Stanbury Wild Game Pie Reviews

So a couple of weeks back we had the small matter of British Pie Week to enjoy, and unsur-pie-singly we had a few pies to celebrate this momentous occasion! And while we managed to document the pies we got our teeth into via our daily diary articles (see the bottom of this article), now comes the time to write up all our new pies on the world’s leading pie review blog!

Stanbury's Squirrel and Rabbit Pie and Mixed Game Pie

A pie-light at the end of British Pie Week, enjoyed on Day Six and Day Seven, were the wild game pies that we had from Stanbury Wild Game Pie Company. This is a relatively new husband and wife team producing – you’ve guessed it! – wild game pies. They’ve been making wild game pies for about 3 years now, selling mainly at local farmers markets and food festivals near Exeter in Devon. However this has recently changed with a new online delivery option via their website, so now more people can get hold of their pies!

Venison and Pheasant Pies from Stanbury Wild Game Pies

To mark British Pie Week, the owners of Stanbury Wild Game Pie Company arranged to send us six of their game pies – 4 of which we ate in British Pie Week and review below and 2 of which we froze to eat soon. The pies we review below are the Venison and Mushroom, Mixed Game, Pheasant and Cider and Rabbit and Squirrel pies. Each of them sell for £3 on market stalls or £3.50 online (apart from the Rabbit and Squirrel pie, which is £3.50/£4).

As with any wild game pie, you’ve got to be careful to look out for small bones or leftover shot, but I’m pleased to say all four were fine in this regard, with no fat left on the meat either. This is a great sign of a company who take care of their produce and only want to provide the best pies to their consumers. The pastry was good – especially the crisp golden pastry on top of the pie, even if the side and base were a little paler and less crisp on them all. But all in all, not bad at all.

Pheasant and Cider Pie

Pheasant and Cider Pie
Certainly a combo I’d not tried before – I think I had only consumed Pheasant within a mixed game pie before this one! And there was a good amount of meat too, with no criticism there! The cider added an interesting flavour to the mix, fortunately not making it too sweet in the process but acting as a nice balance to the pheasant’s meat flavour. I’d certainly recommend this pie. The pastry, as with all of them, was lovely and crisp on top and looked beautifully golden. Besides the meat the filling was more thick sauce than gravy, an interesting consistency, but balanced the pie well.

Score: 5.82/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5.5, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6]

Venison Pie

Venison and Mushroom Pie
Venison pies, understandably, are a lot more common nationwide than some of the other wild game pies on their menu, however they have done a good job of providing a lovely venison pie here. While I personally wouldn’t go for a venison and mushroom option over a straight out venison pie – and also would prefer a gravy rather than a thick sauce – when putting my personal preferences aside this was a nice pie and I still enjoyed it. The pastry (especially the lid) was nice and crisp and complemented the meaty content well. While I have to admit I was more excited by the other (more unusual) flavours, it’s encouraging to see them doing the slightly more regular flavours well too!

Score: 5.54/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 5.5, Content 5]

Mixed Game Pie

Mixed Game Pie
Like London buses, you have your first pie with pheasant in for a long while, and then a second comes along slightly after! This time the pheasant was in a mixed game pie also containing venison, partridge and pigeon! And we also found out on the Friday before we ate it that this pie was the Class winner at the British Pie Awards for best speciality meats and game pie 2018!

As for the pie itself, it was crammed full of lovely, tender meat. The moist succulent filling balanced well with the crisp pastry and it was an unusual mix of flavours rarely seen all in one pie. I can see why this rated well with the judges at the British Pie Awards!

Score: 6.07/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5.75, Condition 6.25, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.5]

Rabbit and Squirrel Pie

Rabbit and Squirrel Pie
Of course both rabbit and squirrel pies are pretty unique (although we have tried both individually), this was the first time we were rating them in combination. And I certainly enjoyed the meat mix! Not your usual combo but one for your dinner guests to talk about! Personally I’m not sure I’d choose to pay more to have a rabbit and squirrel pie over the rest of their wild pie range but interesting flavour mix to give people the option if needed.

Score: 5.82/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5.5, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6]


All in all, some unique meat flavours in there and some top rated scores, particularly the mixed game pie which backs up its British Pie Awards class win with a Pierate Highly Recommended pie score! Our thanks to Nel from Stanbury Wild Game Pie Company for supplying us with these lovely Pierate Recommended pies. I certainly commend them to you if you fancy something a bit different from your standard beef or chicken pie!!

#britishpieawards class 12

Stanbury's wild game pie pic.twitter.com/vNrSeADb4C

— DUB Pies (@dubpies) March 9, 2018

RAS

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Nice Pie Roadkill Pie and Peppercorn and Brandy Steak Pie Reviews

Considering the amazing range of unusual and exotic pies Nice Pie have made over the short time they've been in existence - summarised in the list of Nice Pies we've rated - it should come as no surprise they've always got another quirky offering up their sleeve! So after their TV appearance on Jamie and Jimmy's Friday Night Feast on Channel 4 recently, where they focused on their Wild Squirrel pie (which we went nuts for when we rated it back in January 2014), we couldn’t resist trying their interestingly named "Roadkill Pie" this British Pie Week, alongside a steak pie on Day Three!

Right on track... the Nice Pie "Roadkill" Pie

And while the name might put some people off, it makes total sense to me and I was certainly game to try it! After all, it certainly solves the problem of deciding which game meat to have in a pie when this option contains pheasant, rabbit, venison AND partridge!

As part of our “How long can we just eat pie for?” Pieathon challenge we thought we’d benefit from a range of their smaller pies, which coming in at £3.50 is pretty reasonable for a hefty, meat filled pie packed with delicious filling and cooked in their lovely butter shortcrust pastry. As I’ve mentioned before many a time with these Nice Pies (for which you can see a full list of all the previous Nice Pies we've rated here), it is amazing how they hold together so well despite being so filled with content. The nature of the pastry means it can be a little crumbly in places but in general it is very nice and lovely and golden once cooked, which you can see in the lovely photos!

Nice Pie "Roadkill" Pie Review

The Roadkill Pie was possibly the most mixed-meat-filled pie we've had since the infamous "Polabe" pie of 2011, which was a combination of Po(rk)La(mb)Be(ef) and didn't really work so well as a mix of flavours.

Fortunately, going for a much simpler name and a more logical game meat mix, the Roadkill pie flavour worked a lot better. As is a feature in all the Nice Pie range, the pie was once again full of succulent and tender meat. I still can't get over the fact that the meat content in these pies is 70%, when so many supermarket pies are down in the 20-30% range, making it one of the most meat-filled game pies we’ve had. And it was the return of partridge in a pie following the unique "Partridge in a Pear Pie" I had at Christmas!

With a great capacity, one thing I did feel the pie lacked a bit was a more substantial gravy or sauce. For sure the meat was lovely and moist - and you can see in the photo there were remnants of liquid stock - but I would have preferred something slightly more. (I was perhaps pining the near perfect consistency of the gravy in the Red Stag pie I had the day before!) That said, you wouldn't want to overpower the different flavours of the meat in doing so, in which case it may be best left as it is!

As with any mix of meats, you do have to try and balance the flavours in the pie, which can be harder than when you are just producing a single-meat pie, but I thought they worked well together and once again the pastry was crisp and golden, holding together well in spite of all the meat weighing this pie down! The pastry was in general very good, with a clever crisp "tyre-track" complexion and a softer but tasty side and base pastry.

Eaten just the day after the Red Stag pie, it didn't quite live up to those lofty expectations but really wasn't far off! There's no doubt I'd be game for another!

Nice Pie Roadkill Pie [Pheasant, Rabbit, Venison and Partridge]
Score: 5.93/7
[Colour 5.75/7; Consistency 5.5/7; Cheapness 5.75/7; Chewiness 6/7; Condition 6/7; Content 6/7; Capacity 6.5/7; Total: 5.93/7]

We celebrated British Pie Week 2015 with some Nice Pies!

Peppercorn and Brandy Steak Pie Review

The Peppercorn and Brandy Steak Pie was again noted for its very good filling:pastry ratio. The meat was so lovely and tender – a real delight. Once again packed in at 70%, there was no missing the meatilicous content of this pie! Having eaten the Cow Pie in their range the day before, which was noted as being quite peppery in itself, I was more prepared for the peppercorns this time round and it certainly delivered! The pepper and brandy flavouring is a novel addition and if you enjoy your steak pie well seasoned this is probably the pie for you!

Being very similar in content to the Cow Pie I'd had the day before it was very difficult to make a massive separation between them, other than to suggest if you prefer a more seasoned pie then it would be worth investing in the Peppercorn and Brandy Steak Pie option! If you don't, the Cow Pie is just as great! Once again it's another Pierate Recommended pie from Nice Pie!

Nice Pie Peppercorn and Brandy Steak Pie
Score: 5.68/7
[Colour 5.75/7; Consistency 5/7; Cheapness 5.5/7; Chewiness 6/7; Condition 5.75/7; Content 5.5/7; Capacity 6.25/7; Total: 5.68/7]



Once again Nice Pie have done us proud, producing more Pierate Recommended pies and while it’s hard to resist the amazing range of exotic pies Nice Pie do, you would certainly be missing out if you didn’t tuck into a more traditional pie flavour from their range when given the chance!

RAS

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Punch Tavern Chicken and Rabbit Pie Reviews

It was Halloween, and Pierateer RAS and TJP headed to the Punch Tavern on London’s Fleet Street to see if this Grade II listed pub can deliver some knock out pies. Nestled within the bright lights and throbbing streets of central London, this well-regarded gastropub promises to serve up freshly-prepared traditional British fare. We had pre-ordered the rabbit and chicken pies before arrival to avoid disappointment, and settled in with a gin and tonic amongst the original 1897 Punch and Judy décor to enjoy our evening.

Great to see them pie-moting their top pies!

Punch Tavern Chicken Pie

Punch Tavern Chicken Pie - cross-sectional view

Punch Tavern Rabbit Pie

Punch Tavern Rabbit Pie - cross-sectional view

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Exclusive Cake Company - Game Pie Review

On a trip to Exmoor my Pie-dy senses had been alterted to the small town of Dulverton as a place where I might locate a good pie. Okay, this isn't quite true, I can't sense where good pies are, this was a recommendation, just like many of our visits. We are very lucky to be inundated with so many recommendations we just don't have the time or money to follow them all up. See our 'suggest a pie' page.


Dulverton is a lovely little town nestled in the beautiful Exmoor National Park. With a number of independent cafes and shops it seemed that there were plenty of pie options but there was only one place for me. I was quickly impressed by the Exclusive Cake Company. Despite the name indicating their passion for cakes, it was clear that the Exclusive Cake Company are also passionate about pies. Just have a look at the huge range of pies they have on their website. It was a difficult decision, I really could only eat one pie without leading to the sinful act of wasting pie, what type of meat should I go for? I decided to go all out with the triple meat combo of Venison, Rabbit and Pheasant, known as the Game Pie. This seemed appropriate while on Exmoor which is known for it's hunting pursuits.

Despite being one of the more expensive options this pie was worth the money and receives a much coveted 'Pierate Highly Recommended' award. It was meaty and delicious. Do check it out if you are in the area! See the score breakdown below.


Condition - 6.0 out of 7 - This pie was ruggedly handsome. The pie didn't look perfect but had a pleasing handmade appearance with a pastry shape on top to indicate the flavour.
Colour - 6.2 out of 7 - A pretty mix of different tones of golden brown. A little burnt boil out to indicate the pie is packed with content.
Cheapness - 5.8 out of 7 - At £3.20 this is pretty average for a gourmet pie, but often they can be quite small. Not this one, it was really quite big for an individual pie. When you consider that you are also getting more expensive meats and that it is full of content it certainly seemed worth it.
Capacity - 6.3 out of 7 - The capacity seemed about as big as possible and there was no air gap. However, there was a little bit of extra pastry on the join between the lid and sides so I felt there was slightly too much pastry. Also the sauce seemed to take up quite a lot of the space, but there was enough meat.
Chewiness - 5.5 out of 7 - The chunks of meat provided plenty to get your teeth into without being chewy. The pastry was nice and flaky on the outside without being puff pastry. (This reminded me of my favourite pies from Kings Farm.) It was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, a great combination. However, it was a little bit dry at the edge which meant my teeth had to do more work than I would have liked. But this was only a small proportion of the pie. There was a bit of a strange texture to the sauce, it was so thick it was almost like jelly (as we have found elsewhere). Whilst not chewy as such, the texture was not what I would have chosen, I like thick sauce, but prefer it not quite this thick. I would note this did only have a small impact on my enjoyment.
Content - 6.9 out of 7 - Pure and simple, this was a great tasting pie. Very meaty and no nonsense. The game meat added plenty of flavour, with the venison being particularly apparent. Even the pastry tasted nice. If I had to criticise the taste of the filling I would say it seemed a little too salty to me which reminded me of a Pukka Pie.
Consistency - 5.8 out of 7 - Despite not being consistently perfect, overall the taste of both the filling and the pastry made this pie stand out and they worked well together.


Mixed Game (The Exclusive Cake Company [TA22 9HB])
6.07/7

SJL

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Bakerie Pie and Ale Rabbit And Cider Pie Review

It comes as no surprise that the savoury pie range on offer at most pubs and restaurants focuses on steak, chicken and pork pies. They are of course the staple of the British pie scene and make up the majority of our rated pies. But at Pierate we are always on the lookout for something a bit different. It doesn’t always have to be an exotic meat such as zebra or crocodile – we’d settle for rating the more unusual domestic meat flavours like rabbit or venison. But to our delight, Pie and Ale from Bakerie, situated in the centre of Manchester, combines them all. Be it traditional, unusual or exotic (on a rotated specials board) – Pie and Ale cover them all! They therefore clearly talk a good pie game, but the big question is how do they rate?

Bakerie Pie & Ale Rabbit Pie

On a recent trip to Manchester, as part of a Manchester #PieTour, Pierateeer RAS decided to give Pie and Ale a rating. If possible, we like to rate more than one pie from a producer before submitting our review, to ensure consistency in the provision of pies, so having previously eaten a horse pie in Pie and Ale, you will see that review soon too. But first things first…

How did the rabbit and cider pie rate?

It’s worth noting that the presentation of this pie is very good, with a delightful rabbit figurine on top of the pie and mash to highlight the pie you’re eating (in case you can’t remember!) A delightful touch, although as we are pie raters rather than pie and mash raters (it’s pierate – not pieandmashrate!) we do feel the addition of mash potato on top – rather than at the side – of a pie does detract from the pie a bit. Similar to pouring additional gravy on top of the pie (a no-no in our opinion – as the pie should firstly not need additional gravy and secondly we are very capable of adding our own!), the mash on top of the pie does mean the lid of the pie is not as crisp as it might well have been and you don’t get full sight of the beauty that is the pie!

Fortunately, having scraped the mash off the top of the pie to analyse the lid of the pie too, I can confirm it is fully encased and the lid was reasonably golden. Not as golden as the crisp outer crimped pie edge, which was crisp but a tad dry as a result, however it was important to be fully encased in pastry. The base of the pie was a little soft, still holding its structure when a slice of the pie was picked up but rather too soft for my liking. Again this probably wasn’t helped by the ample gravy provided with the pie. In all, I felt there was a bit too much pastry with this pie, so the pie:filling ratio could be improved slightly.

Bakerie Pie & Ale Rabbit Pie

The pie contents itself was on the whole very nice and flavoursome. It was not clearly noticeable to me that it was a cider sauce, however the filling was moist and enjoyable. Needed when the pastry was a bit crisp in places and complimenting the lovely, tender meat and soft vegetable and fruit filling.

The black pudding was rather focused in one corner of the pie and therefore the consistency of this pie was not ideal, with some mouthfuls of meat and others just of black pudding, but in general the rest of the flavours worked. The apple and parsnips added some mix to the flavour without being over burdening. The bacon was clearly evident, without being a rival to the main meaty chunks of rabbit. I would have preferred a content of slightly more rabbit, but it was still a decent proportion of the pie content. The capacity was strong, though a little bit more rabbit would certainly improve it.

At £9.95 for rabbit pie, mash and gravy, served in a restaurant in the heart of Manchester, I feel this is a very reasonable price for a decent sized pie. It was certainly filling and the flavours were good. I would certainly happily eat pie at Pie and Ale again, and look forward to trying some more unusual pies again in the future. This pie achieves Pierate Recommended status for scoring over 5/7.

Bakerie Pie and Ale Rabbit And Cider Pie
Score: 5.68/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 5.75, Consistency 5.5, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 5.75, Total: 5.68/7]
RAS

Interestingly the Pie and Ale menu also includes a number of “Summer Gourmet Dishes” which are marketed as a “bottom crust dish for a lighter dining option”. While obviously we are biased to pies and would prefer just pies on the menu, we understand the business logic of a ‘lighter’ food option during the summer months. However we respect the fact that Pie and Ale haven’t gone for the sadly all too common approach of labelling a non-pie a pie on their menu. “Bottom crust dish” is a much more apt name for these pastry light options. Sadly many pubs fall foul of calling similar pastry-light dishes – in effect casseroles with a pastry lid – a pie. They are not a pie and there is currently an e-petition calling for criminal charges against such false labelling. Respect to Pie and Ale for not falling for this poor food labelling.

Thanks also to Pie and Ale for their free "Pi-fi" which allowed this review to be written and posted while still in the restaurant!

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Porters English Restaurant - Pie Reviews

One of the signs in Porters English Restaurant proclaims, 'Life Is Better With Pies'. As we reach the milestone of 300 pie reviews it seems that here at Pierate we have lived out this statement with the little beige delights bringing us more joy than they do for most people. However, as we keep pushing the limits of how much pastry encased filling we can consume perhaps the statement might need an extention, 'Life Is Better With MORE Pies', the more pies we consume the more things seem to be getting better with page views and interest in our blog ever increasing. It almost seems like it is an exponential relationship. We have drawn a graph below to illustrate this.


So as we continued to push the limits to reach some sort of pastry Nivarda we had to make the important decision of where to carry out our 300th pie review? Porter English Restaurant in Covent Garden, London seemed like the obvious choice. Somewhere a bit classy, a bit different but unashamedly proud of their 'World Famous Pies'. They do serve other food but with 10 different pies there is considerable menu space devoted to the object of our obsession. Porters seem to share this obsession with numerous references to pie as soon as you get in the door. Infact there are signs advertising their 'Pi-Fi', British Pie Award and 'Licence to sell pies' even before going in the door. The randomness continues inside with an overtly British theme with Union Flag umbrellas and other British paraphernalia which added to the experience.

The menu even advertises a 'pie consultant' to help you decided what pie to get. This really was a step above and beyond the normal pie eating experience and was much appreciated by people such as us who take pies very seriously. Our waiter doubled as our pie consultant, fortunately he let us know that some of the pies were of the 'top-crust' variety with only a pastry lid. On The Pierate Ship we prefer fully encased 'Proper Pies' so we all chose these versions for this special occasion. All the fully encased pies were 'shortcrust hot raised pies' which typically gives a harder, more solid pastry, although this wasn't necessarily the case for these pies. Pierateers TJP and SJL decided to go half and half with their pies and hence these were joint reviews.



Minced Beef, Onion, Pea and Red Wine Pie

Like all these pies the Colour was a wonderful dark golden brown, much darker than many pies. This one arrived in perfect Condition and really looked like a quintessentially English pie. Being quite tall it had a good height to width ratio and consequently a strong Capacity. The Content tasted akin to a casserole with quite a sweet taste from the wine and vegetables. It would probably count as one of your five-a-day because there were plenty of peas to be seen. However, this did mean that it wasn't as meaty as some pies. There were no complaints about Chewiness with a filling that slipped down well and pastry with a nice crunch on top and a bit of gooiness on the bottom (but not soggy). The pie was Consistently good with a nice variation to the flavour throughout due to the mix of flavours. This was a pie which left you wanting more, despite being quite large, which is surely a sign of a good pie! At £12.85 this is quite an expensive pie but comparable to other London pie restaurants. It came with a hearty meal so overall not bad value.

Porters Minced Beef, Onion, Pea and Red Wine Pie
Score: 5.71
[Condition 7, Capacity 6, Colour 7, Cheapness 4, Consistency 5, Content 6, Chewiness 5]
SJL and TJP

If there wasn't enough veg in the pie there is more on the side

Cross section of minced beef, pea and red wine pie

Gamekeepers Pie

This was the pie which had won Silver at the British Pie Awards, but would it win any awards from the Pierateers? In terms of Condition and Colour this pie was very similar to the Minced Beef pie, however it was slightly more expensive at £13.50 but given that game tends to be expensive it didn't gain less points for Cheapness. The Capacity was again strong for a pie of this size. The Content was a great mix, containing Pheasant, Venison, and Rabbit which left it tasting really meaty, there was not a hint of veg in this pie. The venison in particular added a strong flavour which was delicious to begin with. However, this pie was not as Consistently good because the strong flavour began to get too much after a while and it was not a pie you could eat forever. This didn't mean it wasn't a good pie, the meat was tender and not at all Chewy. The texture and taste of the pastry was again top notch. Overall this was one of the best game pies eaten on The Pierate Ship.

The Porters game pie looks fantastic

Pie rating isn't a game! Game pie

Porters Gamekeepers Pie
Score: 5.57
[Condition 7, Capacity 6, Colour 7, Cheapness 4, Consistency 4, Content 6, Chewiness 5]
SJL and TJP

Lamb and Apricot Pie

The Lamb and Apricot pie was eaten by Pierateer RAS and selected because it was one of the fully encased pies on the menu, with a full encasement of short crust hot raised pie pastry. The pie came with chips and a jug of gravy, which I didn’t actually use because the pie itself was moist enough and the beef gravy I had been given in the gravy jug would not have worked at all with the lamb and sweet apricot flavoured gravy inside.



Porters Lamb and Apricot Pie - Shame about the condition

In general, the condition of the pie was quite good, apart from a bit of an indent in one side, which was disappointing when you are paying over £10 for a pie meal. The condition is of course the first of the seven Cs to be scored, so to have your immediate first impression being a big indent is not ideal. The outer pastry suffered from this, and this in fact led to it being a bit dry in places. The lid pastry was very nice, and the sides and base were not too bad in general, however there were patches of dryness and the short crust hot raised pie pastry didn’t quite do it for me as a result.

The capacity of this pie was quite strong, with plenty of pieces of lamb in there. The lamb was moist and quite tender, though there were a few more chewy bits too. On the flip side though, there was rather a lot of apricot too, which was soft and flavoursome but did rather bulk the content out. It was a lamb and apricot pie – I accept that – but I really wasn’t up for such a sweet fruity hit in so much of the pie, and some mouthfuls were 100% apricot. For a dinner pie, that just didn’t sit well with me. The ratio was definitely too strong in favour of the apricot. I wanted a meatilicious pie and while the apricot gave it something a bit different, I wouldn’t ever choose to have this combination again. I’d stick to lamb and mint (perhaps the lamb shank pie on the Porter’s menu) and leave the apricots for the pudding menu.



Porters Lamb and Apricot Pie

We were eating a whole meal – not just a pie - in a restaurant near Covent Garden in Central London, so I guess you have to expect a £12.85 price tag comes with the territory. However we are always considering with “Cheapness” whether the pie is worth the amount we pay, and I have to say I’ve had better pies for quite a few pounds less in London. It’s therefore not going to be a high scorer on cheapness.

All in all, there were plenty of things going for it in this pie - the lamb was succulent and the pastry pretty good, but the content mix just didn’t really work for me. I’d stick to just the lamb pie next time and then this really would be a top ranked pie.

Porters Lamb and Apricot Pie
Score: 4.71/7
[Colour 7, Capacity 5, Consistency 3, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 4, Content 3]
RAS



So in summary two very good pies we would recommend, one a bit less so but still not bad! Worthy pies to be our 298th, 299th and 300th pie reviews. It is commendable that with all of these pies they have tried to do something a bit different, they certainly aren't the standard fare. Overall the experience at Porters was fantastic and it is somewhere we would go back to, especially given that there are so many more pies to try! We leave you with this picture, one of many words of advice hanging on the walls at Porters. It is important to get your pie-orities right, we know where ours lie; life is better with pies!

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Suffolk Pie Reviews 

Click here for the latest 'Best Pies In Suffolk' Leaderboard

I am really glad to have had the opportunity to spend some time living in the Suffolk countryside. I grew up on a farm in Buckinghamshire and had always felt I was from the countryside. However in Suffolk the countryside is so much quieter, you can spend hours walking or cycling barely seeing another soul. It was here that I feel I discovered the quintessence of English countryside. Thatched cottage, medieval villages, windmills, cricket matches outside the castle, Suffolk has everything I expected, but never really found, England to have.

Cricket outside Framlingham Castle

Suffolk was recently given an award which recognised how well it embodies Englishness. The Pie Kitchen from Bury St Edmunds received the best pie award at the British Pie Awards 2013. The Pie Kitchen are a small producer and this seems to be typical of Suffolk, there are many different small producers in butchers, bakeries and farm shops all making ‘craft pies’ which is great to see. I have gathered a few of these pie reviews together to see which pie can win the title of Pierate Suffolk Pie Champion.  

Country Pies

Suffolk not only produce award winning pies they are also famous for fantastic beer. Broadside is brewed by Adnams to commemorate the battle of Sole Bay in 1672. It is one of my favourites so I was delighted to find a Steak & Adnams Broadside Ale pie made by Country Pies in a local farm shop. It weighed in at £2.75, the most expensive of these Suffolk pies. It was also one of the smallest, being a bit too shallow for my liking so it would have to do a lot to make up for being relatively bad value. This pie had the best Colour of any in this Suffolk review and a nice pastry cross on it. I liked to think this was an ‘X marks the spot’ for where to start digging for a pie filling to treasure. As I started to dig with my fork I found tender and tasty meat and the filling took up all the (relatively small) Capacity. However, the filling was just a little too bland to make up for this pie being so expensive. Such a shame as the Adnams ale should have left it bursting with flavour.

Steak & Adnams Broadside Ale (Country Pies)

4.03/7

Country Pies

Steak & Adnams Ale

Jackson's Bakery (Saxmundham)

I was pleased to find a traditional bakery in my local town of Saxmundham and even more pleased to find that they sold a range of pies. I had my eyes firmly fixed on the last Steak and Kidney in the shop. However in grabbing the pie the proprietor promptly dropped the pie on the floor. Given that she picked it up quickly and within the ‘3 second rule’ for food being on the floor  I said I would eat it anyway. However she wouldn’t take any money for it so this pie was technically of infinite value! However I am scoring it based on the standard, fairly cheap, price of £1.10. You can see from the picture it was only slightly squashed and certainly better Condition than many pies I have paid for. Upon cutting into this pie there was a delicious thick gravy which stayed in the pie because it had such viscosity. There did seem to be a bit of a lack of meat, with only small pieces being visible. The pastry was nice, however, for some reason there was a bit of an overhang of pastry at the top. This part was a bit dry and, given that this pie was quite shallow, it meant that there was a bit too much pastry compared to filling. Still, this pie was decent value.

Steak & Kidney (Jackson's Bakery [IP17 1AG])

4.75/7

Jackson's Bakery - Steak & Kidney

Hollybush Farm

I was quite excited to find a Hollybush Farm Steak and Ale pie in my local co-op as I had tried one of their Pork & Onion Pies during British Pie Week and found it to be excellent. This pie had a lovely gooey pastry, which was nice and soft and was probably the best pastry in this review. The gravy was also fantastic, lovely and thick, similar to the Jackson's Bakery pie. This pie seemed to be onto a winner if only the meat had been better quality. I found a big piece of gristle in mine and in general it was a bit too chewy. Such a shame.

Steak & Ale (Hollybush Farm)

4.96/7

Hollybush Farm

Steak & Ale

Goulborns

This Chicken & Ham pie was £1.85 from Goulborns in the lovely town of Bungay. It was one of the better ones in this competition because the filling was so nice. The ham must have been smoked because the filling had a very smokey, satisfying taste and was anything but bland. There was plenty of good quality chicken which filled the Capacity without leaving much air space. However, what stopped this pie from winning the Suffolk competition was the fact that it was slightly dry. Not a lot of gravy, combined with crunchy pastry stopped it sliding down quite as smoothly as it should have done. Again, like the Johnson pie there was a bit of an unnecessary overhang of pastry at the top. However, it was a good value pie and one I would buy again in a flash.

Chicken & Ham (Goulborns)

5.47/7

Goulborn

Chicken & Ham

C. A. Palmer & Son
 
Halesworth is a lovely town which has national cycle route 1 (from Dover to the Shetland Islands) passing right along the high street. This is the perfect place to stop and pick up some pies from the local Butchers C. A. Palmer & Son. One of the great things about pies is that they seem to have cross over between the skills of bakers and butchers and are often available in both. C. A. Palmer pies do actually come frozen in a pack of two for £3. I was a bit sceptical about the fact they were frozen, but then my colleague RAS did find some iced gems in Iceland recently. I was reassured by the fact that these pies were advertised as being hand made on the premises. I picked up a couple of Steak & Stilton pies which has a nice ‘SS’ shaped vent which made them look a treat. I was glad that I wasn’t above buying frozen pies because these were excellent . The pastry was (mostly) gooey and soft, the meat tender and the gravy lovely and thick. It reminded me of my favourite pie from Kings Farm in Buckinghamshire. I have only minor criticism of this pie which stopped it getting the same kind of score as Kings Farm. Firstly, I couldn’t really taste the Stilton although it still tasted great. Secondly, some of the pastry around the top was a bit dry. This doesn’t stop it from gaining a high score.  

Steak & Stilton (C. A. Palmer & Son [IP19 8AH]
5.94/7

C. A. Palmer - Steak & Stilton

So the scores in the table below show that C. A. Palmer are the clear winner with a highly recommended and great value pie. This makes them the current Pierate Suffolk Pie Champions. However, the real winner here was pie. There were no pies which were actually bad and it is so good to see so many small pie producers around in Suffolk. If you know of any other small pie producers in the county then let us know by tweeting @Pierateers, they still have the chance to get onto the Suffolk-ate In Pie Leaderboard!

Pie Producer	Flavour	Score
C. A. Palmer & Son, Halesworth	Steak & Stilton	5.94
Hollybush Farm, Buxhall	Onion Marmalade Pork Pie	5.60
Goulborns, Bungay	Chicken & Ham	5.47
Hollybush Farm, Buxhall	Steak & Ale	4.96
Jackson's Bakery, Saxmundham	Steak & Kidney	4.75
Satis House, Yoxford	Rabbit & Bacon	4.29
Country Pies, Capel St Mary	Steak & Adnams Broadside Ale	4.03

SJL

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Rabbit & Bacon Pie Review at Satis House, Yoxford

Surely one of the most gourmet pies I have ever eaten this pie at Satis House in Yoxford, Suffolk was a delight to find on the menu. Normally you scan straight to the main course expecting to find at best a beef or chicken pie on the menu but Satis House have to decided that a pie is for life and not just for main course by putting a Rabbit and Bacon pie on the starter menu. At £8.50 for a quite small pie this probably scores the worst for Cheapness for any pie I have ever eaten. However, let’s not forget that I was paying a premium to eat what can only be described as the posh setting of a lovely countryside hotel restaurant. The pie was a beautiful Colour and came in a most Satis-fyingly well presented Condition. There were some fine pieces of carrot drapped over the pie as if the rabbit were still alive and attempting to gnaw on them. It also came with some meaty jelly of the kind that you might expect to find in the pie. It looked like a pork pie but in fact the Chewiness of the pastry was much less than a pork pie. It was actually quite nice and light pastry although a touch drier than I would have chosen. The Capacity was pretty good for a small pie, as it had a good height to it. It was packed with meaty Content which was pieces of rabbit and bacon ground up and stuck together. There wasn’t really any gravy as such although there was a little bit of moisture which caused it all to hold together. The meat had a good Consistency and flavour which was certainly well above average for a pig based pie however I didn’t feel that I could really taste any rabbit. The bacon was too salty and strong flavoured so I couldn’t really isolate the flavour of the rabbit in so small a morsel.

Overall though, a good effort from Satis House and it would score quite highly if it wasn’t so expensive. I was certainly left Satis-fied by their attempts to add something a bit different to the menu, I would be delighted to see more establishments offering some pie goodness on their starter menus too. However, the lack of pie in the more traditional main course and dessert menus meant that the three course pie meal is still just a dream. Hopefully not for too long! See where this pie featured on our list of the best pies in Suffolk.

Rabbit & Bacon (Satis House - Suffolk, IP17 3EX)
4.29/7

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