There's a history of good pastry in North Adelaide, and it resides within Perryman's Bakery on Tynte Street.

Let’s begin by adjusting the belt buckle on this week’s pastry guide, as we take you to an old-school favourite for a slice of humble pie: Perryman’s Bakery in North Adelaide

Housed in a heritage building erected by the baker Diedrich Mahnke in the early 1850s, the buttery smells of baking have wafted out of its doors throughout most of Adelaide’s history.

The Perryman’s family name emblazoned above the bakery entrance reads ‘since 1925’ and by our powers of deduction (and seeing all the customers lined up ninety years later) it looks like they’ve been doing it right all this time.

No matter the size of your appetite, there’s a pie for you.

For a quick fix, there’s the baby pie; satiate yourself a little further with a standard pie; bring home a large pie to share, or keep it all for yourself (like CityMag did).

The point is, the people at Perryman’s can bake.

It was lunchtime, so we ordered a fast and easy starter – the baby version of their popular plain meat pie, which was anything but.

Being somewhat of an expert after weeks of pie trials and tests, we can confidently state that the pastry layers had the appropriate flaky puff, the shortcrust had the proper crisp firmness that met all requirements of a traditional pie, and when bit into, the mince meat and thick gravy was both tasty and hugely satisfying.

To accompany the mini pie, we chose another favoured pastry of Perryman’s regulars: the beef sausage roll.

The crunch we hear as we tear away a substantial chunk confirms the Perryman pastry bona fides, and the quality meat ensures there isn’t a need for flavour enhancers or too much salt in their recipes, meaning we can enjoy the juicy, piquant rolls come mealtime anytime.

We finished off with one of Perryman’s famous beestings – sweet honey-crusted buns smeared with a heavy glistening cream and topped with a sprinkling of caramelised almond flakes. It was love at first bite.

The finalising sweet conjured up nice warm toasty feelings in our most important pleasure areas – our tongue, throat and tum. Ah, be still our beating hearts and rumbling bellies.

For a refresher course in the art of real pie, visit Perryman’s Bakery, where the legacy lives on, belts be damned.