Radford’s Pie Company Venison and Beef in Red Wine Pie Reviews

While snow may have ground most of the UK to a halt last week as the “Beast from the East” and Storm Emma hit British shores, we were delighted to still receive through the post a box with two great looking pies from Radford’s Pie Company on Friday morning! And while I somehow managed to wait until British Pie Week before eating them, on Monday I enjoyed both for my dinner.

Radford's Venison (l) and Beef in Red Wine Pie Reviews

In the post were a venison pie and a beef in red wine pie. Both were in perfect condition through the post and it just so happened that on Monday the owner of the pie company Noel also had a venison pie himself! For those who don’t know, Noel and his family the Radford’s featured on Channel 4’s 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and “20 kids and counting” and are – as you might have guessed – the largest family in the UK! With so many mouths to feed, it’s a good job the family run a pie company out of the local bakery they own! And not just any bakery, but a top rated pie company at that!

With over 15 years of pie baking in the bank and plenty of demand for their home delivery service of those pies, it’s great to see a family run business doing well and expanding their delivery options and we wish them continued success in this. Their previous pies had rated very highly, almost all obtaining a Pierate Recommended score of 5.5/7 or above, so what about the venison and beef in red wine pies I rated this time?


Well, as before, the pies were again made with shortcrust pastry, with a crisp lid and pastry sides that held the content in well. This was particularly evident when seeing how well filled the pies were, as the pies are crammed to capacity with meat! They come in the classic foil case with crimped top edges, familiar to a lot of (particularly Northern) pies and at £3.45 for the venison pie and just £3.35 for the beef in red wine pie, I think these are both very good value for the price you pay.

As you can see from the photos, they cut well and didn’t collapse like a lot of pies can do. The cross-section really highlights the packed content and the golden lids to the pies. The venison pie in particular had an impressive pastry motif on top too! And as mentioned in our previous review, the local ingredients, from butchers and vegetable sellers near to the bakery, also adds to the appeal of these pies. Here are the individual flavours:

Radfords Beef in Red Wine Pie Review

Beef in Red Wine Pie

There was a good amount of tender beef in this pie, which was complimented by a bit of vegetable. The meat was lovely and flavoursome and the gravy was a decent thickness, flavoured well by the red wine. This didn’t overpower the pie by any means and the tender content complimented the crisp pastry well. This was easily another Pierate Recommended pie, and just fell slightly short to the venison pie I also had!

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

Radfords Venison Pie Review

Venison Pie

While I very much enjoyed the beef in red wine pie, it paled slightly in comparison to the venison pie I also had on Monday evening. In fact, this venison pie was easily the nicest pie from the Radford’s range I’ve had to date. The pie was simple but effective – tender venison meat and a lovely gravy, which was a tad runny but tasted delicious. My only real criticism of this pie was that a couple of bits of the meat were a little fatty still, but this is one of the challenges of working with venison! Overall, the meat was a great foil to the crisp pastry and it is certainly deserving of Pierate Highly Recommended status!

Score: 6.11/7
[Colour 6.25, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5.5, Condition 6.75, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 6, Content 6.75]


With almost all their prior pies knocking on the door of being Pierate Highly Recommended (which is 6/7 or above), the family at Radford’s have finally achieved it! Their venison pie was one of the best I’ve had and I hope to get my hands on some more sometime soon! And with home delivery as an option, I certainly recommend you get your hands on some Radford’s pies during this British Pie Week and beyond!

RAS

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

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

Radford's Pie Reviews

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

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

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

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


Here are the individual flavours:

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

Steak and Stilton Pie

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

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

Free Range Chicken and Gammon Pie

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

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

Radford's Chicken and Mushroom Pie Review

Free Range Chicken and Mushroom Pie

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

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



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

RAS

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Radford’s Pie Company Steak, Chicken and Meat and Potato Pie Reviews

It’s always great to be approached by pie producers asking us to rate their pies – but rarely do we get approached by anyone with as much TV exposure as the Radford family. For those who don’t know, the Radford’s featured on Channel 4’s 15, 16, 17 and now “18 kids and counting” and are – as you might guess – one of the largest families in the UK! With so many mouths to feed, you can imagine the pie consumption must be pretty high in their house up in Lancashire, but it helps that the family run bakery – which supports the continually growing family - sells, amongst other things, pies!



Radford's Pie Company Review

However while they’ve been selling pies in their shop in Heysham for around 15 years now and dad Noel has worked in bakeries for much longer, their latest exciting venture is offering home delivery of those pies, so that more people across the land can tuck into their exciting bakes! It’s great to see a family run business doing well and expanding their delivery options and we wish them continued success in this!

So having been sent some pies, how do the pies rate? Made with shortcrust pastry, one of the more obvious things you notice about them is they are packed near to capacity when you cut through them. They all travelled well, important for a home delivery pie, holding their shape well when cooked and removed from the foil. One interesting thing to note was that while the instructions recommended cooking them in the foil, I tried one of the steak pies cooked out of the foil and it really helped firm up the base of the pie, making it crisper and firmer than the steak pie I’d cooked in foil. However whether cooked in foil or not they all held together pretty well for a shortcrust pastry pie, some of which can crumble quite heavily upon biting into. The crimped edge added a slightly firmer crunch and the pies were all golden colour.

At £2.95 these are a pretty decent sized pie for that price considering the home delivery and that they are packed with meat. The local ingredients, from butchers and vegetable sellers near to the bakery, also adds to the appeal of these pies. No worries about air miles here! Here’s the breakdown of the four flavours we tried:



Radford's Pie Company Chunky Steak Review

Chunky Steak Pie
Large chunky pieces of steak, just as the label promised! The meat was quite nice and tender, though a few pieces could have been a little leaner. However it was very meaty, with 45% beef steak. The gravy was quite a nice thickness, making it quite moist to contrast with the quite crisp outer pastry, which being shortcrust was a little dry in places. The thick chunks of meat and moisture of the gravy did seem to mean in places the base of the pie didn’t crisp up quite as well as the rest of the pie.

Score: 5.5/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5.25, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 5.75, Content 5.75]

Radford's Pie Company Steak and Mushroom Pie Review

Steak and Mushroom Pie
At 40% beef steak, this pie is firmly focused on the meat, which is my kind of steak and mushroom filling! The mushroom was nice and spread throughout the pie, though not a lot in there. The gravy was quite rich and meaty, not overly runny and the meat in quite large chunks. A nice, if quite subtle, change on the Chunky Steak pie.

Score: 5.5/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5.25, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 5.75, Content 5.75]



Radford's Pie Company Meat and Potato Pie Review

Meat and Potato Pie
The meat and potato pie was very potato focused, with a nice texture to the potato in decent chunks, however the mince beef was quite lacking at just 11%. It meant the gravy wasn’t that rich in flavour and there was less fluid gravy in the pie, possibly due to absorption into the potato. The pastry was crisp and held together better in this pie, with a firmer and crisper base. For those who like a heavier potato content to their meat and potato pie this would be just up your street, but for me there wasn’t quite the right balance to really get my teeth into any of the meat.

Score: 4.71/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 5, Consistency 4, Condition 5.25, Chewiness 4.5, Cheapness 4, Content 4.5]



Radford's Pie Company Chicken Pie Review

Chicken Pie
With this pie consisting of 41% chicken breast, the pie certainly wasn’t lacking in meat either and top of the range meat at that. It was a very enjoyable pie, with my only suggestion that the pieces of chicken were quite chunky and thus not quite as succulent as it could have been if perhaps in slightly more small pieces. However the cream sauce was good, adding a nice blend to the flavour, so I think would have blended perfectly with the chicken if it had been mixed in with smaller pieces of meat. Excellent capacity and good content means this one just pips the rest.

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


All in all, some very good pies from Radford’s and it’s a luxury to find a fully family run business like this that uses ingredients from local producers in the area. Worth getting online and ordering a batch for sure, as they are Pierate Recommended!

RAS

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