Saturday 29 April 2017

We bet you'll want to feedback on football pies!

It's sadly no sur-pie-se that pies can be a bit up and down when bought at the football. Some are Championship winning material, where as others are destined for relegation as soon as you bite into them.

Pie at the football!

Some have a meaty midfield, where as others seem to have forgotten to forward on some meat to their pastry products. In their defence, getting thousands of football pies ready in a short space of time just before kickoff and at half time is not easy, but some clubs seem to manage it well! So should all football fans be able to expect piefection when it comes to their golden pastry snack?!

That's the question being asked in a new football pie survey by bet makers Coral, who have launched a football fan survey to find the Premier League's top pie!


Check out the Coral Pie Premier League article and fill in their 3 minute survey to give your feedback on Premiership Pies.

You could even take away a hamper of Piglet's Pantry Pies - who produce some of the best pies in football! They're currently number 3 and 4 in our PIEremiership Table!

Piglet's Pantry pies rated at stadium:mk

Regulars to our pie blog won't be surprised to hear Coral have teamed up with the world's leading pie review blog - featuring over 600 pie reviews with multiple football pie media appearances! We were asked to give our opinion on the state of Premier League pies at present, as while the annual BBC Price of Football Survey indicates the price of pies, that really is only part of the story when it comes to pie rating.

Sam and Rob being interviewed by BBC Sport's Azi Farni
Watch the video on the BBC Sport website
Two years ago we joined BBC Sport's Azi Farni at Morecambe FC, who make some of the best pies rated on Pierate (let alone football grounds) to discuss what makes the perfect football pie! Watch us featuring in the BBC Price of Football video here.

Morecambe FC's Globe Arena is certainly the place to be for top football pies! Top of our football pie league and winners of the British Pie Awards twice, Head chef Graham Aimson at Morecambe FC makes his pies on the kitchen on site by hand, rather than just buying them in! Top work Graham and the team! We are looking forward to visiting again later today as Morecambe host Wycombe Wanderers.

Our top Premier League pie - and number two pie in our Football Pie League - is from Man City and was a fabulous combo of Beef Bourguignon and Chicken and Ham pies at the Etihad Stadium. They highlight that it is often better to pay a bit extra for a top quality pie, rather than less for a very mediocre product.

But that's our view - what's yours? Feedback where you think the top Premier League pies are on the Coral football pie survey and let's see who really is top of the pie league!

We've rated almost 600 pies, including a number of football pies
RAS

Want to find out what the Pierateers really make of the state of the (pie) game in English Football? Check out our analysis in our Pies of Football 2016 article to find out what makes a great football pie!


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 "We bet you'll want to feedback on football pies!"

Friday 21 April 2017

Leeds Pie Tour: Hop to the Pie Hole

This year, as part of our Pie Pledges for British Pie Week, we decided to head up to Leeds Leeds Leeds to do a #LeedsPieTour!



As part of the Leeds Pie Tour we went to a pub in the rejuvenated Granary Wharf in the centre of Leeds. The Hop is one of those trendy types of places built into the archway of the old railway. When doing our research into Leeds pies we were fairly staggered by what we read. Apparently they offered a Pie, Mash, Peas/Beans, Gravy AND a Pint for ONLY A FIVER! Yes, things are cheaper than we are used to down South but surely this kind of offer was impossible. We went in, expecting some kind of catch, we even had to clarify with the guy on the bar, but yes, it was true. He claimed they could offer it cheaper because it is their house beer. But still, surely the pies must be ASDA Smart Price in order for them to make any money at all? We started to understand the business model once we had placed our orders. The pies are already cooked and they operate more of a take-away type of systems. There is a hatch (the eponymous Pi Hole) where you pick up your order once it is ready. The meal comes in a biodegradable box with wooden cutlery. It is a bit of an odd situation to then eat your take away pie in the pub but it seemed to work. The pub primarily focuses on providing real ale, with the food more of a convenient accompaniment rather than their primary focus.

We learnt that the pies are supplied by Andrew Jones Pies of Huddersfield, a company we had not come across before. There were a wealth of options,  we tried to trick Pierateer RAS into getting a Lamb pasty but sadly he decided he wasn't hungry after what had already been a pie filled weekend. Pierateer SJL opted for the Chicken Balti while Pierateer TJP went for the classic Steak & Ale.

At first glance they did actually look pretty appealing. Stout and solid shortcrust pastry had been used. The glaze was something I could have gazed at for days. It was brown and lustrous, indicating tasty pastry. Surely these would be empty promises as I expected this to be a typical half filled mass produced pies? But no, yet, again, these pies surprised us because they were well filled. The Chicken Balti in particular had been packed with meat rather than sauce or air. The Steak & Ale was a bit more heavy on the meat flavoured sauce but still found space for a satisfying amount of meat. My pie meal for a fiver kept me satisfied all the way back to Gloucester.

For both pies, the shortcrust pastry was tasty and crunchy on top although some parts on the bottom were slightly soggy. The meat chunks in the Chicken Balti were quite big and satisfying, they didn't have the watery texture that some mass produced chicken chunks have but yet they avoided being dry. The texture of the steak was tender, perhaps a bit too soft if anything, a bit like steak from a tin.

Onto the flavour and whilst we kept looking for ways in which these pies were going to let us down, yet again they surprised us being enjoyable and full of flavour. The Chicken Balti was quite spicy, perhaps a bit too hot for some but was anything but bland. The spicy marinade was not quite like any other Balti I pie I had tried before. I really enjoyed the flavour, so much so that I bought another to take home. The Steak & Ale was a bit more traditional, it captured the classic Steak & Ale pie flavour well although didn't do anything spectacular. The main downside was that the flavour was dominated by salt a bit too much. Whilst Pierateer TJP tried this pie in the restaurant, I also purchased one to take away so I could verify it was a very good pie. However, in this case, it was the Chicken Balti that really stood out.

Chicken Balti (The Hop/A Jones Pies [Leeds])
Score: 6.25/7


SJL

Steak & Ale (The Hop/A Jones Pies [Leeds])
Score: 6.05/7



SJL & TJP




See what the Pierateers have been up to this British Pie Week in our daily Pie Diary articles:


Day One – Monday 6th March 2017
Day Two – Tuesday 7th March 2017
Day Three – Wednesday 8th March 2017
Day Four - Thursday 9th March 2017
Day Five - Friday 10th March 2017
Day Six - Saturday 11th March 2017 - featuring the Leeds Pie Tour
Day Seven - Sunday 12th March 2017 - featuring the Leeds Pie Tour


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 "Leeds Pie Tour: Hop to the Pie Hole"

Monday 17 April 2017

Meet the Pie-ducer: Calum from Holborn Dining London

One of the things we really enjoy on the Pierate Ship is meeting the guys and girls up and down the land who make the pies that we really enjoy eating. As such we’ve created a “Meet the Pie-ducer” series of interviews, where we lift the lid on those who are looking to piefect their trade…


Holborn Dining Room, Holborn, London

Head Chef: Calum Franklin
Based: Holborn, Central London
Sells in: Holborn Dining Room, London, WC1V 7EN
Website: http://www.holborndiningroom.com/ or Calum's personal Twitter feed

Calum Franklin Pork Pie Review
Calum Franklin Pork Pie at Holborn Dining Room


Calum Franklin
Calum Franklin
The pie page on the Holborn Dining Room website begins with the slightly understated first line of "Holborn Dining Room Executive Head Chef Calum Franklin has kept London foodies talking with his artful creations..."

I'd personally say less talking, more drooling! For the craftsmanship on Calum's pastry creations would be enough to make anyone go "wow!" as he creates pastry decor to pie-fection - some of which take over 4 hours to create, such is the intricate detail in the pastry work (see the tweet below). When he kindly allowed me to join him for a chat during British Pie Week, he only had half of his giant, multi-layered Pork and Black Pudding Pie left, such had been the demand for it. And that certainly wasn't the first one of those giant pies he'd made that week! Sure, there may have been a bit of spike in demand during Pie Week, but people were coming from near and far to get just a slither of one of Calum's top notch pies!

On the a la carte menu, Calum is looking forward to releasing his new Mutton Curry Pie, one which he says he is particularly looking forward to seeing the reaction to. These certainly aren't your typical pies - and the customers at Holborn Dining Room would expect nothing less - so the bar is always set high and Calum is certainly delivering.

Having originally trained in Birmingham at the then College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies (now UCB), Calum has been at Holborn Dining Room for three years now and is keen to change the menu slightly from having just one pie on rotation to a wider ranged pie menu. There are plans in place to provide a steak and kidney steamed suet pie, alongside a chicken, mushroom and cider shortcrust pie and the Mutton Curry Pie in puff pastry - alongside the classic pork pies they already sell. Different flavours, different pastries. Calum and his team of chefs are being trained up well to rise to the challenge of professional pie making.

Calum Franklin Pork Pie Review
Calum Franklin Pork and Black Pudding Pie at Holborn Dining Room
It was the training element that Calum mentioned which really got my attention as we chatted. Having admitted when he first started in pastry that he had quite a lot to learn, he is now not happy just to master the art himself, but he is training up the pastry chefs of tomorrow in his kitchen. Trainee chefs from around the UK (and even the world) have been requesting time to learn skills in pastry work with Calum, and they could certainly go far worse than learning from the pastry master himself! And with plans to create a dedicated pie room with a serving hatch onto the street, they really are taking their pies seriously!


We very much enjoyed our taster in pie week and look forward to visiting Holborn Dining Room to rate the selection of pies on the pie menu once it launches! Until then, we'll just have to stick to drooling over the pie photos Calum regularly posts on his Twitter feed! Many thanks to Calum for meeting us and donating a few slices of pie to us to try!

RAS

Here are the pie makers in our "Meet the Pie-ducer" series:
Calum from Holborn Dining Room  |  Dee from Dee's Pies  |  Stephen from Kandy Bar Bakery

You can view all our Pie-ducer interviews by clicking here!

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 "Meet the Pie-ducer: Calum from Holborn Dining London"

Sunday 9 April 2017

Leeds Pie Tour: Insect Pie!

This year, as part of our Pie Pledges for British Pie Week, we decided to head up to Leeds Leeds Leeds to do a #LeedsPieTour! One place we visited was Pieminister, a pie chain we know only too well, having reviewed many of their pies in the past. However, this time we went for something a bit different.....



As you can see from our Leeds Pie Tour video, we enjoyed some take away pie options from Pieminister. We have reviewed over a dozen of their pies before but nothing quite like the British Pie Week special known as 'The Hopper'. Believe it or not, in an attempt to produce something a bit different, Pieminister have gone for a pie containing cricket insects. We have eaten many usual pies, from Python to Squirrel, but this must surely go down as one of the weirdest!


Was this just a disgusting gimmick from Pieminister or was I bowled over by the cricket pie? As you can tell from the video, it took a bit of getting used to. I had expected the crickets to be in small pieces and difficult to discern when mixed in with the rest of the filling. But, in order to not disappoint those who were looking forward to crunching on invertebrates, the pie had plenty of whole crickets in all their exoskeleton glory. That said, the pie was not overly heavy on the crickets, this was, after all a Mexican chipotle chili, black bean AND cricket pie with plenty of other ingredients. I had expected a bit of crunch from the crickets, however, they were surprisingly soft. There lay the problem, the crickets didn't really seem to add much to this pie apart from perhaps a bit of protein. They didn't seem to add any flavour or texture and I suspect they could have been replaced by more black beans without making much difference. Therefore, it does seem like this pie was a bit of a publicity gimmick. However, this didn't stop it actually being a very flavoursome pie, the smokey chipotle chili flavour went really well with the signature Pieminister crispy pastry. The only downside was that the pie was a bit soft, there wasn't much to get your teeth into. However, it was enjoyable and actually, now I am used to the creepiness of the filling, it is something I would be happy to eat again! So the shock summary from this review is that the insect pie from Pieminister actually receives a Pierate Recommended award for scoring over 5 out of 7!

The Hopper - Cricket Insect (Pieminister)
Score: 5.04/7
[Colour 6.25, Capacity 5.75, Consistency 4.50, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 2.75, Cheapness 4.50, Content 5.75]


SJL


See what the Pierateers have been up to this British Pie Week in our daily Pie Diary articles:


Day One – Monday 6th March 2017
Day Two – Tuesday 7th March 2017
Day Three – Wednesday 8th March 2017
Day Four - Thursday 9th March 2017
Day Five - Friday 10th March 2017
Day Six - Saturday 11th March 2017 - featuring the Leeds Pie Tour
Day Seven - Sunday 12th March 2017 - featuring the Leeds Pie Tour


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 "Leeds Pie Tour: Insect Pie!"

Saturday 8 April 2017

Leeds Pie Tour: Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford

This year, as part of our Pie Pledges for British Pie Week, we decided to head up to Leeds Leeds Leeds to do a #LeedsPieTour! One place we visited was Haley and Clifford, a lovey quaint deli in the north of Leeds, which features in the video of our adventures made by Pierateer Tim below. There we rated a Voakes Pork Pie, famed for being a top pie option in the area!



On Day One of the Leeds Pie Tour we headed to Haley and Clifford in the north of Leeds. We'd heard they stocked Voakes Pork Pies (a reasonably local pork pie producer) and thought we'd pay them a visit! It was a lovely delicatessen, selling food from a range of local stockists and with a decent selection of salads and (more importantly) pies! Both Sam and Rob went for a Voakes Pork Pie, which Rob rates below:


The deli was a lovely place to visit on our Pie Tour of Leeds - serving a few different pie options to be eaten cold. The Voakes pork pie however was what we were there for and was a pretty reasonable price for a reasonably high end establishment. It was possibly the first place we'd ever rated which offered an accompanying side salad with your pork pie - a combo Pierateer Sam relied upon during his "Pies For Every Meal" British Pie Week 2014 stunt, which rather amazingly led to Sam losing weight over the week he ate 21 pie meals!

Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford Review
Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford

The Voakes Pork Pie was very crispy to bite into and while - as said in the video - the first bite was pretty much all pastry, it was a very crisp and delicious pastry I'd happily eat on its own. What the deli owner told us in a chat later was that between receiving the pork pies from Voakes and cooking them, they don't actually add in the jelly which many pork pies contain. They found their customers prefer their pork pies without, which we on the Pierate Ship can understand. We too can find the jelly muddles the flavour a bit, so unless done well, it can be better not to include jelly just for the sake of it! It would however be interesting to rate a Voakes with jelly too sometime!

The colour was lovely and golden, with a reasonably even bake, though the pastry did flake and crumble into random pieces upon biting into it, therefore losing some marks for condition. This is perhaps why they offer the pork pie already cut into quarters when serving it with a side salad (see tweeted photo above!) There was a noticeable gap around the meat where the jelly would normally be, thus reducing the capacity slightly. However the meat content of the pie was pretty succulent in spite of the lack of cooking with jelly - nice and meaty. Seasoned but not too strongly, it was a pork pie I'd happily eat again.

Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford (Leeds)
Score: 5.64/7
[Colour 6.25, Capacity 5.75, Consistency 6, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 4.5, Content 5.75]


RAS


See what the Pierateers have been up to this British Pie Week in our daily Pie Diary articles:


Day One – Monday 6th March 2017
Day Two – Tuesday 7th March 2017
Day Three – Wednesday 8th March 2017
Day Four - Thursday 9th March 2017
Day Five - Friday 10th March 2017
Day Six - Saturday 11th March 2017 - featuring the Leeds Pie Tour
Day Seven - Sunday 12th March 2017 - featuring the Leeds Pie Tour


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 "Leeds Pie Tour: Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford"

Friday 7 April 2017

Leeds Pie Tour Video

This year, as part of our Pie Pledges for British Pie Week, we decided to head up to Leeds Leeds Leeds to do a #LeedsPieTour! Check out the video of our adventures made by Pierateer Tim and check back for the reviews of the pies you see in the video over the next few weeks!


In order of ap-pie-rance:

[Piebury Corner Fruit pies (from London, not Leeds) - reviewed as Pierate Recommended]
Pieminister MooDog Pie
Pieminister Cricket Pie (Limited Edition for British Pie Week)
Wilson's Pork Pie
Wilson's Meat and Potato Pie
Wilson's Pork and Apple Pie
Voakes Pork Pie in Haley and Clifford
Great North Pie Co. Classic Lancashire Cheese and Onion Pie in Haley and Clifford
Jones Steak and Ale Pie in The Hop
Jones Chicken Curry Pie in The Hop

Day One (Saturday)

Staying in Armley, we decided to walk to the local Wilson's Butchers store and they kindly allowed us to do a bit of filming. Sam tried one of their pork pies while filming outside, while Sam had a meat and potato and Tim had an apple and pork pie back at the house.

Following that, we headed to Haley and Clifford in the north of Leeds. We'd heard they stocked Voakes Pork Pies (a reasonably local pork pie producer) and thought we'd pay them a visit! It was a lovely delicatessen, selling food from a range of local stockists and with a decent selection of salads and (more importantly) pies! Both Sam and Rob went for a Voakes Pork Pie, while Tim had a Great North Pie Co "Classic Lancashire Cheese and Onion" pie (which on their website is listed as containing Dewlay’s tasty Lancashire cheese, caramelised white onion, white pepper, nutmeg & Japanese Panko breadcrumbs). You may well recognise the name Great North Pie Co and that's probably because it was the last pie company to win the British Pie Awards (back in 2015) before this year's 2017 winner was announced.


In the evening we tried the Pieminister British Pie Week special - Cricket pie! Yes, you read that right - actual crickets. You could see their dead bodies in the pie and everything! And we also had a more normal Pieminister MooDog Pie too!

Day Two (Sunday)

With so many pies consumed on day one of our #LeedsPieTour, it was always going to be a hard act to follow! But we kicked off the morning with three more fruit pies from Piebury Corner, which we had picked up in London on Friday. Having had the Apple and Blackcurrant on Saturday morning, Sunday morning consisted of Cherry Pie, Blueberry Pie and the old classic, Apple Pie! All three slipped down well, with all three Pierateers commenting on their enjoyment of the lovely crisp top pastry and decent fruit chunks inside. The condition was pretty good – a slight uneven bake but nice and golden. The pies at Piebury are quite shallow – a quite unique shape and size – but boy do they fill the hole! A fruit pie like those definitely ticked the boxes and we’ll give them all a full pie rating soon!

Sadly Leeds only have a Corn Exchange, not Pie Exchange
We then headed into Leeds centre for a brief wander round, checking out a few of the sights and spotting the Pieminister store just a stone’s throw from The Corn Exchange shopping centre. We briefly popped in to speak to the staff there – having already actually eaten a couple of Pieminister pies the previous day – and find out how British Pie Week had been for them. They had had a lot of traffic from pie fans the last week following their £5 pie and mash meal deal, which was great to hear as we generally rate the Pieminister brand highly.

Then we “hopped” over to The Hop pub under the arches of Leeds Railway Station, part of the Granary Wharf shopping area. We’d heard good things about the pies there – and in particular their “pie, mash, peas and drink for a fiver” pie meal deal! It sounded too good to be true, but as advertised online they were indeed doing this pie meal deal for just five of your English Pounds!


We couldn’t resist and tried a few of their pie range there (making sure to avoid the pasties also on sale!) as well as taking a few home with us to try later! The pies we tried in the pub – a Steak and Ale pie and Chicken Curry pie – were both highly commended and we’ll see how well they rate on the 7 Cs of pie rating soon!

RAS

See what the Pierateers have been up to this British Pie Week in our daily Pie Diary articles:


Day One – Monday 6th March 2017
Day Two – Tuesday 7th March 2017
Day Three – Wednesday 8th March 2017
Day Four - Thursday 9th March 2017
Day Five - Friday 10th March 2017
Day Six - Saturday 11th March 2017 - featuring the Leeds Pie Tour
Day Seven - Sunday 12th March 2017 - featuring the Leeds Pie Tour


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 "Leeds Pie Tour Video"