Pity the pork pie in Great Expectations—it is always upstaged by Miss Havisham’s rotten “bride-cake.” It’s hard to talk about any food other than Miss Havisham’s vermin-infested wedding cake when Great Expectations is mentioned, and I am certainly guilty of this habit. I have been trying to re-create that cake in all of its decrepit glory ever since I read the book in high school and became completely obsessed with Miss Havisham. As far as driving the plot of the novel, though, that bride-cake doesn’t do half as much as the pilfered pork pie. I think it’s high time that we give it its due.
When we first meet Pip, he is only six years old, sitting in a church graveyard surveying the graves of his father, mother, and five siblings, who “gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in that universal struggle.” He is attempting to imagine what his family members looked like based on their gravestones when an escaped convict named Abel Magwitch, “a fearful man, all in coarse gray, with a great iron on his legs,” sneaks up and seizes Pip by the chin. Magwitch is “soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints and stung by nettles, and torn by briars,” and above all, he is starving. He threatens to tear out Pip’s heart and liver, or worse, eat his “fat cheeks,” unless he brings him food and a file to cut the iron from his legs. Pip promises he will bring him both things the next day and rushes home to his sister’s house, where more terror awaits him.
Pip’s sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, is a “tall and bony” nightmarish figure, “with black hair and eyes, [and] such a prevailing redness of skin that [Pip] sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap.” Feeding her husband and Pip is not an act of love for Mrs. Gargery, but rather something that she holds against them, reminding them always of how often she is forced to wear her apron. She cuts their bread in “a trenchant way” and spreads the butter with “a slapping dexterity.” It’s no wonder Pip is absolutely terrified of stealing any food from her.
He keeps his promise to Magwitch, though, and as soon as “the great black velvet pall outside my little window was shot with gray,” he sneaks downstairs and into the pantry. Despite having promised Magwitch only to get him “what broken bits of food” he could, Pip steals “some bread, some rind of cheese, about half a jar of mincemeat (which I tied up in my pocket-handkerchief with my last night’s slice), some brandy from a stone bottle… a meat bone with very little on it, and a beautiful round compact pork pie.” The pie is up on a high shelf, “put away so carefully in a covered earthenware dish in a corner.” He takes it “in the hope that it was not intended for early use, and would not be missed for some time.”
At dawn the next day, Pip runs through the marshes toward the graveyard, imagining the whole way that the “gates and dikes and banks” were screaming, “A boy with Somebody-else’s pork pie! Stop him!” Pip gives the food and brandy to Magwitch and watches sympathetically as he gobbles it all down. “Pitying his desolation, and watching him as he gradually settled down upon the pie, [Pip] made bold to say, ‘I am glad you enjoy it.’”
Pip’s kindness and generosity toward Magwitch change the course of both of their lives. Magwitch goes on to become a successful sheep farmer and stockbreeder, and puts all of his money away to send to Pip. It is Magwitch, not Miss Havisham, who makes it possible for Pip to become an educated gentleman, eventually worthy of Estella’s love—all as a thank-you for that humble pork pie.
Pork pies have a long and proud history in England. They are usually eaten cold, with cornichons, grainy mustard, a slice of cheese, and a good ale. You can get leaf lard from your butcher, or substitute vegetable shortening. (Do not buy the hydrogenated lard on supermarket shelves.)
Serves 8 to 10
½ cup rendered leaf lard, cubed and frozen
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed and frozen
4½ cups pastry flour
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cream
1 pound fresh pork trotters
8 ounces pork bones
2 yellow onions, quartered
2 carrots, halved
2 celery ribs, halved
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
3 quarts water
2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into ¼-inch cubes
8 ounces skinless pork belly, cut into ¼-inch cubes
8 ounces mild slab bacon, cut into ¼-inch cubes
1½ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground sage
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon pink curing salt (optional)
Combine the frozen lard and butter, pastry flour, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until pea-sized meal forms. Transfer the meal to a large bowl and mix in the ice-cold water until a dough forms (you may not need the full 1 cup). Bring the dough together, being careful not to overwork it. Separate out two-thirds of the dough, flatten it into a disk, and wrap it in plastic. Do the same for the remaining one-third of the dough. Refrigerate both dough disks for at least 2 hours.
Combine the pork trotters, pork bones, onions, carrots, celery, bay leaf, and peppercorns in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot and cover with the water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 1½ hours.
After 1½ hours, strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a smaller pot, discard the cooked ingredients, and bring the stock to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil gently until it has reduced to 2 cups, about 30 minutes. Strain the reduced stock through a double layer of cheesecloth into a bowl, let it cool a bit, and then cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator to chill completely.
In a large bowl, toss together the pork shoulder, pork belly, bacon, salt, pepper, sage, nutmeg, and pink curing salt (if using—it will help preserve the meat’s pink color).
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Take the larger dough disk from the refrigerator and turn it out onto a well-floured surface. Roll it into a circle ¼ inch thick. Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with the dough and fill the crust with the meat and spice filling.
Roll the smaller dough disk into a circle ¼ inch thick, and cut out a 1½-inch circle from the center. Place the top crust over the filling and crimp the edges of the top and bottom crusts together until they are fully sealed.
Beat the egg and cream together and brush the crust with the egg wash. Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F and bake for an additional 1½ hours.
Place the pie on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Once the pie has cooled slightly, reheat your cooled trotter stock to liquid (it will have set to a gel in the refrigerator). Use a turkey baster to begin filling the pie with the stock through the hole you cut in the top crust. Allow the pie to absorb the stock in between each addition, tapping it very gently and moving it around to let the stock soak into all the crevices. Once all of the stock is added, allow the pie to cool to room temperature before transferring it to the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight, as you want the stock to gel. Slice and serve cold.