While sadly there were no pie stalls at the Aegon Classic tennis tournament in Birmingham, that didn’t stop this Pierateer taking along a pork pie to eat while he was there! Would the Sainsbury’s pork pie be a classic though? Well the tennis on Tuesday served up some classic matches, with British wins for Heather Watson and Johanna Konta and a number of big upsets including by 16-year old Donna Vekic, though sadly the pie failed to live up to its seeding. However on the grass courts of Birmingham this Pierateer did enjoy a pie, even if it wasn't the pie-light of the afternoon.



And with the Aegon Classic becoming a Premier WTA event next year, here's hoping they may also invest in a top pie stall to!

Sainsbury’s Melton Mowbray Snack Pork Pie
Score: 4.2/7

RAS


As an added bonus, Pierateer RAS entered a photo competition at the Aegon Classic Tennis and won a signed T-shirt! The winning photo of Laura Robson and the humble pork pie was as follows – thanks everyone at the Aegon Classic Tennis!



You'll LOVE this! SERVING up my British Doubles CLASSIC @AegonClassic - Laura & the humble pork pie! #AegonClassic

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The Ship's Cook (aka @the_cookworm) is currently on a pie mission - to find the top rated pie recipes from our nations supermarket suggestions. It started with a tweet we were sent by @jimbolimbo9 suggesting we try two pork pastry recipes from the supermarket Morrisons and from this The Ship's Cook decided to select one reci-pie from each supermarket's website or magazine to make and rate. Today is the turn of Sainsbury's Chicken and Leek pie!

If there's one thing that searching for recipes has taught me, it's that supermarkets have some funny ideas about what constitutes a pie. There are a lot of tarts and a LOT of stews with pastry lids out there, and don't even get me started on the time Tesco put up a poster with a picture of some sausage rolls and called them pies!

In the absence of real pie options, but wanting to continue in my supermarket pie quest, I have adopted a new motto: If in doubt, add a crust. Which is exactly what I've done in my next reci-pie review.

The Recipe:

This time it's a chicken and leek pot pie from Sainsbury's - you can find it here: http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/find-recipes/recipes/chicken-poultry-and-game/chicken-and-leek-pot-pies 

In case you're a 'dive right in and start cooking without reading the recipe to the end' sort of person, I think I should warn you that you need separate pans for the chicken and the sauce, and also a bowl or a plate to put the leeks on. If you're not prepared you risk slight pie-related chaos in your kitchen (I speak from experience...)

The original recipe suggests you serve this pie in individual dishes - this works well, but I used slightly bigger ones than suggested so I could add a shortcrust pastry base and ensure the filling was fully encased.


The 7 Cs of Pie Rating:

Colour:
I was really impressed with the colour of this pie! Obviously when you're baking your own pie you can leave it in the oven for as long as you need to make it turn a nice golden brown, but the scrunchy bits of filo pastry seemed to brown particularly nicely. I'm going to have to investigate some other filo pies now...

Consistency:
This had a nice thick sauce thanks to the addition of flour, and the cheese and milk mixture made it really creamy. Once I'd filled up the pies there was some sauce left in the pan to use like gravy, which I liked.


Capacity:
Sigh. A big fail here, as the original recipe was called a pie but was really a stew with a top crust. Once you add a bottom crust to turn it into a real pie, there's a lot of filling so you can get a really good crust:filling ratio.


Chewiness:
The chicken was lovely and tender, the leeks were soft but flavoursome and the peas added a bit of bite - lots of points scored here.

Cheapness:
The addition of filo pastry makes this a bit more expensive than your average pie, but the rest of the ingredients aren't too bad - a lot of them are things you might buy anyway, like garlic, mustard, and peas. The recipe does feed a lot of people - it says six and I think that's about right.

Content:
I really enjoyed the flavours of this pie. I thought the mustard might be a bit overwhelming, but it wasn't at all - you could still taste the chicken, leeks, and peas and the creamy sauce was lovely with the crispy filo pastry. Yum.

Condition:
Two words - soggy bottom. These pies looked absolutely delicious when they came out of the oven, with brown crispy tops and a tempting smell, but the shortcrust base was a bit soggy despite me blind baking it before adding the filling. I can see why this was originally a stew with a lid - but you could probably make the sauce a bit thicker and put the filling in the fridge before filling the pies to try and avoid this problem.


The Ship's Cook 

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Sainsbury’s Bramley Apple Pie Review




Bramley Apple Pie by Sainsbury's

Like its Blackcurrant and Apple Pie cousin, the Bramley Apple Pie was very good. The pastry was lovely and crisp, giving a good firm crunch which complemented the fruity apple content. The apple pieces were quite crunchy in parts but the apple sauce filling was very good and not overly sweet. An own brand pie, but at the more luxury end of the spectrum, the pie is well suited for three hungry eaters or four more normal portions. The pastry did crumble somewhat upon cooking but this did not detract from the delicious taste. Well worth a purchase! And here’s to many more tasty pies in the new home!

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Christmas by Sainsbury’s Deep Filled Mince Pie Review

It seems every supermarket likes getting into the festive pie spirit and Sainsbury’s are no exception. With a fantastic range of mince pies in store, we picked up the Christmas by Sainsbury’s Deep Filled Mince Pies to rate and also use as part of the first ever “Pierate Pie Rating Demo” (article coming soon), in a blind taste test with two other supermarket pies.

So what were the Sainsbury’s Mince Pies like? The pies cost £1.30 for a box of 6 mince pies or 21.7ppp, which makes them one of the slightly more expensive boxes of supermarket mince pies this Christmas time. However at Pierate HQ it’s not all about the price – it’s about whether the pie is worth the price!



Sainsbury's Deep Filled Mince Pie

The pies came in very good condition and were arguably the best looking pies out of the standard supermarket range. The colour was quite good for these pies and the pastry was nice and crisp, yet crumbled easily in the mouth. This did however also mean they crumbled quite badly when cut in half with a knife for sampling.
Inside the pie, there was a reasonably strong capacity of mincemeat. The content was nicer than the other supermarket pies I had eaten in the blind taste test, with a nice fruity taste lingering in the mouth upon completion of the actual pie itself. The content wasn’t too chewy, which was good, and was consistently well filled throughout the pie.



All in all, a very nice Christmas pie which is a little more expensive per pie than the comparison supermarket pies, but which still doesn’t break the bank.

Sainsbury’s Deep Filled Mince Pie
Score: 5.64/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6, Consistency 5.5, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6, Total: 5.64/7]
RAS

Note: While I did enquire with Sainsbury’s Head Office, unfortunately these Sainsbury’s Mince Pies were not featured in the '12 Pies of Christmas' video as George Bowden at Sainsbury’s felt "filming presents significant disruption to our stores".

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Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Chicken and Ham Puff Pastry Pie Review

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Chicken Pie Review

For my birthday recently I was presented with a Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Chicken and Ham Puff Pastry Pie (thanks Jonathan - you clearly know me too well!) - and couldn't resist giving it a pie review. Of course regardless of it being a gift, we always give a fair rating to all pies on the Pierate Ship, so how will the pie rate on the 7 Cs of pie rating?

Quite tall and golden upon removing the pie from the oven, I was looking forward to delving in and therefore left a bit disappointed to find that my attempt to cut open the pie left the sides collapsing and only a half filled capacity. The collapsed sides of this pie are particularly evident in the photos, much more so than in many pies I've eaten in recent memory. Sure, it was quite tall to begin with and therefore more at risk of collapse, however it mainly made me think why was the pie so tall in the first place if it was only going to be half filled?!

Collapse! The sides of this Sainsbury's Chicken Pie collapsed upon cutting

The pie was 25% chicken and 6% shredded ham hock, a far cry from the 70% meat content of some non-supermarket pies I've had recently. But it did still have a nice flavour to the content, with a flavoursome creamy sauce. The leek was quite prominent for reasonably small pie (at 250g). £3 for this pie seemed a bit on the expensive side considering it was quite small and hardly packed with meat.

I wasn't expecting gristle in my Taste the Difference pie!

The flaky all-butter puff-pastry lid was particularly enjoyable, and while the side pastry collapsed far too easily (see the photos) it did still taste good. However my main complaint with it was the piece of gristle I found in the pie, which I would be disappointed with in any chicken pie, but even more so in a luxury 'taste the difference' range pie. This combination of small flaws unfortunately meant it missed out on a Pierate Recommendation.

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Chicken and Ham Puff Pastry Pie
Score: 4.82/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 4, Consistency 5.25, Condition 4, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 4, Content 5.5, Total: 4.82/7]
RAS

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Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Apple Pie Review

Most supermarkets have a premium range of products but are they really worth paying more for? Looking for a pudding for a family meal I came across a Sainsbury Taste the Difference Apple Pie. This pie looked delightful with a lovely golden colour and wonderfully shaped pastry. However I had to think twice because at £4 this was almost twice as much as similar products. Cheapness is one of the seven Cs for a reason, the Pierateers are a frugal bunch. We aren’t just looking for the best pies, but the pies that we think are worth buying. So this pie had to do a lot to make up for the relatively high price.


The first feather in the cap of this pie was the fact that it was actually quite big. Six people were comfortably served from this pie. This was a dual review from Pierateers SJL and ARL so came under even closer scrutiny than normal. Firstly the pastry…. this one was good for the dairy industry because it was lovely and buttery. Crunchy but not dry (despite being slightly over done on the edge), many try and achieve such a combination but few succeed. Next the content…. rough chunks of bramley apple delight. Other pies make up for a lack of apple taste by piling in the sugar but this pie left a sweet taste of a different kind. The sweet taste of knowing you have made the right pie purchase. You can get pies at half the price, but they’re not half as good. I often think these premium products are not worth buying but on this occasion I really can taste the difference.



ARL – 5.96
SJL – 5.75

Taste the Difference Apple Pie (Sainsburys)
5.86/7

SJL/ARL

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Sainsbury’s Bramley Apple and Blackcurrant Pie Review

When the lid comes clean off your pie upon lifting it from the foil, you do have to ask a few questions about the quality of the pie in question. When the lid comes clean off several people’s pies in quick succession, that’s when the alarm bells start ringing! However, despite this obvious design flaw and a slightly larger air to filling ratio than would be ideal, the standard range of Sainsbury’s Bramley Apple and Blackcurrant pies were appetising and nicely fruity. The pastry was crisp and the fruit mix tasted good, if a bit sweet. All in all, a nice addition to the snacks on offer with friends at Church homegroup!



Sainsbury’s Bramley Apple and Blackcurrant Pie
Score: 4.15/7
RAS

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 ...and then you unwrap the pork pie...

But what's new?

Well let me draw your attention to the first image again. This is a new Sainsbury's "medium crusty bake pork pie". It's the nature of the pastry that is the main draw here. Note in the final image just how thick and crusty this pastry is, especially round the sides of the pie. Aside from apparently being incredibly calorific (the red wheel of death informs me that there are 561 calories in just half a pie), the meat isn't anything special and the jelly is rather absent. What sells it for me though is the thick crusty pastry.

Sainsbury's Medium Crusty Bake Pork Pie
Score: 4.54/7
TJP

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Sainsbury's - Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Review

During British Pie Week I enjoyed a couple of great Melton Mowbray pork pies as part of my pie for every meal challenge. It wasn't until after the event that I realised they were both made by Walker & Son. One was made for Dickinson & Morris and has previously been reviewed. The other was made for Sainsburys. The Sainsburys Melton Mowbray Pork Pie was eaten for lunch on Day Two of the challenge. See the video below for my thoughts.


You can see that I was fairly impressed by this effort. It was clearly different to the Dickinson & Morris version, despite being made by the same company. Eating both pies in quick succession meant I was quite certain that the Sainsburys version was inferior to the Dickinson & Morris. But the Sainsburys version was still very good but at only 10p cheaper I wouldn't choose this over the Dickinson & Morris. The one plus side is that it had slightly less calories than the D&M at 502 kcal compared to 542 kcal, but still not exactly a diet option! You might wonder how Melton Mowbray can Make so many pork pies, this is because they don't actually have to be made in Melton Mowbray but a large area around the town. See our article 'What is a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie' for more info.

Sainsbury's Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

Condition - 5.2 out of 7 - Looked good, but slightly less wholesome than the D&M. Still a classic Melton Mowbray appearance.
Colour - 4.9 out of 7 - A deep brown colour, but I prefer deeper.
Cheapness - 4.0 out of 7 - At £1.20 for an individual 140g Melton Mowbray pie this was decent value.
Capacity - 4.8 out of 7 - Stands tall amongst pork pies of this size and so had a good pastry to filling ratio. A small amount of air gap around the edge.
Chewiness - 4.5 out of 7 - There were some small fatty pieces. The pastry was nice and crunchy as a Melton Mowbray should be.
Content - 5.4 out of 7 - Strangely for a Melton Mowbray the meat was slightly pink on the outside (it should be grey). However it tasted nice and had enough seasoning, but I would have liked more. There was some jelly apparent around the edge. It was less granula than the Dickinson & Morris.
Consistency - 4.5 out of 7 - The filling was not as consistently good as the pastry.

Individual Melton Mowbray Pork Pie (Walker & Son for Sainsburys)
4.76/7

SJL

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Spot the Difference (not Taste the Difference) with Sainsbury's Chicken and White Wine Pie

So imagine my disappointment as a Pierateer when I thought I was eating a new Sainsbury's pie the other day, only to find out that their marketing department were just playing tricks on me... Check out the two photos and see if you can (apart from the slight damage to the box) spot the difference, rather than taste the difference, between the two pies below:



Sainsbury's Classic Chicken and White Wine Pie - reviewed 5/3/2012



Sainsbury's Classic Chicken and White Wine Pie - eaten 10/10/2013

So... did you spot it?

Well one of those pies is apparently "deep filled"... the other... well, it doesn't say either way. But there is very little different in the box, the depth of the filling on the box or the actual pie itself! I certainly couldn't describe this as deeper filled than the pie was 18 months ago!

What made it worse was that my good friends the Senei had especially checked the Pierate Pie Rankings to pick a pie I hadn't tried - not realising that this was essentially the same pie I had already reviewed in March 2012! Very disappointed to find out I've basically fallen foul of the marketing gimmicks of Sainsbury's but hopefully next time I'll find a genuinely new pie!

RAS

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Sainsbury's - Mince Pie Reviews

The problem with being a Pierateer is that there are just so many delicious pies out there to review. Often a Pierateer will be found grumbling about their 'pie backlog' which is the list of all the pies we have eaten but have yet to review. Mine currently stands at about 8 'must do' reviews, some of which I have been planning to write for about a year. You know how it is, there is just too much to do in life and if there isn't too much to do then you're just too tired! If only Pierate was a paid job then we might just about have time to write all the reviews! I am currently trying my best to not eat any new pies so that I can get through my backlog, which is extremely difficult!

The reason that I am saying all this is because I am trying to build up my excuses for why this review is so late. Normally I can get away with taking a month or two to write a review, no one will know when it comes to reading it! However, in this case I am trying to review some mince pies of the spiced fruit variety. The trouble with mince pies is that they are far too seasonal. A month on from Christmas and no one is going to believe I just picked these up from Sainsbury's. Indeed I didn't actually pick them up at all. @SainsburysPR on Twitter were kind enough to send a box of pie boxes for us to review. But it is never too late to say thank you to them and add another mince pie to our pie rankings.

This is a sight for sore eyes!

And I certainly do owe Sainsbury's a thank you. These were not just any mince pies, Sainsbury's had spared no expense by sending two boxes of Taste the Difference mince pies, one box of Gluten Free iced mince pies and one box of Taste the Difference Ecclefechan mince tarts. I will say straight away that despite not being pies the Ecclefechan mince tarts were actually delicious! They had a lovely mix of flavours which included nuts making them a bit different to mince pies.

However, of course, the tarts were not really something I can officially review what with this being PIE-rate. The Gluten Free iced mince pies were also tarts really. They were intriguing creatures being somewhere between a mince pie and Christmas cake. The icing made them very sweet and was nice for a change. For Gluten Free pastry our Gluten Free reviewer Pierateer ALE said this was a decent attempt, but we would have liked to see more pastry by giving these a lid!

Sainsburys Taste the Difference All Butter Mince Pie

You will see that the other two boxes are genuine pies so get official scores. Firstly the regular TTD mince pies. The butter pastry was lovely and crumbly but at the same time not at all dry. The mince meat was amongst the best I had tasted all season with some nice variation to both texture and taste throughout. This kept the pie interesting from beginning to end of the consumption process. They looked every bit the festive treat they are supposed to with great packaging, Colour and Condition. These were tall pies so had good Capacity.

Sainsburys Taste the Difference All Butter Mini Mince Pie

For the mini versions they looked a bit different due to the star-shaped lid which made them quite appealing. The pastry to filling ratio was very decent despite these pies being small and not quite fully encased in pastry. The pastry tasted a bit different in these, it was more crumbly and tasted a bit more like shortbread than pastry. In this sense I think I preferred the pastry on the full sized version because the mini version was just too Crunchy. The mincemeat was again very good, I couldn't Taste the Difference between the two TTD fillings.

What made me realise that these were very good pies was the fact that everyone wanted to eat them. I shared them at work and they were gone within a matter of moments. The mini versions went down particularly well, given their small size people are more likely to be tempted. I would certainly consider buying them next year, despite the higher price for these premium pies. They would be ideal for any Christmas gathering. We have given the larger version 'Pierate Recommended' status. Good work Sainsbury's!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

TTD All Butter Mince Pie (Sainsbury's)
5.12/7

TTD All Butter Mini Mince Pie (Sainsbury's)
4.63/7

SJL

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Sainsbury's Classic Steak and Guinness Puff Pastry Pie Review

There’s nothing better after a long day at the office than being invited over for dinner at a friend’s house. No, wait, I lie. The only thing that’s better is being invited over for dinner at a friend’s house and being served Pie!* And after having to WAIT all week for the pie (having had a tip off earlier in the week that it would be pie we were having for dinner), good things certainly came to those who wait(ed).

So with baited breath, I waited for the Senei (that’s the affectionate term for the couple I was having dinner with) to bring out the pie which I had by this point found out would be laced with Guinness. For this was no standard “steak and ale” jobby – but was instead filled with the real stuff. Accept no imitations – this was Sainsbury’s Steak and Guinness pie. With genuine Guinness. But the real question was “would it taste like Guinness?”

The answer was a resounding “not really”. While this certainly didn’t let the side down – for the pie was very nice in fact – the Guinness certainly didn’t leap out at me. What did leap out at me though were the lovely tender chunks of steak and a nice rich gravy. While the pie was quite thin and compact, the content was strong. Certainly no air gaps in this pie! The top pastry lid was particularly nice and I would certainly recommend it to the pie loving community. Good work Sainos! What’s even better, of course, is that the pie was shared with great company (even if the slide show of America holiday photos did let the side down a little – computers eh?!)

p.s. please do excuse Mark's girly pink table cloth!

Sainsbury's Classic Steak and Guinness Puff Pastry Pie
Score: 4.9/7
RAS

*Okay, so admittedly there are plenty of things better than eating pie in the world, but for the sake of this blog, I’m going to stick with what I put. Makes it sound better that way!

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Pierate is going green! Well… getting their greens, anyway!

We’ve collated the top savoury vegetarian pies so that you know where to go if you don’t want to eat meat! Here are our top 5 vegetarian pies as of today and links to the reviews, or you can view our table of all our vegetarian pies here!

Don't forget you can view lots of different pie flavour categories and also pies sold by various supermarkets and brands on our "Pies Categorised" page!

Rank	Pie Producer	Pie Flavour	Score	By	Info
1	Sainsbury's Taste the Difference	Roasted Butternut Squash and Feta Cheese with Filo Pastry	6.03	TJP	V
2	Piebury Corner [N7 8DL]	Goats Cheese, Spinach, Sweet Potato and Mushroom [Reg Lewis]	5.90	RAS	V
3	Canteen [W1U 8EW]	Celeriac, Mushroom and Leek	5.85	SJL	V
4	Higgidy	Sweet Potato, Feta Cheese and Pumpkin Seed	5.76	TJP	V
5	Tom's Pies / Selfridges	Spicy Cauliflower, Spinach and Lentil	5.72	SJL	V

Our number one vegetarian pie from Sainsbury's

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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?

This 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. Make sure you Follow @pierateers and let us know your thoughts!

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#MakeAPicnicAPiecnic

So on Sunday 3rd August, around 40 members of City Church joined Pierateer RAS as he organised the world’s first ever Piecnic. The visitors to the park were all strongly encouraged to bring a pie or – even better – to bake a homemade pie and bring it to share! So with the rugs set out, the sun shining and pies a plenty on offer – and believe me, there were plenty of pies on offer – the scene was set for a piefect afternoon!

Pies at the World's first ever Piecnic!

Amongst the pie offerings was a Bray’s Cottage Pork Pie, very kindly brought all the way from Norfolk by Rach, which we have pie rated recently and tasted great! This was in fine company with a number of Pat Gorman pork pies from Aldi, a pie from Morrisons, pork pies from Sainsbury’s and one from Higgidy’s!

Higgidy's Chicken and Smoky Spanish Chorizo Pie

But one of the pielights was the Real Pie Company’s Steak and Mushroom pie, which I decided to try cold. With a whole selection sent for us to rate and the label mentioning they could be eaten hot or cold, I decided one of them should be tried at the world’s first ever piecnic. And what a great decision! Packed to capacity, just as it mentioned it would be on the wrapper, it was a delightful pie and I look forward to eating the others this week.

Finally, a huge thank you should be made to Gill and Helen, who both brought along homemade pies to share! In particular Gill made this delightful looking pie, made following the Hairy Biker’s reciPIE for ham, potato and apple pie!

The Hairy Biker's Ham, Potato and Apple Pie

Thanks to everyone who came along, including our first ever Honourary Pierateer Toby, and – while I may be a little pie-ased – it seemed a roaring success well worth repeating! And with a fair bit of filming done while we were at the park, here is our very own #MakeAPicnicAPiecnic promotional video!




RAS

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Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Pie Review

Sainsbury's have really given us something to write home about recently, with their Pieminister commemoration pie and now their extraordinary Taste the Difference Roasted Butternut Squash and Feta Cheese with Filo Pastry Pie. It certainly looks the part with its filo pastry "crown", (full marks there) but is it actually any good?



Continuing with the vegetable theme of the pie (and in view of the very sunny nature of the day), I opt for a large side salad with croutons rather than the standard chips. I have to admit, sometimes I eat pies just for the sake for reviewing them - and I'm not actually looking forward to eating it - but this is not the case with this pie. I am actually really looking forward to eating it, if it does taste as good as it looks! Let's see if I can taste the difference...

Being careful not to disturb the delicate filo pastry crown when I cut through it with the knife, I open up the pie to find a delightful combination of feta cheese, butternut squash and red onion. Since this is a vegetarian pie it is not possible to comment on chewiness of the meat, but the content is very pleasing to the eye and to the palate. It is perfect for the sunny weather, and I don't actually miss the meat as much as I thought I would. I love the filo pastry addition - something which I think is very underused. In future I'd like to see more creativity with the pastry in more pies (as long as it does not deviate from the rules of what makes a pie a pie). Great work. I am a big fan of this pie.

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Roasted Butternut Squash and Feta Cheese with Filo Pastry Pie
Score: 6.03/7
TJP

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Sainsbury’s Blackcurrant And Apple Pie Review

So on going round to a friend’s house recently - who clearly know me very well! - they cracked out a Sainsbury’s Blackcurrant And Apple pie for pudding, served with a cheeky bit of vanilla ice cream. The pie was split into the 3 of us, which was just about right for a decent sized portion. The pastry was lovely and crisp, giving a good chew which complemented the content. While there was perhaps a slightly low filling of apple and blackcurrant, it was certainly still a good mix and would have ticked off at least one of your 5-a-day (which is good going for a pie!)



Being an own-brand, it is significantly cheaper than some of the alternatives, while still being of a good quality due to the Saino’s values which cover many a webpage and shopping aisle. One certainly hopes these values have helped make the pie as good as can be, and I would agree it is well worth a purchase. While the pie’s condition after heating was rather crumbly, this certainly didn’t detract from the great taste and satisfaction of eating a pie with friends. The only drawback is that we didn’t have one each, but had to share!

Sainsbury’s Blackcurrant And Apple Pie [Family Sized]
Score: 4.8/7
RAS

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Sainsbury’s Chicken and Mushroom Puff Pastry Pie Review

You may recall a recent Pierate article which questioned whether you could find a decent meat pie for under £1, following a conversation we had had on twitter. We had struggled to recall a decent meat pie for that low price other than a few Scotch pies we had bought on visits to Scotland, and the Aldi pie we had in British Pie Week certainly hadn’t met our expectations for an affordable steak pie, pie rating at just 2.21/7.

Sainsbury’s Chicken and Mushroom Puff Pastry Pie Review

But with a price reduction on the Sainsbury’s Chicken and Mushroom Puff Pastry Pie, down from 70p to just 19p, I simply could not resist the chance to give them a pie rating. Of course while I had the benefit of paying just 19 English pence, as the regular price of this pie is 70p I am judging the pie on that recommended retail price. Still, at significantly less than a pound, could I have found a real bargain or would I be regretting 38p badly spent?



Firstly, it’s worth noting I just said I spent 38p. These pies certainly weren’t big enough to cope with a man’s hunger on their own. I purchased two of these pies, though in terms of the filling quantity I would probably suggest some people would require three of these pies to fill the hole. It should be noted that with such a large pastry overhang and a shallow pie filling, at least half of the 150g weight of the pie was pastry and therefore to get a decent amount of filling inside you a second or third pie is required (even if you then didn’t eat all the accompanying pastry). This immediately means that, from a very reasonable sounding 70p per pie (for a 150g pie) it really equates to £1.40 or £2.10 to provide you with enough pie to satisfy your hunger cravings.

Sainsbury's Chicken Pie Review

The filling itself was similar in consistency to chicken and mushroom soup. In effect it was chicken and mushroom soup in pastry. A reasonably crisp and decently holding pastry, but chicken soup in pastry none-the-less. That said, there was more chicken in it that a typical can of soup, with 18% British chicken according to the packaging and some reasonable chunks mixed in with the mushroom and liquid sauce. You could taste the chicken in the bites of pie that contained chicken, but it certainly was a bit hit and miss, and the runny consistency wasn’t ideal. The creamy sauce was pleasant but nothing to write home about. Bear in mind I’ve had plenty of pies recently with a 70% meat content, so 18% really left me lacking in the content department.

The pastry was quite crisp and held together reasonably well considering it was quite a small pie with a puff pastry lid. The sides were however a bit anaemic and slightly soggy on the base. Paul Hollywood would not be pleased! I was also surprised to see this pie called a “puff pastry pie” when actually the sides and base were shortcrust pastry and only the lid was puff pastry, but maybe I’m just being a piefectionist.

All in all this pie really didn’t blow me away, with far too much pastry (known in the trade as a poor pastry:filling ratio) and a very soup like consistency. The meat inside was not chewy and the sauce wasn’t bad, but would I pay 70p for this small, 150g pie again? Probably not. For 19p? Well then you might just persuade me to buy a few again…

Sainsbury’s Chicken and Mushroom Puff Pastry Pie
Score: 3.04/7
[Colour 3, Capacity 3.25, Consistency 2, Condition 3, Chewiness 3.5, Cheapness 3.5, Content 3, Total: 3.04/7]
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So it comes to that all important first full week in March again, and the week all Pierateers savour the most. For it is, once again, British Pie Week! (5^th – 11^th March 2012)

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Spot the Difference (not Taste the Difference) with Sainsbury's Deep Fill Chicken and White Wine Puff Pastry Pie - an update of the article on 13th October 2013


You may recall that when I went to review the Sainsbury's Deep Fill Chicken and White Wine Puff Pastry Pie a couple of weeks ago I found out that we had already reviewed the Sainsbury’s Chicken and White Wine Puff Pastry Pie back in March 2012. Don’t worry – I’m not going mad and reviewing the same pie again. Did you spot it? Sainsbury’s have added “Deep Fill” to their box. But was there seriously any difference? Or have I been duped by their marketing gimmicks. Looking at the photos of the two pies, the box and the depth of the actual pie I ate compared to what I remember of it before, I was not convinced.


Sainsbury's Classic Chicken and White Wine Pie - reviewed 5/3/2012



Sainsbury's Classic Chicken and White Wine Pie - eaten 10/10/2013

However, after waiting a week for a reply from Sainsbury’s I finally heard back on twitter that there were some differences between the pies. Frustratingly, @Sainsburys have since deleted these comments, so I cannot show you them, but in essence they told me that the old pie was 16mm deep, but the new pie was 26mm deep, and that the chicken had been cooked for longer in the new pie to be more tender.

In summary, with the original non-deep fill pie reviewed in March 2012 no longer in production, and as the supplier is different and the pie is a different depth, it warranted an updated review. However before I assess the pie, a quick comment on the information supplied by Sainsbury’s. Unfortunately as I no longer have the two pies to eat and re-measure at this point, I have had to use the secondary resource of the pie photos. The boxes should accurately reflect the pies in question and with a near identical style photo on the box, I used the ratio of the measurements of the depth of pie to the average middle pie depth and do not believe that the 62.5% deeper analysis (16mm to 26mm) is accurate, even if the pie is a bit deeper.


The million dollar question is how deep does a pie need to be to be labelled “deep fill”? In my opinion the difference between these pies in reality (as opposed to the data above based on the box photo) indicates next to no actual difference in depth (especially not 62.5% difference as quoted).

Onto the actual taste and the pie itself was a nice one, with the white wine sauce of the Sainsbury’s pie being very nice. It really complemented the puff pastry well, and in conjunction with the light, golden puff pastry it was a real winner. The pastry was nicely golden and in great condition, with the capacity being good and the pieces of chicken very tasty. However I couldn’t help but think that for a pie labelled as “deep fill”, this certainly didn’t strike me as any more filled than a standard pie I’ve had. The filling was good but both my hosts the Senei and I felt the filling to pastry ratio was a bit disappointing, especially when the supposed deep fill should alleviate this and improve the ratio.

All in all, I would eat this pie again but it certainly was disappointing to see so little difference (if any) in the two pies considering the new supplier was supposed to be providing a “deep fill” pie.

Sainsbury's Classic Deep Fill Chicken and White Wine Puff Pastry Pie
Score: 5.6/7
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