Pork Farms Vintage Melton Mowbray

A new pie for the pie munchers this week: Pork Farms Vintage Melton Mowbray mini pork pies. After being let down on pork pies in the west of the county, the Pie Master was unable to source quality local pork pies from that part of the county on Friday. Finding these “Vintage” pies in a supermarket, he thought they should be sampled – CAMRA’s “Beer” magazine (Autumn 2009, p42) had rated them above their original pies. The munching was well attended, three cars heading to Wiveton and parked on the green. We didn’t explore the church of St. Mary, as we’d visited it several times in the past. We made our way east over Wiveton Bridge, over the River Glandford, and then north to the church of St. Margaret, Cley. Here we admired the naughty carvings in the roof and porch. Continuing north and using the facilities of the village hall, we passed the “Picnic Fayre” and its wonderful delicacies before heading out onto the marches, with great views of Cley windmill. During this exceedingly bracing portion of the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast path, we spotted a Kestrel hunting over the marches and a yellow, search and rescue, Sea King helicopter. Lunch was taken in the lee of the bank, by the duck pond at Blakeney. Here a clever Tern managed to stand on the wire fence – not easy for a bird with webbed feet! Next the pie munchers Beer kitty took a serious denting with a visit to the Kings Arms. Horrendously expensive pints of warm, lifeless Wherry and awful Adnams (exchanged for Wherry) were purchased. After our not so refreshing, refreshments, we ascended the B1156 and then a bridle way, to the Wiveton Downs. As we descended from here, a Marsh Harrier was spotted being harassed by a sea gull. Later, we came upon a toad in the road, which we relocated to the safety on the grass bank. Juan Luis, thinking there was a chance that this was a princess, had to be restrained from kissing it. We completed our decent at the cars. Our first course were ricotta-stuffed cherry peppers, quite hot, possibly affecting the pie munchers palates. One pie was sliced open, revealing the grey filling with a soupçon of jelly. The pie had no aroma and a soft crust, the filling was exceptionally bland and desperately in need of mustard. The pie scored an unbelievably high, spot on 6.5 with a high standard deviation of 1.19659.

Pork Farms Christmas Pie

Shortly after sampling Pork Farms medium pies in November, we start the year with Pork Farms Christmas Large Pork Pies, promising “Succulent well seasoned pork, baked in a flavousome rich pastry”. However, on arriving at this weeks tasting location, the only pies in evidence were pied-wagtails! The Pie Master had left the pies at home! So we marched off without the lure of a portion of pie back at the cars... We set off from Horsey Gap inland on a very bracing day; some would say “it was cold enough for a walking stick with a wheel on”! It was then pointed out that the Pie Master had his shoes on – the trauma of finding ourselves pieless had thrown him and he’d left his boots in the car! Arriving at our lunch location, Horsey mill, a photographic opportunity arose, only for the Pie Master to find his camera was sans memory card! After a prompt lunch stop, we headed off eastwards from the mill and then north to the welcoming warmth of the Nelson Head and a good pint of Woodforde’s Wherry or Nelsons Revenge. Buttoning up, we headed for the coast to view the seals on the beach. A few seals remained and after brief viewing and a mardle with the Seal Warden, we made hasty tracks back to the cars and a warming brew from Josie, who was acting tea lady this week. Shortcake accompanied the tea. We then returned to chez Pie Master & Josie to sample Sardine stuffed Cherry Peppers and then the pies... The dull pastry was not at its best, the filling having a good pink meaty appearance was reasonably tasty, though not enhanced by mustard. They scored a respectable 6.77777 with a high standard deviation of 0.93912 that gives Pork Farms an enhanced rating, with a normalised score of 7.0.

Pork Farms medium pies

Poor weather hampered pie procurement and partaking. This week we were to sample Pork Farms medium pork pies, last sampled 24th June 2007, when they scored 6.3. After several delays due to snow and bad roads, six dedicate pie munchers set off from the car park of St. Mary & St. Margaret's church, traversing westwards across countryside and suburb, passing the Old Hall (late 1600's) in Old Catton, we eventually stopped for lunch in the warm church of St. Margaret in Old Catton. On to Catton Park, where Charles enjoyed the open space to practice his Nordic walking. Onwards to the Royal Oak for an indifferent pint of Wherry, spoilt by being served through a tight sparkler. We headed back to the cars in the failing light and found that we had narrowly escaped having our vehicles locked in! We returned to chez Pie Master & Josie to sample the pies, after Waitrose smoked salmon and smoked mackerel pâté with mini oatcakes. The pies uninspiring external appearance, revealed a good pink filling and well jellied, when cut, and a good aroma. The filling was unfortunately bland and the pastry had a lardy finish, so only scoring 5.666 with a standard deviation of 1.08012. We finished of with a second round of tea and short breads. So, Pork Farms scoring a normalised 5.5 this time.

Pork Farms

After a very wet walk from Warham, where Giada laid down in almost every puddle - her perfect walk! The 2 pies from Pork Farmswere very different, one very salt the other bland... the combined scores averaged 6.3 with a standard deviation of 0.670820393 - so that's a normalised 6.5 for Pork Farms.