Monday 31 December 2012

2012 Pierate Pie-lights!

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Forget the Christmas Pudding! I want Aldi Pie!

Aldi Specially Selected Luxury Apple (with Sultanas) Pie Review


When my old uni friend Dan suggested bringing Apple Pie, alongside Christmas Pudding, for our “277 Dawlish” Christmas meal together, my immediate thought was “forget the Christmas Pudding!” But for the good of the non-Pierateers in attendance at the meal, I thought I best not be too pie-ased with my favouritism for pie. (Apparently some people do eat other puddings now and then?!)

Aldi Apple Pie ReviewSo with all the visitors – “Andy”, Dan and Mandy, James, Jeremy, Mark, Seth and Stu (and Barnaby via text) – having tucked into the Melon starter and Roast Turkey dinner, it was time to bring on (and somehow find room for) the pie and custard. A quite massive “Specially Selected Luxury Apple Pie” was brought out, having been cooked for a good 45 minutes on low heat, so it was piping hot and golden in colour – perfect condition for a Pierateer. The pastry itself ranged from quite a thick crisp outer crust to a slightly soggier central pastry lid. The apple was in quite large chunks but was very tasty and soft to cut through. The mix of pastry and apple – with the odd sultana thrown in for good measure – was delightfully balanced content. The capacity couldn’t have been any greater, with no room for air in this pie! Serving at least 12, it was a great sized pudding too. My main criticism is that the central pastry was a bit too soggy, but overall the feedback from myself (and my distinguished guests) was that this really was a luxurious pie. Just next time, I’ll try not to make the error of having such a large portion of dinner beforehand!

Aldi Apple Pie Review
Aldi Apple Pie Review

Aldi Specially Selected Luxury Apple (with Sultanas) Pie
Score: 6.05/7
RAS


Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised.

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Sunday 23 December 2012

Is it a McPie? - The McDonald’s Festive Chocolate Pie



McDonald's Festive Chocolate Pie
McDonald's Festive Pie
I’m sure most of our avid readers have read our critique of the McDonald’s Apple Pie (UKedition). In fact, at 863 page views and counting, it’s our most popular article. But here at pierate we can’t hold a grudge – and more importantly, daren’t miss out on a potentially good pie. Which is why, in this festive period, with goodwill to all pie manufacturers, I couldn’t resist the chance for a new potential pie flavour. Could the McPastry department have realised the error of their ways? Had they taken on a new Head of McPastry and gone for an actual pie this time? The golden arches beckoned me in for a festive McDonald’s Orange Flavour Chocolate Pie...


I’m going to have to cut to the chase here. It wasn’t a pie. Nice dessert – yes. A nice orange flavoured chocolate filling – precisely. Worth having again – for sure. But was it a pie?!?!?! Sadly not.


McDonald's Chocolate Pie...aparently
Orange flavoured chocolate filling pastry (it's not a pie!)
Alas, in this season to be jolly, I’m afraid to say I jolly well won’t be going to McDonalds for my pie fix this festive time! But the idea of a chocolate, let alone orangey chocolate filling, does sound pretty epic to me. Here’s hoping someone creates a proper chocolate pie to enjoy – perhaps someone can add that to their New Year’s Resolution list?

From everyone aboard the Pierate ship - Merry Christmas everyone!

RAS
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Friday 21 December 2012

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait(rose)

Note: The following pie is no longer being sold by Waitrose in this form, having been replaced by a 'top crust' version. We are clearly disappointed that Waitrose have done this!


Waitrose - Chicken and White Wine Pie Review

I don't often pop into my local Waitrose. Mainly because I don't have one. I live in one of the more 'edgy' parts of South London. We don't have many of the kinds of people who go to Waitrose. More the kinds of people who walk down the street talking to a stick or asking for 37p because they went into the pub and 'lost' all their money.

Waitrose chicken, white wine, tarragon pie

So upon finding myself in a Waitrose store I decided to try one of their premium products. I thought I deserved this after taking one for the team and reviewing some of the cheap Tesco Value pies. The slightly unusual flavour of Chicken & Tarragon caught my eye. This pie came in at just under £4 for one which didn't seem great on the Cheapness front. That said it probably wasn't designed to be for one person but I felt up to the challenge. It looked to be in great Condition after a short time in the cookery box. A golden puff pastry lid and shortcrust sides, my favourite. Cutting it open a lovely creamy gravy oozed out. Taking a bite what struck me was the unusually high quality of the chicken. It didn't taste at all reconstituted or pumped full of water like too often is the case with supermarket pies. The next feather in the cap for this pie was one of the holy grails for the pie lover. Pastry crispy on the outside but gooey on the inside. It was really a delight to eat and one of the best pies I have had in a while.

Chicken, White Wine & Tarragon (Waitrose)
6.35/7

SJL 
 
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Tuesday 18 December 2012

The best pie blog is on Twitter!

So 1,132 days since we first started blogging about our love of pies, we have finally taken our pie craving to Twitter! We'll be tweeting about all sorts of pie-related things - steak pies, apple pies, pie crust, pie recipes, you name it - and we'd love you to become a follower!


Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised.
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Friday 14 December 2012

All I want for Christmas is... meat pie!

On a cold December lunchtime, the Christmas tree and festive decorations welcome locals into the Sacks of Potatoes pub in central Birmingham. But to be honest, for me, all they needed were the “Turkey and Sausage Pie” adverts that seemed to adorn nearly every table in the pub, as part of their festive menu. I was sold. After all, putting the traditional Roast Turkey aside for a minute, what better festivity than to share a Christmas Pie with all the meaty trimmings?!


 And that’s exactly what you got. None of the sprouts and other veg getting in the way of this pie, oh no! Just the Christmas meat, a bit of cranberry sauce and the pastry! The pie was nicely filled with chunks of meat – particularly turkey – with nice poultry friendly gravy, and a crusty pastry. The pastry did provide slight extremes, with the edge of the slice of pie being quite crisp but a slightly soggier pastry centre due to the gravy, but this was still very nice. The main downside to this pie though was an overly thick lining of cranberry sauce just inside the pie crust, which meant that certain mouthfuls of pie were certainly sweetly overpowering. I’d rather the cranberry had been a side option, rather than taking over the tastebuds for mouthfuls of pie, but overall the meatilicious content of the pie won me over.

The Christmas pie revolution seems to be taking off, with pies adorning pub festive menus. And at £5.95 for a pie dinner and drink, it’s decent value too. It’s a great alternative to the standard roast – perhaps a Boxing day treat for those Christmas leftovers? What’s important though here is that they stuck to their guns with the traditional turkey and a focus of meat, meat, meat! Nice one. Merry Christmas everybody!




Turkey and Sausage (with Cranberry) Pie
Score: 5.75/7

RAS
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Tuesday 11 December 2012

Can you taste the difference? Sainsbury's pie review

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Chicken and Ham and Steak Pie Reviews

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference range brags that you can literally, taste the difference. However, it doesn't specify what you are trying to taste the difference between?

Sainsburys pieThis Pierateer decided to try and taste the difference between two pies, utilizing the offer of 2 pies for £5. One pie was peppered beef steak flavour and the other was chicken and ham flavour, and let me tell you I could certainly taste the difference between them!

The pastry of both was wonderful. It was light and crispy on the outside with a nice golden colour, and the inside was lovely and gooey, soaked in gravy.

The capacity left a lot to be desired though. Although only small pies (individual sized), the chunks of meat, specifically in the chicken and ham pie, were few and far between. Certainly, I've had pies with worse filling, but for a 'posh' pie I was a bit disappointed. For the steak pie, I didn't really think that it could be bragged as being 'peppered'. There were some whole black peppercorns in there, but it wasn't that peppery.

I did enjoy my lunch time snack, and for £2.50 (regular price £2.99) the were probably worth the price, but honestly  I would probably rather spend £1.50 on the regular Sainsbury's pie.

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Steak Pie
Score: 4.3/7

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Chicken and Ham Pie
Score: 4.1/7

ARL




See where this pie ended up in the Pierate Pie Rankings or find other pies of a similar flavour.

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