The pie at the top of the charcuterie board at the Marché Forville in Cannes, on a day ashore from the Scarlet Lady. A Champagne-region pie a long way south of Champagne, which is what a good market hall does. Pork marinated overnight in champagne with eschalot, garlic, nutmeg and fresh herbs, packed into all-butter puff pastry, then finished with a savoury egg-and-milk royale poured in through the chimney while it bakes.
The custard poured mid-bake is what separates this from an ordinary meat pie — do not skip it, and do not pour it cold or it streaks instead of setting. Internal target is 75°C in the centre of the pork — the figure for marinated meat.
Reworked in October 2026: belly with the shoulder, a fresh-wine reduction that puts the champagne back on the meat and in the royale, a two-yolk royale poured when the pork is ready, and a hot tray under the tin. It hasn’t been cooked in this form yet. Once it has chilled, a little warm stock set with a sheet of gelatine, poured through the chimney, fills the gap the meat leaves under the lid.
Same-counter cousins, same method: white wine and Comté through the meat for a Porc-Comté, or red wine with diced veal for Le Lorrain. The marinade ratios stay identical.
You will want a 22–23cm metal pie tin about 4cm deep, a heavy baking tray to stand it on, a probe thermometer, and a small funnel or a chimney rolled from foil. A metal piping nozzle works just as well.
Sourcing it in Adelaide. Pork: Feast! Fine Foods at the Central Market, or Barossa Fine Foods — shoulder and a piece of skinless belly, in 1cm batons cut across the grain. Pastry: Carême all-butter puff, made at Tanunda, at Frewville, Pasadena and Drakes. Do not substitute margarine sheets. Bubbles: any dry South Australian méthode traditionnelle, and the Adelaide Hills brut styles are ideal. Nutmeg whole, grated fresh.
AI reviewed by Grok, Codex & Claude
