You might think it has been quiet recently on Pierate and it is true that we have made less posts than usual over the Summer. This is mainly because we have been busy with weddings. It has been 5 years since the last Pierate wedding but we have recently celebrated two more Pierate weddings. After all this wait they then occured on consecutive weekends at the end of June! First Pierateer TJP tied the knot in Cheshire. Next Pierateer SJL married Pierateer ALE in Gloucestershire. It was great to get all the members of the Pierate Ship together for both weddings with Pierateers RAS, ARL and The Ship's Cook also in attendance. Pierateer RAS has been busy as well because he was the best man for SJL and organised a great stag do which involved pies from our number one pie supplier, MyPie and inevitably saw Sam dressed up as a pie. Many thanks to Chris of MyPie and Pierateer Rob for arranging the delicious stag do pie lunch.

You might expect that for a Pierate wedding there also has to be a pie involved at the wedding itself! If you are an avid reader of Pierate you may know that Pierateer ALE is the Gluten Free reviewer for Pierate. Fortunately this didn't prevent there being a top quality pie, with Voakes Free From providing a tiered wedding pie for the wedding of ALE and SJL! We have previously scored their pies very highly so we were delighted to be able to have them at the wedding. It was really quite spectacular, we are very grateful to them for arranging it and for sending samples to review beforehand, thanks so much to the team at Voakes Free From. They even did a pastry lid to the pork and chicken pie on our request (it normally comes with a stuffing lid). The pies went down very well with the guests. There was very little pie left over at the end, the two smaller layers had completely disappeared before we even tried them! The pies arrived by courier the day before in excellent condition. We cannot recommend them enough. You can see from the photo how happy we were to be cutting our wedding pie! We didn't think it would be possible to have such a tasty free from pie that everyone could enjoy (it was dairy and gluten free with some smaller Voakes pies on the side for the vegetarians).

We will finish this article with a quote from Sam's stag do "Marriage is like a pie, it is what you fill it with that really matters".

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Voakes Free From Pork Pie Reviews

We came across the company Voakes during last year's #LeedsPieTour. Whilst not actually from Leeds itself, Voakes produced a proper Yorkshire pork pie and they narrowly beat the local boys Wilson's in producing the top pork pie of the #LeedsPieTour. Having already enjoyed the gluten version of the pie, we were excited by the prospect of getting our hands on the Voakes Gluten Free range for our coeliac reviewer, Pierateer ALE. They have a great choice of pies available for delivery from the Voakes Free From website with most of them also being dairy free (with some egg free vegan options). We were delighted to be sent a whole box of pies, including pies which were best eaten hot but with their reputation for pork pies we asled Pierateer ALE to review these first. All were eaten cold but of course, if you are from more Northern climes you might need to warm them up a tad.

See below the reviews from Pierateer ALE, interestingly the free from pork pie scored almost exactly the same as the gluten version we reviewed last year.

Pork Pie (Voakes)
5.57 out of 7 (Pierate Recommended)





Condition - 5 out of 7 - I was really impressed with how good all of these pies looked. Given that Gluten Free pastry can be so crumbly these pies did well to survive travel in the post. This pork pie was a little bit broken but none of the others were. Despite being free from gluten and dairy, this pie looked pleasingly 'normal'. In fact it had a classic pie shape with a satisfying crimp around the edge and a vent hole. From the outside you might not realise it was a pork pie as it looked like regular pastry rather than the hot water crust pastry you often get with a pork pie.
Colour - 6 out of 7 - For a gluten free pie I thought this looked really appealing. There was some glaze to the pastry although the colour was paler than many other pies.

Cheapness - 6 out of 7 - This was the smallest 'individual' sized pie priced at £2.10 each. When you consider the premium that you often have to pay for free from products, this is excellent value. You can pay more than this for an up market regular pork pie!
Capacity - 6 out of 7 - Most of the pie was filled with meat, there wasn't a lot of jelly but this suited me. There was hardly any air gap.
Chewiness - 6 out of 7 - Compared to your average pork pie this had a great texture. Rather than being in one lump of ham, the filling had more granularity and bite. It tasted like pieces of gammon rather than ham. There were some small pieces which were perhaps a bit too chewy but you do expect a bit of fat with a pork pie. Sometime a pork pie can feel dense but this one didn't. I felt I could slightly tell that from the texture of the pastry that it was free from because it was a bit more crumbly but it was pretty amazing considering it had no gluten OR dairy.

Content - 5 out of 7 - The flavours were subtle and what you would expect from a pork pie. But it was seasoned enough to keep it interesting and it was nice that it wasn't too salty like some pork pies with less good quality meat can be. 
Consistency - 5 out of 7 - Whilst it was an excellent pork pie, it was somewhat overshadowed by the other excellent versions which had more variety to the filling!

Pork & Black Pudding (Voakes)
6.07 out of 7 (Pierate Highly Recommended)



Condition - 5 out of 7 - This pie was similar in appearance to the pork pie and so scores equally highly.
Colour - 6 out of 7
Cheapness - 6 out of 7 - This pie was the bigger 'large' size which retails at £5.80. It was enough for two people to share with lunch and again represented excellent value for a free from pie of this quality. It is worth noting that this was a pie that Pierateer SJL could eat in one go so it depends on your appetite!
Capacity - 6 out of 7 - Another pie crammed with filling.
Chewiness - 6.5 out of 7 - This pie was anything but chewy, as you would expect, the black pudding was soft and made the whole thing wonderfully moist. It slipped down really well.
Content - 6.5 out of 7 - Wow, the tangy flavour from the black pudding really made this pie stand out. It is not the kind of thing you can normally get hold of as a free from product so this was a nice treat. The mixed up nature of the pieces of pork and black pudding kept the pie interesting from beginning to end. The flavours seem to have seeped into the pastry too, giving this pie an extra edge.
Consistency - 6.5 out of 7 - I would say that the pastry and filling of this pie were friends, happy to be in each other's company which made for a brilliant final product.


Pork & Chili (Voakes)
6.01 out of 7 (Pierate Highly Recommended)



Condition - 4.7 out of 7 - Whilst it again looks good enough to get my tastebuds going, it loses out slightly on condition compared to the other two because of the jelly boiling out on top.
Colour - 6 out of 7
Cheapness - 6 out of 7 - Another up-market large pie for £5.80.
Capacity - 6 out of 7 - Again this pie was well filled, perhaps too well filled because the jelly boiled out!
Chewiness - 6.5 out of 7 - The texture was like the pork pie but perhaps a bit more moist due to the chili.
Content - 6.5 out of 7 - The chili added plenty of flavour and made the normal pork version look a bit boring. There was a sweetness to the chili and it wasn't very spicy but full of flavour. For me it wasn't quite as good as the black pudding version but I would choose this over the pork any day.
Consistency - 6.4 out of 7 - The flavours of this pie worked really well. The chili flavour permeated through the whole pie so it didn't have to rely on an intense pork and salt flavour like many pork pies do.

Overall these were excellent gluten free pies, in fact I would go as far as to say these were the best gluten free pies I have ever had! I would agree with their adverts that these pies are all of the flavour, none of the gluten. It is so nice that these pies are available and it doesn't feel like you have to compromise, they are better than the majority of the gluten equivalents. I would recommend them to anyone with allergies, you could even get the large ones to share and the great thing is people would never know they are free from!

ALE

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As part of our Pie Pledges for British Pie Week last year, we decided to head up to Leeds to do a #LeedsPieTour! A bit delayed but we have finally caught up with this being the all important last place we really had to review!



As part of the Leeds Pie Tour one of the most highly regarded pie shops we visited was Wilsons. Some claimed that they produce the best Pork Pies in Leeds so we had to check them out!  It was nice to see that this was a shop specialing in pies which goes to show how much the good people of Leeds love their pies.

As you can see from our video, I devoured the pork pie straight away having gone for the hot option. As a Southerner, a hot pork pie is not something I would normally choose but I thought I had to give it a go. Unfortunately it made it hard to compare it to other pork pies I have eaten. The pastry was certainly nice with a crunch on the outside but nice and moist in the middle. It was a bit softer than normal because it was hot. I liked how the jelly had melted, I don't particularly like the cold jelly layer in a pork pie but when hot it makes more sense.

It did take me a bite to get through to the central pink ham meat. The filling was moist and certainly not lacking in flavour. I really enjoyed the first couple of bites but then found it got a bit sickly. I am not quite sure why this was, perhaps it was because there was quite a lot seasoning. I think it was a good pork pie but I prefer the cooked pork you find Melton Mowbray pork pie whereas this was cured meat; like eating a lump of ham. It was actually quite similar to the Voakes pork pie we had at Haley & Cliffords but I thought slightly not as good. However I was more in my comfort zone with the Voakes pie because I had it cold.

Pork (Wilsons [Leeds])
Score: 5.36/7


SJL



I also picked up a Wilson's Steak pie which TJP and myself ate hot later on. This was of course very different to the pork pie. The flavour of the filling was fairly standard Steak & Ale territory. The whole thing was moist because there was plenty of nice thick sauce. It was well filled with big chunks of meat although some were a little chewy.


The pastry was not your standard hot pie pastry, this was thick and in some ways a little dry but this did mean it had a good crunch and an almost biscuity flavour. It was quite nice to have this as a change to the soft and stodgy pastry you get with mass produced pies. Overall I enjoyed the pie and it was great value. I note that I also picked up a Meat & Potato pie which really wasn't as good so stick with the Meat & Meat!

Steak & Ale (Wilsons [Leeds])
Score: 5.05/7


SJL & TJP

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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! One place we visited was Haley and Clifford, a lovey quaint deli in the north of Leeds, which features in the video of our adventures made by Pierateer Tim below. There we rated a Voakes Pork Pie, famed for being a top pie option in the area!



On Day One of the Leeds Pie Tour we headed to Haley and Clifford in the north of Leeds. We'd heard they stocked Voakes Pork Pies (a reasonably local pork pie producer) and thought we'd pay them a visit! It was a lovely delicatessen, selling food from a range of local stockists and with a decent selection of salads and (more importantly) pies! Both Sam and Rob went for a Voakes Pork Pie, which Rob rates below:

Wow, I have never seen a pork pie served cut up into pieces with salad! @Haley_Clifford #LeedsPieTour pic.twitter.com/LsFSMRHpAq

— Pierate (@pierateers) March 11, 2017

The deli was a lovely place to visit on our Pie Tour of Leeds - serving a few different pie options to be eaten cold. The Voakes pork pie however was what we were there for and was a pretty reasonable price for a reasonably high end establishment. It was possibly the first place we'd ever rated which offered an accompanying side salad with your pork pie - a combo Pierateer Sam relied upon during his "Pies For Every Meal" British Pie Week 2014 stunt, which rather amazingly led to Sam losing weight over the week he ate 21 pie meals!

Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford

The Voakes Pork Pie was very crispy to bite into and while - as said in the video - the first bite was pretty much all pastry, it was a very crisp and delicious pastry I'd happily eat on its own. What the deli owner told us in a chat later was that between receiving the pork pies from Voakes and cooking them, they don't actually add in the jelly which many pork pies contain. They found their customers prefer their pork pies without, which we on the Pierate Ship can understand. We too can find the jelly muddles the flavour a bit, so unless done well, it can be better not to include jelly just for the sake of it! It would however be interesting to rate a Voakes with jelly too sometime!

The colour was lovely and golden, with a reasonably even bake, though the pastry did flake and crumble into random pieces upon biting into it, therefore losing some marks for condition. This is perhaps why they offer the pork pie already cut into quarters when serving it with a side salad (see tweeted photo above!) There was a noticeable gap around the meat where the jelly would normally be, thus reducing the capacity slightly. However the meat content of the pie was pretty succulent in spite of the lack of cooking with jelly - nice and meaty. Seasoned but not too strongly, it was a pork pie I'd happily eat again.

Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford (Leeds)
Score: 5.64/7
[Colour 6.25, Capacity 5.75, Consistency 6, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 4.5, Content 5.75]

RAS

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The Ship's Cook (aka @the_cookworm) is currently on a pie mission - to find the top rated pie recipes from our nations supermarket suggestions. It started with a tweet we were sent by @jimbolimbo9 suggesting we try two pork pastry recipes from the supermarket Morrisons and from this The Ship's Cook decided to select one reci-pie from each supermarket's website or magazine to make and rate. Today is the turn of Morrisons Pork and Cider pie!

Hello fellow pie-lovers!

It's been a while since my last pie recipe review - it's all going on in my family at the moment so I've been away from my kitchen and all over the country celebrating weddings, birthdays and babies (not mine, I hasten to add!)

But this weekend I was back home with time to bake, and what could be better than a pie for Sunday lunch?

Morrisons Pork and Cider Pie Review

The recipe:

This week it was the turn of Morrisons' pork and cider pot pies. You can find the recipe here:

http://www.morrisonsmag.co.uk/september_2014/pork_and_cider_pot_pies

If you're going to try out this recipe, I'd advise you to completely ignore the part where it says it serves four people. It might serve four people if they're really hungry and they really REALLY like pie, but I'm pretty sure you could feed eight people easily. I was trying to make one big pie instead of four small ones, and even though I used an absolutely massive pie dish and stuffed it as full of filling as I could, I still ended up having to make a second one.

Still, having more pie than you expected is hardly something to complain about!

The 7 Cs of pie rating:

I definitely should have remembered the egg-wash...

Colour:
Erm...a bit of a confession here...this should have been a nice golden brown, only once I'd made the pie and was about to put it in the oven I realised I didn't have any eggs for the egg-wash. The pastry still came out nice and crispy, but if you make a proper shopping list and add the egg it'll be even better and much more golden!

Consistency:
The cider in this pie makes for a lovely gravy, especially as it mixes with the flour coating the pork which thickens it and stops it being too runny. No extra gravy needed on this pie!

Capacity:
Morrisons failed at the first hurdle here because their original recipe was for a top crust only pie (there are a lot of those about!) However I fixed that by adding a shortcrust pastry base. There was so much filling for this pie that I was struggling to fit it in (despite making two pies!) so this scores really highly because it's absolutely packed full of meat, vegetables and gravy.

Absolutely stuffed full of filling!

Chewiness:
Simmering the pork in the cider made the meat in this pie really tender, and the vegetables were nice and soft but still added a bit of texture.

Cheapness:
Morrisons reckons this costs £1.89 per serving, which isn't bad. Seeing as I got twice as much pie as expected, though, that's less than £1 a (massive) portion! Excellent work, Morrisons.

Content:
Pork and cider is a classic combination, and this was pretty tasty. With the addition of the carrots and celery it was a little bit too sweet, so I'd suggest adding a bit more mustard to cut through the sweetness or choosing a dry cider for the gravy. Despite that, it was still very tasty and it was lovely cold with some chutney the next day - it would probably make quite a good picnic pie if you left it to cool before serving it.

Condition:
This pie fell apart a bit when I served it hot, which made it look a bit messy, but the filling looks quite appealing with the green and orange vegetables and the mustard seeds in the sauce, so I don't think that detracted from the pie-eating experience too much. Served cold, however, this pie sliced beautifully and looked amazing, so I really would recommend trying it both ways.

And with that, I'm off to get started on eating that second pie!

The Ship's Cook

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British Pie Week Special - Could the Four Course Dinner Pie revolutionise pie eating?!

For those who aren't aware, while our main focus on Pierate - Pie Reviews is to rate commercially bought pies on the 7 Cs of pie rating, we do have our good friend The Ship's Cook who bakes pie recipes (or reci-pies) and gives them a rating on the 7 Cs of pie rating too! And while this is normally trying and testing commercially available pie recipes from cook books or websites, as a special #PiePledge for this year's British Pie Week she decided to make her own. Let's see how she got on:

My #PiePledge for British Pie Week was to try out a new pie recipe, so I thought I'd invent one all of my own! As British Pie Week drew to a close, I decided to celebrate in style with a four course meal. But of course this wasn't just any four course meal - this was a four course meal in a pie.

 
Yes, you read that correctly, an entire four course meal encased in delicious pastry!

The Recipe:


I did have to ask for some help on this one, as there was a pretty good chance that at least one course would leak into another through my pastry walls. Thanks to my very clever friends, I ended up with four courses that would work separately and together:

Starter - French onion soup
Main - Pork with apple and mushrooms
Pudding - Apple and raisin
Cheese course - Brie and cranberry

I started by making the pastry case and walls, out of shortcrust pastry because I thought that would be quite sturdy. I then blind baked the case while I made the fillings.



The French onion 'soup' was mostly onions slowly cooked in butter with salt, pepper and some flour, and then I made a very thick beef gravy with Worcestershire sauce to make it more like soup. The pork course was pork mince, onions, mushrooms, apple, salt, pepper and some dried herbs. The pudding (apple and raisin) was Bramley apples, raisins, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and brown sugar. Finally, the brie and cranberry was just that - layers of brie with cranberry sauce. I topped the whole thing off with a puff pastry lid, marked it with a series of holes to indicate courses 1- 4 and popped it in the oven until it was brown and crispy.

I'm not sure whether it's fair of me to rate my own pie, but I'm going to give it a go anyway - I'm afraid I am a bit biased and I think it was brilliant!


 The Seven Cs:

Colour: 
I'll be honest - this could have been a bit darker. I got over-excited and couldn't wait any longer to try the pie, so I took it out of the oven a bit early...

Consistency:
Mixed success here but mostly good. The onion soup section was lovely and moist, with soft onion and smooth gravy. The pork mince was a bit dry and needed some sauce. The apple and cheese layers were both moist without being too runny.

Capacity:
I packed this pie pretty tightly with filling, but it still felt like I was eating a lot of pastry. Still, if you're going to eat four courses of pie you probably love pastry, and I certainly didn't mind!

Chewiness:
No unpleasant chewiness here - I think I got it right with the mix of ingredients. The fairly large pieces of onion in the soup course meant it wasn't too runny, and the addition of mushrooms to the pork and raisins to the apple added a nice texture. The cheese was soft and gooey, which is exactly how melted cheese should be.

Content:
I'm giving myself (and my friends who helped with the recipe) full marks here. It was a FOUR COURSE MEAL in a pie, and it was absolutely delicious. 

Cheapness:
This isn't the cheapest pie ever because you have to buy quite a lot of different ingredients, but I did end up with loads of leftover fillings that didn't fit into the pie. So those are in the freezer ready for another meal, and I think the cost was worth it for the impact this pie makes.

Condition:
I was really impressed with this pie. I thought it was going to collapse and end up being an onion-pork-apple-and-cheese pie but amazingly the walls stayed solid and the courses stayed separate. I even managed to get a slice of each course onto a plate so you can see them properly!

Overall, my #PiePledge was a definite success. I strongly recommend that you all go and make your own four course meal pies. Try out different ingredients and let us know what you think! Be prepared to be very full though - I know I am!

The Ship's Cook

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Higgidy - Hand Pulled Pork & Sweet Potato Pie Review (Limited Edition)

This pie was eaten as part of the Pierateers #Pieathon Pie Pledge to see who could go the longest eating only pie! This was eaten on Day One of British Pie Week 2015.



Here we have a Higgidy OPEN TOP Pulled Pork pie. Controversial to start British Pie Week with a review of what is technically not a pie by our own definition! However, Higgidy have been good to us, sending vouchers for our 200th pie review back in the day. They also sent vouchers for our #Pie4EveryMeal challenge last year but they arrived too late, so I thought I owed them a review this year. To be honest, I hadn't realised it was open top when I bought it and was a bit saddened when I got it out of the box! My own fault though, it was clearly visible. Then I had a brain wave, there was nothing to stop me from adding my own pastry lid! Hey presto, a proper pie!

This pie worked really well as part of the Pie-a-thon #PiePledge that RAS and myself are attempting. The flavour was original and added a bit of variety to the excessive pie consumption. The flavours of the filling were delicious.


Condition - 3.5 out of 7 - A great looking product, despite the filling being naked. The crinkled edge was a nice effect. But, without a lid it just didn't look right....
Colour - 5.0 out of 7 - A range of colours to the filling which is nice to see. The pastry was a good colour.
Cheapness - 4.0 out of 7 - This was on offer for £3 in Sainsbury's. About £3.50 normally. This is about the going rate for an up market pie of this size from a supermarket.
Capacity - 4.8 out of 7 - The open top means that you can straight away see that there is plenty of filling. But I genuinely felt that without the additional pastry lid, there would not have been the right pastry to filling ratio.
Chewiness - 5.9 out of 7 - Brilliant texture, the pork was soft but had enough bite to get your teeth into. The sweet potato and other veg wasn't mushy although I perhaps felt the sweet potato was a bit too hard. The pastry was nice and crunchy.
Content - 6.0 out of 7 - Strands of pulled pork in a slightly sweet and slightly spicy filling. It had a bit of kick but not too much. The bits of pepper added some variety. The meat was delicious and the flavours worked well with the shortcrust pastry.
Consistency - 4.5 out of 7 - It could never score really highly, not having a lid, but if you feel like adding your own you will get the full pie experience and a really great tasting pie! With the additional pastry lid it looked good and worked really well!


Open Top Pulled Pork & Sweet Potato (Higgidy)
4.81/7


SJL

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Waitrose Moreish Ploughman's Pork Pie
Overall score: 5.50 / 7
TJP

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Morrisons Pie Reivews

I love this time of year. I love the Christmas trees, the twinkling lights, spending time with family, turkey, etc, etc. But what really make me excited are the special limited edition festive pies. Sometimes these are bizarre flavour which wouldn't stand a chance of being served on The Pierate Ship dinner table at any other time of year. But at Christmas the rules of the game seem to change slightly. It provides a great chance to tear open the familiar pastry wrapping paper to find the present of a never before tasted flavour. For a Pierateer there seem to have been particularly rich pickings this year. Whilst I feel Morissons have perhaps had more than their fair share of pie reviews (see our list of Morrisons pie reviews), I just couldn't resist when I found no less than FIVE festive pies. But will they leave me wishing it could be Christmas everyday or just a bah humbug? Let's see if Morissons think I have been good this year with a range of mini pork pies, mini meat pies and a winter fruit pie.

Apple and Winterberry (Morrisons Pie Counter)
6.03/7
I don't often review lattice topped pies. I have been known to comment that the filling seems a bit 'naked', but hey, it's the season of good will to all pies. Especially when they taste this good. Similar to the individual apple pie reviewed before.
Condition - 5.0 out of 7 - A great looking pie, I forgive and forget the lattice top lid but it fell apart when going for the cross-section which was disappointing.
Colour - 6.5 out of 7 - Vibrant reds, a crispy golden brown, dusted with icing sugar like the first snow fall of winter.
Cheapness - 5.0 out of 7 - At 65p this is a reasonable price for a desert or snack for one person. Twin pack is cheaper.
Capacity - 6.0 out of 7 - Even a flea wouldn't survive very long if it was left to breath only the air in this pie. It was jam packed.
Chewiness - 6.5 out of 7 - A triumph of texture. A mix of a crunchy biscuity top crust and soft bottom crust. The fruit was soft but had a bit of bite. The berries had some crunchy seeds which I enjoyed.
Content - 6.5 out of 7 - In terms of taste, this is one of the best fruit pies I have eaten. The sweetness of the sugar and apple was counter balanced by the rich and sour flavour of the unidentifiable Winterberries. It didn't get full marks as there could have been more chunks of fruit rather than the fruity jelly padding it out slightly.
Consistency - 6.7 out of 7 - Worked well as a pastry package, the sweet pastry complementing the filling.

Mini Pork & Cranberry (Morrisons)
5.33/7
Condition - 4.8 out of 7 - Again an unnecessary lattice top which was sneakily hidden behind the packaging. It looked decent despite the unnecessary holes in the top.

Left to Right - Stilton, Apple and Cranberry

Colour - 6.1 out of 7 - Amazing glossy brown colours. Filling seemed slightly too pink to me.
Cheapness - 5.1 out of 7 - £1.89 for a pack of six ain't bad even for mini pies.
Capacity - 5.5 out of 7 - For a small pie it fit in a lot. Small gaps for a bit of jelly.
Chewiness - 5.1 out of 7 - Not any chewy bits to the filling but it could have been less mushy. There was a good crunch to the pastry.
Content - 5.3 out of 7 - For me I found this ideal as there was a subtle amount of the festive berry. If you are a big fan of cranberry you might find it lacking. The tang of the berries made this stand out from the average pork pie.
Consistency - 5.4 out of 7 - Different and would work well as part of a Christmas buffet.

Mini Pork & Apple (Morrisons)
4.87/7
Condition - 5.5 out of 7 - Topped with poppy seeds, this made it look a little bit better than standard versions.
Colour - 5.0 out of 7 - Again, some wonderful hues to the outside but the inside didn't look great...
Cheapness - 5.1 out of 7 - Same as cranberry.
Capacity - 2.5 out of 7 - Not sure what Morrisons had done here, terrible cross section, it seemed like a species of termite had burrowed holes in the filling leaving lots of gaps.
Chewiness - 4.5 out of 7 - Slipped down pretty well. It wasn't dry, like it looked.
Content - 6.0 out of 7 - The flavour of this pie blew my mind. Not just a standard pork and apple, it was actually flavoured with CINNAMON! Somehow it worked, in this small dose it wasn't overpowering and gave the pie a refined taste.
Consistency - 5.5 out of 7 - Whilst the amount of filling let this pie down it tasted great and would get the guests talking at a Christmas party as it was delightfully different. Just don't let them look at the filling...

Mini Pork & Stilton (Morrisons Deli)
5.07/7
Condition - 5.1 out of 7 - Dusted with a crumb topping this pie again stood out on appearances.
Colour - 4.8 out of 7 - Not quite such a perfect golden brown like the other pork pies.
Cheapness - 5.5 out of 7 - At £1.29 it is similar price to the others and good value as Stilton isn't cheap.
Capacity - 4.8 out of 7 - The photo looks decent but I found some of the pack had dodgy air gaps.
Chewiness - 3.8 out of 7 - Decent performance from the filling although it was a little mushy. The pastry was unfortunately dry and crumbly in places.
Content - 6.0 out of 7 - For me this was wonderful, the very small amount of Stilton gave it a rich aroma. The mouldy cheese can often be overpowering, but not here. It may disappoint if you like cheese so much you get tempted to steal it from mouse traps.
Consistency - 5.5 out of 7 - Again, whilst this wasn't consistently great, I would get some for a festive feast as it is worth trying.

Mini Beef & Onion (Morrisons)
3.13/7
I was very happy to see these mini meat pies which could be eaten hot. There really is a gap in the market for small hot pies. I would say it was a shame these aren't available all year but they are barely worth eating given the lack of filling.
Condition - 5.0 out of 7 - These critters actually looked half decent, I might even go as far as to say they looked cute, I don't think I have seen a smaller pie.
Colour - 4.8 out of 7 - Good but not special.
Cheapness - 2.7 out of 7 - £2.49 for 6, you don't get much for your 41.5p here. These are tiny and lack the value of the pork pies. You could almost get one of the pie counter pies for how much these tiny things cost!
Capacity - 1.4 out of 7 - Abysmal, these reminded me of the air pie. They were quite tall so could have got a morsel inside but they were all largely empty. Just a smear of filling at the bottom.
Content - 4.5 out of 7 - What there was of the filling tasted nice. Pretty standard meat and onion with a bit of carrot.
Consistency - 3.5 out of 7 - These didn't taste bad but didn't really work. It was just like eating a fairly average and slightly dry shortcrust on it's own.

A mixture of presents in the Morrisons christmas stocking. Most of them I would recommend to try but not necessarily pies I would buy regularly. Perhaps the fact that they are temporary makes them all the more desirable and special.

SJL

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The Real Pie Company Steak, Chicken and Pork Pie Reviews

Forget the 7 colours of the rainbow or the 7 dwarves. We have a far more important “7” to tell you about on the web’s leading pie review blog – and for once it’s not actually the 7 Cs! (Though let’s face it, they’re going to get a mention or two!)

For a box of pies arrived on my desk recently that were not just any old pies – these were the real deal! Or at least that’s what the pie packaging indicated – but we’ll be the judge of whether these are real-ly good pies or not when they get an official pie rating on the 7 Cs!

The pie packaging was a real pielight

The Real Pie Company packaging

I think the first thing to mention is that these were some of the most nicely packaged pies I have ever seen – and believe me, I’ve seen a lot of pie packaging in my time! While the pie packaging is not specifically part of the actual pie review, it certainly gave a great first imPIEression – and quite unique in offering a cross-section of the inside of the pie. This is something pie companies often don’t show, perhaps because they are scared that their lack of filling will be exposed, resorting to hiding their poor air:filling ratio inside the pastry parcel.

Well at www.pierate.co.uk you will not be surPIEsed to hear that we are loving the “Crammed to the Crust” slogan that adorns the pie packaging on these “The Real Pie Company” products. After all, with capacity one of the famous 7 Cs, we certainly think highly of a strong filling! And these The Real Pie Company pies had a really good capacity throughout their range.

But before we get down to the specific flavours, a word on these hand crafted pies in general…

Some of the golden cooked pies

The pies had a good pastry – golden and crisp – nice eaten cold but preferred hot. They had the classic shortcrust base and sides, with golden puff pastry lid. As mentioned previously, the pies scored very well on the 7 Cs for capacity - packed to capacity with lots of meat! The meat was in general very nice and tender, though in some of the pies the pieces of meat were rather big and the flavours might have mixed better had the meat been chopped up slightly finer and mixed better within the sauce/gravy. Also there was some nice gravy and sauces, in the steak and pork pie in particular.

At £2.95 each for a pie so packed with meat, this represents a good price, though they aren’t the biggest pies and thus aren’t quite the perfect value pies. But you can buy in bulk on The Real Pie Company website to get your pies cheaper.

The Steak and Mushroom Pie at our Piecnic

Steak and Mushroom
This pie was eaten cold at the world’s first ever Piecnic, which you can read about and see in our video here. The meat was lovely and tender, with a nice thick gravy which complemented the steak really well. Would happily eat this pie hot or cold, a real bonus on the 7 Cs to rate so well as a pie eaten cold.

The Real Pie Company Steak and Mushroom Pie
Score: 6.21/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 6.25, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.5, Total: 6.21/7]

Steak and Guinness
A nice Guinness flavour to this pie’s gravy added to the nice tender steak. The pie was packed with steak and the flavours worked well.

The Real Pie Company Steak and Guinness Pie
Score: 6.21/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 6.25, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.5, Total: 6.21/7]

Steak and Kidney
The pie was a good balance of steak and kidney – slightly more weighted towards the steak (as we believe steak and kidney pies should be!) The flavours worked well together.

The Real Pie Company Steak and Kidney Pie
Score: 6.04/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5.5, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6, Total: 6.04/7]

Meat and Potato
The Meat and Potato pie had the same good quality pastry and was packed to the crust with filling, though the minced beef and potato struggled to live up to the amazing standards of the other meat pies. The flavours in the pie were quite strong and while the mince and potato tasted nice, they didn’t blow me away. A decent pie but never going to challenge the others on the 7 Cs.

The Real Pie Company Meat and Potato Pie
Score: 5.29/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 4, Content 5, Total: 5.29/7]

The Real Pie Company's Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Chicken and Ham
Chicken and Mushroom
Ironically their ‘packed to capacity’ philosophy was almost slightly to the detriment of the chicken pies we rated, with a bit too overpowering a chicken flavour (overly large chunks of chicken) and a sauce that was nice but didn’t blow me away. The two chicken pies almost had a bit too much chicken in them and not enough other flavourings to get the perfect content on the 7 Cs, so while not bad pies it didn’t quite reach the heights of the pork and steak pies.

The Real Pie Company Chicken and Ham Pie and Chicken and Mushroom Pie
Score: 5.57/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6, Consistency 5.5, Condition 5, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 5, Content 5.5, Total: 5.57/7]

The Pork and Chicken pies from The Real Pie Company

Pork, Bacon and Parsley
Wow! The main criticism of this pie is that one just wasn’t enough - it was just too nice! Flavoursome and with a nice thick sauce, with great tender pies of actual pork (not the cured pork you would often find in a traditional pork pie) and bacon. I could probably have eaten 3 or 4 in one sitting – they were just so tasty. The sauce was really nice, complementing the meat well. I just wish there were more pork meat and sauce pies out on the market, with this one surely being the pork and sauce pie to beat! A great scoring pie!


The Real Pie Company Pork, Bacon and Parsley Pie
Score: 6.46/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 7, Consistency 6.75, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.75, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.75, Total: 6.46/7]


So there we have it: they real-ly have done a great job with these pies – all scoring at least Pierate Recommended status but with 4 Pierate Highly Recommended pies! But the stand out pie for me was the Pork, Bacon and Parsley Pie. A great job by The Real Pie Company and I eagerly await their fruit pie offerings too!

(And yes, for those counting, there were actually 7 mentions of the 7 Cs in this article – not including this last one! It’s as if I planned it that way…)

RAS

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