You don't need us to tell you we know a thing or two about football pies! If you've even glanced at our pie blog you're bound to have seen mention of our football pie video with BBC Sport (at the home of our top rated football pie, Morecambe FC) or our football pie article with Buzzfeed or our Pieremiership table, detailing all the football pies we've eaten in-ground! We've even been football pie experts on BBC One hit show "Rip Off Britain"!

So it will come as little surprise that we were intrigued to find out about a pie-tition that's circulating online calling for the DW Stadium, home of Wigan FC and Wigan Warriors Rugby League Club, to stock local, Wigan based pies! The e-petition, which started a few days ago, has already seen dozens of people sign up to protest that - despite noting "there is nothing wrong with Holland's Pies", the current supplier - the stadium built on pies (though we don't think literally!) should stock local Wigan pies - namely from Galloways.

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

Now it has to be said that this does leave us in a slight quandary, in that we've rated Holland's Pies (during our visit to The Emirates for an Arsenal game) and a Galloways Pie (on the High Street of Wigan) and these are our findings:



However at Pierate we like to try and see the bigger picture. And if there is a local supplier, one which doesn't have the big spending power of one of its larger pie rivals, we want to factor this in. If it's a case of local v wholesale, that's important too. Ultimately it's a tricky one to call - does the more expensive pie that rates better trump the cheaper local supplier? We'll ultimately leave that decision up to the caterers at the DW Stadium, but lend the petition makers our support.

Sam and Rob being interviewed by BBC Sport's Azi Farni Watch the video on the BBC Sport website

But before we go any further, after slicing through the crisp top pastry of this e-petition we came to find out that it was in fact friend of the blog Mr Martin Tarbuck - of "The Life of Pies" fame - who is behind the "Pie Eaters Protest Group" who set up the petition! Some would argue that man would do anything to get a book plug, but genuinely he has eaten hundreds of pies himself, so if he's recommending Wigan FC go back to their pie-eating routes and source locally, the man has got to be heard!

So, while we'll happily back the man from Wigan who's had a "journey of a lunchtime", we're also here to do our own football pie campaigning - to say no to #PieHighPrices and keep the price of pies low but the quality of pies high when it comes to the Pies of Football!

RAS

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This Gents (Pepper Lane Pie Shop) Steak pie review forms part of our #WiganPieWeek set of reviews. This week we are rating 5 pies from Wigan on our 7 Cs of pie rating. Find out more about our quest in our overarching “Wigan Pie Week” article!

Gents (Pepper Lane Pie Shop) Pie Review

Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to a new pie shop I was taken to by “Life of Pies” author Martin Tarbuck. In the Standish area of north Wigan I was taken to Gents bakery, which is known in the area as the sort of place you need to get to early if you want a pie before they sell out (normally at about midday). They had steak, meat and potato or butter pies still available when Martin and I arrived, all at very reasonable prices. A decent sized individual pie, the capacity of this pie was very strong. However while the gravy was quite nice and the meat that I found in the pie was nice and tender, the filling of this pie was padded out with a lot of onion, thick gravy and non-steak, which left me quite disappointed.

This was in addition to the large gap in the top crust pastry, which had led to the filling becoming very dry and congealed at the point of the air gap and therefore spoilt some of the filling. The pastry was quite nice though, with a good bite to it and holding the filling in quite well. The edges were significantly crisper and more golden than the central pastry, but this did hold together more so than some of the other pies I ate in my Wigan trip.

Gents (Pepper Lane Pie Shop) Pie Review

While the actual meat I had in this pie was quite nice and tender, as a steak pie I would expect more. I guess this just indicates that a steak pie at just £1.25 is just too good to be true, and that for a truly top rated steak pie you need to be willing to pay more for it.

Gents (Pepper Lane Pie Shop) Steak Pie
Score: 4.14/7
[Colour 4, Capacity 4, Consistency 3, Condition 4, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 5.5, Content 3.5, Total: 4.14/7]
RAS

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This Pound Bakery Meat and Potato Pie review forms part of our #WiganPieWeek set of reviews. This week we are rating 5 pies from Wigan on our 7 Cs of pie rating. Find out more about our quest in our overarching “Wigan Pie Week” article!

2 pies for £1!

Pies on sale at Pound Bakery?! I had to stop and rub my eyes to check that I was seeing this right. Could pies really be sold for as little as £1 in the City Centre of Wigan? Was this what had earned Wiganers the name “Pie Eaters”?

But wait – I was wrong! They weren’t selling pies at £1 each in Pound Bakery. They were selling 2 meat and potato pies for £1 in Pound Bakery! Yes – I said TWO pies for ONE pound! Seriously. Could this actually work? Could there really be hot pies on sale for just 50p a pie? How does this make any economic sense?!

Ultimately I had my reservations on how they could possibly be selling 2 meat pies for £1 but as a piefessional, I could only give you a true representation of the quality and rating of the pie having eaten one. It was time to take the 50p pie test!

Pound Bakery Meat and Potato Pie Review

My first thoughts on the condition of the pie was that it looked in quite a good condition for such a cheap pie, but upon breaking open the pie it did start to crumble somewhat. The filling of this pie – like many meat and potato pies I had eaten in the local Wigan area – was primarily consisting of potato, with quite large pieces of potato in it, and a mix of mincemeat and a little gravy. However the pastry was quite dry and while the meat/potato/gravy content was reasonably moist, it didn’t do enough to balance the dryness of the pastry.

I was surprised by the amount of mincemeat in it for such a cheap pie, but it didn’t taste like particularly high quality meat and ultimately I wouldn’t ever choose to eat another one of these pies unless I was completely strapped for cash one day. But what can you expect? I paid 50p per pie, so I can’t say I was expecting Michelin star food. I would be foolish to say that in these days of austerity I’d turn my nose up at a cheap pie if that was all I could afford. However, given the choice and knowing that pies aren’t exactly the most expensive food item out there anyway, there are many better pies to enjoy for a few pounds more.

Pound Bakery Meat and Potato Pie
Score: 3.71/7
[Colour 3, Capacity 3.5, Consistency 2.5, Condition 3, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 5, Content 4, Total: 3.71/7]
RAS

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Galloways in central Wigan

This Galloways Chunky Steak Pie review forms part of our #WiganPieWeek set of reviews. This week we are rating 5 pies from Wigan on our 7 Cs of pie rating. Find out more about our quest in our overarching “Wigan Pie Week” article!

The Chunky Steak pie from Galloways was actually a few pence cheaper than their meat and potato pie, at £1.45, but this was quite a bit smaller than the meat and potato version. The pastry was significantly thicker, with no threat of collapsing under the weight of the pie content, and a lot more golden in colour. However in my view this pastry actually wasn’t as appetising – a bit too thick and in a significantly smaller pie the pastry:filling ratio was all wrong on this pie.

Galloways Chunky Steak Pie Review

Galloways Chunky Steak Pie Review

The content itself was also not that enjoyable, with the meat quite chewy in parts and not the lean meat I would look for in a pie, and the sauce the pie was served in not being overly special either. It wasn’t a typical gravy, seeming to potentially have some flour or potato to thicken out the sauce but removing that lovely gravy taste. Overall, this was not a particularly enjoyable pie and I wouldn’t choose to eat it again.

Galloways Chunky Steak Pie
Score: 2/7
[Colour 3, Capacity 2, Consistency 1, Condition 3, Chewiness 2, Cheapness 2, Content 1, Total: 2/7]
RAS

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Galloways in central Wigan

This Galloways Meat and Potato Pie review forms part of our #WiganPieWeek set of reviews. This week we are rating 5 pies from Wigan on our 7 Cs of pie rating. Find out more about our quest in our overarching “Wigan Pie Week” article!

For a reasonable sized pie, warmed up and sold on the High Street of Wigan, I thought £1.48 was quite reasonable for this meat and potato pie. However the side and base pastry did look rather anaemic, and the colour of the top of the pie was significantly paler than I would hope for in a highly rated pie. Picking up the pie out of its foil tray, the pie was immediately starting to struggle to encase the filling. Within a bite or two, the filling was collapsing all over the place and I was requiring the foil tray to stop me losing the pie all over the floor.

Galloways Meat and Potato Pie Review

Galloways Meat and Potato Pie Review

However what the structure of this pie lacked, the flavour of the filling certainly made up for. The potato was very small pieces within a mainly mash-like consistency, which combined really well with pieces of mincemeat. The content was well seasoned and flavoursome throughout the pie. Eaten on a plate – rather than trying to eat by hand – I think this pie would have worked quite well, though a slightly firmer pastry would have been ideal. A nice pie that I would eat again, it was the highlight of the afternoon trip pie hunting in Wigan town centre.

Galloways Meat and Potato Pie
Score: 4.36/7
[Colour 3.5, Capacity 4, Consistency 3.5, Condition 3.5, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 5, Content 6, Total: 4.36/7]
RAS

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This Greenhalgh’s Meat and Potato Pie review forms part of our #WiganPieWeek set of reviews. This week we are rating 5 pies from Wigan on our 7 Cs of pie rating. Find out more about our quest in our overarching “Wigan Pie Week” article!

Greenhalgh’s Meat and Potato Pie review

Unfortunately the condition of this pie was not up to scratch. The lid had a clear blemish in it, where you could see that the top layer of crust had risen and over-crisped, compared to the under layer of pastry which was quite soft. That aside, the edge crimping of this pie was also overly crisp, while the side and base pastry was rather anaemic in colour. At least it held together a bit better than some other meat and potato pies I’d eaten, both prior and during eating.

Greenhalgh’s Meat and Potato Pie review

Inside, the pie content consisted of small pieces of mincemeat interspersed between rather large chunks of potato. I didn’t really enjoy the consistency and the flavours in this meat and potato pie compared to the other meat and potato pies on offer in Wigan. A comparable price at £1.55 for a decent sized pie, but I wouldn’t choose to eat this pie again.

Greenhalgh’s Meat and Potato Pie
Score: 3.43/7
[Colour 3, Capacity 3.5, Consistency 2.5, Condition 2.5, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 3.5, Content 4, Total: 3.43/7]
RAS

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This week we are dedicating Pierate Pie Reviews to Wigan, and their pies!!!

Wigan – dated back to at least the 7th century and now home to almost 100,000 people in the town itself – has one noticeable characteristic. Not it’s once thriving porcelain manufacture or clock making, nor its milling and coal mining. These things may have built Wigan into the town it is today, but it is PIES that have sustained it! Said to have been linked to the 1926 General Strike, when Wigan coal miners were starved back to work before their local counterparts, and thus eating “humble pie”, the people of Wigan are affectionately known as the “pie-eaters”.

Information about pies in the Museum of Wigan Life

In fact, while the British Pie Awards are held in Melton Mowbray (home of the pork pie), it is Wigan that plays host to the annual World Pie Eating Championships! They really do love their pies in Wigan, so you may not be surprised to hear that a “Wigan Kebab” is actually several pies on a skewer, rather than the more traditional doner meat.

The Wigan Kebab - aka pies!!!

So central to the pie world is Wigan that the Pierateers have longed to sample the pies Wigan has to offer! The only downside being that we Pierateers predominantly in the South – and of course Wigan is tup North.

But alas, Pierateer RAS finally made his way up to Wigan on a trip to attend the book launch of “Life of Pies” – written by Martin Tarbuck, a fellow pie lover and pie reviewer. It’s a book we have, of course, now reviewed on the 7 Cs of pie rating and it got a fabulous rating of 5.61/7 (that’s Pierate Recommended!) We even rated some very nice Bowen’s pies at the book launch – though it must be clarified that Bowen’s are actually based in nearby Adlington!

Museum of Wigan Life Pie Gifts available (we definitely recommend a visit!)

But what you may have noticed is that we actually visited Wigan in October 2014… and yet it is now June 2015! What went wrong?! Well, as piefessional as we try to be, unfortunately having eaten several pies in the square in Wigan Town Centre on Saturday 25th October 2014 and written the reviews up on the train home, Pierateer RAS unfortunately saved his Wigan reviews on his laptop in such an obscure folder that he has only just found it! But hey, late reviews are better than no reviews and the good thing is all these pies were rated and scored back in October – so while they are slightly out of date and the price may have changed slightly, they are the true opinions I had in October 2014, not something I have made up 9 months later!

Of course in one Saturday afternoon in Wigan there was certainly not enough time to try the full range of pies that Wigan has to offer. The Pierateers are therefore looking to return to Wigan at some point in the future, particularly to rate the pies at the DW Stadium, home of Wigan Athletic, and add them to our PIEremiership table! But enough about the future… let’s get onto our Wigan pie reviews!

Monday’s pie review is from Greenhalgh’s and is a classic “Meat and Potato Pie”

Tuesday’s pie review is from Galloways and is again the classic “Meat and Potato Pie”

Wednesday’s pie review is also from Galloways, but this time their “Chunky Steak Pie”

Thursday’s pie review only cost an astonishingly low 50p, as we visited Pound Bakery and rated their “Meat and Potato Pie”

Friday’s pie review is from Gents (Pepper Lane Pie Shop) in the Standish area of North Wigan, rating their “Steak Pie”

Note that we actually tried a number of meat and potato pies while in Wigan – both due to this being the pie of choice in these parts (Martin told us so!) and to aid in comparison between stores.


And whether you agree or disagree with our Wigan pie ratings, we want to hear from you! Are you a “pie-eater” from Wigan? Do you have a pie to suggest for our next trip to Wigan? Let us know below or on twitter and follow the #WiganPieWeek hashtag from @pierateers!

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