Monday 25 August 2014

The Hull Pie - One Hull of a Pie Shop!

The Hull Pie Jerk Chicken and Mutton and Ale Pie Reviews


It has to be said that there are definitely not enough pie shops out there – shops which are built on the quality pies they produce and not just tagging pies onto an already overloaded menu board of non-pie meals. Of course London is famous for its traditional pie and mash shops, but barring a few notable exceptions, pie shops are few and far between. Which is what makes it an absolute delight and pleasure to introduce you to “The Hull Pie” – a modern take on the traditional pie shop with some absolutely quality pies, served in Hull.

The Hull Pie 2
The Hull Pie 2
The Pierateers themselves got to try these pies on a recent road trip to the Humberside area - travelling well over 200 miles on one of their #PieTour visits after a lot of Hull-abaloo about how good these pies were on Twitter - and believe me, we were not disappointed! The following pies were great and the only downside was that we arrived in Hull too late to get to the main The Hull Pie shop in the city centre, instead going to The Hull Pie 2 – their takeaway shop which has extended opening hours including opening on Sundays.

The Hull Pie Workers
Our imPIEression of The Hull Pie 2 was that it was a bustling hive of top quality hand produced pies, which you could actually see being made as you entered the shop. This is a real plus, as you do sometimes wonder what your pie is being filled with as you wait to find out what quality of pie is carried through from the kitchen at the back on your plate. Full marks to The Hull Pie for their openness and transparency in the pie making process.

And I’ve not even got onto the pie menu board, which was packed with a wide range of intriguing flavours – including many which would be making their debut on the Pierate Pie Rankings list! The pies below – Jerk Chicken and Mutton and Ale – are both new pie flavours and again The Hull Pie have excelled themselves in thinking outside of the pie box! But how would these unique flavours rate? Would they work well in a pie? Fortunately we have the 7 Cs of pie rating to determine that!

The Hull Pie Menu
The Hull Pie Menu
Here’s an overview of the thoughts from all the Pierateers:
  • A great range of unique pie flavours
  • At £2.50 for just the pie, packed full of meat, this was an absolute steal!
  • Friendly, welcoming staff in “The Hull Pie 2” takeaway shop
  • A great range of sides to go with your pie – including mash, crisp fries and sweet potato fries

  • Queries however over the lid: These pies were seemingly made from a single piece of pastry, wrapped over the top of the filling, thus fully encasing the filling but not having a clearly definable lid. In their favour, there was a clear side, base and topping, but there was no way of just “lifting the lid” and dunking your chips into the filling. While definitely a pie, they do not quite embodying the quintessential essence of pie-ness that we Pierateers look for.
  • Also, partly because they were cooked and served in a metal case, the base pastry was a bit soggy. Not in an “I can’t eat this” sense, but a slightly firmer, crispier base pastry would have been pie-deal, like the sides and top were.


So onto the specific pie flavours:

Jerk Chicken and Sweet Pepper Pie


Pierateer SJL had the Jerk Chicken and Sweet Pepper Pie and it was one of the best pies he had eaten in some time, especially in terms of filling. Here’s what Pierateer SJL had to say:

Jerk Chicken and Sweet Pepper Hull Pie
Jerk Chicken and Sweet Pepper Hull Pie 
I loved the choice of interesting flavours from around the world. What was brilliant for this pie was that it could be accompanied by sweet potato fries which went very well.

Condition - 4.9 out of 7 - Very well presented, this pie really looked the part when in its foil case with a rustic, handmade appearance. There was a minor draw back in that when taken out of its foil case it appeared that the pie was in fact made from one piece of pastry which had been folded over, a bit like a pasty. Not quite embodying the quintessential essence of pie-ness that we look for.
Colour - 6.0 out of 7 - A range of colours taken from the golden sunset brown collection.
Cheapness - 6.7 out of 7 - At just £2.50 for the pie alone, which was jam packed with meat, this was about as good value as you can find anywhere.
Capacity - 6.3 out of 7 - The pie wasn't very large but made up for this by being completely full of meat.
Chewiness - 5.9 out of 7 - The filling for the pie wasn't at all chewy, as you would hope for with a chicken pie. It had a wonderful texture, indicating good quality chicken. The pastry had a bit of a funny texture in places, it was perhaps a little soggy at the base.
Content - 6.9 out of 7 - I lived in Brixton and became quite familiar with jerk chicken while there. The flavours in this jerk chicken were up there with the best. The sweetness of the pepper complemented it perfectly and added an interesting variation to the filling.
Consistency - 6.8 out of 7 - There wasn't a lot of sauce to this pie which perhaps helped them fill it up so well without it boiling out. This didn't stop it being very moist and slipping down very well. It really was a master stroke to put jerk chicken in a pie, it worked very well, although the pastry wasn't quite perfect, the filling was incredible.

The Hull Pie Jerk Chicken and Sweet Pepper Pie
Score: 6.21
SJL


Mutton and Ale Pie


Here’s what Pierateer RAS had to say when rating the Mutton and Ale pie:

Mutton and Ale Hull Pie
Mutton and Ale Hull Pie

Mutton and Ale Hull Pie
Another incredible pie flavour from The Hull Pie! While you might not think of Mutton as an unusual pie filling, we have not found any previous Mutton pies on our travels – and certainly not Mutton and Ale. The filling was so moist, a slight surprise given there was no specific gravy oozing out of the pie upon biting into it. And yet the meat was so incredibly tender – what a fantastic effort. The ale added such nice flavours to the pie, with a bit of vegetable to compliment it all, again well cooked and melt in your mouth.

The pastry was good – really nice to eat even on its own (not that you got much chance of that with the capacity absolutely ram packed with meat!) The base pastry was a little soggy, but indicates the moisture and tenderness of the meat filled pie. A little firmer base and a proper, separate lid and this pie really would be challenging for the very top of the pie rankings!

The Hull Pie Mutton and Ale Pie
Score: 6.36/7
[Colour 6.25, Capacity 6.75, Consistency 6.75, Condition 5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 6.75, Content 6.75, Total: 6.36/7]
RAS


So The Hull Pie were certainly well worth a road trip for and, while there were a few more The Hull Pies we still have to rate which didn’t quite score as highly, these two pies are certainly worth their Pierate Highly Recommended status and we would certainly love to eat them again!

RAS and SJL

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.

Make sure you 
and let us know your thoughts!


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for getting in touch with the Pierateers!