Anna N

Another one I am not familiar with. Wondering if there is any such beasty to be had here in southern Ontario. May have to set @Kerry Bealthe challenge! .

That is a new one to me. But I certainly wouldn’t turn it down!

Delightful.

Yes I was not all that impressed with the appearance of Adam’s pie but I’m wondering if that was photography/lighting related. I always think of a pork pie as being a very soft pinky colour but I haven’t had one for so very long.

Thanks. I was pretty impressed with that thread.

This makes perfect sense. I don’t think I could have even dreamed of tackling this pasty cold. But I obviously did not have my thinking cap on. Thanks for chiming in.

Until I posted here I have never eaten or heard of a hot pork pie. In my opinion it is much more of a terrine than anything else — terrine in a pastry crust. Terrines are served cold. I would love to get @liuzhou’s take on it. I would expect a slice of pork pie to be served on a plate with an assortment of pickles, perhaps a little mustard. Looky what we have here Click

A not a very good photograph but I made up a batch of the Bisto onion gravy and found it quite palatable and very convenient. Heated water in the microwave, added gravy granules and stirred until thickened and smooth. Just about my speed these days.

Had I been heading down a silver mine I might have been better mentally prepared to appreciate the unique qualities of this Cornish pasty. At least I might’ve had a pickaxe handy to break into it! Since these pastries were supposedly intended to be carried down the silver mines in Cornwall to provide a hand-held meal for the miner, they definitely needed a sturdy crust and a fairly dry filling. In this example these qualities were exaggerated to the nth degree. r Out of the package, my suspicions grew that I would need help with this crust so as I warmed it up I prepared some gravy. Out of the oven. “Pastey” was the perfect adjective to apply to the meat. Very very peculiar texture and very, very little flavour. Close up of meat. Swimming in gravy. Lest you think @Kerry Beal and I are ganging up, I was talking to her on the phone while I was eating this and telling her we were not going to buy any more of these. And at that point she asked me if I had read her post about how awful they were. I had not. And I had a very good excuse why not — she only thought she had posted it! But it is always good to have one’s opinions backed up by somebody else. Thumbs down to these. The worst pastry so far. I hope it doesn’t get any worse.

So I had the curry chicken pie from Denninger‘s and truly enjoyed it. So I was quite happy to check out another one and make a comparison. ready for the oven. A little too long in there I think. Or perhaps I should have reduced the temperature from 350°F to 325°F. A bit of a disaster moving it from the oven to the plate! It was possible with effort to detect the faintest, and I do mean faintest, hint of curry flavour. It was horrible by any means but I’m sure if it hadn’t been labelled I would not have detected the curry flavouring. And aside from the chicken there wasn’t much else in there to tempt the taste buds. The crust might have been better had I not left it in the oven quite so long. I managed to get through most of it. It will not appear on my list of favourites.

OK so it’s stretching things a bit but @Kerry Bealdiscovered this in her exploration of British stores in the area: Cheese “gravy”?

Lol. I love her dearly but she wouldn’t have a clue where to start. I taught her a lot of things but cooking wasn’t one of them! I never had confidence in myself to think I could teach anyone else. She makes a mean KD though!

Speaking only for myself, the only restaurants that I would order some thing with gravy happen to be diners! They are known for using gravy mixes just like I do. 😂

Surely their site ought to earn a Guinness world record for length and complexity of ordering instructions for their gravy salts. 😂

I did try to find it without success. And we certainly did deal with Bisto earlier and I dissed it.

The triumph of hope over experience (usually attributed to Dr. Johnson when speaking of a second marriage when the first one was unhappy). Onion flavoured Bisto gravy mix recommended by my sister who lives in England. Does not require cooking. Just add boiling water and stir until the appropriate smoothness and thickness is reached. Will report back when I have tried it.

My freezer has been replenished! I asked for a pork pie. I should have been much, much more specific. What I had in mind was a Melton Mowbray pork pie like this. Despite the pie being labelled “traditional” and despite my being born and raised in the UK, I admit to not being familiar with this strange hybrid. Since it came with heating direction I knew that I was not in the presence of the kind of pie that I was hoping for. (Any pork pie that I have had has been eaten cold.) So I followed the heating directions — 350°F for 20 minutes. Hmmm. I added a little of this chutney to the plate and made it at least sort of of edible. The pastry was really hard to get down. Curious to know how many of you have eaten a pork pie such as this. edited to add: @Kerry Bealsorry! I’m not really the ingrate that I sound! I should have been more specific.

I am having a hard time getting over the idea of chicken and leek in Camembert sauce as an appropriate pie filling. Probably I am just too damned old-fashioned.

That is good news but perhaps not the only good news… I was just reading this when @Kerry Bealphoned to say she was out and about so I gave her a little nudge to pick up some more material for the Crusty Chronicles. 😂

After haircuts and other errands, @Kerry Bealand I stopped to pick up some lunch at one of our favourite Thai restaurants. tamarind chicken curry in front and Siamese beef in the rear. The best calamari in the the GTA (greater Toronto Area). Sticky rice with mango. My plate. Clockwise from bottom left: Dipping sauce for calamari, rice with vegetables, Siamese beef, crispy calamari, tamarind chicken curry, dipping sauce for Siamese beef. Kerry’s plate. Kerry’s portion of sticky rice and mango. Mine still waits for me in the refrigerator!

Onigirazu with lightly fried bologna.

Duck breast and roasted parsnips.

I can understand why if it was prepared by megaliths.

We have all had meals that do not live up to our expectations. Most of us pay the bill and cross the place off our list. End of story. Only a few of us will hold a grudge for 20 years.

@Kerry BealWill likely be quite horrified. I got distracted while I was reheating this Opie’s beef sausage roll. However in spite of being just a little too well browned, it was a very satisfactory snack. The pastry was extraordinarily flaky and the filling was quite satisfactory both taste- and texture-wise and the proportion of filling to pastry was right on.