In Celebration of Pie

Pies are synonymous with The Ginger Pig name. Tim started making them in the early days using the leftover but still high quality meat he didn’t manage to sell to his customers. As with many things he turns his hand to, he makes a very good pie and they quickly became popular in their own right. Pies are such a wonderfully British thing – a comforting, homely parcel of pastry deliciousness with a surprise inside. They are an indication of all sorts of lovely things, buttery mashed potatoes and rich gravy or sun-drenched, boozy picnics. Interestingly, pie-making dates back to Roman times, where pastry was more of a useful tool to preserve the filling than a part of the meal.

We love a chance to celebrate British food but it can sometimes feel like every other day there is an Ice Cream Month and British Pea Week. It all begins to lose meaning.

For us, next week isn’t a big fuss or pushy marketing campaign, it’s is about celebrating the people behind the pies and the hard work that goes into making them. So, whether it’s a pie and mash kind of moment or a pork pie and a pint, give a thought for the person who made that delicious wonder of engineering.

8 FACTS ABOUT OUR PIES

• We make our pies in-house using our own recipes.
• We make over 800 meat pies for our shops every week.
• Every pie is handmade and we use the same high quality free range meat that goes into our butcher counters for the fillings.
• For us, making pies is a key part of sustainability and nose-to-tail butchery – it gives us a way to use the less popular cuts and other bits that might be otherwise wasted.
• We make all our own pastry.
• We make three different types of pastry: suet pastry for the beef pies, hot water crust pastry for the pork pies, and short crust pastry for the chicken pies.
• We make large bespoke celebration pies for any occasion.
• We make our own jelly for the pork pies the proper way, using pigs trotters.