Tuesday 8 December 2015

We rate the West Midland's football pies for Buzzfeed

Buzzfeed called upon the Pierateers to find out who sells the top rated football pies in the Birmingham area! The top social news website called upon our ex-pie-tise to advise on football pies, following our appearance on the BBC Sport website in their video on pies related to the Price of Football Survey and recent appearance on Rip Off Britain!


Click here to read the Buzzfeed article 

We Rated The West Midlands’ Football Match Pies



Rip Off Britain Pie Review
Pierateer Rob on BBC's Rip Off Britain
For the Buzzfeed article we were sent to try the pies at the 5 Birmingham based football clubs - Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Walsall, West Brom and Wolverhampton. While only three of them made the final cut, find out who we rated the best in the Birmingham Pie League by viewing the article!

While we are first and foremost a pie rating website, rather than specifically a football pie rating website, we’re looking to delve further into the provision of football pies as we develop our Pieremiership of football’s best half time pies. Find out if we've rated your club yet by clicking here!

We've rated over 500 pies, including a number of football pies
In our view, it’s all about a great tasting pie – filling and pastry - which is value for money. You can find out more about what makes a great rated pie by reading about the 7 Cs of pie rating. And to find out what makes a great football pie, you can also view our article on football pies when we advised BBC's Rip Off Britain earlier this year.

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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continue reading "We rate the West Midland's football pies for Buzzfeed"

Monday 7 December 2015

Best Mince Pies in Britain?

Konditor & Cook - Mince Pie Review
I saw this attention grabbing headline outside the Goodge Street branch of Konditor and Cook in London. It was difficult to resist having a look at the mince pies which had such a claim to fame. This pastry and cake shop did look appealing, if a little expensive. The plate of mince pies on the counter looked impressive with a lovely golden colour to the pastry and a handmade appearances. The box of six pies I got were certainly beautifully presented but how would they taste?

I personally found the flavour of these mince pies about right, there was a good balance between the fruit, spice and sweetness. I find some mince pies too spicy but these were more on the tangy and fruity side. There was a good texture with decent pieces of fruit and nut a must in this price range. For me, the pastry was also very nice, it was nice and buttery, a bit crumbly but not too much. I find some mince pies have pastry almost like shortbread which is very crumbly and can be a bit dry. Pierateer RAS was also able to try these mince pies. I was able to get Pierateer Rob's opinion on this, we were generally in agreement regarding the good quality of the buttery pastry and fruity filling.

So these were nice mince pies, the taste and appearance was well above average. They were well filled with no airgap in sight. However, considering these were the larger of the two sizes of mince pies in Konditor and Cook, we noted they were really quite shallow. I really felt like I should have got a bit more considering the box of six cost me £8! It is always going to be difficult to justify paying such a high price. Regarding the 'best in Britain' claim, it is hard to verify this as I haven't tried all the mince pies in Britain. It was certainly up with the best but at the price you would expect that. I don't think it was the best mince pie I have ever had. As it is nicely presented it could make a good gift but I am not likely to buy these pies again due to their premium price, you don't get that much more than with the best supermarket versions. The 'best mince pie in Britain' claim is attributed to the Telegraph but I have not been able to verify this via a Google search, their 2015 reviews online don't even mention Konditor and Cook! I don't doubt the claim but wouldn't put too much store in it, there are lots of mince pies out there recommended by various newspapers and website. However, it does come away with a 'Pierate Recommended' award for scoring above 5, that is something you can trust!


Mince Pie (Konditor & Cook [London])
5.11/7
[Colour 6, Condition 5.5, Cheapness 2.5, Capacity 4.5, Chewiness 5.75, Content 6, Consistency 5.5]

SJL & RAS
continue reading "Best Mince Pies in Britain?"

Thursday 3 December 2015

Pierate advises BBC One's Rip Off Britain on football pies

The BBC have once again called upon the Pierateers to find out what makes a great pie! The team from BBC's Rip Off Britain called upon our ex-pie-tise to advise on football pies, following our TV debut on Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice and appearing on the BBC Sport website in their video on pies related to the Price of Football Survey.


Rip Off Britain Pie Review
Pierateer Rob on BBC's Rip Off Britain
Pierateer Rob - who was the chosen pie expert for the show - is seen talking about the quality of British football pies and whether they really are a rip off or not. For the eager pie-d among you, you'll know that the clip on Rip Off Britain this lunchtime was actually the same footage as back in April, but it's clearly a big talking point as it's been shown once again!

In the clip (which can be view on BBC Pie-player for the next month and features us in the pie story from minute 18 to minute 26 and Pierateer Rob specifically in minute 22), Bradford City fan Kevin was questioning the quality and price of the pies at his local football club. Like us, Kevin thinks a half time pie is part and parcel of football culture in Britain. When you think football, you think half time pie. What better during those cold, winter evenings to warm the heart, as well as the hands, during the half time interval as you watch your local team? But is that actually what people do? Or has the quality and price of football pies put off the regular football fan? Do the caterers even have enough pies to go round? And if fans do buy a pie, is it piefection or are football fans being held to ransom? Find out in the episode!

We at www.pierate.co.uk will readily admit we are first and foremost a pie rating website, rather than specifically a football pie rating website, but we’re looking to delve further into the provision of football pies as we develop our Pieremiership of football’s best half time pies.

We've rated over 500 pies, including a number of football pies

But while we realise we haven’t eaten anywhere near enough pies in different football grounds yet – despite having over 500 pies rated in our Pie Rankings from many of the regular football pie manufacturers like Pukka Pies, Holland’s Pies and Peter’s Pies – we have always been a fan of eating a golden pastry product in the football stadiums we’ve visited. And in our minds what’s more important than simply the price of the pie is how the pie rates. Is it a soggy disappointment, overly dry or lacking in content or does it meet the 7 criteria we Pierateers look for in a pie?

In our view, it’s all about a great tasting pie – filling and pastry - which is value for money. You can find out more about what makes a great rated pie by reading about the 7 Cs of pie rating. However what makes a great football pie?

Here are a few specific pointers for making the perfect football pie:


Firstly, it’s got to be cooked properly. Sadly, in the rush to serve so many customers in such a short space of time, food at football grounds can be undercooked or left sat in a hot locker for far too long, making the pie taste bad or even be pretty much inedible. We have unfortunately fallen foul to a few pies being served to us either undercooked or over baked. Naturally, the rating of such pies is badly affected.

Secondly, the football pie has got to be something you can pick up in your hands and bite into, without it crumbling all over the place. Quite a few football pies can be too soft to pick up or crumble all over the place when bitten into, so a firm but crisp pastry casing is key.

Finally, the consistency of the pie filling has got to be just right. Naturally we want a meat pie to be filled to capacity with nice, tender meaty chunks, but we also expect the viscosity of the gravy or sauce to be well thought through so that it is flavoursome but not too runny, as the last thing you want is gravy down your football shirt!

Morecambe FC British Pie Awards 2014
Morecambe FC won the British Pie Awards in 2012 and 2014!
All this has got to be provided at a reasonable price that leaves the fan going away happy and without a huge dent in the wallet, otherwise it's certainly a rip-off!

Featuring in the Rip Off Britain episode, one football ground has seemingly found the perfect reci-pie for the half time pastry snack, producing some of the highest rated pies on Pierate, let alone best football pies! Head chef Graham Aimson at Morecambe FC has won several titles at the British Pie Awards for the quality of his pies, including being British Pie Awards Supreme Champion 2014, where unsurprisingly we were there as one of the judges.

In summary, we think there’s nothing better than a warm, hearty pie to get you through half time. But the key thing is that they have got to be top rated pies! Too often the pies are not only overly expensive but are just not up to scratch, either too dry or undercooked. So as well as checking out the price of pies, we’ll be making sure we rate as many as possible on our 7 Cs of pie rating so that you know what pies to purchase and don't get ripped off!

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.

Make sure you 
and let us know your thoughts!
continue reading "Pierate advises BBC One's Rip Off Britain on football pies"