You can already buy Paul's Pies in a number of shops but to date these have mainly been independent stores such as farm shops. In the latest exciting development you can now find Paul's Pies in select Asda stores, they have hit the big time! Naturally I was hugely excited by this (they have scored very well previously) and so rushed down to my local Asda in Gloucester to see if they were stocking them. I was not convinced that they would be, but to my delight, this is the sight that greeted me....

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Paul's Pies - Steak & Kidney and Picnic Pie Reviews

You might have noticed we love Paul’s Pies. We have been banging on about them for some time now. See below our list of Pauls Pies reviewed so far, two of which are currently occupying spots in the top 3 of our pie rankings.

Pie Flavour	Score
Steak & Guinness	6.73
Chicken & Mushroom	6.55
Wild Venison & Mushroom	6.15
Turkey (Christmas)	5.90
Steak & Kidney	5.59
Chicken & Pork (Picnic)	5.01

Wow, would you look at that? Six pies all achieving Pierate Highly Recommended (6 or above) or Pierate Recommended (5 or above). If you are very keen on our blog you might have noticed two pies in the list which haven’t yet been reviewed! How can that be? Well, I am about to review them both, right here, right now! I am feeling pretty privileged to get in there first with two of these beautifully boxed pies.

Picnic Pie

And now for something different from the other Paul's Pies I have tried before. This is a pie that is designed to be eaten cold, perhaps a bit like the Christmas offering, however, I was delighted that this one has a pastry lid. For some reason this pie came in a different box with no window. It also cost a whopping £4.75 for the 270g pie which meant it would have to do something a little special.



Condition – 4.9 out of 7 – It had a similar shape to other Paul’s pies with lovely crimping at the edges. I did miss the pastry letter on the top and the colourful boxes that Paul’s pies normally have but these are only minor points. Generally top condition.

Colour – 4.5 out of 7 - The pastry looked nice, but could have been a bit more golden. The filling was very pretty, being layers of Pork and Chicken.

Capacity – 4.7 out of 7 – Tall and proud, exactly what we expect from Paul’s pies; there was a large capacity. This one was a bit let down by the surprising addition of an air gap at the top although not very large.

Cheapness – 3.5 out of 7 – I understand that this is top quality meat and this was full of meat but £4.75 just seemed like a lot for quite a pie which is the same size as the normal Paul’s pies.

Chewiness – 6.0 out of 7 – The meat in this pie was unlike any other I have had, it was so moist and light and flaky. Great care had been taken to avoid something as heavy and stodgy as you normally find with a pork pie. In fact, this is nothing like other cold meat pies. There were some small chewy pieces to the pork. The pastry was heavy on the fat content (in a good way) which made it also really soft to eat, despite being shortcrust.

Content – 6.0 out of 7 – I thought that this pie tasted great, it tasted a bit like a really awesome version of a sausage roll. There was plenty of seasoning with hints of flavours you might expected with roast dinner stuffing. The flavours were similar to Mr C’s chicken pie. There was a wonderful richness to the pastry. Having both Chicken and Pork kept the meat interesting. I would note that my Dad didn’t like it, he thought it was ‘too spicy’ but he is Mr Bland and Boring so I tend to discount his views.

Consistency – 5.5 out of 7 – A nice consistency and a tasty morsel which did something a bit different from the norm and pulled it off. Just wish it was a bit bigger because I don't think it would go very far sharing it at a picnic. You could buy more than one but that would leave the rest of the hamper a bit bare on most picnic budgets.

Chicken & Pork Picnic (Paul’s Pies) 
5.01/7 


Steak & Kidney

To commemorate World War 1 and as a way to raise money for the British Legion, Paul has brought out a limited edition Steak & Kidney pie, similar in style to his other meat offerings like the Steak & Guinness.


Condition – 6.0 out of 7 – We are back to the lovely coloured box and as usual the striking crimping. This one didn’t seem to have a ‘K’ made out of pastry, but a K marked on the pie, did it fall off? I missed the pastry letter! (But that is a minor point.)

Colour – 6.5 out of 7 – Wonderful hues of glossy brown as we have found from the best of Paul’s Pies.

Capacity – 4.1 out of 7 – Again, a tall pie so a good capacity. However, this was the first time I have found a significant air gap at the top of a Paul’s Pie. I think I was just a bit unlucky with this one as we haven't had this before.

Cheapness – 4.5 out of 7 – This pie was priced at the same level as most Paul’s Pies, at £3.50, which is pretty much the going rate for an individual gourmet pie.

Chewiness – 5.5 out of 7 – The meat was soft but slightly more chewy in places than other Paul’s pies I have had. This wasn’t necessarily a really bad thing, it gave me something to get my teeth into. The kidney was soft as would be expected. It was a pleasure to again have Paul’s lovely suet pastry with it’s crunchy outside and soft middle.

Content – 6.0 out of 7 – The flavour of this pie wasn’t adventurous but captured that classic, British, homemade Steak & Kidney flavour perfectly. Paul’s Pies have a wonderful knack of creating comforting and homely food. The kidney flavour wasn’t overpowering as it sometimes can be (we aren't huge fans of kidney on the Pierate Ship).

Consistency – 6.5 out of 7 – The lovely thick sauce gave this a great consistency. It worked very well as a pastry package.

Steak & Kidney (Paul’s Pies)
5.59/7


Overall two very good pies from Paul, fully deserving of ‘Pierate Recommended’ awards. The Steak & Kidney would probably have scored higher if it wasn’t for the airgap, not something we have ever seen before from Paul’s Pies. Unfortunately these things happen sometimes when making large numbers of pies, from manufacturers small and big. This will require further investigation, someone will have to eat more Paul's Pies. Naturally I volunteer myself, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

SJL

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Paul's Pies Christmas Pie Review

Ding dong merrily on pie! The Pierateers had the great pleasure of once again visiting the Notting Hill London Farmers Market, the site of the purchase of the #1 top rated pie on Pierate. This time, however, the Pierateers were in a festive spirit and keen to try out Paul's new Christmas pie.

Paul's Pies' Christmas Pie in its red box

Paul's Pies' Christmas pie takes inspiration from the best parts of Christmas (the food), and mixes this with a secret family recipe to create a wonderful Christmas treat wrapped up in pastry. Well, not completely wrapped in pastry, as this pie signifies a controversial departure from the usual totally-and-wholly-wrapped-in-pastry-pie that we so love at Pierate. The pie is topped not with pastry but with cranberry.

First things first, this is a cold eating pie. Secondly, this is a sharing pie - which makes sense, as Christmas brings us together in the spirit of sharing. Thirdly, this pie will retail at £4.99 - more expensive than a normal Paul's Pie of this size, so is the extra expense worth it? Let's find out, and crack open the Paul's Pies Christmas Pie.

Attractive pie. Remember not to cook it

Here is the pie with its cranberry topping. Yep, there's no pastry beneath there folks. That will surely affect the judges scores. Regardless of this, the pie is very attractive and has arrived in great condition. Remember, there's no cooking involved here! This is an instant-eat pie!

Those layers would impress a geologist

Review from Pierateer RAS

• Great idea having a cold Christmas Pie (similar in nature to a pork pie but not at all fatty like some lower quality pork pies are) - though wasn't originally expecting it to be a pie you would eat cold.
• The pie held together well.
• The pastry was a good thickness - not overly thick and nice bite to it
• Certainly a sharing pie
• Would make a delightful addition to a Christmas buffet platter or similar

The layers worked, though not quite to the ratios I'd prefer. Too much cranberry for my pallet and a little too much stuffing and not enough turkey for me. It was surprising to see pork as the main ingredient at 23%, compared to 18% turkey. The pie certainly reflects a nice Turkey Roast but I think if I had more pork than turkey eating my Christmas Roast, I'd feel robbed of turkey then, so I have to apply the same standard to a Turkey pie.

Of course we at Pierate have high standards when it comes to pastry encasement, so while the layering with cranberries on top as the "lid" look nice, they unfortunately do not replicate a true fully encased pie. This is a shame and it must be pointed out that the other meat Paul's Pies don't suffer from this lack of full pastry encasement.

Ultimately a unique and very good non top-crust Christmas Pie and certainly one that would light up anyone's Christmas!

[Colour 6/7 Consistency 6/7 Cheapness 5/7 Chewiness 6.75/7 Condition 6.5/7 Content 5/7 Capacity 6/7]
Score: 5.89/7

Review from Pierateer TJP

This Christmas pie is extremely attractive, with a clever cranberry "lid" and charming pastry crimping. Cutting open the pie, it is clear how dense it is and why it is a sharing pie (although I did eat the whole pie myself, a Pierateer rarely shares!). I see that Pierateer RAS has commented that there was too much cranberry (please be aware that when we do joint reviews, we write our reviews and scores independently with no conferring), but I felt that actually there wasn't quite enough! Because the pie was so packed with meat, it became a little dry to eat, and the cranberry really helped to moisten things up. The layering within the pie is absolutely fantastic and a joy to behold. The turkey was perhaps a bit crumbly, but the pie was formed well and the layering stayed intact. Of course, at £4.99, this is pretty pricey for what's not a big pie. However, the pie was absolutely packed to capacity with copious amounts of filling, and I was certainly very full after eating the whole thing! This is a sharing pie, and with it being so deep and crisp and even, it would be a delight to have in the centre of any dinner table this Christmas.

Score: 5.90/7

Paul's Pies Christmas (Turkey) Pie
Score: 5.9/7
RAS and TJP

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Paul's Pies - Chicken and Mushroom Pie Review

I was quite excited to finally get my hands on one of Paul's Pies. My fellow Pierateers TJP and RAS have both been impressed by the Oxfordshire based team. TJP went as far as to send Paul's Steak and Guinness pie to the top of our Pie Rankings. With over 225 pie reviews pierate.co.uk is surely the world's leading pie review website and we have in fact reviewed pies all over the world. So I hope that you understand what being top of our pie rankings really means for Paul's Pies. It means that Paul is producing some of the best pies in the world. Hence I was pretty darned excited to get hold of a couple of these colourfully boxed beauties myself. One Chicken and Mushroom and one Steak and Guinness at just £3.50 each, similar in price to a premium supermarket pie. But would they really be as good as I was told or would they not quite satisfy my taste buds in the same way?


These pies look fantastic, the crimped pastry edge and the letter denoting the flavour are nice touches. However, I thought that this might have meant excess pastry which can often lead to dry pie syndrome. I was wrong though, Paul uses suet crust pastry which is so delicious and moist that I could eat it by itself. The pastry had a fantastically homely and satisfying taste because of the use of suet instead of the more traditional butter or lard. I put this down to the fact that suet has more saturated fat than any other common cooking fat. This pastry did however make the pies taste akin to a steak & kidney pudding which use suet pastry whereas pies usually do not. Paul has shown that this twist on a traditional idea is a stroke of genius, the pastry was gooey on the inside with the perfect amount of crunch on the outside.


Onto the filling, the cross-section of the Chicken & Mushroom pie shows that the content really did fill the whole capacity. There were great chunks of 'slow-growing free range chicken' and wonderfully tasty pieces of mushroom (I don't even really like mushroom much!). I was surprised to see that the chicken and mushroom were also joined by some crispy bacon, certainly a good thing in my book as it really developed the flavour, however, I would have expected this to have been advertised on the box.


The chicken wasn't just breast meat as is traditionally the staple in this country but also used dark chicken too. I think this has much more flavour and contributed to a wonderful taste to the filling. When combined with the suet (which reminded me of dumplings) I got such a nostalgic feeling eating this pie. I had a bit of a 'Ratatouille' moment when the food critic is reminded of his childhood by the perfect ratatouille. This was a pie which really did bring a smile to my face.


So in summary, Paul won me over, the Chicken & Mushroom pie was one of the best I have ever had. You can be sure that Paul makes some incredible pies when so many of us aboard the Pierate Ship love his pies. If only all pies were like Paul's pies.

Paul's Pies Chicken and Mushroom Pie
Score: 6.55/7

SJL

P.S. For me this pie raised the question of whether 'puddings' which are a filling enclosed in suet pastry could be pies. If it had discernible sides, base and lid I find it hard to deny that a traditional steak and kidney pudding would actually be a pie (while not denying its right to also be a pudding). Potentially a controversial statement?

P.P.S. So what did I think to the Steak and Guinness pie? Well that has already been reviewed by TJP, I can't rock the Pierate Ship, you will need to ask me to find out!

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The lowdown on what happened at the first ever Pierate Pie Contest. Following the pie contest overview, a summary of all the pies and the pie contest video, the final post reviews the Paul’s Pies “Wild Venison and Mushroom” pie sampled on the night at the contest but then eaten in full the next day for this review.

Paul's Pies



Paul's Pies Box

So with the Paul’s Pies Wild Venison & Mushroom pie removed from its lovely purple box and heated in the oven, it was time to give the full pie a review. The condition and colour was brilliant and golden, with the Suet pastry glimmering and the trademark spikes nice and crisp. Cutting through the reasonably thick pastry, the contents slowly oozed out but you can tell from the photo it was well packed to capacity. In fact, you could see why the pastry needed to be quite thick to hold it all in, but fortunately the pastry wasn’t too overpowering. The content was very good, with a nice rich venison flavour complimented well by the mushroom, onion and gravy. There were certainly some good, meaty chunks of venison throughout the pie, though slightly over packed with alternative content.


Paul's Pies Venison and Mushroom

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S for  'steak' or S for 'Superpie?'

Bam! Pie explosion!

Pretty impressive, right? If that isn't full marks for content then I'm not sure what is. The pie is stacked to the top crust with content. I can see the tender chunks of steak - which is even still a bit pink, wow! There is a mixture of roughly chopped and finely chopped onion, mushrooms and even bacon. This is epic.

I'm relieved that the pie also tastes as good as it looks. The steak is not at all chewy, and for a pie that looks like it doesn't have much gravy, all the ingredients are moist and delicious. There is a great peppery element to this pie as well, giving it a great kick alongside the Guinness. The pastry is also supreme.

This pie is stunning to look at, hefty, and a taste sensation. It's the ultimate comfort food, something which Paul tells me he strives for when he makes his pies. The British Pie Awards have got it right in awarding this pie very high honours. I'm bowled over by this pie, which puts so many other pies to shame. It's epic in every way I can imagine.

Paul's Pies Steak and Guinness Pie
Score: 6.73/7

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