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

P. & S. Butchers, Holt

Pies from Paul Reed & Simon Wade’s butchers in Holt make a welcome return, since last being tasted on the 12th August 2007, when they scored a stonking 8.75. Our venue for today’s tasting was St. Bartholomew’s church at Corton, near the cliff top in Suffolk. We started our six-mile pre-pie warm up walk with a visit to the church, finding one scratch dial in the porch. We then headed east to the cliff-top and walked north along the cliff passing a very secure bungalow with barbed wire around the perimeter and machine gun posts! Obviously an ex MoD site. Heading inland across a pleasant grass field, we crossed the A12, dual carriageway and then via footpaths, we zigzagged in a southwesterly direction to Blunderston, where we came across a ‘sleeping’ Red Wing. We then made for the church of St. Mary the Virgin for our lunch stop. After refreshments, viewing the church and recording its two scratch dials, we headed to The Plough. No Adnams was available on this visit, so a pint of London Pride refreshed us and got our palates ready for pie. We headed east along footpaths crossing the A12 again and then picking up the old railway line, followed it north back to the car. A Chorizo, potato & sweet pepper tortilla was the starter course, prior to assessing the pies. The good-looking pies revealed a dark, smooth, meat filling when sliced, nicely jellied but had little aroma. Munching the pies revealed a strange tasting filling which some enjoyed but others didn’t, reflected in reasonably high standard deviation of 0.95743. The pies were disappointing, mustard not helping to lift the score and the pastry was unremarkable, resulting in a low score of a spot on 6.5. The customary Shortcake completed the munching.

Pork Pie Year 2008 Review

What a cracking pie year 2008 turned out to be – sampling 49 different pork pies (counting the two cheese topped “novelty” pies)! Now we have all the scores in, I can announce our top 5 pies of 2008:

1. Gloucester Old Spot from Picnic Fayre Deli sampled on 11th May
2. Graves of Briston, sampled on 9th March
3. E.E. Pratt & Co., Drayton, sampled on 27th April
4. Hewitt's, Mattishall, small pies, sampled on 8th June
5. Dickinson & Morris of Melton Mowbray, sampled on 6th April

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 2007
3. Gloucester Old Spot from Picnic Fare Deli sampled on 11th May
4. Graves of Briston, sampled on 9th March
5. Tavern Tasty Meats from the Sausage Shop, sampled on 18th November 2007

That’s it for 2008, an excellent pie year, with two of the tastings making it to the All Time Greats. All it leaves me to do is wish you a good pie munching New Year.

Pie Master

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

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.