Pork Pie Year 2010 Review

2010 started with more new pies to sample and it looked as though we were going to beat the bumper year of 2008. However, events and very bad weather towards the end of the year, resulted in a rather poor score of only 29 different pies being sampled, but of this number, 17 were sampled for the very first time. Now we have all the scores in, I can announce our top 5 pies of 2010:

1. Jarold's Deli, sampled on 5^th September
2. Waitrose Large Melton Mowbray, sampled on 2^nd May
3. Pickerings Medium pies, sampled on 24^th October
4. “Butlers Choice” R.A. Cawdron & Son, Stalham, sampled on 1^st August
5. Laurels Farm Butchers, Eye, sampled on 4^th July

Our all time top 5 pies are:

1. Mrs. King’s Melton Mowbray pie sampled on 26^th November 2006
2. M & M Rutland sampled on 29^th April 2007
3. Gloucester Old Spot from Picnic Fare Deli sampled on 11^th May 2008
4. Clarkes Quality Meats, huge pork pie sampled on 26^th July 2009
5. Jarold's Deli, sampled on 5^th September

R.A. Cawdron and Pickering swapping places from last year and Jarolds Deli pie makes it onto our all time top 5, displacing Graves of Briston, sampled on 9^th March 2008. That concludes 2010's pie munching.

Pie Master

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!

Pickerings Large Pies

Valentines Day saw us sampling one of last year’s top five pies, large pork pies from Pickerings, last sampled on the 1^st February. The Walk Master again being unavailable, the Führer dictated that we find a walk that did not cross ploughed fields. The weather forecast was not good and a 4.8 mile walk around St. Faiths was devised. Only five pie munchers set off, three munchers being unable to walk due to ailments, including the Fuhrer suffering from gout. Starting from Newton St. Faiths we headed south towards Horsham St. Faiths, down a track. We had followed orders, there were no ploughed fields, but something we hadn’t planned on was that the track at one point, was liquid mud, some 3” deep. As we headed south, we could see rain in the distance, but we were lucky - only getting a couple of spots, missing the heavy sleet that fell on Norwich. We successfully navigated our way to Horsham St. Faiths, and the interesting church of St. Mary & St. Andrew that boasted a large scratch dial on a buttress. Here we had lunch at 2.8 miles, before a third of a mile walk to the Black Swan and pints of Adnams, IPA and Guinness, all in good order. The walk back to the start point was pretty straightforward. We returned to the cars for tea, but no Canapés this week. The good looking, hand raised pies were releasing a wonderful aroma even before they were cut. Slicing the pies, the aroma intensified, revealing a marbled filling without jelly. This well spiced pie with its good tasting, crisp pastry found favour with the pie munchers, with the exception of one. Producing a score of 8.25 with a high standard deviation of 1.12916. We ended with the customary Shortcake. So Pickerings get a normalised score of 8.5, equalling their score of last year.

Pork Pie Year 2009 Review

2009 was another great pie year, though petering out in the final month, however we sampled 45 different pork pies (counting the two Christmas “novelty” pies)! Trailing the 49 of last year, though of the 43 bona fide pork pies, an incredible 29 were sampled for the very first time. Now we have all the scores in, I can announce our top 5 pies of 2009:

1. Clarkes Quality Meats, huge pork pie sampled on 26^th July
2. Bray's Cottage, "Naked Pie", sampled on 11^th October
3. “Butlers Choice” R.A. Cawdron & Son, Stalham, sampled on 5^th April
4. Pickerings large pies, sampled on 1^st February
5. G. Morris & Sons - Mega pie, sampled on 26^th April

Our all time top 5 pies are:

1. Mrs. King’s Melton Mowbray pie sampled on 26^th November 2006
2. M & M Rutland sampled on 29^th April 2007
3. Gloucester Old Spot from Picnic Fare Deli sampled on 11^th May 2008
4. Clarkes Quality Meats, huge pork pie sampled on 26^th July
5. Graves of Briston, sampled on 9^th March 2008

That’s it for 2009, an excellent pie year, with lots of good pie munching. All it leaves me to do, is wish you a good pie munching New Year. Don’t forget your new year’s resolution to regularly visit the Pork Pie News - we have welcomed 3,758 visitors from 58 nations!

Pie Master

Pickerings Large

Pickerings pork pies were to be sampled this week after 66 weeks since we last sampled them. To ensure we had a prime pie palate, we had a bracing 6-mile walk. Parking by the side of the road on Wash Lane, near Hales Green, we crossed the A146, Beccles Road and headed towards Raveningham, with the 260,000-gallon water tower in the distance on our starboard side. We passed the late 18th century Raveningham Hall, arriving at the parish church of St. Andrew in the grounds of the hall. The church has a round tower with a later octagonal top and importantly, a scratch dial at its southeast corner! Inside, the chancel has canopied recesses on each side, containing commemorative tablets to the Bacon family. After we had admired these, and had eaten our sandwiches, we exited the church into a blizzard – the Walk Master & Weather Wizard had not inflicted another of his extreme walks upon us - the snow was coming from behind. Exiting the park, we past the cast iron monument built in 1831 by J. T. Patience – showing mileages from London and Norwich. Heading westwards to Hales, we stopped at the Garden House to ensure that our mouths were not too dry to sample pies, Woodfordes Wherry & Norfolk Nog at £2.00 a pint. Onward into another blizzard and to the church of St. Margaret, Hales, the most complete Norman church in the county - a scratch dial fanciers delight, boasting no less than 9 dials! A short journey back to the cars and onto the pies. Pâté on oatcakes were again passed over due to the Siberian weather coming from the east. The good looking pies with a dark, beautifully marbled filling, low on aroma and nicely jellied were very tasty despite being so cold, though not enhanced by mustard. They scored a spot on 8.5 with a standard deviation of 0.70711

Pickerings

Sunday 28th October’s walk started wet and we started by searching the church at Chedgrave for scratch dials, of which we found two. Meanwhile Don Warman assumes we’ve started the walk and heads off down the footpath by the side of the church. We realise we’ve lost Don and return to the cars and search around but can’t find him. Don returns to the cars and doesn’t find us… We continue our walk to Hardley for the lunch stop. On returning to the cars, there is no sign of Don so we head to the pub to find him (that’s our excuse) after a pleasant drink we return to the cars to find Don with a big bag of cans! At last we can start the serious business of judging this weeks pie from Pickerings. A very pleasant pie that scored well on all counts and for the first time everyone gave the same score - an 8, even Josie tasting it at home after the walk gave it an 8. We had a Pickerings pie last October, on the 15th, where it scored a normalised 7.5 at Alby. A short Pork Pie News this month, so I’ve space to congratulate Dr. Manola of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for winning the Nobel Peace Prize – well done!

Pickerings

We had a pie from Pickerings to sample after our pre-pie walk around Alby and a pint in the Horse Shoes Inn. The pie scored a normalised 7.5.