Wm. Morrison (star shaped) hand raised pies

“Star shaped” hand raised pies from the in-store bakery of Wm. Morrison, were the pies of choice for the final munching of flaming June. As it was so hot, we headed to Overstrand for a walk near the coast. Parking by the cricket ground we walked west along the main road to the church of St. Martin, but not visiting it, before we headed up Newman’s Hill. Descending by Suffield Park to join the Paston Way, we passed Cromer lighthouse that featured prominently in the classic 1960’s film “The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter”. We headed towards and walked through Cromer, to the zigzag slope on the west of the town, that goes down to the prom. Now walking east, we made our way to the pier to consume our sandwiches above the sea. The Walk Master then led us up a steep ascent of the cliffs to the Red Lion with it's good selection of beers, of which we sampled “Stripey Jack” from Bees brewery, Woodforde’s “Sundew” & Wolf’s " Straw Dog". We made our way back to Overstrand on the firm sand, thanks to the low tide. Heading back to the town centre via The Londs, we passed the impressive clock tower at The Pleasaunce - designed by Edwin Lutyens and dating from 1897-9. We took our tea and pies to Overstrand cricket ground to utilise the seating. Only Six munchers this week, no King Canape, so straight into the pies: cutting revealed a bright pink interior with no jelly and no aroma. Munching proved the crust to be both crisp and tasty, the filling less so, tasting faintly of unsmoked ham. Mustard didn't really enhance the flavour. The pies were judged to have an acceptable score of 7.25 – marginally higher than when we last sampled these on the 31^st May, last year. The standard deviation was also slightly lower at 0.68920 and with one less muncher! While consuming the post pie Shortbreads, José noticed the cricket club's fixture list and that Overstrand were playing the Bystanders Cricket club on 12^th June and ^14th August. Wm Morrison’s star shaped pies get a normalised score of 7.5 on this outing.

Wm. Morrison “New” Melton Mowbray pork pies

The Pie Master had spotted “New” Melton Mowbray pork pies in the deli in Wm. Morrison - their fluted Melton Mowbray pies were surprisingly good when sampled on the 22^nd February, last year. So these were this week’s delicacy - they certainly looked the part. Eight pie munchers set out on an undulating walk near to Edgefield, from where we headed north west along tracks and bridleways. Many horses & riders passed us on a 10-mile sponsored ride. Wildlife spotted on the first half of the walk included a hare and a pair of Brimstone butterflies. On our journey north west, we passed a field of happy looking pielets before crossing a former M&GN railway line, then we then headed south west for just under a mile. We crossed the railway again, following a track that took us past a delightful garden as we crossed a beck. A short walk along road took us by a field with lambs and the church of St. Lawrence, Hunworth. The walk master was unable to provide his usual informative update regarding the church, as he had brought the wrong Pevsner volume! Finding no scratch dial, we headed for the “Hunny Bell”, passing the rear of Hunworth hall with its fine topiaries. The pub was serving pints of Wolf's "Hero" - a tasty pint coming in at 4%. A final mile and a half, in which we spotted a buzzard and another hare completed this very enjoyable, picturesque walk - Don awarding the Walk Master eleven out of ten! The appearance of the pies got the munchers excited, King Canape declaring them to be a fine pair of erect pies! But first, we had his peppers stuffed with goats cheese that were eagerly consumed. The pies were sliced, their contents looked good despite no jelly. The lack of aroma was the first sign that these pies were not up to the mark. Munching the pies, with their crisp but lardy crust, revealed that flavour was sadly lacking. Mustard did help this pie out a little and the texture was O.K., but it only scored 5.8125 with a very high standard deviation of 1.62431. Organic Scottish Shortbreads completed an excellent outing. A normalised score of 6, then for Wm. Morrison’s new Melton Mowbray pies, their “old” fluted ones had scored 8.5!

Wm. Morrison Lattice

Pie munching finally got started in 2010 with a trip to Attleborough with a Wm. Morrison Large Lattice pie, a new pie for us. A Dozen munchers set off from the centre of town northwards. We soon decided this must have been the most can-polluted town in the county... Crossing the busy A11, already with a full carrier bag full of cans, we continued north, meeting another group of walkers and mardling about can collecting, before heading west where we passed a pair of abandoned skies! We headed North to Great Ellingham and the north porched church of St. James. After finding no scratch dial, we had a look inside the church and had sandwiches in the porch, along with a sample of Elena’s home made guacamole. We headed off, initially east, along a footpath that then became a bridleway describing an arc. We passed under the A11 along Ellingham road and followed it into town. The Bear free house dispensed pints of London Pride and provided comfortable accommodation in which to consume them, however we did have to suffer “EastEnders” on the telly. A short trip down the high street reunited us with our cars. We had collected two large carrier bags of cans – 6lb 3oz in total, 3lb 12oz of these were aluminium. Today we started off with char grilled Puglian artichoke hearts. The Large Lattice pork pie was sliced and released no aroma and revealed a bright pink smooth filling and a hint of jelly. The pie was rather lardy and lacked flavour but found favour with the munchers, having been pieless for so long. The pie was judged to score 7.25, with a high standard deviation of 1.23040, a significant improvement to the previous score of 6.0. We ended with the customary Shortcake, So Wm. Morrison scored a normalised 7.5 for their large lattice pork pie.

Roll mouse over picture to see uncut pie

Wm Morrison (star shaped) hand raised pies

Seven pie munchers headed south towards Brigham to sample the last pie of the month: star shaped, hand raised pies from Wm Morrison. These pies looked very similar to Crantock’s West Country pies, sampled on the 19^th June last year. Parking at the car park by Peddars Way on High Bridgham Road, we set off eastwards along quiet roads to Bridgham, visiting the church of St. Mary the Virgin, which yielded no scratch dials. We then headed south via footpaths that took us through West Harling Common. Heading west, towards Thorpe Woodlands Caravan Park, a grass snake some 18” – 24” long wriggled across our path, just in front of us. At the caravan site shop, that was conveniently closed, was a picnic bench that we utilised for our lunch stop. We then made our way back to the cars via Peddars Way, crossing the River Thet at a particularly beautiful spot. Here we lingered to watch the damselflies and dragonflies mob each other. On reaching the cars the feast unfolded: first King Prawns with a Marie Rose Sauce, then the pies and Shortcake bringing up the rear. The pies when sliced revealed a coarse pink interior but no aroma. Tasting was a pleasant experience, the pastry very good and the filling finding favour with most, but slightly too salt and under spiced for myself, resulting in a score of 7.21429 with a standard deviation of 0.75593. So a normalised score of 7 for Wm Morrison (star shaped) hand raised pies. We stopped on the way home for a pint at the Larling Angel to complete proceedings.

Wm. Morrison Large Melton Mowbray pork pies

The delicatessen at Wm. Morrison provided the last pie of the month – large Melton Mowbray pies. We hadn’t tried these before – Melton Mowbray, hmmm... they didn’t look like Melton Mowbray’s, appearing to have been baked in fluted moulds, rather than free standing as tradition dictates. But before we could sample these, we had one of the Walk Master's interesting walks – you cant say he doesn’t have stile – this walk had at least ten! (A rupture of stiles?) Setting off from the car park at New Buckenham Common, we headed for St. Martin's church to look for scratch dials, of which we found none. We then headed east to Old Buckenham, skirting round the rampart and moat of the New Buckenham castle. Heading north as we walked around Warren Plantation, we eventually came to the 1818 Old Buckenham mill – the widest tower mill in the country. Onwards to sandwiches in the porch of All Saints, Old Buckenham. This church had been extensively rendered so no scratch dials were visible. We then visited the “ Ox and Plough” for a pint of their very acceptable “Ox Ale” at £2.20 a pint, brewed by Worthington’s. We also enjoyed the company of Barkley, a playful 5-month old Labrador puppy. Picking up footpaths on the Tas Valley Way, we headed back to New Buckenham and a return visit to St. Martin’s, then on to the cars and the pies. The two dubious looking Melton Mowbray pies were cut, revealing a pale coarse filling, with a bit of jelly. A pleasant meaty aroma was present though not abundant. The pies tasted good too, “porky and peppery” and were good both with and without mustard, this was reflected in the score with a 8.25 and a standard deviation of 0.75593. Don’s pâté was again passed over, Ricky’s Shortcake offering made a welcome return, followed by a “Quality Street” finale. So Wm. Morrison scored a normalised 8.5 for its large Melton Mowbray pies.

Morrison in store bakery

We ventured into Suffolk for our pie tasting this week, parking at White House Farm, Wild Life Centre in Carlton Colville – this having the luxury of seats & tables at which to sample our pies. First, we headed east to Oulton Broad where Giada had a swim in the broad, before we headed west along the south side of the broad, where we watched a kestrel being harassed by a crow and a flock of eight swans in flight. Our lunch stop was at Share drainage mill where a family of swans were also dining. We crossed Share Marsh to visit the Crown at Carlton Colville, on the Lowestoft Road, but this had no real ale! We gave it a miss and continued back to cars, finding parasol mushrooms that Charles added to his fungus collection. Today’s delicacies were Edamame bean, artichoke & lemon pesto Tortilla and Chilli & coriander King Prawns. Next, our pies from Wm Morrison in store bakery, these were small pies baked in foil cups. They had a good appearance and slicing revealed there was no jelly and a rather suspect pink filling. The pastry tasted good but there was no taste or any real texture to the filling, resulting in a poor score of 5.09091 with a standard deviation of 1.64040. Finally, we had Shortbread to accompany any remaining tea. So a normalised 5.0 for Morrison in store bakery. Following a “Yellow Stainer” demonstration, we headed for home calling in at the George & Dragon at Thurton for a pint of “Mad Bob” – a very pleasant pint at 3.8% from the Nethergate Brewery.

   

Picnic Melton Mowbray Lattice Pork Pies

A risky strategy was employed for the second Sunday of July: I left getting pies until Saturday afternoon - hoping to pick up something interesting at either St. Faith's Fair or the fair at Thorpe St. Andrew. There were no pies and a last minute dash to Wm Morrison had to be made to ensure we were not left pieless for the second week in a row. To make matters worse, our pie appetite was probably not as keen as usual, having an earlier than usual walk around Hevingham, passing Clarkes Quality Meats who's small pies we sampled on 4th May this year. After only five and a half miles and no pre-pie pint, we sampled a mushroom Risotto cake, prior to sampling the Picnic Melton Mowbray Lattice Pork Pies. The piecrust was very lardy especially the base and the pinky meat filling salt and uninspiring. He low score of spot on 6 was definitely due to a poor pie rather than from lack of pre pie warm-up. The standard deviation was a surprisingly high 0.84984, so thatís a 6 for Wm Morris Picnic Melton Mowbray Lattice Pork Pies.

Wm Morrison Vale of Mowbray

Only four of us (and Giada) braved the wind and rain on Sunday 16th. Thanks to Ricky’s planning, we managed to dodge most of the rain by walking around North Walsham, home of the 1933, 75,000 gallon & 1953, 175,000 gallon water towers. No pub or church porch to eat our sandwich’s in, for us hardy walkers this week. Today’s pie was another new pie for us: Wm Morrison Vale of Mowbray – I didn’t have high hopes for this and so it turned out. The pie crust was OK but the filling, pink and almost tasteless, scoring a measly 4.875 and with a low standard deviation of 0.25 confirms that we all found this pie to be poor. A normalised 5 then for Wm Morrison Vale of Mowbray.

North Walsham 1953 and 1955 water towers

Wm Morrison’s slicing pie

What a cracking walk from Cromer to West Runton, over Incleborough Hill and back along the beach where we saw Cromer’s lifeboat crew training with their brand new Tamar class lifeboat “RNLB Lester” at sea, to start the year. Unfortunately, Wm Morrison’s slicing pie did not hit the mark, with the “meat” filling reminding me of Luncheon meat. It was a new pie to us seasoned pie connoisseurs, scoring a surprising 6.66666 with a high standard deviation of 1.03280. So, that’s a normalised 6.5 for Wm Morrison’s slicing pie. A fine walk with fine weather let down by a poor pie – no wonder Margaret tidied her greenhouse rather than come out and work up an appetite for canapés and a slice of pork pie.

Wm Morrison individual pork pies

We went down market on the second Sunday of the month with individual pork pies from Wm Morrison. These mini pork pies were consumed after a walk round the beautiful Ludham water tower. Despite a walk with such stunning views to work up an appetite, they only managed a normalised score of 4.5. The 1980 beautiful Ludham water tower, identical to the 1977 Raveningham tower, however this tower was the first in the country to have the 250,000 gallon bowl constructed at ground level around the shaft, then the 600 tonne bowl was jacked-up and jointed to the shaft. This technique was pioneered in Örebro, Sweden in 1956.