Scottish Beef and Onion Hand Pies

In a bowl, mix 325 g flour with 5 g salt. Add the cold lard cut into small pieces and quickly rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Pour in 90 ml cold water and bring the dough together by hand, without prolonged kneading. If it still falls apart, add water 1 teaspoon at a time, up to 20 ml. Gather into a smooth, compact piece, flatten, wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Keep the reserved 15 ml water separate for sealing the pies; discard unused dough water.

While the dough chills, chop all the onion very finely. In a bowl, combine all the raw beef, onion, breadcrumbs, 60 ml cold water, 6 g salt and all the pepper. Mix briefly until evenly distributed. The filling should be moist and hold its shape, without a pool of water. Divide into 6 equal portions and keep covered in the refrigerator until filling the pies. Do not fry the meat or onion first.

Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional, with a flat metal baking tray inside. You will need a usable tray area of at least 40 × 35 cm. On a second, cold tray, prepare a sheet of baking paper for arranging and chilling the pies. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll each into a circle about 18 cm in diameter and about 3 mm thick, sparingly using flour from the reserved 15 g. Roll each portion without trimming and discarding the edges, so you use all the dough. Work with one portion at a time and keep the others covered in the refrigerator; fill each circle immediately after rolling, following the next step. Remove unused flour from the worktop.

Spread one portion of filling over half of each circle in a low mound up to about 2 cm thick. Leave about 1.5 cm of clear border. Brush the edge sparingly with the water reserved for sealing. Fold the pastry in half over the filling, release excess air, press and finger-crimp the curved edge. Cut 1 small steam vent in the top. Arrange all 6 pies on the prepared paper in 2 columns of 3, with gaps of at least 2 cm. Chill on the cold tray for about 15 minutes. Discard the remaining sealing water. Leave the tops without an egg or milk wash.

Wearing oven mitts, remove the hot tray and carefully slide the paper and pies onto it from the cold tray. Bake slightly below the middle of the oven for about 45–55 minutes. The pastry should be golden and the bases dry and baked through. If the tops brown too quickly, cover them loosely with foil. Near the end of baking, cut open 1 pie: the filling should be hot throughout, with firm meat, without any raw sticky mass. If a base remains soft or the filling needs more cooking, place the cut halves filling-side up and bake them with the remaining pies for about 5–10 minutes, until ready.

After baking, transfer the pies to a wire rack and leave for about 10 minutes so the filling cools slightly and the bases stay crisp. Serve all six as six portions, one large pie each. Keep each pie's filling and juices inside it; any fat and juices left on the paper remain outside the servings.