A few days ago we thought we’d try to re-create at home one of the dishes we made at our Hearth Cooking class a couple of weeks ago. This time we had to settle for cooking it in an electric oven, but that certainly didn’t pose too big an issue.
We started by thinly slicing 2 pounds of pork tenderloin (enough for 2 pies)- about 1/4 inch thick. We seasoned them with salt, pepper, and freshly ground nutmeg (not too much – about 1/2 t), and sautéed these in our homemade lard – it was our lesser quality lard – not really suitable for pastries, but excellent for sautéing pork!
Meanwhile we prepared the crust and apples. We used Granny Smith apples and Galas for a more complex taste. The recipe calls for 2 Granny Smiths and 2 Macintosh apples for each pie (we were doubling). The apples were quartered and sliced about 1/4 inch thick.
Here we are ready to prepare the crust. We used my grandmother’s recipe (any recipe will do) – but even my grandmother lived primarily in a post-lard era. Her recipe calls for Crisco. Thankfully we had some excellent homemade lard to substitute!
We chilled the lard first, then chilled the dough so it would be easier to work with.
We layered pork, then apples, then sprinkled 1 T sugar — then repeated this, poured over 1/2 cup white wine, dotted it with butter, and put on the top crust and slitted it for steam vents.
We baked it for about 15 minutes at 425 F, then lowered the oven to 350 for probably an hour, watching that it didn’t get too brown.
The pie was fantastic! It was like eating dinner and dessert all at once! Hope you can try this some time!!
Morning Star Meadows Farm 