Icarus Hines, small pork pies

Small pies from Icarus Hines, purchased from his shop in Cromer were the focus of our munching this week. We have sampled his small pies once before on June 1^st 2008, when they were purchased from his shop in Sheringham. We headed to Blickling, so that we could enjoy the bluebells in the woods. We parked in the car park by Buck’s Common and then walked with Bert and Harris, through Bunker’s Hill plantation seeing swathes of English bluebell, including a few albino examples. We then followed the path by the Great Wood and into Blickling Park, where we walked around the lake spotting a reed warbler and a grebe diving for food in the lake. As we headed back to the hall, we noted the water tower to our left. We then followed the ha ha around the hall’s gardens with the rhododendrons in bloom, and passed the splendid front of the hall to the picnic to the west. Here we consumed our sandwiches before the short stroll to the Buckinghamshire Arms, where we passed up the Adnams to sample Lupus Lupus – the seasonal beer from the Wolf brewery. After enjoying this fine pint, we headed back past the hall and to St. Andrew’s church. The church was open today, so we were able to see the fine brasses – on previous visits, the church had been locked. From here we headed south along Silvergate Lane before we headed west on the last leg of the walk, passing through Long Plantation and passed the Tower - the second Earl of Buckinghamshire's race stand. Finally a short walk through Buck’s Common concluded our appetiser. Prawns with tartare sauce provide by King Canape was the first course, then followed the pies and a tortilla cooked by José Luis. First the pies,

good looking and when sliced revealed a pink filling with a very little jelly and low on aroma. The pastry was crumbly and too thick for some – perhaps because of the high crust to filling ratio that is inevitable with small pies. The filling was a disappointment to me, not bad, but below expectations, others found it to their liking, resulting in a score of 7.22222 with a high standard deviation of 1.06393. The tortilla was very tasty and I think we all agreed on that. Finally, just to ensure we didn’t go hungry, the Walk Master provided Scottish Shortbreads. So a normalised score of 7 for Icarus Hines compared to a score of 8 on their last outing.

Sainsbury’s mini Melton Mowbray pies

Inclement weather prompted the Pie Master to take the easy option and purchase Sainsbury's mini Melton Mowbray pork pies - we hadn't tried them before & they were on offer! Seven pie munchers set off the following day, in even worse weather, from the fisherman's car park at Blickling Hall. Heading east, we made our way slowly along white fields towards Ingworth, befriending a horse in field on route. We continued east before approaching Aylsham from the north, passing Dunkirk and the old water mill. We eventually reached the shelter afforded by the large church of St. Michael & All Saints. Here we consumed our sandwiches and learnt who we could not marry. Taking note of this, we headed for the warmth of the Black Boys Inn. This establishment was packed with diners, but we managed to squeeze in and enjoy pints of Wherry or hot cups of drink. Thankfully the sleet had abated for our journey back to Blickling, passing the church we then headed west down Peterson’s Lane. We then followed a pleasant footpath that followed the B1354, Blickling Road, emerging opposite St. Andrew’s church, Blickling. We had previously examined this church and found it to be dial-less. Passing in front of the hall, we then headed north to walk around the west side of the frozen lake and back to the cars, spotting a barn owl on our way. Artichoke hearts were canapés this week, that preceded the pies. After providing rather too much in the way of porkie delights last week, I had rather under catered with only 6 mini Melton Mowbray pies to go round. The pies were not bad, but that is about as much that could be said for them. A crisp but lardy case enclosed a bland filling with no aroma. Mustard helped this pie out a little and it managed to score 6.28571 with a high standard deviation of 1.21988. Shortcake completed the grazing experience. So a normalized score of 6.5 for J Sainsbury’s mini Melton Mowbray pork pies.

J & N’s Butchers

A new pork pie for us this week, a large pork pie from J & N’s Butchers of North Walsham (part of Mundesley Butchers). To sample these pies we headed to Blickling via an interesting route devised by the walk master – rather than going into Aylsham and heading west, we took the bypass to the east and then would head west, cross-country. After a wrong turning, we headed west along Banningham Road, only to find the road was closed and there was a diversion. This was interesting, as this route was completely flooded. Both cars raised their suspension for wading and followed Josie in her wellies, through the water. We arrived at the pie tasting ground – the Fisherman’s car park by the lake at Blickling Hall. We started the pre-pie “warm-up” by walking by the frozen lake and along a part of Weaver’s way, then heading north through much mud and very scenic countryside. We eventually reached the road in front of the Saracen’s Head, which we followed southeast, to the church of Our Lady & St. Margaret in Calthorpe. Here we found two scratch dials and sat in the graveyard and had our sandwiches. Onwards to the Spread Eagle in Erpingham, to enjoy a good pint from Wolf or Woodforde’s in “Bullshit Corner”. We had to leave the two pub dogs and head back to the cars and pie, about two and a third miles away. Arriving back at the cars it was decided to start with the pie course. The large pie, obviously cooked in a foil dish, had an attractive glossy top. When cut the pie revealed a coarse pinkie-grey filling and a little jelly. This pie was rated very diversely: although it lacked an appetising aroma, to me this was a top-notch pie, with its coarse meat filling and tasting spot-on, both with and without mustard. One thought it lacked flavour and some criticised the crust, resulting in a very high standard deviation of 1.55265. It did come through with a very respectable score of 7.625. Now it was time to sample the Venison Pâté on oatcakes, donated by Don Warman. This was pleasant though not remarkable, shortcake completed the grazing experience. So a normalized score of 7.5 for J & N’s Butchers pies.

Graves of Briston and Marks and Spencer individual pork pies

Ricky continued his series of extreme walks that he started on the 3rd of February - with his walk through the “dangerous” woods of Blickling Hall, in a gale! This week he had us he walking through fields of angry horses that tried to bite, charge at us and even one tried a back kick! He had prepared us for the experience by organising a stop at the Bull in Little Walsingham for a fortifying drink. A very welcoming and dog friendly pub that served a good beer. The rewards of this walk were two pies for us to sample: First, M&S individual pork pies – a wonderful pie in the mid 1980’s – but have since gone down hill. We last sampled these on the 17th September 2006 in Reedham, where they scored a normalised 7. Today they scored only 6.375 with a standard deviation of 0.64403 so a normalised 6.5. Paul had provided a bonus pie from Graves in Briston, a first for all of us. This pie had a pale crust and a jelly filled steam hole. The filling was very pale, almost white and a little crumbly. The taste – heaven, with or without mustard. This pie scored a handsome 8.95833 with a standard deviation of 0.68948, so that’s a normalised 9 for Graves.

Waitrose Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

After awful weather on Friday evening, with loads of snow, Saturday wasn’t as bad as forecast and Sunday yielded a bright but cold day, initially with a biting wind. A very pleasurable walk around Blickling meeting many lovely dogs soon got us warm. The walk took in distant views of the 1920’s St. Michael’s Hospital water tower, observed last month and the 1884 Blickling Hall water tower, on the mound. Returning to the car for Canapés, Tea and a Waitrose Melton Mowbray Pork Pie – a new pie to us. The pie had good appearance and was surprisingly a little pink, for uncured meat. A pleasant aroma was not followed by a taste explosion, rather bland, perhaps subtle as Charles got hints of Butternut Squash! A pleasant pie with quite acceptable pastry scoring 7.64286 with a standard deviation of 0.44759, so a normalised 7.5 for Waitrose.

1884 Blickling Hall water tower

Samphire

After some fresh sea air, we sampled a couple of pies from "Samphire" at Blickling Hall that Liz had kindly purchased, after our walk at Blakeney. These had a nice light crust with a crumbly meat filling scoring 7.875 with a standard deviation of 0.51755, so a normalised score of 8 for Samphire.