I’ve avoided pork pies for years.  Depressed by their (sometimes) pink interiors and jelly-clad compressed mushiness and mortified to read the ingredient lists and see hosts of words I can’t pronounce, I have always given them a wide birth.

Today was the start of the rest of my life in terms of pork pies when I happened to meet two of the Bray’s Cottage ladies at Norwich Farmer’s market.  In the same way as I think you can tell a lot about a butcher by their “standard” pork sausage I took the same approach with a “standard” pie although I was very tempted by some of the more exotic offerings.

You know when you see a Bray’s Cottage pie it is going to be special and this is confirmed when you cut into it.  The pastry is very short and crunchy and err well, perfect for the perfect pie.  The meat inside is perfectly formed!

To say the taste of the pie was a revelation is an understatement.  This is probably the finest pork pie I have ever tasted.  Of course my usual munch is sausages but this pie really was first rate.  Home reared Saddleback pigs provide the meat and the cuts are those you would normally associate with joints and chops and other nice treats.  They also mix in some bacon and some onion marmalade for that perfect pie flavour.

If I was touring the UK looking for pies not sausages I might stop my search now and move to Holt!

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