A good raised pork pie is a wonderful thing and they are enjoying something of a revival. They are called 'raised' because, instead of lining a bowl with pastry and then filling it with chunks of pork meat, the pork is placed on a flat disc of pastry which is then 'raised' around the meat. Using the fingers, the pastry is pulled up, a lid is put on, in which a hole is made, and stock from the cooking of the meat poured in. This sets as aspic around the meat. Good pork, well cooked, will produce a wonderful pie. Traditionally in England, a hard boiled egg was placed in amongst the meat so that when it was sliced, a round of egg white and yolk appeared. Pork pies are such a tradition in England that they were taken up into Cockney rhyming slang to indicate 'lies'.
