Greggs  - Scotch Pie Review

Given the recent campaign to save the macaroni pie from being dropped from the Greggs line up I thought it was about time for a Greggs pie review. As Pierateer RAS has suggested, is it even worth saving their pies when they are not know for being the best quality?

For the biggest bakery chain in the country Greggs have a pretty poor line up. In many stores you won't find any pies, just pasties and slices. In Northern England there are meat and potato pies available and in Scotland you can find Scotch Pies. I am not sure if it is just me but I have often found a lack of Scotch Pies in Greggs Scottish stores. Perhaps they just sell out before I get there. When I have seen them I have avoided them because to be honest I expected them to be pretty ropey. They look quite dried out and my previous experience with Greggs frozen pies put me right off. But on a recent sunny afternoon in Glasgow the time seemed right to grab a Greggs to review after finding a few left over after lunch time in the Trongate store. How will they compare against the other Scotch pies we have rated?



Condition - 2.50 out of 7 - I thought this pie looked pretty terrible, the rim and pastry sides looked dried out. It had a wonky appearance as if it had been made by a child.
Colour - 3.00 out of 7 - This pie had browned up too much in places but in others it was pale and pasty looking.
Cheapness - 5.00 out of 7 - At just £1 this is cheap compared to most hot pies however Scotch Pies are normally cheap. Their small size and fatty meat makes them cheaper to make than other pies.
Capacity - 4.25 out of 7 - Whilst the capacity was limited by the small size of the pie I could not deny it was almost completely filled.
Chewiness - 3.25 out of 7 - The burnt pastry sides and rim were every bit as bad as they looked. They were so dry it was almost impossible to actually take a bite. It was like this pie didn't want to be eaten. Somehow the rest of the pie was really soggy. The filling wasn't at all chewy as it was ground up so fine.
Content - 4.25 out of 7 - I wanted to hate this pie as I sometime perceive Gregg's as driving out smaller bakeries and robbing us of choice (and pies). However, there wasn't too much to criticise in the taste of this pie. It was perhaps too generic and a little salty but it was a typical beef Scotch pie flavour which I enjoy. It was clearly low quality meat as can be seen in the close up pictures, some of it looks pretty disgusting and you wonder what it is actually made of.
Consistency - 3.50 out of 7 - The trouble with many Gregg's products is that they aren't consistent. If you get one which has been sitting in the hot counter for a while it can be dried to a crisp. On this occasion the texture really let this pie down and whilst it wasn't bad I don't feel it is one I could recommend.

It is interesting that Time Out Edinburgh recently ranked all Greggs baked products and the Scotch pie was recently ranked second from bottom. This is perhaps not surprising when Gregg's seem to inexplicably neglect our favourite pastry product. Pie fans be rest assured, we will continue to give Greggs abuse about this as much as we can.


Beef Scotch Pie (Greggs) 
3.68/7

SJL

Update: I contacted Greggs to double check the pie was beef but apparently it is 17% beef and 2% mutton as well as containing Pork lard! The list of spices included is quite impressive, see the ingredients list below. Thank you to Greggs for supplying this information.

Water, Fortified Wheat Flour (Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Beef(17%), Seasoning (Rusk (Wheat), Fortified Wheat Flour (Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Salt, Lactose (Milk), Isolated Soya Protein, Starch, Potato Fibre, Malt Extract (Barley), Spices (Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Coriander, Ginger, White Pepper, Pimento), Pepper Extract), Rapeseed Oil, Palm Oil, Beef Fat, Minced Mutton(2%), Pork Lard (Antioxidant (Ascorbyl Palmitate, Tocopherols, Rosemary Extract)), Salt, Wheat Flour, Full Fat Soya Flour, Ground Rice, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Proprionate), Starch, Flour Treatment Agent (L-Cysteine)

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At Pierate we are generally quite confused and annoyed by Greggs the Baker. National chain, they are everywhere but why don't they sell more pies! What a waste of shelf space giving it to pasties and slices! But, interestingly we have managed to find a Greggs pie being sold frozen in Iceland. Now we know why Greggs don't normally sell pies, it was pretty poor, not good value at all. This pie was eaten for breakfast on Day Six of British Pie Week as part of SJL's pie for every meal challenge. See the video below for the review.



More than meats the pie? Not really, it was as bad as it looked. The bits of meat were small but still somehow managed to be chewy. It was far too shallow, perhaps because Greggs only know how to make slices. At £2.50 for a 250g (small) pie this is best avoided. Unless of course you are interested in the high calorie count (800 kcal) or the undisclosed high salt content.



Condition - 4.5 out of 7
Colour - 4 out of 7
Cheapness - 1 out of 7
Capacity - 2 out of 7
Chewiness - 1 out of 7
Content - 2 out of 7
Consistency - 1 out of 7

Minced Beef & Onion (Greggs)
2.21/7

SJL

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The Pierateers live a simple life. We sail around until we find pie, then we eat pie, talk about pie, dream about pie, drink pints of gravy and occasionally make people walk the plank for eating a slice instead of a pie. Normally we don't have to take an interest in politics. Until someone tries to whack 20% on top of the price of our staple food.

I'll just recap what the proposals mean. All food which is sold "above ambient air temperature" will become subject to VAT, whilst those products that are served "at or below ambient air temperature" will not be. On the face of it, when a fish and chip shop has to charge VAT on a pie it sells it does seem unfair that the bakery around the corner can sell it without VAT. However, as the chief executive of Greggs bakery explains to the Guardian the proposals as they currently stand do not work. Greggs cook their pastry products and then sell them as they cool down. They are not heated up again when purchased. I can attest that I have often been into Greggs and had pastry products which have been dried out and stone cold (it's strange how that now works in their favour). Would they have to check the temperature for every product? What happens on a hot day? Will we end up with two queues in Greggs, one for hot and one for cold food? Any of these options are ridiculous and unworkable.

It will also hit some companies very hard. They have been working for years on a particular business model and now a £2.50 pie will cost £3.00 which will reduce sales and some business will struggle to cope. But the main reason to oppose such a tax is that it is almost entirely regressive. The less well off are the ones most often buying these products and are going to be hardest hit by the Pie Tax. This comes at a time when many are already struggling to get by.

Cold Hearted: Osbourne to tax hot pies

There are many petitions going around calling on the government to scrap the plans. One at Greggs stores has allegedly collected over 200,000 signatures. There has been talk of protests in bakeries up and down the country. It has been viewed as highlighting the North-South divided as well as the class divide. The government has been called out of touch and Cameron's claims to have last had a pasty at the West Cornwall Pasty company in Leeds station were cast into doubt by the fact it closed down in 2007.

But the real issue here is why are people calling it the 'pasty tax'? Pies are equally affected by the tax and the beef pie is the number one selling pastry product (ahead of the sausage roll). It is really the 'Pie Tax'. Labour are looking to challenge the Pie Tax and other aspects of the Coalition budget. Parliament has to approve the Budget before George Osborne's changes can be enacted. We will keep you up to date here at pierate.co.uk. Remember, if the worst case scenario does happen it will be a great excuse to eat as many pies as we can before the VAT kicks in.

SJL

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