Archers (Est. 1929)

A wonderful walk on Sunday the 17th, through West Harling Heath and around Riddlesworth with moderate aluminium can collecting, was the precursor to the second outing of Archers pork pies: We all agreed the pastry was really good but the meat filling was lacking in flavour, resulting in a score of a spot on 7 and a standard deviation of 0.70711, so that’s another normalised 7 for Archers. Previously it scored 7.1 with a fairly high standard deviation of 0.89443. This was on Trafalgar day 2006 at Reedham.

Jarrold’s deli and Brays

The second Sunday we sampled an old favourite: Jarrold’s deli Pork Pie – last sampled on the 29th October 2006 when it scored a healthy 8.5 with a standard deviation of only 0.5. Had the quality been maintained or have our taste buds become more discerning? We hossed out to Holkham, to hopefully see the Geese migration and because there wouldn’t be too many people about... Wrong! There were hoards of people enjoying the good weather. We thought there were a lot of dogs on our last walk – this week there were 100’s on the beach! Our stroll along the beach took us to the Globe, in Wells next-the Sea for a pint of Wherry, we then came back for pie tasting inland... A horrendous noise then started at the car park – I was worried that we would not be able to concentrate on the pie scores. Eventually the noise increased and a Sea King Helicopter rose from behind the trees and then left us in peace. So, had Jarrold’s produced the goods? The pie had good hand raised appearance and a firm smooth filling with pleasant aroma. It tasted good too... scoring 8.28571, so a normalised 8.5 and a standard deviation of 0.48795 – the quality had been maintained. Paul then produced two Brays pork pies – completely different in appearance being similar in shape to an overgrown mince pie. Internally to, the filling of Saddleback rare breed pigs had a pleasant course texture rather than the smooth filling. A good pie, slightly gamy with an onion marmalade complementing the meat. This pie didn’t score quite so highly coming in with very respectable 7.33333 and standard deviation of 0.40825. So, that’s a normalised 7.5 for Brays this time. This pie featured in the first PPN when we sampled it in Sheringham Park mid walk on the 8th July, then it scored 8.5625 with a standard deviation of 0.6781, previously it had scored 8.16667 with a 0.25 standard deviation when we sampled them in Binham on the 22nd April 2006. No water towers on this weeks walk but we did see an incredible eight towers from the car!

Waitrose Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

After awful weather on Friday evening, with loads of snow, Saturday wasn’t as bad as forecast and Sunday yielded a bright but cold day, initially with a biting wind. A very pleasurable walk around Blickling meeting many lovely dogs soon got us warm. The walk took in distant views of the 1920’s St. Michael’s Hospital water tower, observed last month and the 1884 Blickling Hall water tower, on the mound. Returning to the car for Canapés, Tea and a Waitrose Melton Mowbray Pork Pie – a new pie to us. The pie had good appearance and was surprisingly a little pink, for uncured meat. A pleasant aroma was not followed by a taste explosion, rather bland, perhaps subtle as Charles got hints of Butternut Squash! A pleasant pie with quite acceptable pastry scoring 7.64286 with a standard deviation of 0.44759, so a normalised 7.5 for Waitrose.

1884 Blickling Hall water tower

Massingham Brothers of Hoveton

A good boggy walk, well the first half, around Aylsham worked up our pie appetite. The second half of the walk after a pint of Adnams and with two water towers to admire, the 180,000 gallon Anglian water tower and the St. Michael’s Hospital water tower at the former workhouse, returned us to Bure Valley Railway Station car park, to sample, post Canapés, pies from Massingham Brothers of Hoveton (last sampled on the 3rd June last year and #4 pie of the year, #5 All time pie). The pies having a good appearance disappointed a little this time, only scoring 7.8125 – so a normalised 8, with quite a high standard deviation of 0.9613. Previously the pie had scored a normalised 9! Apparently, the pastry didn’t hit the spot with some, though I enjoyed it some, though I enjoyed it.

180,000 gallon Anglian water tower 1920's St. Michael’s Hospital water tower

Walkers fluted pie

The pre pie amble on Sunday the 20th, started from Pulham Market and took us across ploughed fields of heavy clay to Pulham St. Mary. Despite visiting a brace of churches, scratch dials were as common as flying pigs! At least we ended up at the dog friendly Crown that served a good pint of Adnams, and had a Border Collie / Brown Labrador cross, pub dog who was very friendly. Following the beer and a walk across the road, we had our canapés and then the pie: The pie today was a Walkers fluted pie from the Deli at Waitrose, we had one of these (that time from Tesco’s Deli) almost a year ago – on the 28th January. This had a good aroma once sliced and a nice peppery after taste, scoring 7.3125 with quite a high standard deviation of 0.99777, so that’s a normalised 7.5 for Walkers fluted, previously it scored a normalised 8.

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

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.