IT is usually presumed that the highest forms of human achievement
spring from music and the arts. In the rich tapestry of our cultural
heritage, however, there are woven many pathways to fulfilment. Some
find it in madrigals and plainsong; others paint and sketch, or moon
about in art galleries and museums. For all of us there is some route to
that mental elevation which rewards the study and true appreciation of
man's creativity. The diversity of human achievement was illustrated at
the weekend by the revelation that there exists a Pork Pie Appreciation
Society. This body meets in the Bridge Inn at Ripponden, Yorkshire,
where each week it masticates and then pontificates on the pieman's art.
At the annual contest in March there were more than 60 entries, the
winners being Raymond and Janice Lodge, an enterprising couple who have
made a best-seller of a local speciality. This is the Fidget Pie, a pork
pie with added apple and stuffing. Such a delicacy, crisp outside and
moist within, its meat-filled interior held firm with jelly, is far
removed from the dried-out products of the supermarket shelf.
Scotland, alas, does have its own version of the pork pie. Our cuisine
leans heavily on the influence of France, where the nearest product of
the charcuterie seems to be Porc en croute. The English have a varied
range of regional pies -- the fishy Stargazey, the Lancashire Foot, the
Checky Pig of Leicestershire, the Crowthy, the pink-tinged Melton
Mowbray, flavoured with anchovy sauce. Against the Cornish Pasty the
Forfar bridie certainly holds its own. The steak pies of Aberdeen, made
with home-bred beef, are incomparable. All of Scotland's reputation,
unfortunately, is lost with the greasy grey cylinders of the football
terraces. Even with brown sauce, it is unlikely that there will ever be
a Mutton Pie Appreciation Society.
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