By Rafe Calder
Cut one open. If the meat inside is pink, it is not a Melton Mowbray pie. According to National Geographic, the filling is fresh pork and not cured, so it comes out grey, the colour of roast pork. That single fact does most of the work of telling one pie from another.
What is in it
National Geographic describes hot water crust as a dense dough of flour, lard, salt and boiling water, kneaded hard so the case is as strong as it can be. The filling is minced pork from the shoulder, the belly or both, minced but not too finely, and seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg or mace. The magazine says the filling shrinks as it cooks, so savoury jelly is poured in through a hole in the top after the pie cools, to stop the meat drying out.
An EU product database, Qualigeo, gives a shorter description: chopped pork in a bow-shaped hot water crust case, filled with pork stock jelly. Wikipedia says the distinctive feature is a hand-formed crust, and that the modern definition rests on uncured meat. It says most other pork pies are cured, which turns the filling pink.
Shape: three words for one case
The sources do not use the same word. National Geographic calls the pie “portly”, says it was traditionally formed round a wooden dolly mould and baked unsupported, and adds that some pies are now baked in straight-sided tins. Qualigeo says bow-shaped. Wikipedia says hand-formed, and adds that moulded pies are cheaper for volume production and common among commercial makers. We cannot tell from these pages how a buyer should recognise a hand-formed case on a shelf. We note only that a straight-sided tin and a bow-shaped, unsupported case are different things, and that the first source says both exist.
Where the pie came from
National Geographic says pork pies have been known in Melton Mowbray since the 1700s and that they grew out of the local cheesemaking, whose spare whey was used to fatten pigs. It says they made an easy packed lunch for labourers and that bakers began selling to London by stagecoach in 1831. It cites the Oxford Companion to Food for the idea that the pork pie descends from the medieval raised pie, or “coffyn”. Wikipedia agrees on the medieval ancestor and dates the pie trade in Melton Mowbray to around 1831, linking it to a baker and confectioner’s shop run by Edward Adcock, with other bakers joining within the decade. Two sources, one date. The pig and whey story appears in the magazine only.
What the protected name says, and when
Here the sources part, and they part twice.
On the date, National Geographic says the pies were awarded EU protected geographical indication status in 2009, and that this later became a UK protected geographic origin mark. Wikipedia says protection was granted on 4 April 2008. Qualigeo gives a registration date of 29 June 2009 and says the specification was amended on 21 June 2013.
On the area, Wikipedia says only pies made in a zone of 28 square kilometres (10.8 square miles) around the town, using the traditional uncured recipe, may carry the Melton Mowbray name. Qualigeo says the production area is centred on the town and covers most of Leicestershire and bordering areas of neighbouring counties. National Geographic says only that production is limited to a fixed region around the town. If the area matters to you, ask the maker where the pie was baked.
Qualigeo names the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association as the reference body for the product. Wikipedia says the Association applied for protection because factory-made pies, sometimes far from Melton, had departed from the uncured recipe. That is the Wikipedia article’s account of the Association’s reasons, and we have not seen the application.
Christmas morning
Wikipedia says there is an East Midlands tradition of eating pork pies for breakfast at Christmas, that the association dates to at least the mid-nineteenth century, when it was the busiest time of year for Melton manufacturers, and that the origin of the habit is unclear. National Geographic mentions the novelist D. H. Lawrence reportedly eating pork pies for Christmas Day breakfast, and gives no other seasonal detail. So a December pie is a documented habit in two sources, though neither gives a document that explains it.
Other pies, other places
Wikipedia notes that in Yorkshire pork pies are often served hot with gravy, or with mushy peas and mint sauce, and that they are common at Bonfire Night. It describes a gala pie as containing chicken and a hard-boiled egg, baked in a loaf tin, and picnic pies as small ones of 8 to 13 centimetres, sometimes with apples, pickles or bacon. None of these is a Melton Mowbray pie, and the point is that “pork pie” is a family of things and the protected name picks out one member.
Dates in order
- Medieval period: the raised pie, the ancestor, according to National Geographic and Wikipedia.
- 1700s: pork pies known in Melton Mowbray, according to National Geographic.
- About 1831: the Melton pie trade, and stagecoach sales to London, according to Wikipedia and National Geographic.
- Mid-nineteenth century at the latest: the Christmas association, according to Wikipedia.
- 4 April 2008: protection granted, according to Wikipedia.
- 2009: protected status awarded, according to National Geographic.
- 29 June 2009: registration date, according to Qualigeo.
- 21 June 2013: specification amended, according to Qualigeo.
Side by side
Three sources, three dates for the protection, three sizes for the area, three words for the case. They agree on the uncured, grey filling, the hot water crust and the jelly. Our reading: a reader can trust the recipe and should treat the legal details as something to check with the Association or the official register.
What kind of sources these are
A magazine’s travel article from 2023; Wikipedia; and Qualigeo, an EU product database page that lists registration details.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is the filling grey, and is the meat fresh and uncured? Where was the pie made and baked? Is the case hand-formed or moulded, and does the maker use the word bow-shaped? Who is the maker? Which date and area is the name being used under? We name no pie, no bakery and no brand. A seller who calls a pie Melton Mowbray should be able to say where it was baked.
What we left out
We left out the fox-hunting story, which Wikipedia says is disputed, and the older recipes with fruit and sweet fillings, which are not the point. We left out prices and the details of commercial gelatine, a pie competition and bakery histories, since none of them helps a buyer read the name.
Quick answers
Why is a Melton Mowbray pork pie grey inside? According to National Geographic, the filling is fresh, uncured pork, so it turns grey like roast pork instead of pink.
Why is there a hole in the top? National Geographic says jelly is poured in through it after the pie cools, because the filling shrinks during cooking.
What does the name protect? The EU database Qualigeo lists it as a protected geographical indication: chopped pork in a bow-shaped hot water crust case with pork stock jelly.
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