Egg and bacon pie recipe
Comments(26)
Photo: Traditional egg and bacon pie
As a child egg and bacon pie was a traditional picnic dish and I loved it. This is not a quiche. The eggs are unbroken and the texture and flavour of the combination of short crust pastry, floury egg yolks, silky egg whites and thick cut bacon is out of this world.
I had forgotten all about this pie until The Chicken Lady served it when we went the Hampton Court Flower Show two years ago. I could have guzzled the entire pie but politeness made me hold back and only accept two slices. Since then I have dreamt about it, on and off.
Faced with a glut off eggs this week I was determined to make a bacon and egg pie. Danny was intrigued.
“We never ate this dish in Ireland.”
“It’s the sort of thing that you might have found in an Edwardian picnic hamper, served on proper plates with crisp white napkins and lashings of homemade lemonade. It sounds dull – no herbs and just salt and pepper – but it’s delicious. I promise.”
But could I replicate the dream pie? I sniffed about on the internet for inspiration. All the recipes that I found broke the eggs, used quiche dishes or streaky bacon. I wanted to make a deep pie with a lid. Eventually I rang my mum who agreed that a pie with a crust was the right place to go – more substantial and economical.
“As far as I can remember I put the bacon on the top. Back then bacon was cheap.”
I used my enamel pie dish. Having greased it I lined it with pastry, broke in six whole eggs and laid two slices of bacon over these. Then feeling like a latter day Mrs Beaton I added another six eggs, finishing off with two slices of bacon under the crust.
I backed the pie in Andrew (on the bottom rack with the extension collar on) for an hour at 175 degrees and let it chill completely before supper. I served it with a simple coleslaw using a fresh cabbage from the garden.
Danny loved it and normally he doesn’t like shortcrust pastry. This is a huge relief as I’d like to bake this regularly. Perfect comfort food for parties, picnics and lunches.
By the way this pie is very, very filling and cold easily feed six.
Traditional egg and bacon pie
Ingredients:
500g of short crust pastry
12 eggs
4 thick slices of unsmoked back bacon
Salt and ground white pepper
A little butter for greasing the pie dish
Method:
Grease a 9 ½ inch (24cm) pie dish well.
Roll out about two thirds of the pastry on a floured board and line the pie dish including the rim.
Crack six eggs into the pastry lined dish. Sprinkle with a little ground white pepper.
Place two slices of thick cut bacon gently over the eggs.
Crack another six eggs into the pie dish and finish off with the other two slices of bacon and sprinkle with a little more ground white pepper.
Roll out the rest of the pastry to make a lid for the pie. Make two small slits in the top and bake at 175 degrees for about an hour.
Chill before serving.
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This looks like a lovely pie, although I do not like eggs unless they are beaten in a quiche or cake.. but I can still appreciate a good recipe. This is perfect picnic fodder. I used up my glut of eggs and bananas this week making Banana Bread and Tayberry and Lemon Loaf. Check out my blog if you fancy a look at the recipes. All the best. KG
Interesting recipe. I boil the eggs and chop them up and then layer the chopped eggs with fried lardons of bacon. An egg beaten in milk and poured over the filling binds it all together. Yummy!
Ah! That takes me back…. In my smallholder childhood, it was a choice of picnic pies, sausagemeat and egg (which was beaten, and with onion, so a bit quichey) or sausagemeat with tomato and onion (a bit pizza-y!) I’m sure the sausage meat was often home made, and as you say, egg gluts can get out of hand! Brown homemade pastry too… These were both lovely hot, but better cold, with sand, and the wind blowing hair in the mouth….
Thanks for reminding me!
This is such a nostalgic recipe for me! I was brought up in Cumbria and Bacon and Egg pie was usually on the menu when we went to my Gran’s house for tea. I always thought it was a just Cumbrian thing – my husband is from Manchester, he had never heard of it before but is now a convert. Whenever we are going on a long journey I make one for the road as it travels surprisingly well and means we don’t have to eat the usual junk on offer when you’re on the move.
Great recipe choice!
I should think that just about anything encased in short crust would be wonderful- tomato pie comes to mind. Hmmm. That one would be good on a picnic, too, I think.
Unsmoked bacon is next to impossible to buy here in the states; do you think it would be okay to make it with the smoked, fatty stuff that is available to us, or do you think ham would be better, in that case?
Me, oh my, Fiona – how you do awaken memories and re-kindle frozen embers…….. Methinks that you may even have somehow managed to prompt my culinary skills out of the cupboard with this one….. x
I am intrigued by this lovely recipe – I’m going to have to try it – and I seem to be the only one who has no memories of it.
I never liked my dear Mum’s bacon and egg pies – at the time I couldn’t stand any fat on meat!. These days I’d make one with softenly sauted chopped onions on the bottom, a sprinkle of chopped and also sauted streaky bacon, and with the eggs litely mixed as I’m not a fan of egg white. Stay wel away from adding frozen vege. The variation with a layer of sausage meat on the lower level would be okay as long as it was really good sausage meat.
Whichever way – this is a delicious pie that really does taste better warm, at room temperaure or cooked and taken out of the fridge an hour or so before.
Confession – I do like it made with a good flakey pastry. A bacon and egg pie sasanach? Nope – I’m a Kiwi!
Huggles to F and D and all three Min Pins munchkins xxxxx, Michelle
Like Casalba, this a new one on me too – but I’m not sure that I’d like it… I’m not usually fussy but for some reason this doesn’t appeal at all – tonight I’ll probably dream about having to eat it out of politeness!!!
A home-made trifle is a good way of getting through lots of eggs
Celia
The recipe looks wonderful and simple – since I like both pies and egg and bacon, it sounds like the perfect combination. I’d probably have to try it out with a smaller version though. Since we have quail in our garden, and 8 hens eggs = 8×6 = 48 quail eggs, that’s rather a lot to crack.
When I was younger, my mum used to make a sausage and egg pie but that was sausages, stuffing and hard boiled eggs in pastry, so it was a very different pie.
Blimey. I’d completely forgotten about this – my Nanna used to make it! I think I’ll have a go next time we have an egg glut.
Have just made a variation on this pie for Sunday brunch (roast dinner later this evening) and for lunches over the next couple of days at work. I made the pastry using half and half butter and lard, and I used ham instead of bacon. So an egg and ham pie, really. And it was absolutely scrumptious. Thank you for telling us about it.
(I’ve had to hide the rest of the pie so that there is some left for work lunches – my husband wants MORE!!!)
My Mother brought this Egg and Bacon Pie recipe with here to Norway in 1947 and most likely she was given it by her mother.
12 oz Shortcrust pastry
Filling:
6 rashes of bacon cut into small pieces
4 oz grated cheddar cheese
4 tomatoes, skin and slice
4 eggs
salt and pepper
parsley
Spread lined pastrydish with half the bacon, cheese and tomatoes.
Break whole eggs on top, season well and cover with remaining filling.
Cover with remaining pastry, press edges to seal,trim, rough up and flute. Make 2 incisions across center. Brush top with beaten egg yolk or milk.
Bak at 390 F or 200 C for about 45 min. or toll golden brown.
Garnish with parsley. Serve hot or cod.
I put the chopped parsley on top of the tomatoes before breaking the egg on top. Very good…
I also serve a green salad to go with it.
Every Norwegian I serve it to love it.
Hi Annette
Thanks for the recipe – it sounds delicious and I can’t wait to make it.
Hi this is indeed a comfort food , my dad used to make these for picnics to take with us down to the beach when we lived by the coast , he included mashed potato mixed in between the egg and bacon with plenty of seasoning served cold .
I’ve just made this for tea, and even DD2, who has the smallest appetite (compared to the other 2 at the same age, not just because she’s the youngest!) ate 2 huge slices. We had it with salad and (Shh!) baked beans.
I couldn’t remember where I’d read about the pie, but found Darina Allen (Forgotten Skills of cooking- fab book) agreed with the unbroken eggs. All the other recipes wanted me to whisk them, which I’m sure is very nice, but I particularly wanted the whole eggs. I have made a post war egg pie in the past, which is the same minus the bacon, and that added mint, so I put chopped chives and mint in mine. Parsley would be good too.
I’ll try some of the suggestions for other additions next time- tomato and cheese sound very good, or sausage meat instead of bacon.
Thanks!
I make Egg and bacon pie regularly. It’s so easy. I use ready made pastry (all for an easy life). I line the pastry with Streaky bacon using a chriss/cross pattern, this makes 4 compartments, then I break one egg into each compartment, The bacon helps to keep each egg from spreading too much. Then I just finish off with the pastry lid.
Trying this recipe today fingers crossed no enamel dish though…..
I haven’t seen this recipe in ages! My mom used to make bacon and egg pie using whole eggs when I was a child in Boise Idaho. It was the perfect picnic food and great on a hot summer day. I’m glad to see other people remember this as well.
Thank you for the memory jolt. My mother used to make this for us as children.
Chickens are back in lay, so give you three guesses what I’m going to make tomorrow.
Nom Nom Nom
Hi Christine
When our hens start laying again (they are no so young anymore) I will celebrate with this pie. Yummy!
[...] one of the most guiltily delicious Sunday breakfasts for ages! When, during one of my visits to The Cottage Smallholder blog, I stumbled upon the Egg and Bacon Pie recipe, I felt at once it would be a Sunday breakfast [...]
I have made this pie yesterday. It was one of the best Sunday breakfasts (or brunches) I have ever had! I used smoked bacon (looked better at my butcher’s) and it was delicious! Thank you for this incredible discovery (I had never heard about the Egg and Bacon Pie before and keep on wondering why it is not one of the most famous British dishes…). I feel I will prepare it hundreds and hundreds of times in the future.
Also have childhood memories of this at picnics when growing up in NZ
As much as I like E&B pies I find that solid mass of egg can be a bit much. Break it up with the following:
Grill rashers of smokey bacon just enough to render down the fat, add colour and give a slight crunch
When grilling the bacon add 1 x chopped onion to sauté
Roughly chop the bacon
Line an enamel pie dish with shortcrust pastry and blind bake
Lightly beat 1 egg, add approx. 100ml of double cream and a good grind of black pepper and mix
Add the chopped bacon, sauté onion, a small handful of frozen peas and mix through
Pour some of the mix into the pie casing
Crack in half the amount of eggs
Add another layer of mix then crack in the remaining eggs
Add any remaining mix
Brush the lip of short crust with egg wash
Lay over a sheet of puff pastry, fork around edges and prick the centre
Brush with the egg wash
Cook at around 180 degrees for approx 45 mins or until cooked through and the pastry is golden
hello what cind of dish do u need
Hi Aiden
Just an ordinary pie dish.