Sunday 4 August 2013

Stars in their pies! - Pierate Pie Contest

The pies of the first ever Pierate Pie Contest.
Following the pie contest overview, this post references the pies and inaugural Pierate Pie Contest winner!

Having enjoyed a hearty pie dinner thanks to the delicious Paul’s Pies sent to us for the main course, it was time for the actual pie contest itself to begin!
Pierateer TJP had already gone through the 7 Cs marking criteria with the pie contest guests and so we were ready to crack on with the pies! Who would win the Pierate People’s Choice Pie Award 2013?

Niclasen's Apple Pie
Niclasen's Apple Pie (4th & top sweet pie)
The first to be eaten were the “Meatless Masterpiece Pie” (which was impressively gluten free as well as vegetarian, to cater for specific diets) by Victoria and the Ogborne’s Chicken and Leek pie. Both made a good first impression on the pie diners. This was followed by two shop-bought pork pies eaten cold, namely the “Cheesy Pig” (Pork and Stilton) and Pat’s Pork Pie. Pat’s Pork Pie got a very decent score of 5.75/7 to win the accolade of best shop bought pie. We Pierateers will have to try and get our hands on this pie for a proper full review one day!
The wild pies came out next, produced by the Pierateers themselves and with quite an unbeknown quantity to them. The first was the “Springbok ‘n’ roll pie”, which as the name suggests included pieces of Springbok meat alongside the more traditional mixed vegetables and chicken gravy. Following that came the “Beast from the East (side of Africa) pie”, which of course contained Wildebeest meat alongside sweet potato, mix vegetables and beef gravy. These were certainly the first times that we are aware these two flavours of pie have been eaten and reviewed! The meat was purchased from www.exoticmeats.co.uk and both received quite mixed score reviews, with the Springbok edging things with a 5.17/7 average (but the only 7/7 of the whole evening!) compared to the Wildebeest scoring 4.79/7. Pierateer RAS was pretty pleased with that effort considering he is certainly more of a pie eater than pie maker! As for the taste, the Wildebeest was strongly beef-like but not overly chewy with Springbok a bit lighter and more gamey. Certainly not as rich as venison (as a deer comparison) and not as beef-like but still within that meaty area!

These were followed by a filo pastry “Spinach and Goats Cheese pie” by “Chrissy the Terrible” and “Kevlaaarrgh” providing a “Poacher’s Pie” (Sausage and Leek). As well as putting in the effort with good Pirate names, they had clearly put in the effort in preparing the pies with two top scoring efforts which went down well with the pie contest guests.

Poachers Pie
The “Poacher’s Pie” by Kevlaaarrgh (2nd)
A Beef and Sweet Potato pie by Mr Harvey – highly commended for its free-standing full encasement of pastry (i.e. without the support of a pie dish) – and potato topped Gammon and Leek Pie by Gloria rounded off the savoury pie selection.

The homemade sweet pie of the evening was provided by the Niclasens (and I am told the children handpicked the apples to go in it, so a real family effort!) and was a strong contender come the final scores. The night was rounded off with a couple of shop bought sweet pies – namely the Sainsbury’s Bramley Apple Pie (reviewed on this blog previously) and a Becketts Farm Blackberry and Apple Pie.

So with no further ado, the scores were collated (out of 7 of course) and the results of the Pierate Pie Contest 2013 People’s Choice vote are as follows:

4th Place: Niclasen’s Apple Pie (5.36/7)
3rd Place: Gloria’s Gammon and Leek Pie (5.5/7)
2nd Place: Kevlaaarrgh’s “Poacher’s Pie” (Sausage and Leek) (5.51/7)
And the winner is...

Spinach and Goats Cheese Pie
 Chrissy the Terrible's Filo pastry Spinach and Goats Cheese Pie (1st)
1st Place: Chrissy the Terrible's Filo pastry Spinach and Goats Cheese Pie (5.99/7)

In summary: 13 pies, 11 hot, 2 cold, 8 savoury, 3 sweet, 1 epic pie night!

Thanks so much to everyone who took part, particularly those who entered homemade pies which truely had stars in their pies! But whether baking, eating or scoring pies, it was a great night and we hope to one day do it all again!
And arrrgh winner is... "Chrissy the Terrible"
 


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