“So sweeping in from the west...” – the end of BPW

19 Gales Farmhouse Foods Crusty Steak Pie Review

So another British Pie week draws to a close, but we couldn’t say goodbye without one final pie that was bought in British Pie Week (even though I didn’t quite get round to eating it until today!) And while the weather’s certainly picked up in the last few days, there was more than a strong breeze hitting the farmers market near my workplace last week! For the “19 Gales Farmhouse Foods” steak pie was on sale near where I work and, of course, being British Pie week how could I possibly refuse? The lure of another ‘fresh from the farmhouse’ pie sounded too good to be true, on sale just a stone’s throw from my office window! GIA (Geography in Action) – the pies were coming to me! So you can imagine my disappointment when I heard the words “Yes, it is just a top crust...”

Gutted!

But being the persevering Pierateer that I am, and because there were only more and more top crust pies as an alternative, I felt a sense of duty to still purchase and consume the pie anyways. After all, I’ve had many a top crust pie before, and was bound to have one again. But you could sense the disappointment and lower score it was going to get, even as I was reassured that the meat was really tender and would be delicious.

19 Gales Farmhouse Steak Pie

19 Gales Farmhouse Steak Pie Cut-through

So the pie itself... the lid was golden brown. Slightly too thick a shortbread pastry lid at points – presumably over doing the fact that there was a pastry shortage elsewhere around the pie! However the steak was really tender and delicious and the gravy was lush too. One down point to only being a top crust was that the gravy had already started leaking out. Highly disappointing, and shouldn’t happen in a real pie. But while disappointing not to have a proper pie with full casing of pastry, it did taste nice and not badly priced at £2.39. And the great thing about 19 Gales farmhouse is that they "specialise in making high quality fruit and savoury pies".

I have no idea where the name of the farmhouse comes from, but if you’re sweeping by and feel blown over into getting a pastry snack, you shouldn’t be (gale) forced into buying one of these, even if it is “just a top crust”!

Score: 4.9/7
RAS

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