelson in Trafalgar Square. In the days before refrigeration you could slip a fresh pie in your pocket or pack and walk to the next town secure in the knowledge that the meat would be kept from spoilage by the pastry (the baking sterilises the meat and fresh pastry is bacteriostatic - it dries out any cells that land on it and they cannot multiply). And boiling-water pastry is really special. It's difficult to make well - skill and experience are all-important - but there is nothing to match it for taste and texture. So when the time came to eat your pie, you had a life-enhancing experience to savour.
We don't walk everywhere anymore, but we still need to balance protein and carbohydrate in our diet. A pork pie with a good salad of grated carrot, tomato and whatever else you fancy isn't a meal for the totally sedentary (only half a pie for them), but it's a great meal for the reasonably active. So, get out, walk around in the world, do good for your fellows and have a smile for all, secure in the knowledge that your lunch can be something special. Really special.
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