The day before CPOP we had been attending a wedding in Yorkshire and briefly stopped in Skipton en-route, following a recommendation on Pies. Spoilt for choice we bought four from two purveyors of pies ( J Stanforth Butchers and Farmhouse Fare ) and decided to have a group tasting for the best feedback.
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| Pie Panel limbering up for tasting session - CPOP2014 |
A definite plus to our visit this year was the Beefmeister Wagon in attendance , which meant that meals (inc a Barbie) were enjoyed in some comfort and libations could be had with no driving compromising any one.....Happy days !!!
It also meant we could give some serious attention to some pie tasting. Four pork Pies had been selected from two exceptional providers, existing no more than 50 yards apart. From both we chose a Pork & Black Pudding Pie to compare. We also had a Pork & Cranberry (Farmhouse Fare) and a Pork & Chilli ( J Stanforth Butchers) offering to taste. Below is a summary of a group impression of each
Pork and Black Pudding Pie - Good pie and the black Pudding element was tasty and moist. A frequent observation when Black pudding is in a pie, is that it is dry & crumbly which this definitely was not. However the Pork was a little bland by comparison. The pastry was ok and jelly was present. 7.5/10
Pork and Chilli Pie - The seller did, as we were leaving the shop, issue an understated guide that this was a tad on the warmish side !!! Wow it was hot. It does come with a warning on the outside as a Skull and Cross Bones is raised up in the pastry! We liked it but the over riding experience was heat which again overshadowed the Pork element, considerably in this case. An excellent Pie for bonfire night or at football match in the bleak midwinter. 8/10
Pork and Black Pudding Pie - A good Pie, nice pastry, tasty pork, jelly present but an underwhelming Black Pudding experience. Not a lot of it, dry, crumbly and little taste. 8/10
Pork and Cranberry Pie - A mixed response from our panel. I liked it, it was moist and tasty, sweet and savoury. But not for everyone. 7.5/10
Overall we thought if you could combine the two Black Pudding pies you would be close to perfection. The Pork & Chilli was hot, very hot which helped build a thirst! The Pork & Cranberry is very much down to whether you like the combination. To see some close ups images follow the link to idreamofpies facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Idreamofpies
Obviously we look forward to tasting more from either emporium as the standard and devotion is high. Chatting to the guy in Stanforths he informed me that they sold and made on site 10,000 of their little beauties a week. We presume they have a thriving wholesale side to their business or Skipton residents munch more pies per person than any other place in Britain! Which is understandable after trying these.
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