New Product Review - Waitrose Hand-Crimped Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

This week I will be reviewing Waitrose's latest offering, a hand-crimped Melton Mowbray pork pie.

Melton Mowbray pork pies hail from the Leicestershire town they are named after and are one of the few British products to have achieved Protected Geographical Indication, meaning they cannot be made anywhere else.

What makes the pies unique is their use of uncured pork. The meat is chopped, not minced, and seasoned with salt and pepper. This mix is then packed into hot-water crust cases which are not held straight by hoops, giving them distinctively bowed sides, and any space left is filled with jelly.

I am afraid that, for this review, I served my pie with a tin of Heinz beans. I don't know if this makes me an awful person but, what can I say, I really like Heinz beans and love them with pork pie!

The pie itself a lovely thing to hold. Taking it out of the packet, it feels smooth, weighty and filled with meat. Let's take a look inside!

Yup, filled with meat. The outside was packed with jelly and so, despite the bowed edge, there was no air inside.

To taste, the pie was near perfect. The pastry was dense and chewy without being heavy or greasy and had a slightly sweet quality. This contrasted perfectly to the savoury meat inside.

The meat was well seasoned, neither was so salty one was left gasping for a glass of water nor so peppery as to mask the flavour of the pork. Yet it was strong enough to give adequate support on the palate and provide a satisfying mouthful.

Unfortunately, I failed to realise that the pie was not a serving and so ate the whole thing. Big mistake. Apart from a calorie and fat count I'm still trying not to think about, by the end of the experience I was completely stuffed. Please, for goodness sake, either share this pie with friends or do anything other than chowing down the whole lot. My goodness, how I am not enormous by now I shall never know!

Price wise, the pie is not bad. The pork is good quality and claims to have been farmed ethically which, of course, comes at a price. This comes on top of the fact that Melton Mowbrays, because of the way they are made, are always more expensive than ordinary pork pies. Therefore, £3.49 seems a fairly good price.

Waitrose's new pie is a triumph. At a fair price and with great flavour and texture, this is well worth picking up, especially for a picnic some sunny summer day.

New Product Review - Waitrose Cremeux du Jura

The Hungry Seagull flies into new territory this week. I shall be reviewing a new food product, something I hope will become a regular feature on my blog.

So, fromage lovers rejoice! Waitrose has released a new cheese. I picked this up in Waitrose's Brighton store, keen to try something new.

Cremeux du Jura is a soft cow's milk cheese with an edible rind, similar to camembert. It is presented in a wooden box surrounded by a spruce hoop (inedible!) and this particular brand is pasteurised so nobody need fret about nasties lurking inside.

To taste, the cheese has a fresh, creamy character. Most of the flavour is in the slightly chewy rind while the centre is smoother than yoghurt and twice as dense. Its strength develops the longer it is open, with little flavour on the first day growing to a noticeable tang on the second.

The taste is a level up from earthy, it is woody. It reminds me of the smell of damp shrubbery on a warm autumn's day. Yet it is a subtle taste. This is a cheese which needs to be enjoyed on its own rather than be hurled into risotto. Not that it would hurt a risotto - I'm sure it would add a delicious creaminess - but the subtle flavours would be overpowered even by leeks. Even by leeks.

I feel this cheese would work best either for lunch, with good bread, salty olives and sweet fruit, or on an after-dinner cheeseboard with crackers and grapes. In other words, occasions when the cheese is the star and its subtleties can be appreciated.

In terms of price, the cheese is fairly expensive. At just under £6 a pop, it is certainly not a lump of cheap cheddar. Although not as pricey as many of the offerings from specialist cheese shops, it is still not a casual purchase and is, perhaps, one best avoided by any but the connoisseur.

That said, for the connoisseur, or at least the committed cheese lover, Cremeux du Jura is a great quality, super-creamy delight with a distinctive woody tang and is well worth trying.