Pork Pie Year 2007 Review

Now we have all the scores in, I can announce our top 5 pies of 2007:

1. M & M Rutland sampled on 29th April
2. Tavern Tasty Meats from the Sausage Shop, Holt, sampled on 18th November
3. P&S Butchers, Holt, sampled on 12th August
4. Massingham Brothers, Hoveton, sampled on 3rd June
5. Brays from the Prefect Pie Company, sampled on 8th July

Our all time top 5 pies are:

1. Mrs. King’s Melton Mowbray pie sampled on 26th November 2006
2. M & M Rutland sampled on 29th April
3. Tavern Tasty Meats from the Sausage Shop, Holt, sampled on 18th November
4. P&S Butchers, Holt, sampled on 12th August
5. Massingham Brothers, Hoveton, sampled on 3rd June

So an excellent pie year, with four of the tastings making it to the All Time Greats list, but non toppling Mrs. King.

Pie Master

Budgen’s Deli

On final Sunday of the year, we prepared for our last pork pie, walking around Seething taking in views of the 245,000 gallon water tower at Loddon Ingloss. Budgen’s Deli counter provided one of their own make pies and it was surprisingly good, having the appearance of being hand raised and had a good aroma when sliced. This pie scored 7.71429 with a standard deviation of 0.69664, so that’s a normalised 7.5 for Budgen.

Tesco Finest* Christmas Extra Large Hand Finished Melton Mowbray Outdoor Bred Pork Pie

Sunday 23rd December we walked from Gunthorpe around Briningham passing near to Bellevue tower built in the 1770’s and later converted into a water tower, now a private residence. Returning to Gunthorpe green we sampled, Canapés followed by Tesco Finest* Christmas Extra Large Hand Finished Melton Mowbray Outdoor Bred Pork Pie – good job we’ve a slim December News. This good meaty pie scored a favourable 7.75 with a standard deviation of 0.6892, so that’s a normalised 8 for Tesco’s pie. If that wasn’t enough for us pie lovers, Liz produced her superb mince pies and Ricky supplied some fine port to wash them down. A score of 10 for Liz’s pies – we needn’t take a vote.

Bystanders Christmas meal

Sunday 16th was the Bystanders Christmas meal at the Barford Cock, so again no Pork Pie tasting again this week.

No pies at Kirby Cane !

We ventured out the following week to Kirby Cane however, it being close to Christmas, Charles and I took the executive decision to skip the Pork Pie tasting this week!

Rain washed out pie munching!

The first tasting of the month, scheduled for the 2nd of the month was cancelled as we wimped out of walking in the rain! It was a pretty rough day initially, though it did ease up a bit after dinner.