Frank Spurgon

Following last week's quality pies, it was going to be a hard act to follow so I thought we'd sample pies from Frank Spurgon, last munched back in May last year, when they returned a respectable score of 7.5. The Walk Master had devised a 6 mile appetising walk from Cromer to East Runton via Incleborough Hill. Parking in a side street we made our way south west, taking in some of the Norfolk Coast Path and many blackberries! The walk now became a fungus foray, first collecting Parasol mushrooms, then a crop of Shaggy Parasols. A little later we came to a solitary Shaggy Ink Cap before collecting several chanteralls, our collection was completed with a Brown Birch Boletus. We then ascended Incleborough Hill for lunch at 259 feet above sea level! No wonder King Canape was a little breathless. We made our way down into East Runton to the Fishing Boat for reasonably priced pints of Sundew and Wherry, which we consumed in the garden. We made our way to West Runton Gap to walk along the beach, the tide being out. Coming up the cliff at Cromer, we returned to the cars for tea and Waitrose Guacamole with spicy crackers, followed by Panadas – spicy beef pies from Sardinia that Ana brought back. Then the lovely pies from Frank Spurgeon, these had a very crisp crust and a dark filling with jelly. Nicely textured and spiced the eight participating munchers all enjoyed the pies giving them a score of 8.3125 with a standard deviation of 0.37201 – slightly up on last week’s pie. So Frank Surgeon gets a rounded up, normalised score of 8.5. Shortbread was the final fourth course this week.

Frank Spurgeon

Pies from Frank Spurgeon made a welcome return to the pie munchers walk this week. Six sombre munchers set off from St. Michael & All Angels church after inspecting it internally & externally and finding two scratch dials. We set off northwards, leaving the church and the cold war early warning station behind us. Then, turning west, we followed a footpath that passed through a garden with a beautiful, crazy puppy that was so pleased to see us. This lifted our spirits and of course we had to make a fuss of her... We continued to Smallburgh and St. Peter’s church for lunch at just shy of two miles. Here we found a badly weathered scratch dial. We then crossed the A149 and picked up the old road and headed east in search of liquid refreshment, passing through a field of cows and calves that were very interested in us and followed our exit from the field. A short walk up the A1151 took us to the Wayford Bridge Inn that yielded an insipid pint of Theakston's Black Bull, possibly due to the fact that it’d been chilled so much. Returning down the A1151 a little way before picking up a picturesque route south that reunited us with the car and the feast within. This was consumed in the porch of St. Michael & All Angels, due to the ever threatening rain. Charles produced a wonderfully messy first course of marinated Anchovies in olive oil with garlic – these had to be skewered with a tooth pick... Next we had Sardine stuffed cherry peppers with raisins and pine nuts. Frank Spurgeon’s small pies were sliced revealing a dark filling and a hint of jelly. When the pies were tasted back in May 2007, the pies had a pink filling. These pies had low aroma and the pastry was crisp and very tasty, the filling less so, but pleasant. The pies came in with a score of 7.66666 with a standard deviation of 0.40825, below their previous tastings when they scored 8.1. Shortbread completed the munching, that gives Frank Spurgeon a normalised score of 7.5.

Frank Spurgeon

Mothering Sunday saw us hossing out to Lyng a little later than usual to search for scratch dials, of which there were none, and to work up an appetite for the pork pie tasting. We saw the first new lambs of the year and visited the church with the widest column less nave in East Anglia, possibly the UK, at Elsing. Returning to the cars parked in the Lyng Leisure Centre’s car park for our ‘Rave’ – music from Keith Skues on the wireless and Tea, Canapés and Pork Pies from Frank Spurgeon were consumed before we could be evicted. The pies only have had one previous tasting, 8 months ago at Irstead. The pies had good appearance and a fine textured filling with a little jelly. A good pie scoring 8.1 with quite a high standard deviation of 0.73786, so again Frank Spurgeon scores a normalised 8. Previously when we tasted these pies on the 5th June they scored 8.14286 with a much lower standard deviation of 0.24398.

Frank Spurgeon

We sampled pies from Frank Spurgeon today after our pre-pie amble from Irstead. This is what I call a pork pie, nice pink meat with jelly on top. The pie munchers agreed, awarding Frank Spurgeon 8.14286 with a standard deviation of 0.24398. So a normalised score of 8 for Frank Spurgeon.