Halesworth-based Truly Traceable Venision & Game Pies shot to the top at the 2024 EatGame Awards as winner of the Best Game Added Value Product category.
When the Thoroughfare Deli in Halesworth changed hands in 2014 and the new owners wanted to offer something a little different, they turned to a local gamekeeper friend and his expert cook wife for inspiration. The rest is more than just delicious food for thought – it’s a foodie history of which the town is rightly proud.
The conversation (and culinary repertoire) started with venison pies. Fully qualified in deer management and butchery, Steve regularly culled deer and had to record the full details as standard. With the venison responsibly sourced with total provenance, wife Lynn set about creating the perfect recipe created from other local ingredients.
When the deli launched the first pies and they flew off the shelves, on a whim the couple decided to enter the Melton Mowbray Pie competition… and came away with a medal.
Shop & Dine Halesworth I From delicious delis to divine cafés get a taste for Halesworth
Since those very first venison pie morsels, the Halesworth-based business has flourished along with the product range. Game, rabbit, pork, beef and chicken artisan pies are accompanied by a number of veggie options, all made by hand with a large quantity of TLC and Lynn’s secret recipe of mega-light and delicious pastry.
Flavoursome ingredients are sourced from providers local to Halesworth too – cream and cider for the rabbit pies comes from Bramfield; free range pork from Blythburgh just up the road, whilst beef is sourced from Cratfield just beyond Huntingfield and Heveningham and free range chicken from just down the A12 at Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge.
Halesworth Villages I Explore the villages and landscapes producing all the awesome ingredients.
But the EatGame Awards win has not been the only accolade for Truly Traceable so far in 2024. The British Pie Awards saw the team scoop a silver for their home made pheasant and chestnut pie and bronze for their home made venision and ale pie.
Over the years their sausage rolls have simply become legend in these Halesworth parts winning local Great Taste Awards and more.
These days provenance is everything. Halesworth’s Truly Traceable Pies got ahead of the game (…venison, rabbit, pork etc !) and haven’t looked back.
Look out for Truly Traceable Halesworth treats on the menu, in the farm shops and delis, and also at farmers’ markets and Suffolk’s annual food and drink fairs in nearby Beccles and Bungay and at the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival at Snape Maltings.
