The man who invented the Gala Pie is a hero of mine. Not just because he took one of natures nicest foodstuff (namely the pork pie) and made it even better. He made it better by the addition of the hard boiled egg. But not just any old hard boiled egg. No, not only did he manage to get an egg somehow into the middle of a pie, but he also discovered a way of, er, lengthening the egg. To those of you not familiar with the long egg, the orthographic projection of a Gala Pie below will explain.
Orthographic Pie
The long egg has somewhat obsessed the food scientist at FreakyTrigger, ever since we discovered there was no corresponding long hen. We are no fools. We are well aware that in the mass producing Gala Pie factories of yore there was probably something extruding powdered egg and white painted rubber to simulate said long egg. But could a long egg, and thus Gala Pie, be made in the food science labs, or home kitchen as we call them. A plan was, if you will, hatched.
So on this years food science day in two weeks time, we will attempt to make a long egg. What we want from you, dear readers, is some suggestions on how to do it. Either in the comment box or by email. The best suggestions will be tried out. Note – you can only use items common found in a kitchen, or made out of commonly found things. So far foil seems to be favoured as a working material to create a long egg machine. But we welcome any suggestions.
this is my first line of enquiry
god, this makes me want to vomit
The gala pie is a joy, and not vomitous at all. The tastebuds tingle to the spiced pork, the crust and the jelly – plus the magical addition of the hard boiled egg. The brain is dazzled by how it is made in the first place.
bludy hell, this article is ALREADY in google top ten hits for gala pie…
surely daddy moore would be the person to help us with this task…
The top hit for gala pie has in its comments other researchers looking into the “long egg” (including one authoritative fellow who claims knowledge of the process).
THE RACE IS ON.
given that Muff’s would do us a SIX POUND GALA PIE for £15.50 given 48 hours notice, we could attempt to reverse engineer one…
(yes, this link is only here so i can say “muffs”, sorry…)
How much is a second-hand Sanovo 6-32?
from number 1 google hit
“The so called ‘long egg’ in Gala Pies is actually made of several eggs. The yolks are seperated from the whites and the yolks are then poured into a long tube-shaped mold in which they are cooked. The hard yolk is removed from the mold then put inside a larger tube-shaped mold and the egg whites are poured round the outside of the hard yolk. The whole thing is then cooked again to harden the whites around the yolk. This is then removed from the mold thus producing one very long hard-boiled egg!”
I AM STILL BAGSYING THIS METHOD!! in your face baran, with your “albumen tube” first technique :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
bah THEY just want us to THINK that’s the method
Surely the yolk first tube will leave a gap between white and yolk – AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN A YOLK / WHITE GAP. The yellow would rattle around.
tanya you are going SOFT (on) BOILED EGGS
THERE ARE PICTURES
FLEE, ALL IS KNOWN!!!!
Hi its DR Andrew Mackay
I think this is a extremely bad website as all the facts and figures are wrong. This is the third complaint i am making as my students at caltech university studying food science are using your website and are asking me to explain it. It is the biggest load of tripe that i have ever seen. In all of my years as a DR i have never witnessed something so ridiculous. I would appreciate if you stop advertising all this fause information or i will take further action on taking you off the internet. I will check up in a week if it is not all corrected then i will proceed with my allegations.
P.S If anyone has any complaints feel free to e-mail me at macka1000@hotmail.com
‘biggest load of tripe ever seen’ = next year’s Food Science sorted then.
Caltech is not a recognised academic institution, regardless of their marvellous degree bequeathment methods.
WHere is the write up.
Actually if you go and see Clerks II, you will see that an Egg Macmuffin is sliced Long Egg.
i am on multiple deadline elsewhere!! you will get yr write-up when cr*fts has gone to press!
Well all I caan say is to chack out the eggboiler.com website and that see it yourself.
http://www.sanovoeng.com/idd342.asp
This is a machine that makes “long eggs” which apparently have been used in the food industry for decades. My father remembers his grandfather(who ran a produce distribution company in NY) showing him such a creature when he was young.
Who says FT isn’t educational?
And I do hope that the good DR’s post above is genuine. He’s a DR, doncha know….
If you want to make the boiled ‘long-egg’ at home, just break the requisite number of eggs into a plastic tube. (Tie a knot at one end of the tube of course). Fill the tube with raw eggs, and then seal the other end. Boil until the eggs are hard-boiled’. The yolks won’t be in one continuous length, but the white will hold them close together while you pack the meat around it, before cooking the pie.
The method of producing the ‘long egg’ is to first separate the yolks and whites, then break up the yolks and boil inside a tubular mould until hard. The yolk must then be frozen to prevent overcooking in the second boiling, when the stick of frozen yolk is transferred to a larger diameter tubular mould to which the raw egg white is added, then the whole thing is boiled again, cooking the egg white & thawing the yolk. The result is a complete ‘long egg’ with no gap between the inside of the white, and the outide of the yolk ‘core’.
Re: ‘DR Andrew Mackay’ – surely this guy is joking.
1) He refutes the information here, but doesn’t offer an alternative explanation, and as we all know, the ‘long egg’ does exist: just slice a catering gala pie for proof.
2)”or i will take further action on taking you off the internet” – If this really is an intelligent person he should realise there is no governing authority to ‘take you off the internet’ (?!?) and since when was the lack of factuality a reason not to post on the internet. There’s tons of crap on the web, and only a real moron expects it all to be irrefutably accurate.
Just forget about the egg and have a pork pie instead. The descriptions all sound revolting… yuks.
Which is true. We have had several faily discussions and disections of Gala pies.
1.The long egg is just hard boiled eggs with the ends cut off and then put in a long line touching each other.
2. The long egg is made separately in a tube. The whites from several eggs are first mixed together and then poured into a long tube that is then put into bain-marie. The tube is taken out before the egg white has time to cook through. The centre uncooked egg white is then poured out (and used in the next batch) egg yolks are then poured into the void. The whole thing is then returned to the bain-marie to cook through.
3.The pork filling in a gala pie is formed around a stick or rod of the correct diameter and then cooked right trough in a pastry case. Just after removal from the oven the rod is withdrawn whilst the pie is still hot. Egg white from several eggs are then poured into the hole whilst turning the pie round so that the egg whites cook from the heat in the pie meat. Before the white cooks right through the liquid centre is poured out and can be used in the next batch. The egg yolks are then poured into the centre
4.The long egg is made inside of 2 tubes. One tube fits inside of the other leaving space around the centre tube for egg white whilst the centre tube is filled with egg yolk. The tube is then immersed in gently boiling water until the white and yolk are cooked. The tube is then turned over and the cooked ingredients allowed to drop out. In most cases the cooked egg has to be helped out . Special rings that fit the outer and inner tubes are pushed through the tubes like the action of a mastic gun to force the contents out.
The process of making “gala pies” is many years old. I have been in the food industry for over 2 decades and gala pies have always been made this way. There is also a company where you can buy “long boiled eggs” along with a special egg slicer to produce up to 30 slices, making ready for sdandwiches et for buffets, sandwich and roll filling.
The man who invented the long egg is called Dave Porter and he did it as apprentice at the age of 16 years old while working at Gala Pie. He drew up the scheme very much like the drawing in the article and the machinery was made in the Gala Pie workshop. It was in the early 1970s
“pingback” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_pie#cite_note-6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gala_pie#cite_ref-6
I believe my “great uncle Gilbert Sproule” first put the egg in the gala pie during the war.
Meat was scarce and the egg simply helped fill and bulk out the pie.
I would welcome any (sensible) comments.
You can check for long egg products here:
http://bovohungary.com/galeria/
or here:
http://hc.dk/uploads/Catering%2004.pdf
The pork and pastry then would not be a problem.
oh yeah, long egg gold