Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

The pie is distinguished from ordinary pork pies by three things: the meat is uncured, so it cooks grey-pink rather than the pink of cured pork, the pastry is hand-raised around a wooden dolly and baked free-standing without a tin, which lets the sides bow outward, and the jelly is poured in hot after baking. Protected geographical indication was granted in 2008 after a long fight, restricting the name to pies made within a defined area around the town and to that method. The pies became a commodity in the late eighteenth century when fox hunting from Melton brought a wealthy seasonal population who wanted portable food, and the railway then carried them to London. Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe has traded on the same site since 1851.

What you actually see

• The bowed sides - pastry raised by hand and baked without a tin.
• The grey-pink meat - uncured pork, unlike a standard supermarket pie.
• The poured jelly - hot stock added through the lid after baking.
• The protected area - a legal boundary around the town since 2008.

When to go

Year-round; the shops open daily and pies are baked fresh through the morning. The town's food festivals run several times a year, and the Tuesday and Saturday markets are long established.

Honest expectations

They are eaten cold and the jelly puts some people off entirely. Fresh ones sell out by afternoon. Most supermarket pies labelled Melton Mowbray are made by large producers inside the protected area rather than by the town's small bakers.

Nearby

Stilton cheese is made in the same county; Rutland Water and Leicester lie close.