The Kandy Bar Bakery from Saltcoats have done it again! They have been crowed World Scotch Pie Champion for the second time, having previously taken the crown in 2014 when we were part of the Scotch Pie Club judging team. They retake the title from Murrays Bakers in Perth who were the 2015 winners. Given that the second placed pie was Beth Browning's Bakery in Kilwinning, it really is about time the Pierateers made a trip to Ayrshire. The vegetarian and fish savoury categories have been dropped this year in favour of the classic Haggis savoury which we are pleased to say was won by a haggis pie, as were all the categories where pies were against other products (which we are happy about at Pierate). Brownings the Bakers again won in the steak pie category with their famous 'Killie Pie' which we reviewed back in 2014. The full list of winners in below.

If you want to find out more about Scotch Pies, see our article on 'What Makes the Best Scotch Pie?'.

Category	Winner	Location
Scotch Pie	The Kandy Bar	Saltcoats
Steak Pie (hand held)	Brownings the Bakers	Kilmarnock
Apple Pie	Boghall Butchers	Bathgate
Football Pie	Bruce of the Broch	Fraserburgh
Hot Savoury	Nevis Baker (for Steak & Black Pudding Pie)	Fort William
Cold Savoury	Ballards Buctchers (for Poachers Pie)	Dumfries
Haggis Savoury	Foston Fine Meats (for Steak, Haggis & Drambuie Pie)	Berwickshire
Bridie	W.F. Stark	Buckhaven
Sausage Roll	Thomas Johnston	Falkirk

SJL

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The votes are in and Murrays Bakers of Perth have today been named as the World Scotch Pie Champion 2015 by the Scotch Pie Club. It was good to see awards for other Scotch Pies that we have reviewed in our quest to find out What Makes the Best Scotch Pie, but it is clear that there are many great Scotch Pies out there that we need to review. See the table below for a full list of winners in all the categories. None of the winners have yet been reviewed by Pierate, I think the Cod and White Wine pie sounds particularly intriguing. To find out more about the Scotch Pie Awards, see our article on the Scotch Pie Club Awards 2014 where we were judging.

Linda Hill of Murrays Bakery in Perth

Be warned, some of these winners are not pies, don't make a mistake and end up with a Quiche!

Category	Winner	Location
Scotch Pie	Murrays Bakers	Perth
Steak Pie (hand held)	Ann Davidson Butchers	Scone
Apple Pie	Tower Bakery	Perth
Football Pie	Winton Rovers Scotch Pie (by The Kandy Bar)	Saltcoats
Hot Savoury	AJ Learmonth (for Jethart Pasty)	Jedburgh
Cold Savoury	Tom Courts (for Boxing Day Quiche)	Dumfries
Vegetarian Savoury	The Apple Pie (for Curried Veg Pie)	Carnwath
Fish Savoury	Boghall Butchers (Cod & White Wine Pie)	Boghall
Bridie	Nicolls Rosebank Bakery	Dundee
Sausage Roll	Tom Courts	Cowdenbeath

SJL
 

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JB Christie - World Champion Scotch Pie Review

When my great-Grandfather moved from Scotland to London he was so poor that he had to go to school without any shoes on. It seems quite likely that at some point in his life he would have eaten a Scotch pie. In those days Scotch pies were made with cheap mutton. It was minced so that the fatty meat was easier to eat and spiced to make it more palatable. I like to think that both my family and Scotch pies have come a long way. As I made the trip back to Scotland I felt slightly extravagant in the fact that I actually took two pairs of shoes for my trip of less than a week. While they are still generally cheap, the best Scotch Pies are now highly regarded with bakers fighting it out each year for the title of 'World Champion' at the Scotch Pie Awards. The World Champion in 2013 was JB Christie of Airdrie. This award has done much for their reputation and the owner, Andrew Chisholm, recently appeared in an episode of Pies & Puds, showing Paul Hollywood how they make their World Champion Scotch Pies.


After attending the Scotch Pie Awards I decided to make a pie pilgrimage to Airdrie in order to sample these pies which come so highly regarded. It was a gloomy day when I arrived in Airdrie but once I found JB Christie the atmosphere inside was anything but gloomy. This small bakery was packed with both people and products. There was a bright array of cakes, bread, pastries and of course a selection of pies. There were other tempting products but I had my eyes firmly on the World Champion Scotch Pie.

I couldn't wait so I ate the pie as soon as I was out the door. It had a classic Scotch pie appearance with a golden brown colour. From the first bite I could tell this was the best Scotch pie I had ever tasted. What set it apart for me was the perfect variation in texture. The contrast between the crunch of the pastry and softness of the filling was superb. This was certainly more spicy than most Scotch pies I have had but the balance of flavour was just right. The flavour of the beef still held its own and ensured a satisfying meaty taste. The filling was soft but still retained some bite unlike others which can be too mushy.


Having had such a great pie I then felt I had to pay my complements to the chef. I walked the short distance to the nearby JB Christie office and Andrew Chisholm was kind enough to come out and talk to me. When he offered to show me around the pie production facility I felt a surge of excitement. I have been reviewing pies for some years now but this was a first for me.

Despite doing things on a relatively small scale Christie still manage to produce 120 dozen pies a day. It is quite a labour intensive process and all the pies are finished by hand. In the past they used a depositor to fill the pastry shells but Andrew told me they actually stopped using that as a change in meat could clog the machine. Andrew said he sees the benefits of doing it by hand.


The pastry is shaped by a machine called a waddle. Andrew assures me these are reliable bits of kit. The specification for them hasn't changed in about 70 years. The business that made them produced something too good. The machines didn't need replacing so the company went out of business. The waddle turns a pastry lump into that characteristic pastry shell we expect a Scotch pie to have. Fresh off the machine the pastry shell is soft, Andrew says there is no way that the shell could be filled with the moist filling straight away. This is where I learnt a secret about the Scotch pie which I hadn't expected. They place the pastry shells on racks and allow them to dry (or 'cure') for up to three days. This gives the pastry much more hardness. It develops the crunch of the pastry but, importantly, also allows the shells to be filled with quite a wet meat. JB Christie have racks and racks of pie shells which Andrew shows me are of varying degrees of hardness. This is where other manufacturers perhaps miss out if they don't have the same amount of space to store the shells for long enough. Andrew said this is where Paul Hollywood went wrong with the version he tried to make. Due to the soft pastry he had to use a ridged filling consistency, more like a pork pie.


Andrew then takes me to see the finished pie, cutting the pie to demonstrate that it still has softness to it but the outside of pastry maintains a crunch even when reheated.


Despite the fact that traditionally Scotch Pies were made with mutton Andrew believes in the beef versions that are by far the most common now. He said that to use mutton they would find it hard to get the seasoning right. He says he hasn't changed the seasoning for their Scotch pie since he took over the business. I was surprised to learn he only took over 18 months ago, not long before their Scotch pie awards success.

While I was still there I took the opportunity to ask Andrew a few more questions. Firstly I had to know what his favourite pie was. "That would be a Scotch Pie. We don't do macaroni, we don't do chicken, we find the majority of people like a Scotch pie and we concentrate on that."

I then asked how he rated his chances for the 2014 Scotch Pie Awards. "The pies we put in I was quite happy with. It is actually very, very hard work to keep things where you were. Supplier change their spec, a different harvest... the raw material is natural, the meat changes." I didn't appreciate before speaking to Andrew that to maintain a top product you have to keep running just to stand still. You can't take for granted that your product will continue to be good even if you try and keep everything the same.


So what sort of score would I give to the JB Christie World Champion Scotch Pie? Well when the price is just 55p for the small and 77p for the large version (plus a wee bit more to have it hot) I think this is one of the best value pies I have ever eaten. As Andrew said to me this is not a gourmet pie, it is a working man's product. However, it does taste as good as many gourmet pie I have eaten so I am forced to give it a very high score. This is what pies are all about; good, honest and simple. It goes straight to the top of our best Scotch Pies list.

Many thanks to Andrew Chisholm for giving me so much time in his working day. This really was an eye opening experience and has allowed us to finally understand what a Scotch pie actually is.


Beef Scotch Pie (JB Christie [ML6 6BU])
6.50/7

SJL

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The Scotch Pie Club Awards ceremony 2014 took place on the 15th January. The World Scotch Pie Champion was named as The Kandy Bar in Saltcoats! Many congratulations to them.

Stephen McAllister from The Kandy Bar said “I am delighted! To have been given the ultimate accolade and to be able to call our pie the WORLD CHAMPION as judged by a panel of experts is just fantastic. This award is proof that The Kandy Bar team are the best in the land. I am really looking forward to the year ahead and to selling more of our winning pies than ever.”

Stephen McAllister from The Kandy Bar

The overall winners of each category are below, congratulations to them all. What is good to see is that pies won all the categories where they were up against other savoury products. It seems the real winner here is pie! Do also have a look at our thoughts on the winning Steak Pie by Brownings. We were also pleased to see that JB Christie, the 2013 World Scotch Pie Champion, were 2nd runner up in the Scotch Pie Category, recognising a pie which we thought was fantastic.

Category	Winner	Location
Scotch Pie	The Kandy Bar	Saltcoats
Steak Pie (hand held)	Brownings the Bakers	Kilmarnock
Apple Pie	Boghall Butchers	Bathgate
Football Pie	Kilmarnock FC`s Steak Pie (by Brownings)	Kilmarnock
Hot Savoury	Mr C's (for Haggis, Neeps & Tattie Pie)	Nr Newburgh
Cold Savoury	The Little Bakery (for Sweet Pepper & Chicken Pie)	Dumfries
Vegetarian Savoury	Hendersons (for Veg Curry Pie)	Hamilton
Fish Savoury	Crombies (for Salmon, Prawn & Dill Pie)	Edinburgh
Bridie	Thomas Johnston Quality Butchers	Falkirk
Sausage Roll	Nicolls Rosebank Bakery	Dundee

The Pierateers were represented on the Scotch Pie Club Awards judging panel. See below for the review of the day.

The Pierateers @ The Scotch Pie Awards 2014

There are many pie contests around the world but perhaps none more prestigious than the Scotch Pie Club Awards. Running since 2000 it has a much longer heritage than the rival British Pie Awards south of the border. The Scotch Pie has a cult following with feeling running high amongst the Scotch Pie community as to where the best Scotch Pies can be found. The Scotch Pie Club is the body which runs the eponymous awards. They know the big difference that winning the awards can make to a business and consequently take it very seriously.

This year Pierate was pleased to be able to send our very own Pierateer SJL to be an official judge at the Scotch Pie Awards 2014. It was very exciting to take our pie reviewing beyond our own website and gave us a unique opportunity to provide an insiders perspective on what the Scotch Pie Club Awards are really like.

The Scotch Pie Club Awards 2014 saw 543 entries from 99 competitors. There were 50 judges (including Les McKeown from the Bay City Rollers) who all decended on the Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline. Confusingly the 2014 judging was carried out Wednesday 13th November 2013 and then the winner will be announced in January 2014. This allows time for a mystery shopping round to be carried out on the Scotch Pies (and one other category chosen at random). It is a shame to note why this mystery shopper round is needed. In the past the judges have been suspicious that people are entering pies which are not representative of the pies they sell. Some have even wondered whether some shops have entered pies made by someone else, simply in order to win an award! However, it is our opinion that such a mystery shopping round really adds to the credibility of the Scotch Pie Club Awards. A dedication to ensuring that the awards were very fair was evident throughout the day (and perhaps more so than at the British Pie Awards.)

The awards recognise the best Scotch Pie as the 'World Scotch Pie Champion' which is amusing, I am not sure whether there are any entries from outside of Scotland but there doesn't seem to be a rule against it. But that aside, it is fair to say that you would expect the best such pie to come from the Scotch Pie motherland anyway. The awards don't just stop at Scotch Pies though! There are 9 other categories with the best in each class receiving the 'Diamond & Overall Winner' award. There are then Gold, Silver & Bronze awards up to a total of 5 of each, depending on the number of entries to that category. Again somewhat confusingly, the winners of all the Hot savoury, cold savoury, steak pie, vegetarian savoury and fish categories all compete for the winner of best overall 'Speciality Savoury' judged separately by the head judge.

Looking at all the names of the categories you might be concerned that there would be a lack of pies! Fortunately the majority of the savoury products except the sausage rolls and bridies were pie entries. SJL was very pleased to be assigned to judge the steak pie category. Our pie rankings have steak pies in the top two places and they are always a favourite on the Pierate Ship.

At 11:30 there was a briefing from head judge Robert Ross. The teams split up and it then took a couple of hours for the initial judging. The Steak Pie category had 54 entries with four judges and a team leader. The judges split into two pairs and took 27 pies each. The judging form was completed for each pie. This was quite different to the usual seven Cs that the Pierateers normally use. The following criteria were judged; 'Internal Appearance' (shape, colour, boil out), 'External Appearance' (Bake, colour, texture) and 'Taste & Smell' (smell, texture, taste, balance of flavour). It was good that the 'Taste & Smell' was weighted higher than appearance as this is what is really important. In general the scoring system seemed fair, although it was noted amongst our group of judges that there should be a criteria for the filling to pastry ratio (which is incidentally something we love to talk about here on the Pierate Ship ;-) ).

Some of the best Steak Pies

The rules were closely followed, this stipulated that each pair of judges would forward their top ten pies for final judging by all the category judges and the team leader. This part of the system was great as it ensured consistency between the different groups of judges. It did however mean that these pies had to be tried again! This brought the different pies eaten by SJL up to a total of 37 with many of the pies being tried twice. At this point the pie judging went a bit free style with the pies being compared against each other and lined up in order of preference. This didn't necessarily follow the original scoring, one of the key questions being asked was does it look like a pie which can be crowned a winner? This was particularly the case for the overall winner which was one of the best looking pies. A very good tasting pie unfortunately just missed out on winning because excessive boil out meant it didn't quite look the part. There were some very good pies and it was a difficult decision. It will be very interesting to find out who actually made the best pies (the identities were secret from the judges) when winners are announced in January.

Winning Steak Pie! It looked amazing.

Once it was over it was good to see that waste was minimised. Everyone was allowed to take any spare pies they wanted and I heard that some would be sent to a homeless charity. (There was quite a bit of spare pie as four were submitted to allow for repeat judging).

My overall impression from the event was extremely positive. It was well organised and I don't think it could have been judged in a much fairer way. It was a lot harder work than I had expected, despite only trying a small piece of each pie I still ate a lot. I think this was the first point in my life where I really didn't want to eat any more pie. The event was quite long and I was surprisingly tired when I left around 16:00. It was worth it as I really enjoyed the experience. I didn't find it a problem being new to this type of pie judging. Everyone was extremely friendly and helped me fit in (despite being an English lad).

All shapes & sizes!

The highlight for me was being called 'pie man' by the head judge Robert Ross. Some people did mention to me that it was nice to have a 'pie eater' as a judge because most of the judges were 'pie makers' from the Scottish butchery and baking industries. A fellow judge admitted he wasn't actually much of a pie eater himself. So hopefully our attendance did help the competition reach their target audience who will after all be the 'pie eaters' of this world! With over 250 pie reviews online there is no doubt that The Pierateers are 'pie eaters'. Many thanks to the Scottish Bakers traders association (who run the event) for letting us get involved. See more photos from the event here.

On the Pierate ship we also have our own version of the search to find the best Scotch pie including a review of the 2013 World Scotch Pie Champion. Please send us any recommendations of pies we should try!

SJL

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