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pie reviews

Rock Midstead organic farm pork pie, £2.99

[Rock Midstead pie] Here at pie-man towers, we have discovered what is probably the finest pork pie in the world. We almost didn't write a review about it, because then you'd all go out and buy one, and there would be none left for us. Which would be a tragedy, frankly. For all those of you wondering what the Bee Gees were blithering on about, now you know. They just couldn't find a decent pie.

Way up on the Northumberland coast, the nice people at Rock Midstead turn out crisp pastry shells filled with chunks of roast organic pork, jelly, herbs and spices and salt and pepper. Then they wrap them up in greaseproof paper, stick a green and white label on them, and release them into the wild. Not surprisingly they don't return, having been scoffed.

The pastry is excellent, but it's the filling that really shouts the pie gospel from the rooftops. One bite and you are suddenly reminded that a pork pie is supposed to contain pork. Yes, that's right, the same stuff as in pork chops. We've been lulled by supermarket pies into believing they should contain some strange pink filling that you don't see anywhere else. In many cases it has at best a tenuous connection to pork - pork's second cousin twice removed, perhaps, or the person who sits at the next desk along from pork at work.

But there is literally nothing to whinge about here. Not one thing. There isn't a ingredient that shouldn't be there, nor a nuance of flavour out of place. The Bee Gees would approve. In three-part harmony, most likely.

Score: 9.8 out of 10