Who Nose How They Make Their Pies So Cheap?

Farmers' Markets are a delight for the pie lover. A great selection of unique, home cooked pies that offer something different from the standard mass produced fare. I work near to the Bloomsbury farmers' market in London so when we feel like a treat on a Thursday we head over there. There is one pie stall there called 'The Parsons Nose' which is entirely an enigma to me. They sell absolutely huge pies, sometimes with premium fillings like wild boar, plus mash, gravy and salad for £5, easily scoring a 7 out of 7 for Cheapness.

Beware, they often sell out of many of the pie flavours so get there early.

Anyone who knows London knows that is just too cheap! Normally farmers' markets have a premium cost if anything. I have tried a couple of these pies to investigate the situation. The first I tried was the wild boar. It was a ridiculous pie, it was almost solidly filled with some kind of swine meat (can it really be wild boar at that price?!) with no gravy. The meat is minced and stuck together and it looks somewhat like a pork pie but with lighter pastry. To start with I thought this is fantastic, what a great value pie. The lack of gravy however soon began to take it's toll, it was just too dry and became hard work. I also started to wonder how well the filling had been cooked. It certainly was still very pink. Combine this with the huge huge size and consequently I didn't actually finish this pie. I think is the only time this has happened in all my time spent on the pierate ship. Disappointing, however this pie still came in high on the calories to pound ratio.

The wild boar pie, perhaps it is possible to be packed too full of Content!

Next time I changed to a chicken and ham pie which was again far too big for one person to comfortably eat. However this time the pie had much more gravy and was much easier to eat. However the chicken was clearly low quality and there was a lot of gristle. It was also far too salty and led to a maddening thirst. I did finish it but many of my colleagues didn't manage to. The general consensus was that despite being great value and good to start with by the end none of us enjoyed these pies as much as we thought we would. I also felt so sleepy after these pies it killed my productivity for the afternoon at work! However at that price I would get the chicken again and I think this is reflected in the scores.

Served upside down, the chicken and ham pie explodes with ample filling.

 
Wild Boar (The Parsons Nose) 
3.70/7 

Chicken and Ham (The Parsons Nose) 
5.00/7 

SJL