Massingham Brothers of Hoveton

A good boggy walk, well the first half, around Aylsham worked up our pie appetite. The second half of the walk after a pint of Adnams and with two water towers to admire, the 180,000 gallon Anglian water tower and the St. Michael’s Hospital water tower at the former workhouse, returned us to Bure Valley Railway Station car park, to sample, post Canapés, pies from Massingham Brothers of Hoveton (last sampled on the 3rd June last year and #4 pie of the year, #5 All time pie). The pies having a good appearance disappointed a little this time, only scoring 7.8125 – so a normalised 8, with quite a high standard deviation of 0.9613. Previously the pie had scored a normalised 9! Apparently, the pastry didn’t hit the spot with some, though I enjoyed it some, though I enjoyed it.

180,000 gallon Anglian water tower 1920's St. Michael’s Hospital water tower

Walkers fluted pie

The pre pie amble on Sunday the 20th, started from Pulham Market and took us across ploughed fields of heavy clay to Pulham St. Mary. Despite visiting a brace of churches, scratch dials were as common as flying pigs! At least we ended up at the dog friendly Crown that served a good pint of Adnams, and had a Border Collie / Brown Labrador cross, pub dog who was very friendly. Following the beer and a walk across the road, we had our canapés and then the pie: The pie today was a Walkers fluted pie from the Deli at Waitrose, we had one of these (that time from Tesco’s Deli) almost a year ago – on the 28th January. This had a good aroma once sliced and a nice peppery after taste, scoring 7.3125 with quite a high standard deviation of 0.99777, so that’s a normalised 7.5 for Walkers fluted, previously it scored a normalised 8.

Cumpstey’s small pies

The second tasting session had us working up our pie appetites on a 3.5 church and 0.1 dog walk from North Burlingham, via Hemblington to South Walsham and back. Visiting all three’s churches and half a church at South Walsham (the old church ruin) yielded two scratch dials – a very interesting one at South Walsham was protected by Perspex! We then visited The Ship to enjoy beer from Oulton Broad, without dogs – Giada did not come with us and Keith took Coffee home shortly after starting the walk. The pies this week were small pork pies with a good appearance from Cumpstey’s the butcher in Acle – we’ve had their large pies before, but we would be experiencing a new crust to filling ratio. A good pie scoring a respectable, spot on 8 with a standard deviation of 0.774597, so that’s a normalised 8 for Cumpstey’s smalls! Following the pie munching, Ricky produced an almond cake cooked by Keith, after a few tentative tasters, we soon made short work of it – well done Keith!

Scratch dial at South Walsham

Wm Morrison’s slicing pie

What a cracking walk from Cromer to West Runton, over Incleborough Hill and back along the beach where we saw Cromer’s lifeboat crew training with their brand new Tamar class lifeboat “RNLB Lester” at sea, to start the year. Unfortunately, Wm Morrison’s slicing pie did not hit the mark, with the “meat” filling reminding me of Luncheon meat. It was a new pie to us seasoned pie connoisseurs, scoring a surprising 6.66666 with a high standard deviation of 1.03280. So, that’s a normalised 6.5 for Wm Morrison’s slicing pie. A fine walk with fine weather let down by a poor pie – no wonder Margaret tidied her greenhouse rather than come out and work up an appetite for canapés and a slice of pork pie.