[Sca-cooks] Old Marian's Pork and Apple Pie

[devra at aol.com]

Pork and Apple Pie
Old Marian (Marian of Edwinstowe)
 
Ingredients:
Pie crust for 9” double crust pie
2 Tablespoons butter
1 lb lean pork, diced
2 chopped onions
2 apples – cored & sliced
Quarter to half teaspoon each: cinnamon, cloves
Half to one teaspoon sage
Pinch of ground black pepper
Half teaspoon salt
A good handful each of: raisins, currants, pine nuts or slivered almonds
Quarter to half C water, if needed
Additional crust for decorations, if desired
Beaten egg (optional)
 
1.  Preheat oven to 425*F and prebake the lower pie shell 5 – 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350-375*F.
2.  Melt butter in a large pot.
3.  Add all other ingredients except water and egg. 
4.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until pork is cooked and apples and onions are tender. If necessary, add water as filling cooks, if it looks very dry. (I’ve never needed to.)
5.  Taste and correct seasoning.
6.  Place in pastry crust. Cover with top crust and crimp edges closed. 
7.  Cut a steam hole in the top crust. If desired, decorate with more pastry in shape of leaves, apples, pigs, whatever.
8.  If desired, brush crust with beaten egg.
9.  Bake pie until crust is done, about 25-35 minutes.
I always use the larger amount of spices, but start with the smaller amount. You can also add 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, a pinch of ground cardamom, and/or a pinch of allspice. 
This doubles very nicely, and freezes well. It makes very nice little empanada/tartlets, but you will probably need twice as much crust to do that.
Also excellent cold. You can make 8 slices, but probably 4 people will eat it all up.
 Devra