Radford’s Pie Company Steak and Stilton and Chicken Pie Reviews

Having previously tried and highly rated their pies over 18 months ago, a trip up to Morecambe recently seemed like the pie-fect opportunity to rate some more of the pies from Radford’s Pie Company, based just outside Morecambe on the Heysham Road. We were up in the area for the Morecambe v Wycombe football match and contemplating a wander over to the stadium from the train station once we’d picked up some of their pies, but were very kindly offered a lift across by Noel Radford, potentially the busiest dad in the country!

Radford's Pie Reviews

For those who don’t know, the Radford family featured on Channel 4’s 15, 16, 17, 18 and “19 kids and counting” and are – as you might have guessed – the largest family in the UK! Oh, and further congratulations are in order - they recently announced on Facebook they are expecting child number 20! With so many mouths to feed, it’s a good job the family run a pie company out of the local bakery they own!

With over 15 years of pie baking in the bank and plenty of demand for their home delivery service of those pies, it’s great to see a family run business doing well and expanding their delivery options and we wish them continued success in this! However we were glad to get our hands on the pies in person and to have a chat with owner Noel about the life of pie! He’d kindly brought an (already reviewed) hot meat and potato pie with him – which Sam and I shared – and a few cold pies to take home and rate. Here goes:

All the pies were once again made with shortcrust pastry, with a crisp lid and pastry sides that held the content in well. This was particularly evident when seeing how well filled the pies were, as the pies are crammed to capacity with meat! They are £3.05 for a 280g, which is pretty reasonable (though if you get the right deal online, you can get them a bit cheaper if you buy a box load or even get a 3 month pie subscription!) They come in the classic foil case with crimped top edges, familiar to a lot of (particularly Northern) pies.

As you can see from the photos below, they cut well and didn’t collapse like a lot of pies can do. The cross-section really highlights the packed content and the golden lids to the pies. And as mentioned in our previous review, the local ingredients, from butchers and vegetable sellers near to the bakery, also adds to the appeal of these pies.


Here are the individual flavours:

Steak and Stilton (L) and Chicken and Gammon (R)

Steak and Stilton Pie

Large chunky pieces of steak and a nice cheesy flavour meant this pie delivered! The meat was very nice and packed out the pie content, with a very meaty 45% beef steak. The gravy was quite a nice thickness, making it quite moist to contrast with the quite crisp outer pastry and the stilton cheese was flavoursome without being over powering. Overall, my favourite of the Radford’s range that I’ve tried so far! Pierate Recommended.

Score: 5.89/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5.25, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6.5]

Free Range Chicken and Gammon Pie

With this pie consisting of 38% chicken breast and 10% ham, this pie certainly wasn’t lacking in meat and eclipses the meat content in the chicken pie we rated last time! It was a very enjoyable pie, with my only suggestion that the pieces of ham and chicken were quite chunky and thus (specifically the ham) not quite as succulent as it could have been if perhaps in slightly more small pieces. However that said you could really taste the ham – unlike in some chicken and ham/gammon pies where just a token bit of ham is included – plus the sauce was good, adding a nice blend to the flavour. As can be seen from the photo above, the capacity is top notch and good content means this pie scores very well. Pierate Recommended!

Score: 5.82/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5.25, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5.25, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6.25]

Radford's Chicken and Mushroom Pie Review

Free Range Chicken and Mushroom Pie

The chicken and mushroom pie contained 38% chicken breast, which packed out the pie quite well but wasn’t quite as meaty as the chicken and gammon pie I’d eaten the previous day. However it was a nice flavour in a creamy sauce, and the mushroom added a bit more texture to the straight chicken pie I had last time. While not quite as high scoring as the chicken and gammon, still a very good pie.

Score: 5.68/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6, Consistency 5.25, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5.25, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6]



All in all, some very good pies from Radford’s and it’s a luxury to find a fully family run business like this that uses ingredients from local producers in the area. It’s great that they do online delivery of such top pies and I’d certainly suggest you order a batch as they are worthy of Pierate Recommended status!

RAS

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Nice Pie Lamb, Beef and Chicken Pie Reviews

As we said last year when we last sampled some of the "Nice Pie" range, one of the challenges for a Pierateer in British Pie Week is how to fit in all the pies you want to eat and rate - and then having time to write up all the reviews after! That's my poor excuse for why it has taken a while to write up our reviews of the three brilliant Nice Pie flavours we enjoyed in Leeds on Day Six of British Pie Week 2017, but here they are!


Nice Pie Beef Pie

Long term fans of Pierate will know Nice Pie have produced countless Pierate Highly Recommended and Pierate Recommended pies - including, but not limited to, their kangaroo, zebra, wild squirrel and crocodile exotic pies - in fact, see the table of past Nice Pies here! The pies we had this time were some more from the traditional menu - the Slow Cooked Lamb and Mint pie, Chicken, Gammon and Mushroom pie and Beef in Red Wine and Roasted Marrow Bone pie.

All three were new to us, but had all had a strong showing at the recent British Pie Awards. The Beef in Red Wine and Roasted Marrow Bone pie won the "Beef and any flavour" Class and the Chicken, Gammon and Mushroom pie won the "Chicken and other meat" class, while the lamb pie had got a gold award (90%+). These are award winning pies!!!

As we've mentioned in a number of Nice Pie reviews before, it was the filling that really stood out in these pies, absolutely bursting with meaty chunks that were so tender and flavoursome. It really amazes me how they can pack so much meat into these pies, as the capacity is always so full to the brim! The only slight downside is that with so much meat in there it can mean the pastry struggles to hold all the filling in, especially if you try to eat it by hand as I did. This is however a very small criticism as the main thing is to have a packed, flavoursome pie filling and this pie certainly provides that, especially complimenting the crisp butter shortcrust pastry that Nice Pie are renowned for!

Nice Pie Lamb Pie

Out of the three pies, I personally preferred the Lamb and Mint Pie and thought that stood out amongst other lamb pies I've had. Unlike many lamb and mint pies which are absolutely smothered in mint and lacking in meat, this was a perfectly balanced flavour and full of tender meat. The lamb easily shredded when the knife cut through it due to it being slow cooked, so while the pieces of meat were quite large it did not feel too big. I could have happily kept eating this pie all night!

Nice Pie Beef Pie Review

The Beef pie was also very nice, with thick rich gravy complementing the tender chunks of meat and bit of veg. I personally think the gravy wasn't quite my cup of tea compared to some of the red wine or ale gravy's I have had in other Nice Pie's or other pies lately - perhaps a result of the bone marrow - but at the same time I still enjoyed the pie and it does add a slightly different taste to the content. It balanced well with the crisp, golden pastry and I'd still happily eat another (there are just so many good Steak/Beef Nice Pies to choose from!!!)

Nice Pie Chicken Pie Review

The chicken pie was again packed with meat and although the pastry was a little flaky it still managed to hold in all the content well! The sauce was very nice and complimented the meat flavour well, and once again we struggled to fault much as it was a very good filling! A traditional flavour done well!


Once again Nice Pie have done us proud, producing two more Pierate Recommended pies AND a Pierate Highly Recommended pie! It's an absolute credit to Katharine and all who work at this small pie company that they are able to churn out top rated pie after top rated pie, and it's been great to hear about the success of their on-site Pie Shop and Cafe too! We hope to visit it one day soon!


Nice Pie Slow Cooked Lamb and Mint Pie
Score: 6.18/7
[Colour 5.75/7; Consistency 6.25/7; Cheapness 5.75/7; Chewiness 6/7; Condition 6/7; Content 6.75/7; Capacity 6.75/7]

Nice Pie Beef in Red Wine and Roasted Marrow Bone Pie
Score: 5.75/7
[Colour 5.75/7; Consistency 5.75/7; Cheapness 5.5/7; Chewiness 5/7; Condition 6/7; Content 6/7; Capacity 6.25/7]

Nice Pie Chicken, Gammon and Mushroom Pie
Score: 5.75/7
[Colour 5.75/7; Consistency 5.75/7; Cheapness 5.5/7; Chewiness 5/7; Condition 6/7; Content 6/7; Capacity 6.25/7]

RAS

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Our trip to the Ricoh Arena for the Checkatrade Trophy semi final between Coventry City and Wycombe Wanderers was mired in controversy. Firstly, there was a news article saying that due to the ongoing disputes between Coventry City and the owners of the Ricoh Arena, some areas of the ground were not able to sell pies! The problems Coventry were having has seen the team have to get the lawn mowers out before matches because the grass had not been cut, so I was worried that there might be catering problems.... but just in case you were worried that this might be a burger review I will cut to the chase and say that there were lots of pies available in the away end of the ground! Phew!!!

Pierateer RAS ordering a pie from "Eat Street Pies"

Pie in a box - with trophy in the background!

Our thoughts next turned to finding out what kind of pies they had on offer. During the London 2012 Olympics Pierateer RAS reviewed a Peter’s Steak pie at the Ricoh, a common pie on offer at matches across the country. Given that it is now 2017, we thought there was a good chance the pies had changed and were eager to find out. Upon questioning, the catering staff said that the thought they made the pies on site, a claim we seriously doubted. Hardly any clubs make their own pies and we thought we would have heard about it if they did. However, the pies were nicely presented in cardboard boxes with labels denoting the flavour, it all looked quite promising. That was, until we opened the boxes.

My Chicken Balti certainly looked like a bog standard mass produced pie. The ‘Peter’s’ logo being embossed into the foil gave the game away, Peter’s were still the pie of choice at the Ricoh even if the staff have no idea! The Chicken Balti did actually look fairly appealing, with a golden colour and some nice flakey pastry on top. Pierateer RAS’s Steak pie did not look so good having arrived in terrible condition. The top layer of pastry had disintegrated more than the dreams of the average Coventry City supporter, leaving a hopeless mess (reminiscent of the current state of Coventry City Football Club). Being a Pie-fessional and very committed, Pierateer RAS manned up and tucked in anyway.

See our PIEremiership table for our football pie league!

Falling apart... not im-pie-ressed!

I was pleased that I was able to get a Chicken Balti pie because it was not a Peter’s flavour that I had tried before. However, as we said recently when we had Peter’s pies at Newport County, they just don’t seem to be as good as they used to be. The pastry in particular was terrible. It was so soft and soggy, my pie fell apart very badly. The very top layer of flaky pastry tasted nice but the rest was a bit like soggy bread. However, there was a silver lining in that I did really enjoy the filling. As we expect from Peter’s, the pie was quite tall which meant there was a good capacity. Sometimes this is mainly full of gravy but the Chicken Balti was well filled with meat. The flavour was good, with a bit of a spicy hit whereas the previous Peter’s curry pie I had tried, was a bit bland. Overall, the filling didn’t quite make up for how bad the pastry was but it meant a fairly respectable score.

Chicken Balti (Coventry City/Peter’s) 
3.95/7



So the pies weren’t great and we were also pretty gutted that Wycombe lost 2-1 so we didn’t have another Wembley pie to look forward to. The Checkatrade Trophy becomes worthwhile once you get to the final, but only to make it to the semi-final, it felt a bit pointless. But given how bad things have been at Coventry under SISU, I felt that the Coventry fans deserved something to cheer about. Their fans really did make some noise and 11,000 was a brilliant attendance for this competition. It only goes to show what a big club Coventry once were.

We are glad to review a pie for a football match at the Ricoh while we still could, due to legal battles over ownership of the ground it looks like Coventry will have to find somewhere else to play and question marks remain about whether they will continue to exist in the long term. For the fans it must be so frustrating not to have any control and for the owners not to listen to them, I really hope they can sort things out. It makes me so grateful that Wycombe came out the other side of their problems as a fan owned club! Whilst we may never make the big time we can look forward to many more seasons of pies as we follow the Chairboys around the country.

SJL

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



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

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

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

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

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

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


SJL

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


SJL & TJP

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Newport County Football Club/Peter's Pie Reviews

Welsh pie maker Peter's are a bit like an old friend of Pierate. Common at fish and chip shops and also served at our home town football club we have eaten quite a few in our time. We also reviewed quite a few of their pies although it is notable we haven't reviewed any for a while. It is also notable that I haven't see many at football grounds recently, which is apparent by the lack of Peter's pies in our PIEremiership Football Pie League.

A trip to Peter's heartland in Wales help rectify this as Pierateers Rob and Sam headed over to the Newport County vs. Wycombe Wanderers match. Upon entering the away end of Rodney Parade we were a bit worried to see that the catering options were dominated by burger and chips. However, when we asked they went and fetched some hot pies from another outlet. Phew!



Newport Football Pie Review

Rob went for a Chicken Pie and Sam opted for the Steak at the steep price of £3.50 which had me frustrated again at the #PieHighPrices. This price was surprising given that Newport have told the BBC Price of football survey that their pies cost £2.60. We wondered if away fans were being fleeced with a higher price than home fans (as we found at Cambridge).



Peter's Steak Pie at Newport County

Whilst it was nice to reunited with Peter's pies again, after having reviewed nearly 600 pies we have tried a lot of very good pies. It is perhaps the case now that we have higher expectations than when we started on this pastry journey. Hence I did find my pie a bit disappointing. To be fair, this may not have been the fault of Peter's. It wasn't cooked very well. Often the case with football pies cooked in a rush, it had soft and stodgy pastry which didn't hold together well at all, I am not sure why so many football ground sell pies like this. My Steak pie fell apart completely although Pierateer Rob seemed to get on a little better with his.

Find out where this pie ranks in our Football Pie League



Peter's Chicken Pie

The filling for my steak pie wasn't bad. It had quite a lot of meaty chunks in a fairly standard, but tasty, onion flavoured gravy. The meat wasn't too chewy but it wasn't as soft as I remembered from Peter's pies. It also wasn't as flavoursome. Overall, if it wasn't for having no other pie option in the ground, I wouldn't be choosing to get this pie again.

The chicken pie eaten by Pierateer Rob had similar flaws to it. Again the pastry was far from ideal, collapsing under the soft and stodgy pastry. The chicken filling was quite nice, with the creamy sauce blending well with the chicken chunks. However it took a number of bites to even reach the chicken filling, with a rather large air gap and not overly strong capacity. And while the pie lid was quite crisp and tasty, the rest of the pastry was nothing to write home about and disintegrated far too easily. For a football pie, the filling flavour was reasonable (which doesn't say much for some of the lower rated pies in our PIEremiership table!) but he wouldn't choose to eat it again.

Peter's Steak Pie
3.75
[Colour 4/7; Consistency 3/7; Cheapness 3/7; Chewiness 3/7; Condition 4/7; Content 4/7; Capacity 3.75/7]
SJL

Peter's Chicken Pie
Score: 3.79/7
[Colour 4/7; Consistency 4/7; Cheapness 3/7; Chewiness 4.5/7; Condition 3/7; Content 4.5/7; Capacity 3.5/7]
RAS

Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised. Make sure you Follow @pierateersand let us know your thoughts!

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Slow Cooked Venison and Red Wine and Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Pie Reviews from Higgidy

Higgidy Pie Review

Not for the first time on reaching a big occasion on the world’s leading pie reviewing blog we’ve gone to a tried and tested top pie producer in Higgidy’s pies to celebrate! You may not remember but several years ago back on 7th July 2013 we rated a Slow Cooked Steak & Red Wine Pie from Higgidy to celebrate our 200th pie review on Pierate, and today I’m reviewing the two pies I had on International Pierate Day 2016 (which was our 7th Birthday Pie-rty!)

A lot has happened on Pierate since that 200th pie review almost three and a half years ago – namely almost another 400 pie reviews plus multiple TV and radio ap-pie-rances! But they have also in the Higgidy kitchen too, with a wider range and much more regular availability showing the growth the company have made too. I mentioned in my 200th review that it was more like me having to sail the seven stores than the seven seas to find a Higgidy pie back in 2013, before getting my hands on one of their pies! But for International Pierate Day 2016 I was able to pick up two new Higgidy pies at my local Sainsbury’s for £3.70 each, which is just 21p more than what I paid back in 2013 (though the pies are still the same size at 250g).

On the shelf, one of the things that really stands out is the attractive packaging, with a number of intriguing features including the care put into selecting only the best ingredients (in the case of the chicken pie, even stating which farm it is sourced from!) and a cheeky see through plastic glimpse of the pie in question. It is clear from the packaging and the quality of the pie when eating that these people clearly love their pies! The box states the pie was “lovingly made in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex” and I very much appreciate the care and attention put into it. The pie holds together well, has good content and interesting flavours. With 4 pies already scoring over 5/7 (thus being “Pierate Recommended”) Higgidy know how to make a good pie! So how did these two flavours rate?



Higgidy Venison Pie

Slow Cooked Venison and Red Wine Pie

This “special guest” pie – available for a limited time only – was a nice addition to the Higgidy family, from which we had not had a venison pie before. Regarding the content, the meat was nice and tender from it being slow cooked and, while a bit lacking at just 22%, it did give a nice flavour to the pie. The first few bites were slightly dominated by the chestnut mushrooms and the cranberry and apricot stuffing does add a surprising sweetness to the underside of the crisp puff pastry lid, however these flavours do combine to give the pie quite a unique and seasonal flavour.

However the biggest surprise was hint of dark chocolate, which certainly added some additional richness to sauce. While not really my cup to tea, I can understand it adds an extra texture to the pie sauce and would appeal to those who like something quirky in their pie fillings. It does however dominate the flavour a lot, so not ideal if it doesn’t take your fancy. The capacity was a bit lacking too, so while a good content the air gap does bring the score down a bit.

The Higgidy pastry, as ever, is very good quality. The pastry is a golden colour and perfectly held together. Fully encased with short crust pastry sides and base and a buttery puff pastry lid, it is a classic example of pie pastry done well, holding together and giving you a good crunch on top while holding the moist filling. The puff pastry lid, in particular, was very nice. I commend them for something new and it is certainly not lacking in flavour, once again being awarded Pierate Recommended status.

Higgidy Slow Cooked Venison and Red Wine Pie
Score: 5.43/7
[Colour 6/7; Consistency 5/7; Cheapness 4/7; Chewiness 5.75/7; Condition 6/7; Content 6/7; Capacity 5.25/7]




Higgidy Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Pie Review

Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Pie

Similarly the pastry was very good for the chicken, bacon and mushroom pie and a highlight of this pie. Golden and crisp, it complimented the filling well. Again the meat content could have been a bit higher, at just 19% chicken and 7% bacon, but it was once again the mushrooms that slightly dominated the flavour, with three different types of mushroom in this pie (making up 16% of the pie!) The creamy sauce was pleasant and complimented the pie well, again leading to a Pierate Recommended status pie.

Higgidy Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Pie
Score: 5.5/7
[Colour 6/7; Consistency 5.5/7; Cheapness 4/7; Chewiness 5.75/7; Condition 6/7; Content 6/7; Capacity 5.25/7]


In summary, Higgidy have once again produced two recommended pies. While both could have been a bit bigger and had more meat content for the price (£3.70 for a 250g pie), they were certainly both being sold as and delivered as a pie on the top end of the supermarket range. A bit more meat would have boosted them ever so slightly higher in the rankings, as neither were at full capacity when you cut into the pies, but in general two pies worth getting your hands on!

RAS

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The pies at Hooiser Mama are mainly large pies. These are sold by the slice to customers who are eating in (although presumably you could try and eat the whole pie there and then, although you would need quite a group as the pies are very large). The Chicken Pot Pie looked great on the shelf with a slice yet to be taken from it. The pastry looked flaky and golden. The arrival of the slice of pie was preceded by a beautiful waft of a buttery, chicken aroma. Sadly, the pie hadn't held together all that well on slicing, which detracted from the appearance somewhat. It is difficult to get a slice of a hot, meat pie to come out looking pretty. Taking a bite, I found that the pie really made up for this in the flavour department! It was full of flavours which were different to your typical British pie. The emphasis here was on a buttery taste to both the filling and the pastry. It was well seasoned and contained peas, carrot and potato as well as the chicken. The chicken seemed like real pieces of chicken, not the processed cubes of breast meat which are found in lesser chicken pies. I enjoyed the firmness of the vegetables which added variety to the texture (although the potato was a bit too firm if anything). The pie was so well filled it was almost lacking in pastry (given that it was slice of pie). Fortunately there was a thick roll of pastry at the back. Often this large crust can be a bad thing, but in this case it was not at all dry and helped give the pie the right balance of filling to pastry. For $6.25 this seemed like a decent sized slice of pie. It was enough to prevent me eating another slice of pie straight away at least! I think the rich, buttery flavour would have also put me off from eating a lot of this pie, a slice was a good amount. Overall a very tasty and stand-out pie, the main thing stopping it getting a higher score was a lack of cohesion causing it to fall apart on serving, not quite what I would be looking for in the ultimate pie.

Chicken Pot Pie (Hoosier Mama Pie Company [Chicago])
6.24/7


I also had to try a sweet pie so I picked up a piece of their apple pie to take-away. They were good enough to give me a bit extra too which I contemplated bringing back to the UK for the other Pierateers to try. However, it had already become so smashed to pieces by the time I got back to my hotel that I realised this wouldn't be worthwhile!

A slice of apple pie costs $5.50 which initially seemed like quite a bit for a slice of fruit pie (a bit over £4). However the slice was really big, bigger than many individual pies and had a premium appearance which you would expect to pay more for. It is better value to buy the whole pie but here I was paying more for the individual slice and the option to eat it on the premise with coffee. When it came to the eating I think it lived up to the price tag. They advertise it as 'not too sweet, with more apple than goo, in a delicious buttery crust' and I think this is a better description of this pie than I could ever have come up with. There was a lot of apple chunks which were soft but retained some bite. The pastry lid and crimp was crispy and had a lovely sugar glaze, this was a sweet treat which I would have been happy to eat on it's own. The rest of the pie was surprisingly moist. There was plenty of gooey syrup which had soaked into the bottom crust, leaving it a bit too soggy in my opinion but tasty nevertheless. (This may have been because I had pursued the take-away option causing the syrup to leak out, I am not sure.) There was plenty of flavour to this pie, it was more spiced than I usually find back in Britain and I really liked the cinnamon hit. For my taste it was quite sweet (as opposed to other apple pies back home with slightly sour hint). This was not over the top but enough that I only wanted to eat one slice at a time as more might have become sickly (perhaps it would have gone well with ice cream). Overall I really enjoyed this apple pie, it was certainly the best apple pie I had during my trip to Chicago and the crunchy part of the pastry was probably the best I have ever had with any sweet pie ever! It was close to beating the Morecambe Apple pie (British Pie Awards Supreme Champion 2014) as my favourite ever apple pie (if cost was not a factor).



Apple Pie (Hoosier Mama Pie Company [Chicago])
6.01/7

Both pies deservedly receive 'Pierate Highly Recommended' Awards. I can see why Hooiser Mama have become arguably the biggest name in the Chicago pie scene. The pastry is like no other and it shows that the pies are carefully made on a small scale. Craig explained that were they to produce more pies it would be difficult to maintain oversight of the quality. The small size of the operation was something that I really liked about HMPC and I think the pies would loose something if they were to be produced on a larger scale. Thanks to Paula and Craig for presenting me with my very own Hoosier Mama branded pie slice! Ever time I use it I will remember this true slice of America and I wish them much success in the future.

SJL

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Kings Farm Shop, Wendover, Buckinghamshire - Steak Pie & Chicken Pie Reviews

When you write for the world's most popular pie based, light entertainment website there are many things that can keep you awake at night. Trying to make our reviews consistent and maintain accuracy after 6 years of pie reviewing is one of those things. It's like trying to herd cats (albeit very tasty cats). You look away for one moment and a company will have changed it's range or updated it's flavours. I have nightmares about sending someone to eat a pie which is perhaps not longer as good as it was when we visited. I see their scornful faces asking me how I could have got it so wrong. Worst still, what if one of the pies on our list is no longer in production. I would feel terrible to send someone on a wild goose chase for a pie which doesn't exist. (Note to self, why have I never tried wild goose pie?) Even if the companies themselves have done exceptionally well to maintain a consistent product, after having reviewed over 500 pies we now have quite a lot more pies to compare against than we did to start with. In some cases this probably means we need to revisit some of our early scores to re-benchmark them against the latest competition such as MyPie, our favourites of last year. In all seriousness, we do take our pie reviewing seriously as we know what it can mean to the pie producers to be crowned as a Pierate Highly Recommended pie. We might not quite be the kingmakers but it won't harm a business to have our recommendation.

Unfortunately we just don't have time to go back and review all the pies again and we wouldn't want to, there are so many new pies out there! However there are some cases where it feels particularly important to carry out a repeat review, such as those near the top of our pie rankings. Or in some cases, we regularly eat a particular pie anyway and hence to do a repeat review is that much easier.

One such pie is the Steak pie from Kings Farm Shop, near Wendover in Buckinghamshire, which was previously reviewed in 2010. I have recently eaten a few of these and it seems appropriate now to revisit the review given that it was almost 6 years ago. Back in 2010 I gave it a huge 6.7 out of 7, sending it to number one in our rankings for quite some time. Is it still as good as I remember? I hadn't had one for a couple of years. I was slightly nervous, when expectations are high it is easy to be disappointed.


The display in the shop still warms my heart with the range of simple handmade pies all begging to be taken home and devoured. (And isn't my phone camera now so much better than the crap one on my cheap ZTE Blade from 2010? Although I now have a ZTE Blade S6 with a camera equally as crap compared to the modern competition!)

I am pleased to say that the Steak pie is still very similar to how it always has been and is still an excellent pie! Not a lot has changed really, it still looks very much the same with a rustic, handmade look and a thick crimped, overhanging edge (although if you do a spot the difference, this one doesn't have fork imprints on the crimp). One thing definitely has changed though over the last six years and that is the price! From £5 for a large steak pie to £6.45 seems to be an inflation busting price increase which could affect the score slightly. However, it does still feel good value for money, the pies are still packed with steak chunks and are certainly big enough to feed 4 normal people or 2-3 Pierateers. I still find it difficult to stop at one slice! The rich, meaty, thick sauce is very effective, with ample amounts so that additional gravy would be boarding on foolhardy. The pie is still packed with tender chunks of steak. Having now tried so many other steak pies, I realise how simple this pie is. It doesn't try and do anything unusual, but it does the little things so well.

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The Botanist Birmingham Chicken and Chorizo Pie Review

Laura and the pies!

It’s now just over a year since The Botanist opened their doors in Birmingham, immediately becoming one of the better pie producers in the heart of Birmingham with a range of pies available on their menu. So when I was invited recently to go back and rate one of their other pies – the chicken and chorizo pie, which I’d had my eye on in the past – I certainly wasn’t going to say no!

I’d been told the pies had been improved since my visits to rate the Steak and Lamb Hotpot pies last year, so I eagerly awaited my visit! On top of that I’d arranged to meet up with award winning Birmingham blogger Laura from Full to the Brum (yep, she loves food puns as much as we do!) as it was British Pie Week and because, well, pie not?! Fans of her blog will know Laura enjoys a good pie too, and has put us to shame by doing her review on what she thought of the pie (having had the same one as me) a few weeks ago! There were some very positive comments in her review, even if she did chicken out a bit by not giving a pie rating! (This in spite of me taking a full “Pierateer in Training” pack with me!!!) No such worries here though – this is what we thought of The Botanist’s Chicken and Chorizo pie:

Hope Laura @FulltotheBrum forgives me for being a few minutes late when she sees her #PierateerInTraining pack! pic.twitter.com/umDuhmHNgv

— Pierate (@pierateers) March 8, 2016

As previously mentioned I had already tried the Lamb Hotpot pie back when The Botanist had only recently opened, which sadly fell down on our criteria as it was a mash-topped “pie” with pastry sides and base. However I had a much more enjoyable and filling ex-pie-rience in the form of a fully encased Steak and Stout pie the last time I went, which scored 4.5/7. There was however some room for improvement still and I’m delighted to say that The Botanist has delivered on a number of our recommendations.



Botanist Chicken Chorizo Pie Review

The clearest improvement was that of the packed capacity and content, which was far better filled and more enjoyable in this Chicken and Chorizo pie. There could have been a little more chicken, but overall this scored a lot better in this new pie. In fact, the scores had improved in nearly every one of our 7 Cs of pie rating, even if it must be remembered this is a different flavour pie filling.

Botanist Chicken Chorizo Pie cross-section

The colour was improved too, a lot more golden on the top and sides even if a little too crisp in places, and while the filling was a slightly shocking bright orange, this was understandable due to the flavours involved! The oozy orange sauce complemented the big chunks of chicken and chorizo (in fact, it was unusual to get such big pieces of chorizo in a pie, as normally they are tiny or even undetectable in pies I’ve rated before!), even if this did mean the larger pieces of chorizo were a bit chewy! However this is expected of the meat, so I can’t really fault it for this!

The condition was pretty good, again well-presented and golden, crisp and well made. The flavours were good – chicken and chorizo is a classic combo! And for £10.95 this meal is quite reasonable for a city centre meal, even if there are a few slightly cheaper options out there. I’d happily recommend it and look forward to trying the other pies on their menu too!

The Botanist Birmingham Chicken and Chorizo Pie
Score: 5.5/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 5, Content 6]

RAS

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Lewis Pies “Wilfreds Pie Range” Reviews

One of the delights of British Pie Week is getting a whole host of pie deliveries throughout the course of the week, and I was eagerly looking forward to the delivery of the new premium range of Lewis Pies, known as the “Wilfreds Pie Range”. Based in Swansea, Lewis Pies are one of the largest pie manufacturers in the UK with over 100 full time staff and have been trading for 80 years now. They have found the Fiery Chicken (Cajun Chicken and Collier’s Welsh Cheese) and Saucy Cow (Steak and Gower Ale) are their best sellers but how would they all rate on the 7 Cs of pie rating?



Wilfreds Pie Review

Firstly an overall impression of the pies. Upon opening the box I was delighted to see a nice range of flavours and local welsh ingredients being used in the pies, including welsh cheese and Gower ale. They’re made with hot water crust pastry, which makes them stand out from the typical shortcrust and puff pastry used in a lot of pies. It was in general a nice pastry to eat, a little thick in places for the size of pie but holding together well and easily hand held. There was naturally some crumbling when cut through but this is to be expected from a crisper pastry casing.

It’s also worth noting that while the pies retail individually at between £2 and £2.50 at the various butchers and cafes they are sold at, you can get the box of 6 pies for just £7.50, which means an incredible £1.25 per pie! Bargain!

It was noticeable from all the pies that they weren’t as big and packed with filling as I’d hoped, which meant there wasn’t the perfect filling:pastry ratio I’d love to have. However considering the price of these pies I couldn’t expect much more filling in them to still be financially viable as a business! For a premium range I would personally prefer to pay a bit more for the pies and get them a bit better filled, like the majority of our highest rated pies on Pierate. But for the price they are retailing at, they are a very good option.

There are six new pies in the Wilfreds pie range, which I’ll be splitting over a couple of reviews. The first few I tried were the lamb, steak and potato and chicken and vegetable pies:



Wilfreds Lamb Pie Review

The Lamb of my Fathers
(Welsh Lamb and vegetables with mint, faggots and a dash of local laverbread)

The filling in this pie was nice, with a good tender lamb filling and complimentary gravy, lightly minted rather than being particularly strong, however I was surprised at the lack of any noticeable vegetable. While the veg in the chicken pie was clear and apparent, it wasn’t so much in the lamb pie. With most lamb pies being quite strongly flavoured with mint (some over-minted to their detriment!) they have perhaps been a little too cautious with their flavouring to the point of it not being quite noticeable enough, particularly with one of the two lamb pies I had not being very minty at all. A bit more lamb and boost of flavour from the other ingredients would promote this pie even more but I’d still recommend it.

Score: 5.82/7
[Colour 6/7; Consistency 6/7; Cheapness 6/7; Chewiness 5.75/7; Condition 6/7; Content 5.75/7; Capacity 5.25/7]



Wilfreds Meat and Potato Pie Review

The Steak and Tatws
(Tender pieces of Welsh Beef Steak in a rich gravy with chunks of British Potatoes)

The meat in the steak and potato pie was very nice and tender, complimenting the delicious potato and gravy content and working well with the crisp hot water crust pastry. The potato couldn’t have been more spot on – neither mushy and indiscernible or too hard and chunky. It was just right! The main downside was a slight lack of meat and potato filling, which would have made the filling:pastry ratio ideal. My favourite of the three and would certainly enjoy again.

Score: 5.89/7
[Colour 6/7; Consistency 6/7; Cheapness 6/7; Chewiness 5.75/7; Condition 6/7; Content 6.25/7; Capacity 5.25/7]



Wilfreds Chicken and Vegetable Pie Review

The Clucking Valleys
(Succulent British chicken and vegetables in gravy)

The chicken was lovely and tender in this pie and the vegetables – peas and carrots – added a nice texture and flavour to the mix. While I quite enjoyed the gravy it was slightly over seasoned, dominating the flavour somewhat but providing a nice moist pie filling. Once again the pie could have done with a bit more filling to balance out the crisp hot water pastry casing but in all another pie I’d recommend.

Score: 5.82/7
[Colour 6/7; Consistency 6/7; Cheapness 6/7; Chewiness 5.75/7; Condition 6/7; Content 5.75/7; Capacity 5.25/7]


Overall, while at the time I was eating them I admit I was slightly disappointed with the lack of content (especially compared to some of the other pies I’d had recently that were packed to the lid) to subsequently find out these pies can be bought for just £1.25 each in a box of six has made me more sympathetic to their slight lack of filling. As said earlier, I’d personally rather pay nearer £3 for a premium pie and get it packed with filling but overall and for the price they are sold at this is a very impressive new range from Lewis Pies, with 3 more reviews to come. Thanks for sending them!

RAS

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Piglets Pantry Steak, Chicken and Vegetarian Pie Reviews



Piglets Pantry Football Pie Reviews

We were delighted to be offered the chance by Stephen Miller (Food and Beverage Operations Manager) to head to Stadium mk to sample some of their pies, which included the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale pie which has been exclusively produced for MK Dons. This – as I found out talking to Jo Hunter from Piglets Pantry, who kindly came up from the south coast to meet us and talk us through the pies – was one of many things that help Piglets Pantry stand out from the crowd. They regularly talk to the clubs/businesses they supply and the supporters who are buying the pies to get their feedback and aid them in developing new products.

For me, this is one of the distinct advantages of having a small, personable pie business supplying the pies in a football ground, as opposed to the more homogenised mass producers sold within many UK stadiums. You get pies that the local fan base can connect with, support and recommend. Indeed, the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie had been developed with a group of MK Dons supporters and using a local ale, a personal touch that seemed to be going down well with the fans there!

Sales of Piglets Pantry pies at their local football club, Brighton and Hove Albion, seem to back this up. Since taking over the pie supplying their ground sales have rocketed from 1,500 to 10,000 pies a match, which is quite phenomenal! It certainly shows that if the quality pies are there, people will pay a bit more for a premium product. It’s therefore no surprise to see the pies being sold in more grounds, including hospitality at Chelsea and West Brom, plus recently in Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium for their Rugby World Cup fixtures.

Back to MK Dons and the pies to rate were the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie, the Chicken, Gammon and Leek Pie and the Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie. They also had a special on that game – the Chicken Balti Pie – which Pierateer Sam has his eye on when he visits, as our resident Chicken Balti football pie expert! I was impressed with this range of pies available to home and away fans, with MK Dons putting on a special pie for away fans dependant on where they were from. It’s one of the few clubs I’ve found where they are actively looking out for the needs of their fans, rather than just giving a very generic catering experience to all.

Onto the pies and my overall thoughts are that these are premium pies being sold at a very reasonable price, especially for a football ground, at just £3.50. The pastry is shortcrust around the sides and base, with a puff pastry lid. It is noted that these pies do not contain lard or suet, giving them a paler colour but also a lighter, crisper pastry. This means the pastry is less moist and can hold the filling in thinner, crisper pastry. While this different pastry did take a little getting used to, having primarily eaten and enjoyed butter-rich pastry which is more golden and softer, I enjoyed the firmer crunch this pastry had and it did feel a lot lighter and less stodgy as a result. The main downside was the outer rim of overhang pastry which was a bit too dry, but the rest of the pastry when eaten with the filling was well balanced.

All the pies held together brilliantly when eaten by hand, with generally a great consistency to the fillings, which is ideal for a football pie. The capacity was very strong in all of them, with the meat pies particularly standing out against most other football pies in terms of the strong meaty content and packed filling.



Piglets Pantry Chicken, Gammon and Leak Pie Review

Chicken, Gammon and Leak
First up to rate was the Chicken, Gammon and Leak which is a regular on the menu at MK Dons. The pie was packed with a nice blend of chicken and gammon in a light béchamel sauce, spread well throughout the pie filling. The chicken was lovely and tender, the gammon not too chewy and the leak complemented the flavour well with the white sauce. The consistency of the filling was good for a hand held pie and balanced the crisp pastry well. Overall a top quality filling and while the rim, side and base pastry was a little too dry and crisp for my liking, I’m sure many would love this pastry and it well deserving of Pierate Highly Recommended status.

Piglets Pantry Chicken, Gammon and Leek Pie
Score: 6.11/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6.5]


Steak and Concrete Cow Ale
There’s no denying we love a good steak pie on the Pierate Ship, so it has to be a top, top flavour to challenge for the top spots in our pie rankings. We very much appreciated the lengths Piglets Pantry had gone to in order to create this pie with a local ale to the MK Dons, creating this pie exclusively for the team after meeting with local fans on a taster day. The meat was good quality and the gravy had a good viscosity to it for a football pie. Another good pie but we felt it didn’t quite match the Chicken pie in terms of the mix of flavours. No doubt it would however still be very popular amongst the steak pie fans at the game!

Piglets Pantry Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie
Score: 5.96/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6, Consistency 6, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 5.75, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6]


Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie
It’s worth saying from the start that this was one of the best vegetarian pies I’ve had! I’m never normally one to go for the vegetarian option if there is a meat alternative (especially if they are sold at the same price), but this Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta pie had such a rich flavour, with a delicious light runny cheese sauce and complementary spinach and mushroom content that I didn’t really miss the meat! In fact my friend Martyn was tempted to convert to veggie pies after eating this one! The filling was nicely balanced and while the consistency of the sauce was a little too runny to easily eat with your hands, it complemented the pastry well. This pie was second in the Vegetarian pie category of the British Pie Awards 2015 and you could easily see why!

Piglets Pantry Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie
Score: 6.04/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.75, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.25]


Overall then a great selection of football pies at MK Dons, with one of the best vegetarian pies we’ve rated to boot! It means Piglets Pantry have achieved what only two other clubs have – a Pierate Highly Recommended football pie – and puts them comfortably into third place in the PIEremiership. My thanks once again to Stephen and Jo for their hos-pie-tality at the game and, of course, the very good pies. We look forward to trying some more of the Piglets Pantry range soon!

RAS

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