Pork pies

[vin_petrol]

I have just eaten the last portion of the Walkers pork pie that my lovely mother bought for me, from Leicester, for xmas. Years ago, when I was a teenager, a friend of mine told me that his family ate pork pie for breakfast on xmas day. I asked my mother about this, and it turned out that her family used to do it when she was young, but that as she hated pork pie it was a tradition she had not continued with us. As I love pork pie, I restarted that tradition in my house.

[For those that don't know: the Walkers that made this pie is the same Walkers that makes the crisps. Apparently, during World War II pork was in short supply due to rationing. Mr Walker was looking for something else to make with his idle factory and workers, and apparently crisps fitted the bill. Hence they got into crisp making.]

There aren't many things that Leicestershire can claim to be world class in, but pork pies are one of them. The meat in this pie was proper roasted, uncured pork, not the nasty pink of a cheap pie. The pastry had been supported with a metal ring, so it didn't have the slightly odd shape of a Melton Mowbray pork pie, but the pastry was *perfectly* seasoned. It was quite the finest pork pie I've eaten in a long time.

Trash always gets me a Bullivant and Daughter pork pie whenever she sees them at a food market in York. They make a classy pork pie ... for Yorkshire people ;-) The meat is very good, but the pastry isn't quite to my taste.

One of my favourite factoids is that Tesco or Sainsbury once did a survey on pork pie eating. They discovered that they sold millions, but few people admitted to actually buying them. It seems that men, when sent shopping, would often buy them and scoff them in the car before heading home as a guilty pleasure (disposing of the wrapper carefully). I've never done this. Oh no...

Actually, Tesco do annoy me slightly when it comes to pork pies. They make what they call a "traditional Melton Mowbray" pork pie, which (as far as I'm concerned) is not. The shape is right, but it's *cured* pork inside. Not what you expect from a Melton Mowbray pork pie. As far as I am aware, the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association is trying to get one of those EU rulings which means only pork pies made near Melton Mowbray can use the name. I hope they succeed.

Comments

[skinfitz.livejournal.com]

Interesting!

Did you know that Tesco is known for having more data on it's customers than any other company in Europe?

[vin_petrol]

Did you know that Tesco is known for having more data on it's customers than any other company in Europe?

I didn't, but it doesn't surprise me. Clearly, they'll have a HUGE database of each customer's purchasing habits. Plus where you've been travelling to if you buy their petrol. They'll know even more if you use their credit card. That'll keep data-miners in business for years to come! :-)

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

They succeeded in the regional classification thing- though 'near Melton Mowbray' seems to somehow encompass most of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and a bit of Lincolnshire too (about 2000 square miles of the East Midlands in fact)

Northern Foods went to court saying the region was so huge as to be meaningless, and so they should be able to continue making their pies in Leeds. They lost, and have been suffering since.

[vin_petrol]

We should offer the French a deal: if we can make champagne in Melton Mowbray they can make pork pies in Champagne. Er...

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Pork pies from the butchers in Pateley Bridge are delicious too. I haven't been for a while but it is well worth a trip. Nidderdale Museum is also fabulous and the old fashioned sweet shop sells Spainish Tobacco.
Result!

[vin_petrol]

I can see me now, touring the country in search of the best pork pies...

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

-bat. used to schedule breaks on his epic gigging road trips to coincide with motorway service areas that had the best pork pies and arcade games.

(Although I don't know a motorway service area apart from Tebay that has a pie I'd wish on anyone other than a sworn enemy).

[wibblefish.livejournal.com]

We had damn fine pork pies from a butchers yesterday. If you are over this way I shall have to point you at them.

[vin_petrol]

West of the Pennines? That'll be interesting... :-P

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

writting this about 5 miles from Melton I can assure you that the pork pie protectionism is in full force - it's even on the signs welcomming you to the town.
Got my Dad a Dickins & Morris one for Christmas, though we had it for tea rather than breakfast.

[vin_petrol]

I like this web page ("who makes the best pies"):

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,1694465,00.html

To summarise:

Dickinson and Morris Melton Mowbray, 454g, £2.70, widely available
Nice colour and texture, delicate jelly flavour.
5 stars

Tesco Finest Mini Melton Mowbray, 250g, £1.99
Tastes better than it looks. Crispy.
2 stars

Ha ha Tesco - your pies suck!

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

How did you manage to make that whole post without a refererence to someone (Tesco?) telling porkies?

[vin_petrol]

Because I'm a literal minded programmer.

[ravensthorpe.livejournal.com]

In York there is only one place to go for pie:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=334002422&context=photostream&size=l

[vin_petrol]

Ooh, good point. I've not been there for a while. I seem to recall buying some very nice pork scratchings from there once, and I think I once bought a pork pie from there for one of gothgrr's friends - as [for obvious reasons] gothgrr knows next to nothing about pork pies!

[ravensthorpe.livejournal.com]

There are few finer desk lunches than a Scotts Cornish Pastie and Curd Tart combination.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. Well, perhaps a Saltaire Bakery pork pie (or their beef pie which is equally gorgeous) and some form of meat sarnie from Binns the Butchers on Bingley Road. That'll do me.

[cazzioc.livejournal.com]

Melton Mowbray Pork Pies are ones without jelly.
Just thought I'd add that thought into the equation! (Well I have had a considerable amount of Baileys by now!)
My Dickins & Morris pork pie from Tescos was very nice.