Pork, Ham and Egg Picnic Pie

For the pastry

• To make the pastry, tip the flour into a bowl with 2 tsp salt. Put the lard and milk into a pan with 5 fl oz water, then heat until the lard has completely melted. Pour into the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until combined. Tip onto the surface and knead until it all comes together.

To make the pie filling

• Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then boil the eggs for exactly 7½ mins. Cool in cold water, peel and set aside.
• Tip the pork, sausagemeat, ham, sage and onion into a large bowl. Season generously and add a few shakes of Tabasco. Mix well with your hands until completely combined. Take about 1 tbsp of the mix, shape into a small burger and fry in a pan. Taste for seasoning. Slightly over-seasoned is perfect.
• Melt a few tbsps lard, brush a 2 lb loaf tin with an even layer of the melted fat, then dust with flour.
• Cut a piece of baking parchment to fit the bottom and long sides of the terrine dish with some hanging over the edge.
• Take about two-thirds of the pastry dough and shape it into a rectangle roughly the width and length of the dish. Lay the dough into the terrine and, using your fingers, press it into the bottom, the corners and up the sides of the dish until it comes to the top and hangs over the rim a little.
• Take half the meat mixture and pat it into a shape that will fit the terrine dish, then lay it in. Use your fingers to make a trench down the middle of the meat. Peel the eggs. Trim the tops and bottoms off the eggs, lay them, in a row, along the trench, then season. Trimming the eggs like this ensures that each slice of pie will contain both egg white and yolk.
• Take the rest of the meat mixture, pat it out to a rectangle that will fit over the eggs, and press it over the top. Brush the overhang of the pastry with the beaten egg, then roll out the rest of the pastry to fit over the pie.
• Pinch edges together to fix the top. Brush top generously with egg and pierce three holes along the top. Heat oven to 400F. Place pie on a baking sheet and bake for 30 mins. Lower the heat to 350F, then continue to cook for another hour. Leave to cool.
•  Carefully turn dish upside-down onto a board and use the sides of the paper to pull the pie out of the dish. If sides aren’t brown enough, return it to the oven on a baking tray at 400F until coloured. Cool, then chill in the fridge.
• To add jelly to the pie, prepare the jelly by sprinkling the contents of an envelope of gelatin over 2 cups cold stock in a small saucepan. After a few minutes, heat the saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until the gelatin dissolves. Pour the jelly into one of the holes until it comes to the top. Place the pie on a dish in the fridge until the jelly has set, then repeat twice more, so the jelly has filled each hole. Leave to set in the fridge overnight.

• Chop the ham into 1/2 inch pieces
• Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Grease a 2lb loaf tin with shortening, then cut one long strip of baking parchment, the width of the tin, and place it in the tin so that there’s an overhang of parchment at each end. This will make it easier to remove the pie when it has cooled.

For the filling

• Place all the ingredients, except the hard-boiled eggs, into a large bowl and season lightly with salt and white pepper. Mix together thoroughly using your hands. In a small frying pan cook a small patty of the mixture and taste it to check the seasoning. If needed, add more seasoning, to the remaining filling. Place the mixture in the fridge while you make the pastry.

For the pastry

• Combine the flours in a bowl, add the butter and rub in lightly with your fingertips. Heat 7fl oz water, the salt and lard in a saucepan until just boiling. Pour the mixture onto the flour and mix together with a spoon. Once cool enough to handle, tip onto a floured surface and knead into a smooth dough. Do not wait too long as the pastry becomes harder to work as it cools.
• Roll out two-thirds of the pastry and use it to line the prepared tin, leaving any excess hanging over the edges.
• Press half of the meat filling firmly into the pastry-lined tin. So that the eggs line up better and to make the pie easier to slice, take a thin slice off the top and bottom of each boiled egg. Place the eggs end to end down the middle of the pie. Add the remaining meat filling and firm it down.
• Brush the overhanging pastry edge with egg yolk. Roll out the remaining pastry to make a lid and place over the pie. Pinch the pastry edges together to seal and trim the edges neatly. Make three holes in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape and brush with more egg yolk.
• Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350ºF and bake for a further hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
• To remove the pie, lay the tin on its side and ease it out with the parchment paper tabs. Serve in thick slices.