Jake’s pork pies epitomise the embarrassment of riches one can find at Hampshire Farmers’ Markets. They are made from free range pork sourced from the best Hampshire butchers, made locally in Hampshire and are the best example of a pork pie one can find anywhere.
There is no doubt that the pork is excellent. It is high-quality meat to start with. Then it has been slowly cooked to achieve a perfect succulent but savoury filling. It is titillative in it’s indulgent porkiness, making you think of carnal pleasures as you sink your teeth into a healthy mouthful of meat. Jake’s pork pies also deal deftly with two problems The Editor and I frequently have with lesser examples of the pork pie.
The Editor has some warped problem with pastry. Totally unintelligible – pastry is marvellous stuff. However, upon biting into his first morsel of a Jake’s pork pie I was stunned by his silence. He was either horrified beyond words or seriously impressed. It turned out to be the latter as he pronounced the pie had the best pastry of any pork pie he had ever had. I agreed; it was firm but had a pleasant flakiness (which was somehow familiar…). Whilst it maintained it’s coherence when being lugged up the hill from the farmers’ market, it melted with a dissolute richness as you took a bite of the pie. If The Editor was impressed then Jake’s pork pies had clearly succeeded in the timbale department.
Now I have a completely understandable distrust of too much jelly in pork pies. Most of the time it’s just cheap filling that could be replaced with meat. Jake’s pork pies had enough jelly so you had a feeling of palate-coating voluptuousness but that was it – no excess, no heavy hand with the gelatine mix, perfect! With these two factors executed so excellently, combined with the winning quality of the meat, Jake’s pork pies are the best we have eaten.
You will want something to heighten the experience of your Jake’s pork pie and, whilst English mustard will do, what you should really be aiming to score is some Perfect Pickles Red Hot Tomato Chutney. This is another great product of Hampshire (well, ok, the tomatoes come from the Isle of Wight) but if you should be out of range of a Hampshire Farmers’ Market you can contact Perfect Pickles boss man Dwayne Bantram via their Facebook page in order to determine availability.
Only one question remains about the orgasmic Jake’s pork pies. Why, on their promotional postcard is the pie barely in shot and the focus is on a few slices of the vile cucumber?!?!
Picked a pair of these pies up at the Winchester Farmer’s Market a couple of weeks ago. Could not agree more about the quality and balance of the component parts; delicious. Slight concern about the apparent lack of a best before date, but one eaten on the day whilst the other kept perfectly well in the fridge for nearly a week. Will have to seek out the Red Hot Tomato Chutney.
Hi Gordon
I’m really pleased you liked the pies. As for shelf-life, my experience is that they are indeed fine for up to seven days in the fridge but up to three or four days is best as the pastry starts to lose its crispness after that (being pastry).
You might like to know that we’re just going through the testing process for a seven-day shelf life which should be complete within the next three weeks – they’re already accredited for three days.
I hope that helps. If you have any queries in the meantime, by all means contact me at jake.hampshire@yahoo.co.uk or 07443 422 817.