Don’s Pheasant Pâté

No pies today due to a lack of pie munchers and this being Mothering Sunday, we bowed to Margaret’s wish of a non-pie day. In the absence of the Walk Master, King Canapé and the Pie Master managed to navigate, a poorly signposted, Boldero walk around Brome, Suffolk. Parking near to the Swan Inn, we set off towards Brome church, but just prior to reaching it, headed south to Mustardpot Hall, then picking up the Mid-Suffolk Path, headed to Brome Street, passing Brome Hall. On reaching The Street, Brome Street, we headed west, back towards Brome. Noticing the ideal lunch stop, a covered seating area in front of the village hall – a memorial to the 490th Bombardment Group (Heavy) stationed nearby at Eye - we had our lunch early. Continuing our journey along The Street, full of beautiful thatched cottages, we came to Brome and the church of St. Mary - much reconstructed rather than restored in the 1860’s - although the south porch and south side were much left intact, there were no scratch dials to be found. After inspecting the church interior and admiring its stained glass windows we departed. Retracing our steps a short distance, we then headed north via a footpath towards Warren Hills and shortly before reaching the B1118, turned west and followed a footpath across the A140. Our passage to the church at Stuston via the un-signposted footpath across a field, was blocked by deep furrows across our path, forcing us to follow the perimeter of the field. As can be seen on Google Earth, previously crops blocked this right of way. We eventually reached the Victorianised All Saints church, Stuston. This too had no scratch dials, so we left the church and headed south down a track zigzagging back up Stuston Lane and then south again, down Grove Lane, turning east under a crackling high-voltage pylon and heading to the A140. Walking the short distance down the A140 to the Swan Inn for refreshment, unfortunately it had closed at 15:00! We crossed the A140 to the car. Smoked salmon mousse crescents formed the entrée prior to sampling Don’s Pheasant Pâté on nairns Oatcakes. I really enjoyed this and thought it better than the Venison pâté sampled on the 8th February. Finally, dial-less, we headed for St. Nicholas church, Oakley by car on the way home. This church did not yield any scratch dials either but had some good Victorian stained glass.

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.