- We're butchers, we have a butcher shop.
- One thing about being a whole-animal butcher shop,
is we have a lot of fat and one way to use that fat,
so we've heard, is to use it for baking.
We don't know anything about baking
so we are gonna meet with our friend Petra
here at Petee's Pies to talk about
how to use that fat in baking.
- (singing) And make some pies!
- (singing) Make some pies!
- Welcome to my kitchen.
- So today we brought pork leaf lard, beef suet,
pork loin, beef shank, and marrow bones.
I've never made pie dough with these animal fats before.
- They're almost pure fat, unlike butter,
like butter has a certain water content.
But what makes shortenings easier to work with is
that is doesn't turn back to a
greasy oil at room temperature, it stays pretty solid.
It's gonna be really interesting
to see how these flavors compare.
- So based on those flavors, what are we making today?
- We have the lard, and I was thinking we could make
a pork pie that I've never made before.
It's called a Cheshire pork pie, it's like a old,
- Better time than now. - it's a centuries old pie.
I thought we would make sort of the more traditional
version minced meat pie since we have the suet
for the beef pie.
- You just took this suet, sliced it super thin,
to make these shards.
- Lard crust. It was so different the lard versus
the suet, you can't even really cut it,
because it just sticks to the knife.
The goal is to have these little tiny sheets.
So the fat is a little more interspersed in this one.
We used more water and it interacted
with the gluten more in the other one.
And it makes sense for that filling
to have that kind of crust.
- So fillings.
- A Cheshire pork pie is pork loin layered with apples.
And the seasoning is mostly just wine and nutmeg.
I never ever cook meat without garlic and or onions, so,
you know, this is kind of like, is it gonna be okay?
These are Northern spy and Crispin.
They're from New York state and they're both really good
pie apples.
This is nutmeg and sugar and flour and salt.
It's like an old colonial or pre colonial recipe.
And those, I don't know if you've read a lot of those
but they're so weird.
They're written as like narratives
and they're like, "Cook it until it is good."
And then you're just like, okay, I know what that means.
We're gonna pour some wine in there.
- Like literally we're just pouring wine in there.
- Yeah, to me, pouring all this liquid in a pie
freaks me out.
- It really is, it like terrifies me.
- Yeah and that's why it's so strange to me
that there's no added starch.
I was like, I can't do this without adding
a little bit of flour to assuage my anxiety.
So just to let some of the steam escape.
- What is a minced meat pie?
- Just think about mincing the meat.
It's like meat minced fine with apples
and a lot of dried fruits.
It comes from a time when there wasn't really
a border between meat pies and sweet pies
and a lot of sweet flavors would be tied up in meat pies.
Every year I use some of the last year's
mince filling and mix it in so it's sort of like
solera aged, it's like.
- (together) Whoa. - Yeah.
It's got black currants, chopped apples,
chopped sour cherries, all from New York,
and then candied orange and citron.
Nutmeg, cinnamon clove, the kind of spices that they
used to always use in various meat pies
to combine the sweet and savory flavors.
Do you wanna chop some suet, to mince some suet?
This is the butter crust, by the way,
so this is like, we could try the three different
kinds of animal fats in this crust.
We have the marrow bone.
- I will admit I only brought a marrow bone
and wanted to do this because I've seen it once.
I think another restaurant has done it
and it looks so cool to just see a marrow bone.
Otherwise I have no idea what goes in it.
- We have the shank that we can braise it
like a beef stew kind of pie but I think the
funny thing about meat pies is that
sometimes you're like making a whole dish
and then you're cooking it all over again in the pastry.
- Yeah, that makes sense. - And it's kind of like,
you could just eat a beef stew.
- Yeah.
- But it's fun to have it in a pastry instead.
- Of course!
- This is a 50 pound sack of flour
straight from the freezer 'cause we're gonna be
using our hands to make the dough.
And so it's really important that it's
nice and cold to sort of protect the fat.
We don't want the fat to emulsify.
- I'm kind of feeling this is somewhat like sausage-making.
We're talking about emulsifications,
- Yeah.
- We're keeping the flour cold,
the way we keep the pork cold at the shop.
- This is salt and sugar.
I dissolve it in the water.
I want it to mix in and sort of season the dough.
These pieces of fat that are in there in the oven
are just gonna sort of fry the dough and make it cripsp
and interesting.
- I'll just start cubing this up and we can
start browning everything off?
- Yeah, sounds good, let's fry it in the beef suet.
- Yeah we're gonna have to fry it in some sort of oil
and I fried it in some fat.
- Yeah, right, when I was playing around with it,
I browned it and cooked it in stout, imperial stout.
With the bone marrow, should we do that?
- I mean, we're here.
- I think that this crust is going to be
somewhat impermeable 'cause it's just,
- It feels pretty, - sturdy, yeah.
- Are we gonna put a lid on it?
- We're yeah, yeah.
- That's what they're called, right?
- Yeah a pie lid, yeah.
Gonna put the pie lid on it.
- Someone studied up before they showed up today.
- (laughs) Yeah.
Carrots, parsnip, yukon golds,
I guess we would, what, put the bone right in the middle
and then put the filling around it.
- I guess, right? - Yeah.
- So let's do that, alright, here's a big bone
in the middle of a pie.
What do you guys wanna name this pie?
- I don't know.
It has stout, shank, it has bones,
it's sort of a stew.
- It kind of is like a corpse pie, I like that.
I like corpse pie, 'cause. - Corpse reviver
wasn't already an established drink.
The death eater?
A, Harry Potter reference, I'm with you.
Two, I love it, death eater.
- We will brush it with some egg wash so that this part
gets as nice and brown as the outer edges.
And then I'll bake it, I think is gonna need to bake
for a while, like probably an hour fifteen.
- Get these pies in the oven?
- Yeah, let's do it.
- Let's start like, kind of dinner and then kind of dessert?
- Oh, that makes sense.
- So this is the lard crust and you can tell already
how, you can hear it, it shatters.
- That is so flaky.
- The pork is cooked.
- Oh and it's really good with the apples.
- What do you think of the crust?
- It made all the right noises.
- What do you think?
- It's like eating pork chops in applesauce.
- Yeah, and a pie.
- In a pie.
Oh the lard crust is really good.
- The crust is great.
- Mhm, and like,
- Super flaky, delicate, but also kinda hearty.
- I really, really like the crust a whole lot.
I'm not sure if I would ever like order this pie.
It's like having an identity crisis
between being like savory and sweet.
I'm really, really excited to try this one.
This is beautiful-looking, I almost feel bad.
- I'm very excited, this is my first minced meat pie.
- It's so like dark and rich and boozy.
It's not super different from when I substitute
suet with butter but I think that when I do that
the butter ends up sort of separating a little
when I bake it.
So this seems to melt in, like the fat seems to
meld in with the filling a little better than butter does.
- Decadent, I like how tart it is.
- Mhm, yeah, when you get a currant it's like, woo!
- I think the fat being mixed in to the actual pie filling,
like actually helps out, I've never had this.
This is really, really good.
- Yeah.
- Alright, here we go.
- Whoa.
- That'll do.
- I really feel good about calling this the death eater.
Seeing the layers right there.
- Yeah.
- I am so (bleep) excited for this.
- Ooo, oh, ooo.
- Oh yeah, as long as we're here, just a little marrow.
Three forks like, vying for a bite.
- Wow, there's no lack of beef flavor.
- Yeah, all over.
- Holy moly.
- Beef for days and days.
- That stout worked out really, really well.
- Yeah.
- It's kind of adding like a little bit of
sweetness to it which is great.
- Go for it.
- I think that maybe working with tallow in the future
it still had the flour super cold
but use the fat a little softer, make it a little easier
to roll out everything and then have it,
incorporate it a little more.
- The top still has the same effect that the leaf lard had
of just like covering that crust and then it
just like dissolves, it's not too chewy.
- I like that the vegetables are all like still,
they're not mushy.
- Now we've seen a butter crust, leaf lard,
and then we've seen the suet crust.
But also, meat in a pie, I feel like we have to
go back to the shop now and we have a lot more
studying to do and some experimenting of our own.
- The suet crust, you could do another vegetarian version,
and then the crust itself would stand up.
It is so flavorful but way easier
than I thought it was gonna be.
- Yeah.
- I was actually pretty scared to put all of that
liquid in each of the pies,
I didn't think they were gonna stand up.
- Fruit still works in a pie, beef works in pie,
pork, not so sure.
- Yeah, a little thinner next time.
- So what do you think? You uh,
- I'm closing Petee's Pie Company,
it's gonna be Meatee's Pie Company.
- Meatee's (laughs).
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