As food lovers say, “There are pork pies and there are Melton Mowbray pork pies.” They are made in the same way and in the same place somewhere from the middle of the 18th century. What distinguishes them from their closest pie relatives is that only raw pork goes into the filling, which no one salted or smoked it should be chopped with a knife into small pieces, and not scrolled through a meat grinder the actual dough casing is formed exclusively by hand they are baked, standing on their own, without any form whatsoever and they are supposed to be eaten cold. This pie is very popular, is considered a delicacy and costs accordingly. Probably not surprising that large food corporations began to mass-produce something similar and call their product a famous name.
True pie makers could not bear such abuse, and the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Manufacturers Association filed a lawsuit with the European Union demanding that their products be given special protected status, which the pie received in 2008.
They also say that this cake was born because:
Leicestershire has excellent pastures, and the cows grazing on them gave a lot of good and fat milk.
The famous Stilton cheese was made from milk.
The waste product of cheese making is whey, which in turn is an excellent and inexpensive food for pigs.
At a time when every self-respecting gentleman, as well as some ladies, hunted foxes, in the morning they wanted to eat something very high-calorie and compact.
For centuries, for self-respecting gentlemen, as well as some ladies, fox hunting has been one of the main country entertainments.
How much truth is in all this, I will not tell you, but some logic can be traced. This Melton Mowbray pork pie recipe is by Stephen Hallem of Dickinson & Morris Bakery, which has been feeding the public at the same location, in the same building, since 1851.