As the days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months, those of us still in the UK lockdown are in need of a pie pick me up! So after far too long an absence, and to celebrate 1.2 million views on the web's leading pie review blog, here are some pie-lights of the last few weeks to get you drooling!

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Gunns Bakery: Will people go nuts for it or have they dropped a clanger?!

Now we've been served many different pastry products and many quirky fillings over the years, but this one may be one of the more unusual we have heard of! Available in time for Father's Day (21st June), a freelance chef has won a com-pie-tition for Gunns Bakery in Bedfordshire to create their new Clanger flavour incorporating Macadamia nuts from nut supplier Nutcellars. The idea of the contest was to use the Macadamia nuts in a quirky new Bedfordshire Clanger reci-pie, creating a world first "MacClanger"!

Bedfordshire MacClanger

Historically Clangers would have been made out of pastry and whatever filling the person had available to them, with a meat end and a sweet end. So, for example, a gammon or ham and potato meat filling might be complimented by a sweet chopped up apple sauce at the other end.

The winner of the com-pie-tition was freelance chef Spencer Westcott, who created a Chicken Satay 'n' Chocolate Macadamia MacClanger! It will be produced and sold in Gunns Bakery in Bedfordshire and, like Bakery owner David Gunn, we are intrigued to see how nuts his customers are about this new pastry product! Spencer himself is a self confessed fan of pies and pasties, and while we Pierateers would argue this MacClanger isn't officially a pie - which is filling fully encased in pastry, with a clearly defined base, sides and lid - this pastry parcel certainly sounds worth picking up for Father's Day this year!

Check out the photos and let us know what you think about the new Bedfordshire MacClanger!!

Bedfordshire MacClanger Cut-through

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MyPie Delivery throughout Lockdown!!

Pierateers with number 1 pie maker - Chris! (L to R - Chris, SJL, TJP, RAS)

MyPie London, who make our number 1 rated pie out of over 600 have been setting up shop online during the lockdown period, replacing their usual street food market stalls for nationwide delivery of their award winning and Pierate Highly Recommended pies via the MyPie website. We were delighted to try the Chicken and Mushroom pie recently, which will need to be reviewed soon, and Pierateer Sam sent a box of pies to his dad to cheer him up recently too!

My Dad has been in hospital a couple of times recently, I decided the perfect get well gift would be a delivery of our number 1 ranked pies from @MYPIE_LDN and they seem to have gone down well plus the chance to support a small business during lockdown ☺️ pic.twitter.com/GX7NIyNG49

— Pierate (@pierateers) May 27, 2020

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Pierate Ship finally set sail to Africa!

We were delighted recently to finally add our African pie reviews to the blog, in our "African Pie Tour" article! This means we have now reviewed pies in Europe, North America, Asia, Australasia and now Africa. Only South America and Antarctica to go!!

African Pie Tour

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature on the web's leading pie review site, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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After a busy summer period, including a couple of Pierateer weddings (check out the wedding pie we had!!), it's high time we set sail on some more pie related adventures! But before we do, we thought it would be rude not to fill you in on some exciting pie news we've come across these last few weeks. Check them out below!

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Fellow Pie rater needs your Pukka vote!

Regular viewers of our @pierateers twitter feed will know that we follow and regularly chat with fellow pie blogger and football fan Katie Peal, who came to one of our Birmingham Pie Nights and has been a fellow pie judge at the British Pie Awards with us.

She supports Telford United and travels around rating pies at the lower league football grounds they play in. She's created her own special persona - @awaydaypiegirl - and has even got her own branded pie fork that features regularly on her Twitter! This lady is dedicated to pie!! And it's for that reason we're backing her in the com-pie-tition Pukka Pies have set up to find the biggest Pukka Pies superfan! Check out the tweet below:

It’s time to put our superfan in your hands! Who do you think deserves the crown? RT for @awaydaypiegirl, who lives and breathes all things pastry, and LIKE for @JimJamRadford, who shouts his fandom loud and proud. Take it away, vote ends Monday, 17th September! pic.twitter.com/2rLZP7eJKQ

— Pukka Pies (@PukkaPies) 12 September 2018

You can vote by either retweeting (for Katie) or liking (for Jim) the post above on the Pukka Pies Twitter account or voting on the Pukka Pies Facebook page until Monday 17th September. All the best Katie!!

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Pierateers heading back to Pieminister for their Sunday Best!

You may recall back in March of this year during British Pie Week 2018 we hosted a Birmingham Pie Night at the Pieminister pie shop in Birmingham City Centre. If not, you can read all about our Pie Night here - especially to whet your a-pie-tite as we'll be planning another for British Pie Week 2019!

But before all that, we're excited to be going back to Waterloo Street this coming Sunday to try out Pieminister's new "Sunday Best" pie meal option. If you've ever thought "What would happen if you combined an award winning pie with a roast dinner?" then think no more - you can try it out at your local Pieminister shop each Sunday starting this very Sunday 16th September!

To whet our a-pie-tite Pieminister sent us a preview description and it sounds e-pie-c!!!

"The Sunday Best is any of Pieminister's award winning pies on a pile of delicious mash, topped with a Yorkshire Pudding filled with swede mash, roast garlic & rosemary potatoes and finished with free range British Pork crackling and a pig-in-blanket. All served-up with a brimming boat of gravy on the side."

If that doesn't sound amazing, I don't know what does! Look out for the pie rating next week!!

British Pie Week Pieminister Pie Night

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MyPie is set to open a London pie shop!!

Pierateers with number 1 pie maker - Chris! (L to R - Chris, SJL, TJP, RAS)

Possibly the best pie news we've heard all year:

MyPie London, who make our number 1 rated pie out of over 600 have shared on Twitter that they're planning to open a pie shop in central London next month! We'll be sure to check out the MyPie website for updates from Chris about the details, but the plan is to open 20th October in Zone 1 for a three month period. We for one cannot wait to visit!!

From 20th October - we’re opening a restaurant. In zone 1. On one of the most famous damned streets in the world. #openforbusiness #pie #mash #peas #scotcheggs #3monthsonly

— MYPIE (@MYPIE_LDN) 3 September 2018

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British Pie Awards Winner Turner's Pies are now available for postal delivery!

Check out this great news from Turner's Pies, who were the Supreme Champions at the British Pie Awards 2018. They are now available for postal delivery!! We look forward to placing an order soon so we can get them on our pie rankings page. Act quick if you want to enter their com-pie-tition, which closes at 6pm today!!

#piesbypost GIVEAWAY ‼️
To celebrate our new service piesbypost. com we're giving away a whole box of #AwardWinning Pies. (Anywhere in UK)

To enter simply FAV,RT & TAG a friend you MIGHT share your pies with it they are extra nice😋

Winner announced Friday 6pm. 🤞 pic.twitter.com/w2YJFqVJ6g

— Turner’s Pies (@TurnersPies) 13 September 2018

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature on the web's leading pie review site, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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Unless you've been living on another planet for the last few weeks, you'll notice we've kinda been promoting British Pie Week! In fact with just a few days left til it begins (and you can see to the second how long we have left in our Countdown to British Pie Week article!) you could say it's been on the forefront of our minds! So with so much to fill you in on and some exiting updates to our British Pie Week plans, do enjoy our preview of the greatest week in pie!

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Make your British Pie Week #PiePledge

For the last few years prior to British Pie Week we've encouraged individuals, pie companies and anyone else who will listen to make a #PiePledge for British Pie Week! The idea is pretty simple - make a pledge to commit to doing something pie-related during British Pie Week! This might be trying a new pie flavour, making your own pie, hosting a pie party or doing some crazy pie stunt (like only eating pies for a day!)

This year Pierateer Rob has organised another Birmingham Pie Night (see below for more details) and is taking Wednesday off work in order to be a media reporter at the 10th annual British Pie Awards! He'll be joined at the British Pie Awards by Pierateer Sam, who has also taken the day off to be a Pie Awards judge! On top of that the Pierateers will be eating a pie (minimum) every day of pie week, doing a daily blog post of the things we and the nation are getting up to in British Pie Week and generally promoting the biggest week in pie!!

Whatever you get up to we hope you'll enjoy British Pie Week as much as we do, and for some ins-pie-ration why not watch our short #PiePledge video:

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Birmingham Pie Night Plans confirmed

Part of our #PiePledge is to host a pie night in British Pie Week, so our friends can enjoy some Pierate Highly Recommended pie with us! This year we're doing a "Pierateer Takeover" in Pieminister's Birmingham shop - where we've eaten some top pies in the past few months since it opened (and plenty more Pieminister pies elsewhere before then!)

It'll be on Tuesday 6th March from 5:30-7:30pm. And the good news is there is still time to join us! While the full details are in our Birmingham Pie Night post, all you need to do is phone the store and reserve a table from 5:30-7:30pm, which is when me and a group of friends will be there! If you do come along, I'll be wearing the Pierate t-shirt you can see below, so do pop over and say hi!!!

British Pie Week Pieminister Pie Night

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British Pie Week 2018 is 5th to 11th March!

Everything there is to know about British Pie Week - including pie-motions!

It turns out loads of people want to know all there is to know about British Pie Week! With well over 1,000 views of our "British Pie Week - Everything you should know" article already, and thousands more looking at our Countdown to British Pie Week and British Pie Week Logo Launch articles, this has proved to be our busiest pre-Pie Week period to date!

However it's true that as soon as you post a British Pie Week article you hear of yet more great pie-motions you'd love to shout about, so here are just a few of the British Pie Week offers and specials we want to let you know about (and there will be plenty more we're yet to hear about!)

MyPie Pie Truck (London) - Our number 1 pie seller MyPie London have shared on twitter that they're doing their legendary "Pie meal for a fiver" promotion during British Pie Week! Check out the MyPie website for where Chris and the gang will be this week!

Next week we'll be getting up to our old nonsense @BroadgateLondon, £5 pie, mash, peas and gravy. No salads, no 50/50 just to keep the queues moving. can we reach 400 pies?? @StreetDots @TimeOutEatDrink @LDNCheapEats @Londonist @Streetzine

— MYPIE (@MYPIE_LDN) February 26, 2018

Pubs serving MyPie (London) - If standing outside waiting for a pie from a pie truck doesn't sound your thing, the great news is that throughout British Pie Week much-loved Clapham Common craft beer pub The King & Co and newly refurbished sibling freehouse the Elm Park Tavern in Brixton Hill will be serving up the Pierate Highly Recommended MyPie in their pubs! Visitors to the two popular independent South London boozers will be able to take their pick from the latest selection of proper pies by the cult favourite British Pie Awards winner, such as chipotle pork shoulder with black beans, or mushroom, spinach and truffle, all accompanied by homemade mash, greens and gravy (£10.50).

Here are the details for how you can reserve your spot:
Table reservations: hello@thekingandco.uk / hello@elmparktavern.co.uk
Addresses: The King & Co, 100 Clapham Park Road, London, SW4 7BZ / The Elm Park Tavern, 76 Elm Park, London, SW2 2UB
Social media: @thekingandco / @elmparktavern

Pieminister restaurants (Various locations) - Our Birmingham Pie Night is not the only reason you should visit a Pieminister restaurant this coming British Pie Week! Check out these daily offers - one for each day of the week - at Pieminister restaurants up and down the country (click to make it bigger):


More info on the Pieminister website and to get you in the mood, why not check out all 19 of our Pieminister pie reviews so far?

Bowen Pies (Chorley and nationwide delivery) - We're delighted to hear that Pierate Highly Recommended pie maker Bowen Pies - who we rated while visiting Wigan a few years ago - have just launched a pie delivery service just before the start of British Pie Week. Great timing guys!

🐷 New OINK BOX 🐷.. Who Loves A Good Pork Pie?!
🇬🇧 UK Delivery! This Box Contains 15 Pork Filled Pies & Free @brownsthebutchers Black Pudding.. The same Pudding We Use In Our Award Winning Pork & Black Pudding. Limited Availability , Shop Online:https://t.co/jGRGkD65ig pic.twitter.com/4n6U4gnJSL

— Bowen Pies (@BowenPies) February 23, 2018

Joanna’s (London) - This is somewhere we are yet to rate but comes highly recommended by a friend of the blog! Critically-acclaimed Crystal Palace institution Joanna's (who will be celebrating their 40th anniversary next month!) will be offering an exclusive dish on their daily a la carte menu for British Pie Week, showcasing the very best of the new Spring produce. Guests at the beloved neighbourhood restaurant can tuck into the comforting seasonal special of slow-cooked lamb, rosemary and pea pie with wild garlic mash, ideal paired with a fine French wine by local wine merchant Les Vins de Sylvain and followed by one of their irresistible new desserts like cinnamon doughnuts with hot chocolate sauce.

Table reservations: http://www.joannas.uk.com/ or via Opentable
Address: Joannas, 56 Westow Hill, Crystal Palace, London, SE19 1RX
Social media: @Joannas_1978

The Redhouse (Newcastle) - Another place on our Pierate to-do list when we finally sail the Pierate Ship up to the North East, this popular pie shop in Newcastle is releasing a special guest pie for British Pie Week - and it sounds fab!!

Our guest pie for #BritishPieWeek will be a twist on a British classic. Pie lovers, let me introduce you to your soon to be new favourite pie - Steak and Stilton. #pieloving pic.twitter.com/k1c76otf2n

— The Redhouse (@TheRedhouseNCL) March 1, 2018

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Almost time for the 10th annual British Pie Awards!

British Pie Awards 2017 Judges

It's become a pie institution just fractionally older than Pierate Pie Reviews itself, as the British Pie Awards in Melton Mowbray celebrate this year their 10th annual awards event! Read our Countdown to the British Pie Awards article for more info!

With this year over 900 pies from a record breaking number of entrants, we can't wait to judge (Pierateer Sam) and provide media coverage (Pierateer Rob) from the greatest show in pies!!

We were glad to see last year that the British Pie Awards 2017 champion was in fact a pie, after the controversy of the winner of the British Pie Awards 2016 not being a pie at all - but a pasty!!! We wait and see what sur-pie-ses they have in store to mark this special 10th anniversary year!

More than 900 pies entered from a record 179 piemakers. Around 120 judges will spend about 4 hours chomping their way through the best pies in the land. What's not to like!

— British Pie Awards (@BritishPies) February 27, 2018

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature on the web's leading pie review site, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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Unless you've been living on another planet for the last few weeks, you'll notice we've kinda been promoting British Pie Week! In fact with just a few days left til it begins (and you can see to the second how long we have left in our Countdown to British Pie Week article!) you could say it's been on the forefront of our minds! So with so much to fill you in on and some exiting updates to our British Pie Week plans, do enjoy our preview of the greatest week in pie!

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Make your British Pie Week #PiePledge

For the last few years prior to British Pie Week we've encouraged individuals, pie companies and anyone else who will listen to make a #PiePledge for British Pie Week!

The idea is pretty simple - make a pledge to commit to doing something pie-related during British Pie Week! This might be trying a new pie flavour, making your own pie, hosting a pie party or doing some crazy pie stunt (like only eating pies for a day!) We'll be unveiling our Pierateer Pie Pledges this weekend, but whatever you do, we hope you'll enjoy British Pie Week and for some ins-pie-ration, why not watch our short #PiePledge video:

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Birmingham Pie Night Plans confirmed

Part of our #PiePledge is to host a pie night in British Pie Week, so our friends can enjoy some Pierate Highly Recommended pie with us! This year we're hosting in a pub in Birmingham called the Jekyll and Hyde - where we've eaten some top pies in the past few years. In fact, this pub served us the highest rated pie in Birmingham to date!

While full details can be found in our Birmingham Pie Night article, the latest on our pie night is that we're going to be served a selection of "family sized" pies, which means we can mix and match what pies we eat from a list including beef and ale, chicken, potato and cheese and rabbit pie! We can't wait!

The pub was also in fact the venue back in February 2015 when Pierateer Rob was filmed by the BBC talking football pies, for an episode of "Rip Off Britain" that aired in April 2015 and has been repeated several times since.


While sadly that episode of Rip Off Britain is no longer available on BBC pie-player, you can still see us on the BBC Sport website talking football pies!

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Everyone wants to know Everything there is to know about British Pie Week!

British Pie Week 2017 is from 6th to 12th March!

It turns out loads of people want to know all there is to know about British Pie Week! With almost 4,000 views of our "British Pie Week - Everything you should know" article, it's quickly become one of our most viewed articles ever! But I guess with Pierate Pie Reviews becoming the home of British Pie Week 2017, it's not that sur-pie-sing!

We've also heard of some great promotions going on in British Pie Week, such as our number 1 pie seller MyPie London doing a "Pie meal for a fiver" promotion during British Pie Week and top pie pub The Windmill in Mayfair, London - who were Pierate Highly Recommended during our last visit - doing a #WindmillWin promotion, where half of the people buying a pie there during British Pie Week will win a prize! Some people are even running special pie making classes - like Mrs Bun the Baker! However the prize for most random British Pie Week promotion has to go to Pieminister...

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That's just not cricket...it's cricket pie!!!

The Pieminister "Hopper" pie featuring Crickets!

Those crazy chefs at Pieminister have decided that, alongside bringing back some old favourites in the form of The Big Cheese (a mature English Cheddar, onion and buttered potato pie with a cream cheese & chive middle) and The Guru (a British Lamb Dhansak curry pie made with Chana Dahl, spinach & chickpeas), they're going to sell a brand new pie - featuring crickets!

Yep - you read that right! But with 70% of the world's population seeing eating insects as a normal part of their diet, perhaps it's not such a crazy idea after all! The "Hopper" is a Mexican-inspired cricket and black bean pie cooked in a rich tomato, chipotle chilli and sour cream sauce with fresh lime and coriander. While it's hard to say if we're looking forward to trying it or not, we feel it is our duty as the world's leading pie review blog to give it a go and will do so next weekend!

In the meantime, why not check out all 12 of our Pieminister pie reviews so far?

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Outrage at the British Pie Awards Judges!

And finally, a group of pie fans from Lancashire who are all part of the Lancashire Pork Pie Appreciation Society have written an open letter to the British Pie Awards 2017 organisers due to being outraged at their Midlands and Southern pie judge bias! It seems they've cottoned on to what we've known all along, which is that the majority of judges at the British Pie Awards come from either Melton Mowbray itself (the location of the awards), the surrounding area or from London. There is only a small contingent of judges from the North of England and from Scotland. One wonders why they didn't just ask to be on the judging panel themselves, but then again this society does recognise cottage and shepherds potato bakes as being pies, something even the British Pie Awards do not accept!

All this outrage seems to miss the mark slightly though, considering last year the winner of the British Pie Awards was not a pie at all - but a pasty!!!

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature on the web's leading pie review site, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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Well we can't deny it's been a while, but Friday Pieday is back for a pre-Christmas special! Though perhaps sur-pie-singly it is lacking on the festive Turkey and Mince Pie reviews you may expect at this time of year and instead focusing on pies in the media, as it seems you just can't keep a good pie down... quite literally in the case of our top story!

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Our "Pie in the Sky"

Pie in the sky?! Just watch this space!!!

You may well remember back in British Pie Week 2016, which we extensively covered here on the home of the pie review, that Pierateer Rob pie-oneered "Pie in the Sky" by enjoying a World Scotch Pie Championship winning Scotch Pie from The Kandy Bar Bakery on his flight back from Glasgow to Birmingham. However it appears some pie fans in Wigan have taken things one step further!

As reported on the BBC News website, to celebrate the upcoming World Pie Eating Championships in Wigan some pie fans have only gone and sent a meat and potato pie up into space!!! Attaching the pie to a balloon, it's believed to be the first pie sent into space and there are scientists studying how the pie will react to being so far above the Earth's crust!

Will it freeze in the outer atmosphere? Will it burn up upon re-entry? The pie scientists are hoping to find out soon! You can see a snazzy little video on the BBC website right now!

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Pierateers are pie advisers to the BBC once again

While the full details cannot yet be unveiled as it is still at the idea pitching stage, this week Pierateer Rob was once again advising the BBC on a potential pie-related clip for hit BBC show "Rip Off Britain". You may remember that back in February 2015 Pierateer Rob was filmed by the BBC talking football pies, for an episode of "Rip Off Britain" that aired in April 2015 and has been repeated several times since. This follows our appearance on BBC hit show The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice and several BBC Radio ap-pie-rences!


While sadly that episode of Rip Off Britain is no longer available on BBC pie-player, you can still see us on the BBC Sport website talking football pies!

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The Sun's Sports Section covers our PIEremiership!

Turns out it's not just the BBC wanting to get their hands on top pie-fessional advice when it comes to pies! Just a few weeks ago Pierateer Rob was also featured in The Sun newspaper's sports section talking about the best football pies. Featuring just shortly after the BBC announced its annual Price of Football survey, which we covered in our article on the Pies of Football, The Sun contacted us to find out more about football pies and grab a slice of our PIEremiership - where we rate the pies at football grounds up and down the land!

You can find out more about Pierate's Football Pie League and a whole host of other football pie related info right here! This includes the Pierate Highly Recommended pies from Morecambe FC, which rate as our number 1 pies in football.

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature on the web's leading pie review site, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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It's been a few months since our last Pieday Friday but with so much exciting pie news happening right now, we thought it about time we updated you!

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New Twitter Landmark Reached

We were delighted on Friday morning to wake up to the news that we've just reached 2,000 followers on Twitter! Thanks to all of those who follow us and contribute to the pie debate on the Pierate Twitter feed! I've had tweets from #GBBO contestants, actors, celebrity chefs, Olympians... something that six years back we would never have imagined! But our bread and butter (or filling and pastry, in this case) is all the pie fans up and down the country who love a good pie and want to find out what's hot and what's not in their local area. It's for you that we're continuing to run Pierate almost 6 years on and with a number of im-pie-rovements in the pie-peline, we hope Pierate will be somewhere you return to week after week!

A great message to wake up to on Friday from Twitter!

Of course like anywhere, we'd love your feedback if there are things you can see that could be improved or pies that we haven't managed to get our hands on yet! Either tweet us, email pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or if it's a pie suggestion, do leave a quick comment on our Suggest-A-Pie page! Thanks!

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Countdown to Great British Bake Off Pie Week!

It surely can't have skipped your attention that the Great British Bake Off is back! And with it a brand new set of bakers that we cannot wait to see make pies! I have to admit that I do have my favourite already, for quite obvious reasons! I mean, how many people would go on Bake Off saying that they are so random that "sometimes they try to make a cake and it ends up being a meat pie!" Surely this is pie-deal?! If only everyone had the talent Sandy clearly does!

Pierateer Rob and the Ship's Cook on GBBO: Extra Slice

But of course while they've had fun making cake, biscuits and bread, they're really just filling the schedule before the bakers earn their crust by making pies in just a few weeks time! We, naturally, cannot wait til Pie Week - which is obviously the pie-light of the series for us.

And of course we cannot mention the Great British Bake Off without reference to our ap-pie-rance on the Extra Slice show last year, where we had the pleasure of Michel Roux Jnr rating our crocodile pie!!! If you missed it, unfortunately you really missed out! But you can still see some photos and our write up about being on the show.

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Pierate Ship sets sail to the Food Blogger Connect Conference

One of the exciting events we'll be attending in the next few weeks is the 7th annual Food Blogger Connect Conference down in London. Sold as the "world's leading international food blogging conference with workshops, talks, demos, tastings and more" we cannot wait to make our debut at this - and in fact any - blogging conference.

With over 350,000 views and multiple BBC TV appearances so far, I think we're doing quite well for ourselves! But of course as with any blog there are things we could do even better, so I'm looking forward to networking and getting some more useful tips from the array of speakers on show!

You can find out more on @BloggerConnect or the Food Blogger Connect website, with some places still available!

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Birmingham Pie League to expand the PIEremiership

There's always been a strong link between football and pie. We've highlighted it many a time, including in our "Pies and Football - a match made in heaven" article. We've even created the PIEremiership, to record the half time pies we've eaten at football grounds across the country and the exciting news is that we're planning on expanding it to cover all five West Midlands clubs. With Walsall already covered but rated over 5 years ago (in what was actually Pierateer Rob's second ever pie review!) we've decided to go on a West Midlands Football Pie Tour, with all five grounds in the Birmingham area being covered.

Aston Villa, Birmingham, Walsall, West Brom and Wolverhampton's football pies will all be put under the spotlight in the coming months, to find out whose pies hit the back of the net and which ones will be paying the penalty! You'll be able to follow our progress on our twitter and reports will be added to an article I'll be writing about the Birmingham Football Pie League!

Check out the football pies we've rated so far in our PIEremiership!

Pierateers filming with BBC Sport

And speaking of football pies, you may well have seen that Pierateer Rob was called upon by BBC One hit show "Rip Off Britain" to give his expert pie opinion recently on football pies. You can find out more about what he said by visiting our Rip Off Britain: Football Pies article.

And if you want to find out more about the match winning pies they sell at Morecambe FC, currently top of our PIEremiership, you can see both Head Chef Graham and ourselves in a video on the BBC Sport website talking football pies!

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature in a future Pieday Friday, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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Following the popularity of last week's Pieday Friday Wembley special we've got an update for you!

We're going to Wembley! Source: WWFCOfficial Twitter

Pierateers should be rating pie at Wem-ber-ley!

There's always been a strong link between football and pie. We've highlighted it many a time, including in our "Pies and Football - a match made in heaven" article. We've even created the PIEremiership, to record the half time pies we've eaten at football grounds across the country and you may have spotted our "Best Pie in London Restaurants" article rates football-related pie shop Piebury Corner as our number 1!

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

But we have still not been able to rate a pie at the home of football, Wembley Stadium... until now! Or will we???

Could the Germans put a halt to Wembley Pie Rating?!

With tickets purchased and trains booked, Pierateer Rob and Pierateer Sam will head to Wembley on Saturday 23rd May, with a pre-match pie for this 5:30pm kick off very much on the agenda! Will the pie hit the back of the net? Will it live up to the hype as the pie of choice at the home of football? Will it be well priced or an absolute rip-off, as we have heard it might be? You'll find out on www.pierate.co.uk!

Unless, that is, the Germans have their way! For you may have heard the news reports emerging of an unexploded World War Two bomb being found just metres away from the Home of English Football. While it was expected that the bomb will be made safe and removed from the site in time for kick off, the Pierateers were anxiously waiting to get the all clear to head down to Wembley on Saturday! Surely the Germans can't stop us enjoying the BIG MATCH and a Wembley pie!!!

Fortunately it appears not! The bomb, we are reliably informed, has been removed and the only explosive action should be that which is happening on the pitch (and hopefully not our pie filling exploding all over us!!!)

Regarding the game itself, it's probably one of the worst kept secrets on Pierate that we are Wycombe Wanderers fans and we are delighted to announce that Wycombe Wanderers are going to Wembley! They beat Plymouth in the League Two playoffs to join Southend United in the final. Those who know the Pierateers well will know we also have a soft spot for Southend, with Pierateer Rob having been born in Southend and regular trips made to Southend-on-Sea in the past, making this a dream final for the lads! We even had our 500th pie in Southend-on-Sea back in March, the day after watching Southend v Wycombe!

While we wait to find out which pies are sold at Wembley, here are how the pies rate at the respective two clubs home grounds (click on the pie for the full review):

Info	Wycombe Wanderers Pie	Score	vs	Score	Southend United Pie
Flavour	Steak and Potato	3.36	-	4.41	Chicken Balti
Company	Phat Pasty Co				Pukka Pies
Where	Adam's Park				Roots Hall

Pierateers filming with BBC Sport

And speaking of rip off pies, you may well have seen that Pierateer Rob was called upon by BBC One hit show "Rip Off Britain" to give his expert pie opinion recently on football pies. You can find out more about what he said by visiting our Rip Off Britain: Football Pies article.

And if you want to find out more about the match winning pies they sell at Morecambe FC, currently top of our PIEremiership, you can see both Head Chef Graham and ourselves in a video on the BBC Sport website talking football pies!

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature in a future Pieday Friday, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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It's been about a month since our last Pieday Friday to celebrate the upcoming British Pie Awards, which we were delighted to judge and live blog at, but with so many more exciting pie developments since then we couldn't resist a cheeky pie news round-up!

We're going to Wembley! Source: WWFCOfficial Twitter

Pierateers will be rating pie at Wem-ber-ley!

There's always been a strong link between football and pie. We've highlighted it many a time, including in our "Pies and Football - a match made in heaven" article. We've even created the PIEremiership, to record the half time pies we've eaten at football grounds across the country and you may have spotted our "Best Pie in London Restaurants" article rates football-related pie shop Piebury Corner as our number 1!

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

But we have still not been able to rate a pie at the home of football, Wembley Stadium... until now!

It's probably one of the worst kept secrets on Pierate that we are Wycombe Wanderers fans and we are delighted to announce that Wycombe Wanderers are going to Wembley! They beat Plymouth in the League Two playoffs to join Southend United in the final. Those who know the Pierateers well will know we also have a soft spot for Southend, with Pierateer Rob having been born in Southend and regular trips made to Southend-on-Sea in the past, making this a dream final for the lads! We even had our 500th pie in Southend-on-Sea back in March, the day after watching Southend v Wycombe!

While tickets are not quite in the bag yet, we can't wait to get our hands on them and head to Wembley on Saturday 23rd May, with a pre-match pie for this 5:30pm kick off very much on the agenda! Will the pie hit the back of the net? Will it live up to the hype as the pie of choice at the home of football? Will it be well priced or an absolute rip-off, as we have heard it might be? You'll find out on www.pierate.co.uk!

Pierateers filming with BBC Sport

Speaking of rip off pies, you may well have seen that Pierateer Rob was called upon by BBC One hit show "Rip Off Britain" to give his expert pie opinion recently on football pies. You can find out more about what he said and view the show on BBC iplayer by visiting our Rip Off Britain: Football Pies article.

And if you want to find out more about the match winning pies they sell at Morecambe FC, currently top of our PIEremiership, you can see both Head Chef Graham and ourselves in a video on the BBC Sport website talking football pies!

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New Gluten Free Pie Reviews page!

On the Pierate Ship we recognise that gluten free pastry requires great skill and can be even more complex than standard gluten pastry, so we want to acknowledge all the hard work put in to produce pies for those who cannot eat gluten.

Since 4th October 2013 we have had a gluten free pie reviewer aboard the Pierate Ship, in the form of Pierateer ALE. As a coeliac she has rated a range of gluten free pies in that time and we now have enough to make a dedicated Gluten Free Pie Reviews page! We hope all our gluten free pie fans will enjoy it, as we develop it over the coming months with more gluten free pies we rate!

You may also be interested to know it is Coeliac Awareness Week 2015 this week (11-17th May).

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Tweet of the Week - David Beckham loves pies!

It's no secret that David Beckham loves the pies at Tony's Pie and Mash Shop, near where David grew up in London. This week David, who has now turned 40, was once again featured in the papers sharing his love of pie and mash. Now he's no longer playing football, it's good to know David can tuck into the pies at his leisure! Back of the net!

While David already features in our "Celebrities who love pie" article, we've just added the following photo:

Best selfie possible pic.twitter.com/PKfvDjAoLr

— TONY'S PIE AND MASH (@TonysPieAndMash) May 14, 2015

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500 Pie Reviews for the Pie-fessionals at Pierate!

We won't bang on about it too much more, as you probably have to have been living on another planet to miss that we have just reached 500 pie reviews on the web's leading pie review website!

You can view them all in our updated Pierate Pie Rankings table and we marked the occasion with a little "500 Pies Press Release" to sum up just a few of the pie-lights of the first five and a half years on board the Pierate Ship!

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature in a future Pieday Friday, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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