Pork Pie Virgin Cured!

We sampled pies this week, but only just! The weather was poor – cold and more snow forecast. The munchers were joined this week by pork pie enthusiast, Manola, for a rather shorter than usual, 4½ mile, local walk. The Walk Master had incorporated a pub lunch, which he booked for 1:00 pm, rather than eat sandwiches in the snow. We parked at Eaton Park and headed west to the University of East Anglia and walked around the north edge of the lake. Here we debated the aesthetic of the accommodation, I personally like it. We continued past the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and crossed the River Yare. We then continued south, walking along by the river on our left, and then crossing it again by the start of the UEA lake. On our journey we met many lovely dogs, including a young, mad black Labrador who had broken his lead and enthusiastically greeted us, as we approached a wooded area. Much of the footpath was on boarded walkways now as we headed further south, following the river. Our path took us under the A11 and passing the old mill house on the opposite bank, I noticed a dinosaur skeleton in the garden! Then onto the old road bridge with a plaque showing the flood level on the 28th August 1912, 5 or 6 feet above today's level. We now turned north and walked down the road to arrive at the Cellar House, spot on one O'clock. Josie ordered Cod and hand cut chips, while the rest of us had the roast. The food was tasty, with the vegetables nicely cooked. Unfortunately we only had one plate of vegetables to share amongst five of us, and service was somewhat lacking.After the meal we were joined by a dapper Don, who had walked from the city centre in his new chinos, to join us in the pub. We walked back to the cars first along Bluebell Road and then on footpaths to Eaton Park. We walked through the park, passing by the model boat lake with a little dog walking on the 2” thick ice. On reaching the cars, the Walk Master invited us back to his, for a cup of drink. Here we were joined by Jeff - a self-confessed pork pie virgin, that we cured of his affliction! We were not originally going to have pies, as we'd only just had a meal a short while ago and we had cakes. But Manola said: "a walk is not a walk without a pork pie". We had pies: an 8oz and two 4oz pies from G. Morris & Sons that had been purchased earlier in the week, to be consumed after the NIAS AGM, but never made it there. The pies were not scored, but the consensus was that the 8oz pie was superior to the 4oz. Josie then presented cakes that she had brought to celebrate her birthday last month. So definitely more calories consumed than burnt off this week!

Pickerings medium pies

Pies returned this week: medium pies from Pickerings, Norwich market stall (pitch 102 & 103) an old favourite, last sampled on Valentines Day. We were joined for our pre-pie perambulation, by Luna and her mum, Grace. We also had Bert & Harris accompanying us on what was to be an eventful walk from East Tuddenham Village Hall. We crossed the Norwich Road to take the footpath north that passes by All Saints church. Our next challenge was to cross the busy A47. Achieving this we continued north, the dogs enjoying being able to run free. Luna never straying far from mum, but Bert and Harris taking the opportunity to get through a hole in a fence and explore a wood at their leisure... When they eventually came back they were lead-bound for the remainder of the walk! Footpaths marked on maps failed to materialise, but after a couple of failed attempts, we found a route west. King Canape then had a bit of a funny turn – a slight dizzy spell, so had a sit down while it passed. After no time at all, the Canape King was on his feet and we continued west past noisy kennels, our three dogs not reacting. On reaching Heath Road, Charles, accompanied by the Pie Master & Liz, took the slightly shorter and easier going route to the pub via the road, while the rest of the party continued west by footpath and then south to Hockering parish church. On route, the threatening skies then unleashed a good dose of hail. The party taking the road made for the shelter of a conifer, but on reaching it, the intensity of the hailstorm increased to such an extent, most of the hail simply passed straight through our shelter. When the hail eased and we had Charles seated in the pub, we joined the remaining walkers at St. Michael’s church. Here we ate our sandwiches “on the hoof” - as the church was being renovated and surrounded by fencing. The remains of one scratch dial was visible, to add to our collection. We then made our way to join King Canape in the Victoria Inn. Here we consumed various beverages and Grace and Luna took advantage of the open fire. Suitably refreshed and warmed, it was time to head outside, Charles sensibly accepted the offer of being picked up and stayed in the pub. We made our way back to East Tuddenham, modifying the original route to utilise more quiet metalled roads, as the going was so wet. Don in his Wellingtons, made the most of the conditions; splashing his way through the puddles. We had seen numerous fungi on our walk, but as we neared the cars, Paul and I thought we’d struck lucky; spotting some fine looking mushrooms. On closer inspection they proved to be Yellow Stainers! The feasting began once Charles had been retrieved from the pub and started with his canapés of King prawns with Rosemarie sauce. Cutting the good looking pies released little aroma and revealed a nicely textured pink filling with a little jelly. The pies tasted good with a peppery after taste, scoring a spot on 8.5 with a standard deviation of 0.55902, slightly better than their last sampling.
But the munching was not over - for Grace had baked a huge carrot cake especially for us. The cake tasted good too, with several munchers giving it a score of 10 and suggesting we should have cake instead of pork pies!

Sainsbury’s Basics mini pies

Sainsbury's Basics mini pork pies were to be sampled today, a first for the pie munchers. Josie & King Canape suffering from colds decided not to join us, but would sample the pies at home. Eight of us headed to Harleston for what was going to be a wet walk. We left the town and headed west before heading north to Starston, Don electing to walk through a field of sugar beet, rather than follow the path at the edge of the field. We passed the posh Rectory built in 1871, before arriving at the Starston church of St. Margaret where we were given a guided tour by a chap, part of a group getting the church ready for a wedding. We left the church and passed the wind pump that appears on the village sign. In the same field we found a good-sized puffball and a field mushroom, both were harvested and made good eating after the walk. We then headed south and experienced the first of the rain, and sheltered in the lee of a hedgerow until it eased a bit. We continued south finding an amber flashing light that had been discarded, before going through Yewtree Farm. A little more rain followed and we sheltered for a short time under a tree. Just after 3½ miles, after walking down a quiet lane, we were about to join a footpath towards Needham, when the heavens opened up. We huddled beneath a tree as the road transformed into a river. The rain and hail eased, and as we continued on our way, the sun came out. We crossed the busy A143 and then made our way through the stinging nettles to St. Peter's church. This was locked, but the porch was open for us to have lunch in. The church also provided another good example of a scratch dial for the collection. Now we set course north east towards Harleston, passing an old gypsy caravan before crossing the A143 again. The weather decided to rain on us again, but had stopped by the time we reached Harleston via the recreation ground. We headed for the Swan for pints of Rusty Bucket from the Brandon brewery. After our beverage, the Pie Master did a very short guided tour of Harleston, pointing out the location of a chapel of ease and cage for felons, The Magpie Inn that used to be info Mendham, back when the road was the Suffolk border and the weighbridge with its mechanism in the undertaker’s office, the Corn Exchange and Harleston's oldest building. No Canapés and straight into the pies… Well, what can I say, the soft tasteless pastry when cut released no aroma and showed that there was no jelly within. The filling was tasteless; you wonder why they bother making them. Thankfully shortbreads followed to complete the munching before heading home. A pie and half a puffball were delivered to King Canape, who then scored the pie. When all the scores were counted, the mini pies came in at 4.35 with a high standard deviation of 1.17969, giving Sainsbury’s Basics an enhanced normalised score of 4.5.

Van Pelt of King's Lynn

After a hiatus of two weeks, quality pies for the munchers return. Van Pelt of King’s Lynn “Quality Pork Butchers Established 1935” once holders of a Royal warrant, were this weeks suppliers. To ensure that our palates were in prime pie tasting condition for this new pie for the munchers, the Walk Master had devised a route to take in a beer festival. We parked at Reedham railway station and caught the train to Berney Arms. From here we walked to the river and followed the Wherryman's Way towards Reedham. We took lunch at about three miles on the raised path where Don donned a plastic bag for a hat, why - no one knows, but he had a vague likeness of Father Christmas. Bellies filled, we resumed our trek to Reedham via the Wherryman's Way. Just before Reedham, we headed to the Humpty Dumpy brewery to purchase fine ales from the brewery shop. Heading back to the river and the Lord Nelson, only to find that the beer festival was being held in the village hall! Never mind, the Lord Nelson had an excellent range of beers for us to consume. However, their dispensing skills didn't match the excellent beer range. Eventually we had our much-anticipated beverages that we consumed by the river. The ladies were treated to a viewing of a group of men posing in their mankinis, standing on the top of their boat, as they passed by. We wandered off back to the cars, some following the Walk Master's route, utilising footpaths, while the breakaway group took a shorter route along the road. Back at the railway station, the first offering was carrot sticks and Waitrose supreme houmous. Then the irregular shaped pies with their domed tops and filling. Cutting was an effort as the crust was quite hard. Not a great deal of aroma but a very good looking filling with jelly. I thought this was a very good pie, though it was let down by having a quite salt aftertaste. The pie munchers judged this pie at 7.57692 out of ten - a good score as two returned a score of just 5! So a high standard deviation of 1.38212 was recorded. Ginger & Lemon Cookies supplemented the traditional shortbreads. After grazing, the pie munchers just stood around mardling for ages. Eventually we got into cars and raced back to the Pie Master's where cars and passengers were swapped about. So Van Pelt ends up with a normalised score of 7.5.

G. F. White

Pies from G. F. Whites in Aylsham – “Butcher of the Year” in the Eastern Daily Press, Norfolk Food Awards 2008. We had tasted their pies on the 18^th February 2007, when they didn’t fair particularly well. After 6 miles of walking up an appetite around Worsted, we would find out if they had improved. Parking at the Weavers’ Way car park near Briggate Bridge, we headed east for about a mile, following the Weavers' Way along a former railway cutting, passing under the attractive iron bridge. Then going south, we crossed the disused lock on the Dilham canal. The “boys” Bert & Harris were walking with us and soon found a new friend: Max - a black Labrador who then decided to join us on our walk! After a little way, Max would not leave us and return home, so he was put on a lead and returned to the house from where he originated. We regrouped and the boys had now made another friend Bertie: a Border Terrier – thankfully this one was attached to his owner. Dilham church of St. Nicolas was visited at just over 2 miles – no scratch dials here as it was completely rebuilt in 1931. Now heading west, with Don trailing, attacking brambles with his secateurs, we sampled the last Blackberries of the season. Lunch was taken in the large porch of the church of St. Mary the Virgin in Worstead. This large church has two scratch dials, already in our collection, and after perusing the interior; we headed for the comfort of the New Inn. Here we where all made welcome and served pints of Adnams and Wherry. Even “Bisto” the pub dog came down to welcome us, but Bert and Harris were not that impressed. From Worsted, we headed north to once again join the Weavers’ Way path along the railway cutting that we followed east back to the cars. Prawns with mayonnaise were again the starter course, prior to the pies. The pies, unique in appearance with lose fitting tops, looked promising. Cutting revealed a pink filling with good texture. Aroma and jelly were both lacking, but the real disappointment was the munching. The crust was soft and bland and the filling not really tasting of anything. The pie did score 5.83333 with a standard deviation of 0.93095 so normalised to 6 – just below the 6.5 on the previous outing. Yummy Chocolate slab cake was slipped in before Shortbread that concluded our post walk munching.

Aberdeen Angus & Stilton pie!

With the anticipated absence of the Walk Master, King Canape had dug out a Boldero walk and the Pie Master had plotted it on a map. No pie had been purchased due to lack of munchers. At the eleventh hour, the Walk Master declared his availability, so four pie munchers set off for Sisland – the forth being King Can. On arriving at the small car park and finding it full, it was decided to head into Loddon and park in the larger car park in front of the church. The Walk Master deemed that starting from here, it would be preferable to do the walk the reverse direction. Following his lead, we followed and not having gone 100 yards, we came to “Select Meats” - a butcher’s shop that was open. Don popped in to see if they had any pork pies – they had sold out, so one to try in the future. An Aberdeen Angus and Stilton pie was purchased and a jar of horseradish sauce. After returning the pie to the cool bag in the car, we continued our journey through Loddon and crossed the A146 to Stubbs Green, noting three abandoned footballs in as many locations.Heading south west we crossed Stubbs Green, continued down a short length of road and then by footpath towards Loddon Ingloss water tower in the distance. We spotted the first of many hares that we would see during this walk, as we approached Manor farm. We then met a group of walkers doing the same walk, anti-clockwise, having their sandwiches – they had taken the last space in the car park! Crossing Ingloss Lane, we went through an enclosure containing two friendly horses and then made our way north to Mundham, meeting another two groups doing the same walk. Then heading east, to the walk’s start point, the church of St. Mary the virgin, Sisland. Here we had our sandwiches. The church was too new to have a scratch dial, being rebuilt in 1761 after the original church was struck by lighting during a service! From here we headed back to Loddon following the route we had previously driven, with the exception of a footpath across the corner of a field. Returning to Loddon High Street, we ventured up Bridge Street to see what refreshment the Kings Head could offer. Beers from Timothy Taylor were on offer: Landlord and Golden Best - a golden mild. Refreshed we walked the short distance to the car. The Pie Master served the tea while King Canape dished up prawns with mayonnaise. The Aberdeen Angus and Stilton pie was next on the menu with an accompaniment of either horseradish sauce or English mustard. Not being proficient at scoring beef pies, we estimated that this very good pie, with tender beef chunks, would come in at about 8 out of 10. Sausage, bacon and cheese wraps, purchased as a substitute for pork pie, were next consumed before the Shortbread finale.

 
  Don Warman then made a presentation of Bystanders Foundation Material to Charles – sand excavated from beneath the beer cellar at 5, Thorpe Road!

 

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Clarkes Two Pounder!

A Huge 2lb pie, actually weighing in at 33oz, from Clarkes Quality Meats & Country Kitchen, to sample this week. We had sampled their small pies back in May of last year, where they scored a very respectable 8.15. We needed to work up an appetite so we went to Overstrand and parking by the cricket ground, we embarked on a “figure of 8” walk. We started by going east along the High Street that had collapsed into the sea; we then headed inland past the NATS Air Traffic radar and up Hungry Hill and past the Shrieking Pit. We went along the Paston Way to Southrepps, observing the radar dome at Trimmingham, butterflies and a “sleeping” rat. We took lunch at St. James church agreeing that there was no dial to be found! We then made our way by road and footpath to Northrepps, first visiting the church of St. Mary the virgin before visiting the Foundry Arms, open again after being closed for refurbishment. We enjoyed pints of Wherry and Adnams in the garden and were treated to a large bowl of complimentary roast potatoes. Heading north, Don now disguised as a bramble bush, we arrived back at the cars. Since we were not in an ideal spot for pie munching and Gunton was on our way home, we relocated to Gunton Park and invited fellow pie enthusiast, Flounder (AKA Russell), to join us. It was another sawing Sunday at the mill and Flounder had been assisting. We started off with oatcakes, caramelised onion and Moroccan style Houmous. Then the pie was carved, releasing an intense pork aroma and revealing a generous portion of jelly. The flavour was “heaven” and “as good as a pie can get” as two munchers described it, having a wonderful in mouth texture. Mustard did nothing to improve the flavour, just distracting from the experience. The munchers deemed this pie to score a spot on 9 out of 10 with a standard deviation of 0.63246. A shortbread selection completed the gourmet outing.

Marks & Spencer Melton Mowbray pies

The month started with us tasting, for the first time, Marks & Spencer Melton Mowbray medium pork pies. This is thanks to Jorge; who wrote to me asking why our score for M&S pies were so low, when the Independent's review had scored them so highly? I investigated, and found that we were not comparing like with like – the Independent were reviewing Melton Mowbray pies and we had been munching on cured pork pies. This was rectified this week after walking up an appetite following the Boldero’s walk, recently published in the EDP. From Gunthorpe Green, we headed east to Briningham passing Bellevue tower, a former mill that was once used as a water tower. As we approached this, Don spotted Baconsthorpe water tower in the distance. The church of St. Maurice was our lunch stop, we had previously photographed it’s scratch dial with a porch door hinge attached! We headed back in a westerly direction, the pace quickening when a group of walkers with two dogs got in Josie’s sights! We visited St. Mary’s church at Gunthorpe, prior to returning to the Green. The nairn’s mini oatcakes with Waitrose supreme houmous and their supreme red pepper & feta dip made a return appearance. To appreciate the pies fully, the tea service was restored, the award winning pies were then sampled: An OK appearance with a reasonable amount of jelly failed to set the taste buds alight. Peppery seasoning helped, the texture nothing special, the pastry leaving a lardy after taste did not impress. These pies were judged to have a score of 6.4375, with a rather high standard deviation of 0.9797. So a normalised sore of 6.5 for Marks & Spencer Melton Mowbray medium pork pies. The walk, without a pub, was completed in good time enabling all the munchers to get home for the delayed start of the Grand Prix and see Lewis Hamilton snatch the World championship in the last few seconds. I bet he had a celebratory pork pie!

Oakvale pork pies

Oakvale pies from Thorpe Family Butchers, Yarmouth Road - our eighth new pie in a row - was the object of the appetite creating walk on Sunday 16th. Ten of us plus Giada headed south to Weeting for the event. We walked through Thetford forest, finding strange plastic objects on the tracks (evidence of an alien visit?). Lunch was taken at the church of St. Mary’s, Weeting, our first visit but no scratch dials, onward to Weeting castle and then a short walk to our pre-pie pint at the Saxon. The “Rusty Bucket”, brewed over the boarder in Brandon went down well, while the storm clouds gathered. Two miles back to the cars revealed a venerable feast to accompany our cup of tea: First off, instead of Canapés, Charles presented a Pissaladiere! This is a puff pastry tart topped with sautéed onions, sliced green olives and anchovies fillets – yum! Next the main event, the hand raised pork pies had a glossy crisp pastry with a very small amount of jelly and obviously hitting the spot with a score of 8.2 with a standard deviation of 0.67495. We finished with a cheese course, Picón Bejes Tresviso, that José had brought back from his holiday with the Führer in Spain, a strong blue cheese. Giada was oblivious to all this food as she had been provided with large marrow bone by Don. We drove home through torrential rain, making us appreciate the talents of our Walk Master & Weather Wizard. So that’s a normalised 8 for Oakvale 6oz pies.

      Oakvale Pork Pies                            Pissaladiere and Cheese

Pie munchers                                       Bone muncher Click on images to enlarge