Scotch Pies (the king of pies)

hello again my name's john i'm a retired cook from the northeast of england in the uk and welcome to my latest video recipe and in this recipe i'll be making these fantastic traditional scotch pies they're delicious and very simple to make and this is another one of my easy hot water crust pastry recipes you can view the ingredients list and full written method for this recipe on the recipe page on the channel's website i'll leave a link in the description under the video or you can click on the i icon top right of the screen to take it directly to the recipe page and i'd like to thank the patreon and paypal supporters for their very kind help i'll be doing the shout out and name splash a little later in the video okay let's get on with today's recipe right i'll start by making the pastry put the water in a small pan and bring it to a simmer now add the salt to the flour place the butter and fat into the hot water and stir until it melts make a well in the flour and add the hot liquid [Music] using my trusty wooden spoon handle i'll bring it all together [Music] at this point i'll swap to my ball scraper to finish it off and scrape down the sides of the bowl now tip the dough onto a floured surface and fold it all together into a smooth ball try not to over mix at this stage incidentally this is exactly how you make pastry for your traditional pork pies i do have a two part video on how to make pork pies i'll leave links in the description box below the video if you're interested in making those right this pastry is way too hot and soft to use at the moment so i'll cut it into two pieces one large one for the bases of the pies and the smaller one for the tops now i rub them in cling film or plastic food bags and get them into the fridge for at least two hours now this pastry can be made well in advance or even the day before [Music] right over to the stove to prepare the filling for these fabulous pies and for this recipe you'll need 500 grams of minced or ground lamb no lamb is the traditional meat to be used in these scotch pies but you can use beef too start by heating up the olive oil in a large pan that has a lid [Music] now add the onions and fry until just starting to soften [Music] the traditional spices for these pies are one teaspoon of ground mace and one teaspoon of mixed herbs italian seasoning is very similar too add the salt and ground pepper now i'm using half teaspoon of pepper and a quarter teaspoon of salt now remember there's plenty of salt in the pastry too so don't overdo it especially if you're using stock cubes to make you stock once they're all mixed in you can add your ground meat now fry until the mince is colored and broken down as shown [Music] time to add your beef stock the liquid in this recipe will eventually become the gravy and i'll show you how i make that a little later on i'm using this packet of beef stock because i don't have any homemade at the moment but you can of course use two or three stock cubes to make it to and also you can use lamb chicken or even vegetable stock if you prefer long as the stock you use has plenty of flavor an optional step is to add a couple of small bay leaves now these add a wonderful flavor to the pies and the gravy so i highly recommend you add those now cover your pan and simmer for 10 minutes once the time is up you need to strain off this incredibly tasty stock as shown before straining you can remove the bare leaves as they've done their job now [Music] once strained place the meat into a separate bowl and cover and allow it to cool now while the stock is hot pour it into a jug and this will make it easier to skim off all the fat as shown if you leave this fat in the stock it makes the gravy very greasy i discard my lamb flat as it's not very nice but don't pour it down the drain i keep mine in the fridge overnight until it solidifies then i can put it in the normal waste bin and that's it your filling is ready and this is another job you can do well in advance [Music] onto rolling out the pastry take the larger of the two pieces of dough from the fridge flour the surface of the worktop sprinkle a little flour on the dough and the pin and start to roll it out if you're not used to rolling pastry just roll backwards and forwards in straight lines then turn the dough 90 degrees at a time that should keep the pastry reasonably round roll it till it's about four millimeters that's about 3 16 of an inch thick a good way of getting the uniform thickness in your pastry is to use these pastry guide sticks they work great and if i can get hold of some i'll get them onto the website shop or i'll have a go at making them myself now these are the small pie tins i'll be using and they're an ideal size for these pies and i'll be making four of these by the way i'll leave a link in the description box below for all the dimensions right i'll cut out the circles for the bases now you'll need to find something a little bit larger than the tins that you're using [Music] get as many as you can out of the first and then re-roll for the rest which is one in my case [Music] and once that's done you'll need to roll out some smaller circles for the lids of these pies and my largest dough cutter is an ideal size for the tins that i'm using right once they're all done grease your little pie gins i like to use lard on mine but you can use butter oil or shortening now carefully line up your pastry base in the tin and gently press it down right into the corners making sure you don't have any air pockets in the bottom just try to copy how i'm doing it and if you've got long nails you can use a little piece of pastry to push it down make sure you have a lip of pastry all around the edge as shown once the tin is lined with the pastry set it aside and do the other three [Music] okay onto filling the pies with the meat spoon the filling into each pie base right to the top gently compacting it as you go until all the filling is used up now take the handle of your spoon and make a hole in the center of each one and place a little of the stock into each hole about three quarters of a dessert spoon as shown don't put too much in or just force its way out when it's baking in the oven too little is far better than too much now fill the holes back in with the back of your spoon for the egg wash crack a small egg into a suitable container and add a dash of milk and whisk thoroughly until it's nice and smooth and runny now before going any further preheat your oven to 170 celsius that's 340 fahrenheit or gas mark 3. time to put the lids on now take a lid and place a small hole in each center now i use an old piping nozzle to make mine and i'm sure you'll find something around the house to do yours start by brushing a little egg wash all around the rim of the pie be careful not to get any egg wash between the pastry and the sides of the tin as this may make the pie stick in the oven now brush the underside of the lid i like to brush the whole surface as it sets and acts like a seal in the hot oven now place the lid on top of the base and gently crimp the edges as shown [Music] [Music] and there you go that's one done now this only takes a little practice once you've done a few you'll find to get very easy to make cooking like anything else is all about practice once all four are done place them on a baking tray and give each one a good coat of the egg wash and once again being careful not to get any on the tin now place them in the preheated oven [Music] i like to place mine on the very bottom shelf of the oven with the bottom element turned on this ensures that the bottom of the pastry is well cooked now set your timer for 40 minutes and while those are baking i hope you don't mind if i give my two recipe books a bit of a plug the books have lots of our favorite easy to follow recipes from our work kitchens in them both books are available in the website shop along with lots of other equipment i use in the videos and by popular demand the skeleton style oven gloves are now available too just click on the i icon top right of your screen and that will take you directly to the website shop right baking times up so i'll get them out now no oven runs exactly the same temperature so if your pies look a little underdone just give them a little bit longer but as you can see mine are looking fantastic so i'll get them out and onto the rack for about 10 minutes and let them cool a bit and when i come back i pop them out of the tins and show you what to look like on the inside and of course have a little taste and in the meantime i'll show you how i make this stunning gravy for this fabulous meal now pour your stock from the minced lamb into a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer now add a couple of small knobs of butter this will give the finished gravy a nice shine now for a thickening agent mix a heaped teaspoon of corn flour you may know that as cornstarch in a little cold water now add the corn flour mixture to the gravy and whisk and if you don't like your gravy too thick just add a little of the corn flour mixture a bit at a time until you reach the thickness that you like now to cook the flour taste off just let it simmer for about five minutes and that's it your outstandingly tasty gravy is done and now for the good bit now these are still quite hot from the oven which by the way is the best time to serve these and if you greased your tins thoroughly at the start they should pop straight out the base of the pie is perfectly cooked as you can see right i'll cut one open and the smell of those delicious flavors immediately fill the air with a gorgeous aroma and as you can see the pie is full right to the top that's because i packed plenty in at the start now i've bought scotch pies from the shops before and they've only been half filled with a runny mince meat mixture of whatever they use and this is what a good scotch pie should look like on the inside right i'll get some of that delicious gravy on and have a taste [Music] and that is really tasty absolutely delicious and this is how i served them from my work kitchens with peas and a creamy mashed potato or chips and that's french fries to some of you guys out there and lots of that wonderful gravy on i really hope you try these i'm sure the whole family will enjoy them i'm pretty sure they'll get a big thumbs up and as promised at the beginning here is the latest list of my patreon and paypal supporters and they are june willix era ortone sandra os heather well kenneth hunter james rodding gray and bill watters and there's also two who wish to remain anonymous thanks very much guys i really do appreciate all that you do in supporting the channel well thank you again for watching please like share comment and subscribe by hitting the circle above if you do subscribe activate the bell icon next to the subscribe button on my channel page and by doing that you'll be automatically notified every time i upload a new video and in the meantime here's a few of my other videos and playlists that you may want to watch so until the next time be safe in your kitchen and bye for now

Channel: John Kirkwood

Views: 612,862

Rating: 4.9511952 out of 5

Keywords: ASMR, Scotch pies, Meat pie, Lamb mince, Pastry, Flour, Eggs, Hot water crust pastry, Butter, Fat, Onions, Gravy, Lard, Cookery tuition, Homemade, Delicious pie, Crust, Pie crust

Id: _R-v8iKb22Y

Length: 16min 34sec (994 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 24 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/TheZigRat]

Meat Pies ... got to Lovett

[u/TheZigRat]

People seem to be Misses the Lovett joke