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

"Naked" pork pie from Bray’s Cottage

A new pie for us this week, from Bray’s Cottage, their “Naked pork pie”, first tasted in small format by the Pie Master at Norfolk Dog Day. The Walk Master had chosen Clippesby as the tasting location and had devised a 6-mile walk to work up an appetite. On arrival at the car park, the walk master spotted a concessionary footpath and a map detailing the route. In his masterly way, he produced a more interesting 6-mile walk in a couple of minutes! So the pie munchers set off south, down the concessionary path seeing both a Marsh Harrier and a Kestrel. The path then swung west and took us to the River Bure. Here we joined Weavers’ Way, walking north by river, we observed a couple of swans landing then, passing Upton Dyke, a pair of Cormorants flew west above us. We passed Wiseman’s Oby Drainage Mill in poor condition, and came by a field with a fine mix of beautiful bovine examples - especially a woolly white bullock. We headed further north and then northeast by Oby South Dyke, after getting great views of the river with the low sun reflecting on the water. We followed Weavers’ Way to Thurne Church of St. Edmund the King Martyr. Here we consumed our sandwiches and found a scratch dial. From here we headed to the Lion Inn and were supplied with Old Speckled Hen and Wherry. On the return leg, our route back along the river was diverted due to vegetation clearage. The diversion took us by a house with grotesques on the wall, and a concrete porker in the garden. We eventually returned to the waters edge before heading east back to the cars. Prawns with mayonnaise were this week’s starter course. The Naked pie, obviously baked in a foil container, looked good with a glossy top. Cutting the pie released a little aroma, not much, but boy did it smell good! The filling was pink and nicely textured though not much evidence of jelly. The taste was very good prompting the comments "Hit the spot" and "Best pie for a long while”. This pie was much better than the small naked previously tried. The recent small recipe amendment, helped this pie to romp home with a score of 8.875 with a standard deviation of 0.64087 – so a normalised score of 9 for Bray’s Cottage “Naked”. Shortbread returned as the final course this week.

Anyone For Pork Pie Ice Cream?

The Pie Master and Josie went to the Norfolk Dog Day, so it was going to be pieless... No one was selling Pork Pie flavour Ice Cream - a delicacy produced Morelli's ice cream parlour at London store Harrods. However we did meet Sarah Pettegree of Bray's Cottage, so we just had to sample one of her "Naked pork pies"! Elsewhere in Norfolk, pie munchers sans pies were working up an appetite for canapés...

The Walk Master reports: Starting from Cley village hall, ten of us made our way west across allotments then up Barn Drift before turning south west across The Hangs with clear panoramic views of the Salthouse Marshes and Cley Nature Reserve. Next westwards along the road, north across Salthouse Heath and down via woodland path and lane to Salthouse Church (St. Nicholas) for a sandwich break in the churchyard. At this stage we were feeling parched, so repaired to the Dun Cow on The Green, both were packed with people and cars respectively. After drinks onwards west over Sarbury and Walsey Hills before turning seawards along the east side of Cley Nature reserve then west along the shingle bank, hard going, and finally back towards Cley along the flood bank to visit the smoke house for various purchases. Tea, canapés and biscuits were enjoyed but the ubiquitous pork pies were nowhere to be seen, alas, as our generous provider had gone to the dogs! A tour of Cley church (St. Margaret) completed a balmy Sunday afternoon before the trek back.

Independent “Ten Best Pork Pies”

The Independent published their “Ten Best Pork Pies” today, you can view it online by clicking here. They review Dickinson and Morris, Marks & Spencer - who we do not rate, but they put them above Bray's, who we do rate. Also further down the table are Mrs. King's who we rate as number 1 and Walkers fluted pie also makes it onto the list. Their number one pie was from Walter Smith's, this was reported to be one of the world's leading delicacies on the 4th September, last year.

Jarrold’s deli and Brays

The second Sunday we sampled an old favourite: Jarrold’s deli Pork Pie – last sampled on the 29th October 2006 when it scored a healthy 8.5 with a standard deviation of only 0.5. Had the quality been maintained or have our taste buds become more discerning? We hossed out to Holkham, to hopefully see the Geese migration and because there wouldn’t be too many people about... Wrong! There were hoards of people enjoying the good weather. We thought there were a lot of dogs on our last walk – this week there were 100’s on the beach! Our stroll along the beach took us to the Globe, in Wells next-the Sea for a pint of Wherry, we then came back for pie tasting inland... A horrendous noise then started at the car park – I was worried that we would not be able to concentrate on the pie scores. Eventually the noise increased and a Sea King Helicopter rose from behind the trees and then left us in peace. So, had Jarrold’s produced the goods? The pie had good hand raised appearance and a firm smooth filling with pleasant aroma. It tasted good too... scoring 8.28571, so a normalised 8.5 and a standard deviation of 0.48795 – the quality had been maintained. Paul then produced two Brays pork pies – completely different in appearance being similar in shape to an overgrown mince pie. Internally to, the filling of Saddleback rare breed pigs had a pleasant course texture rather than the smooth filling. A good pie, slightly gamy with an onion marmalade complementing the meat. This pie didn’t score quite so highly coming in with very respectable 7.33333 and standard deviation of 0.40825. So, that’s a normalised 7.5 for Brays this time. This pie featured in the first PPN when we sampled it in Sheringham Park mid walk on the 8th July, then it scored 8.5625 with a standard deviation of 0.6781, previously it had scored 8.16667 with a 0.25 standard deviation when we sampled them in Binham on the 22nd April 2006. No water towers on this weeks walk but we did see an incredible eight towers from the car!

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

Brays

The first pie consumed in July, on the 8th, was the wonderfully Gamy Brays pork pie, that Paul produced in Sheringham Park mid walk, made from Saddleback rare breed pigs with a touch of onion marmalade, this scored a very welcome 8.5625 with a standard deviation of 0.678101341 - so that's a normalised 8.5 for Brays. We had consumed a Brays pork pie in Binham on the 22nd April where it scored a normalised 8 - we're developing a taste for them...

Brays

Organic Saddleback pork pies from Brays were sampled at Binham today. These were quite gamey, but hit the spot scoring a high 8.16666, just beating last weeks pie from Sillfield Farm. The standard deviation was a low 0.25. A normalised score of 8 then for Brays.