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

P and S Butchers of Holt

Charles supplied the second offering of the month: Two large pies from P & S Butchers of Holt, located in Bull Street – formally Tower Street due to there being a 56ft high, 15,000 gallon, brick water tower at the end of it on Shirehall Plain (1885-1957). Only four of us, the Führer being awol (plus Coffee and Giada) walked around Winterton-on-Sea on the hot Sunday, where we took refreshment at the Fisherman’s Return before returning to the cars, to sample Canapés, Pork & Pickle balls, the Pies and some sampled Liz’s Lemon Cake!!! The pie (we only sampled the one) had a good external appearance and a nice pink pork filling – just as I think a pork pie should be. There was a small amount of jelly and little air space within the pastry. The pastry was pleasant and light and the filling flavoursome benefiting from the addition of mustard to bring out its full potential. This wonderful pie scored a stonking 8.75 with a standard deviation of only 0.288675135 - so that's a normalised 9 for P & S Butchers of Holt.

Dickinson & Morris of Melton Mowbray

The last walk for July, where we collected chanterelles and wild plums concluded at the site of the former Swanton Abbott Railway Station, where we sampled a previous pie - a Dickenson & Morris of Melton Mowbray (I thought it was Morris & Dickinson) due to me not going to a new supplier soon enough - something for August. Dickinson & Morris produced a pie with a good aroma, tasted very porky, leaving a peppery after taste. This pork pie scored a very respectable 7.642857143 with a standard deviation of 0.55634864 - so that's a normalised 7.5 for Dickenson & Morris. We consumed a Dickinson & Morris pork pie at Wood Norton, near Guist on the 3rd September last year where it scored a normalised 9!