Mrs King’s pork pies

Thanks to Borough Market in London, I now have a decent source of pork pies without travelling north of Watford. A good pork pie is pretty hard to come by these days, and everyone has got used to the bog-standard pies you buy in shops and supermarkets, which can be OK, but are pretty far removed from the real artisan product.

I decided to pay the Hartland brothers a visit in Cotgrave, just outside of Nottingham and, on arrival, found the boys hard at it, making pies by hand. It was just as I’d imagined it would be, as Ian, who works at Borough Market, had briefly explained to me over a few beers one night. The fascinating thing is that there is no real mystery or secret to good pie-making, just simply good ingredients and, as I discovered, good technique.