Tesco Melton Mowbray medium pork pie

The last pie of the month was a Tesco Melton Mowbray medium pork pie - another new pie, as we've only had their Finest* Melton Mowbray pies before. But first we had to survive another of the Walk Master's "Extreme Walks": Setting off from a lay-by on the A1075, Dereham Road, just north of Shipdham, we headed north then eastwards, to face into the strong winds and rain that made feel even colder than it already was. To add a little spice to the walk we had to climb over a barbed wire fence then cross an active runway. We were fortunate that on this instance, we didn't have to dodge any aircraft - probably due to the weather conditions. Passing the museum of the USAAF 44th Bombardment Group, we came to other obstacles to test us, including a cow poo "lake" to cross and slippery bank & fence to climb. Making it back to civilisation, we took refuge in the church porch of All Saints, Shipdham. The church has a wonderful cupola on its square tower and inside has two fonts and a very old lectern amongst other items to note. The rain that had abated prior to reaching the church, once again started as we finished our sandwiches, we headed off to find solace in the Kings's Head. Here we had good pints of Black Sheep & Wherry by an open fire and an interesting mardle with the locals. Onward, to the cars, a non-challenging mile-long hike along footpaths at the edge of fields. Pâté on oatcakes was passed over due to worsening weather and we went straight into pie tasting. The pies, with rather straight sides, revealed a well filled pie with little jelly, when cut. A slight aroma was present, a "fresh" smell, rather than appetising. "A confident little pie, almost cheeky, if somewhat minimalist" a pleasant pie with not much flavour, helped by the application of mustard. Despite having "Authentic Melton Mowbray Pie" on the wrapper, the pie was lacking in pepper and could not easily be identified as such. The blind tasting resulted in a respectable score of 6.64286 with a rather high standard deviation of 0.98802. A wee dram of 46% Islay Malt, to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, washed down the pie. Shortcake appeared to accompany any remaining tea. So Tesco scored a normalised 6.5 for its standard Melton Mowbray pies.

M. Newitt & Son's

A new pie for us this week; small pies from Oxfordshire family butcher M. Newitt & Son's, distributed through Budgens. Aparently Newitt's were voted Britain's Best Butcher's Shop 2002 by the Meat Trades Journal. The location for the pie tasting and the start of our pre-pie walk was St. Swithin's church, Frettenham, with three scratch dials! We headed east towards the B1150, North Walsham Road, taking in some cracking views of the unique 6-lobed, 500,000 gallon water tower at Horstead, built about 1973. Crossing the B1150 and heading south we came to St. Peter’s church, Crostwick. This was our lunch stop, no scratch dials, but it did have snowdrops in the grounds – the first we’d seen this year. Crossing the B1150 again, we headed northwest through Hillside horse sanctuary with many frisky horses romping in the fields, our destination being the Rose and Crown in Frettenham. Here we enjoyed a very pleasant pint of Harviestoun's "Bitter & Twisted". A three quarter of a mile trip back to the church and on to the munching... First on the menu was an offering from Manola, bursting with flavour: Tomato & Basil King Prawns and Parmesan Grissini for dipping in Spicy Red Pepper Houmous. Our pies had a lot to live up to after that, slicing the pies revealed a well jellied, pink meat filling. Lacking aroma, the filling was tasty, but sadly let down by a soft pie crust – I would imagine a baked-on-the-day pie, from the shop, would be very good. However, despite the poor pastry, the pies returned a respectable, spot on 7.0, with a standard deviation of 0.95743. We ended with the customary Shortcake.

G. Morris & Sons

Pies from G. Morris and Sons were today’s porkie delight, to be sampled in Foxley Wood, once our woodland promenade had been completed: Heading off in a south westerly direction through the wood, eventually turning west along Common Lane towards Bawdeswell. Five red deer were spotted in the distance, along with the top of the 60,000-gallon Bintree water tower. We stopped at the new (built 1953-55) All Saints church for lunch. The old church had been destroyed by a Mosquito bomber during the war. Next stop was for a pint of Adnams in The Old Workhouse, the only surviving pub in Bawdeswell. After a pleasant pint we had to leave this cosy pub and continue our walk on to the locked St. Thomas church in Foxley, where a dubious scratch dial was found by the priest’s door. Returning to the cars for Salmon roulades and Premium Orkney crab terrine on nairn’s rough oatcakes. The pies bursting with aroma when sliced, revealed a pleasant pink filling, complete with a little jelly. The outstanding feature of this pie was the very crisp and tasty crust. The filling had a good meaty texture and lightly spiced, so not delivering a big punch, the application of a little mustard complemented this pie and it romped home with a very healthy score of 7.9375 with a standard deviation of 0.62321. Shortcake completed the grazing. So a normalized score of 8 for G. Morris pies.

Pork Farms Christmas Pie

Shortly after sampling Pork Farms medium pies in November, we start the year with Pork Farms Christmas Large Pork Pies, promising “Succulent well seasoned pork, baked in a flavousome rich pastry”. However, on arriving at this weeks tasting location, the only pies in evidence were pied-wagtails! The Pie Master had left the pies at home! So we marched off without the lure of a portion of pie back at the cars... We set off from Horsey Gap inland on a very bracing day; some would say “it was cold enough for a walking stick with a wheel on”! It was then pointed out that the Pie Master had his shoes on – the trauma of finding ourselves pieless had thrown him and he’d left his boots in the car! Arriving at our lunch location, Horsey mill, a photographic opportunity arose, only for the Pie Master to find his camera was sans memory card! After a prompt lunch stop, we headed off eastwards from the mill and then north to the welcoming warmth of the Nelson Head and a good pint of Woodforde’s Wherry or Nelsons Revenge. Buttoning up, we headed for the coast to view the seals on the beach. A few seals remained and after brief viewing and a mardle with the Seal Warden, we made hasty tracks back to the cars and a warming brew from Josie, who was acting tea lady this week. Shortcake accompanied the tea. We then returned to chez Pie Master & Josie to sample Sardine stuffed Cherry Peppers and then the pies... The dull pastry was not at its best, the filling having a good pink meaty appearance was reasonably tasty, though not enhanced by mustard. They scored a respectable 6.77777 with a high standard deviation of 0.93912 that gives Pork Farms an enhanced rating, with a normalised score of 7.0.

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

Jim's Peak District Pie

Staci supplied the last pie of the year: from New Close Farm Shop in Derbyshire. But before we could start munching on this Peak District, Porky Delight, we had six miles of yomping to do around “Kett’s Country”. Starting from Bracon Ash village hall, our first port of call was St. Nicholas church, Bracon Ash, without tower or scratch dial. We then ventured on towards Hethel, passing ' Hethel Old Thorn' observing a hunting barn owl, before coming to All Saints church with its mausoleum to the Branthwaite family and monument to the USAAF 389th Bombardment Group. Onward, passing near the Lotus car factory then turning south, passing a field with a fox mawkin, to Wreningham via Penny’s Green, eventually reaching our lunch stop at another All Saints church. Unfortunately locked, but it did have a scratch dial to add to our collection. Fortified, we headed back to the car, resisting the temptation of the 'Bird in Hand' however, the Walk Master again produced another “bar in a car” with a different selection of tipples including “Prune Brandy” from Transylvania! This was supplemented by the Pie Masters Blackberry Whisky. Now onto the pie... a uniform pie with glossy pastry, its large vent hole revealed that this pie was nicely jellied. Cutting the pie revealed a good-looking pink interior with little aroma. The meat filling was pleasant and not improved by the addition of mustard. Unfortunately the pie was let down by the chewy, non-lardy, piecrust, perhaps the result of storage in its plastic wrapper. The pie therefore, only scored a spot on 7.5 with a reasonably high standard deviation of 0.86603. Quality Street & Italian Amaretti biscuits concluded the last pie munching of 2008.

Christmas Pies

What do pie munchers do at Christmas? Munch pies of course! Josie had provided festive pies from the pie emporium at Bakers & Larners. Just as on other weeks of the year, we could not sample the pies until we had gone for our stroll around the countryside. Starting from the Victorian St. Peter's church at Haveringland, with it's round Norman tower, we headed westwards across the old wartime, Swannington aerodrome to St. Nicholas church at Brandiston. On past Guton Hall and Little Witchingham Hall to Ketts Lane – Robert Kett was captured in Swannington after the rebellion. We passed the lumpy bumpy yew hedging of the 1675 Swannington Manor as we approached our lunch stop, the church porch of St.Magaret. After recoding the church's fine scratch dial and eating our sandwiches we headed east, past Swannington Hall (scene of many Bystander parties, hosted by Bob Wyles, in the 60's). We continued passing fields of pie filling, before returning to the cars. No pub on the route this week, but our Walk Master soon got us into the festive spirit, producing a “bar in a car”,

to provide a tipple to go with mushroom quiches. Two types of “novelty” pork pies this week: Pork pies with Leeks and Stilton and Pork Pies with Smoked Lancashire cheese and piccalilli both from Lune Valley Real Foods – Yummy! No scores as these were just festive foray into non-mainstream porkie delights. Shortcakes completed proceedings.

Pork pies with Leeks and Stilton and Pies with Smoked Lanc. cheese & piccalilli