Rating the steak football pie at Doncaster Rovers by Pukka Pies

Pukka Pie at the Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster

Situated on the edge of town, the Keepmoat Stadium is your standard, new out-of-town football stadium that certainly impresses on the eye. But in these new, slightly monotonous out-of-town stadiums it therefore makes the little things, like the warm welcome given by the match day stewards and the posters they put up to welcome the away fans, that bit more personalised. Seeing a photo of Wycombe's new joint-top league goalscorer "The Beast" Akinfenwa on the wall as I walked into the away end of the Keepmoat Stadium was therefore a welcome addition, and it was good to see a decent selection of pies on offer too. The other familiar sign on the wall was for Pukka Pies, reassuring me that the pies should be of a decent quality.

After a reasonably long journey up to Doncaster I wasn't going to hang about, so after grabbing a steak Pukka Pie from the kiosk and taking a quick photo in my seat, I set about tucking into the crisp, golden flaky pastry. As is often the case with a hand-eaten Pukka, the meat and gravy has slightly tipped to the bottom of the pie, meaning the first bite or two were rather filling-lite. But it didn't take too long to get into the meaty steak chunks and the pie was well filled, not too soggy on the base and crisp on the lid. The capacity was decent, though not filled to the brim, so some points had to be deducted there. But overall, as with many a football Pukka Pie, it filled the hole well and didn't disappoint.

Cut through of the Steak Pukka Pie

The price of the pie was £3.30, which is on the more expensive end of the football pie price range (especially as it was a Pukka) but I would have happily had another. Certainly not the Don of all football pies, as can be seen in it's placement in the PIEremiership Table, but a decent effort none-the-less!

Pukka Pies Steak Pie
Score: 4.36/7
[Colour 4, Capacity 4.5, Consistency 4, Condition 5, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 3, Content 5]

We've rated over 600 pies, including a number of football pies

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More about us and our football pie pedigree:

Sam and Rob being interviewed by BBC Sport's Azi Farni Watch the video on the BBC Sport website

Regulars to our pie blog will know we're the world's leading pie review blog - featuring over 600 pie reviews with multiple football pie media appearances! In 2014 we joined BBC Sport's Azi Farni at Morecambe FC, who make some of the best pies rated on Pierate (let alone football grounds) to discuss what makes the perfect football pie! Watch us featuring in the BBC Price of Football video here.

Check out our PIEremiership article and you'll find that Morecambe FC's Globe Arena is certainly the place to be for top football pies! Top of our football pie league and winners of the British Pie Awards twice, Morecambe FC make their pies in the kitchen on site by hand, rather than just buying them in! Back of the net!!

RAS

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Celebrating our 9th birthday with a Turner's Pie or two!!

Turner's Pies Steak and Ale Pie Review

You may recall that back in March of this year the British Pie Awards Supreme Champion 2018 was none other than Turner's Pies, who had done very well previously and even been sold in Harrods food market, but had never previously scooped the big prize! Well as with all the pie winners since we started helping at the British Pie Awards in 2014, we wanted to get our hands on the Supreme Champion, and what better place to pie rate it that at the birthday pie-rty to celebrate our 9th anniversary?!

The company are a traditional bakers based down on the South coast in West Sussex. Starting out making pies for a hotel in Bognor Regis in 1933, Turner's Pies have a long history down three generations as a family run business and it is great to see they have expanded in recent years to having a pie shop in Bognor Regis, Rustington, Chichester and now Worthing too! But having won the British Pie Awards back in March 2018, perhaps the most exciting addition is the availability to now order their pies online, with their "Pies by Post" service!

The "Pies by Post" service really is as simple and obvious as it sounds, with orders placed on their website getting delivered by courier a few days after ordering. Simple really! And there are a selection of pie boxes you can get delivered too, with free delivery on your first order, so what are you waiting for?! Ah yes - why not read our review below first of the Steak and Ale pie!!!

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If you missed it, here's the tweet they sent out when they won the British Pie Awards back in March!

🏆‼️ WE DID IT ‼️🏆

Absolutely honoured to be named the SUPREME CHAMPION 2018 at this years #britishpieawards #BritishPieWeek

Our Steak & Ale Pie overcame stiff competition from 963 other pies to be crowned #1 In the UK.

More news to follow soon...MR T@BritishPies pic.twitter.com/0yTfZvMDUJ

— Award Winning Pies (@TurnersPies) March 10, 2018

And after their win, Turner's Pies immediately set their eyes on another award - this time becoming the number 1 pie on Pierate!

Thanks guys, we were waiting for the official press release before we told the world but it seems that’s not coming today. We’re chuffed! Only accolade we need now is no1 pierated!!

— Award Winning Pies (@TurnersPies) March 9, 2018

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Turner's Steak and Ale Pie

So onto the pie review itself! The pastry was golden on top, slightly more pale on the sides, but it held together well even when cut in half. It was crisp on the outside and slightly gooey on the inside, a real art form in pastry circles! While the pastry did crumble a bit upon cutting, the fact you could enjoy the pastry so much even on its own was a great testament to this pie, even if there was no need to do so with such a meaty filling to the pie itself! And when cut into halves, you could still pick up this pie, which is a good sign of a firm, well baked pastry.

A cut-through of the Turner's Steak and Ale Pie

The pie was well filled, with a good capacity of meaty chunks. Overall they were generally very nice, even if a few pieces in several of the pies were a little chewy. The filling was moist but could have had a little more gravy in it, but the ale gravy was a nice compliment to the meaty pieces. At £3.50 per pie this was about the price I would be happy to pay for this sized pie if it was well filled and flavoursome, as this pie was.

Overall, I can certainly see why the Turner's Pies Steak and Ale got a glowing report from the British Pie Awards, and it comfortably enters our "Pierate Highly Recommended" category! I look forward to rating some more of their pies soon!

Turner's Pies Steak and Ale Pie
Score: 6.39/7
[Colour 6.5, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 6.5, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 6, Content 6.5]
RAS and SJL

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Pieminister “Moodog” British Beef Steak, Dry Cured Bacon and Brewdog Ale Pie Review

Pieminister Sunday Best Pie Review

You could be forgiven for thinking that top pie maker Pieminister – from whom we have rated nineteen pies previously, the majority of whom have been Pierate Recommended or Pierate Highly Recommended – must be running out of new inventions for the humble pie! After all, it wasn’t that long ago that they dug deep into the reci-pie book to create a Cricket, Chipotle Chilli and Black Bean pie (yes, that’s crickets the insect!) to spice up British Pie Week 2017! But even though we have eaten through the majority of the menu, we still keep going back for more, especially now they have opened a pie shop in Birmingham City Centre that is not far from Pierateer Rob’s humble abode!

We did however still manage to find a new pie flavour we hadn’t rated before in the form of the Moodog pie, a British Beef Steak, Dry Cured Bacon and Brewdog Ale pie.

However, that wasn’t exactly the reason we were there this time round! For while our pie blog naturally focuses on the pie itself, it can’t be ignored that the sides you get with your pie contribute significantly to the enjoyment of said pie. Serve it with cold mash, overcooked chips or a thin, water-like gravy and you’re certainly not going to please pie connoisseurs like us! Which is why we couldn’t turn down an invite to try the new “Sunday Best” option from Pieminister, which hit their pie shops recently, for a new meal ex-pie-rience!



The idea is simple – take all that is good about the trimmings of a classic Sunday Roast, add them on top of or around a top rated Pieminister pie, and *poof* you have a magical Sunday lunchtime treat for the whole family to enjoy! It’s a wonder no-one thought of this before!!! As you can see from the graphic, the “Sunday Best” option is any of Pieminister's award winning pies on a pile of delicious mash, topped with a Yorkshire Pudding filled with swede mash, roast garlic & rosemary potatoes and finished with free range British Pork crackling and a pig-in-blanket. All served-up with a brimming boat of gravy on the side. And all this for less than 10 of your English Pounds at £9.95!

The crackling was crisp and delicious, the swede mash, potato mash and roast garlic and rosemary potatoes (though sounding perhaps a little carb heavy) complimented the pie and other sides well and there was even a pig in blanket for a little more meatilicious content! All sat in a Yorkshire Pudding, the bedrock of a classic Sunday Roast!

And for the main course, there was the pie, naturally! The beauty of this meal option was that you could have any of their Pieminister pies on sale in the middle of this Sunday trimmings sandwich! So whether you preferred a pie with vegetables, meat or without the wheat, Pieminister could provide you a Sunday dinner experience for all taste buds. You could even go Vegan with “Kevin”, their new vegan pie, if you so desired! As mentioned, I went for the Moodog pie, which was one of the few meat pies on the menu yet to be rated on the Pierate Ship!

Pieminister Sunday Best Pie Review

As you can see from the pictures, the pie came stacked with all the “Sunday Best” trimmings, but this didn’t detract from the quality of the pie itself. It was lovely and golden on top, though certainly a lot more pale and gravy-stained on the sides. However the sides and base were quite crisp too, alongside the golden top. The lovely Pieminister pastry one again surrounded a well filled content, with a definite focus on meaty steak chunks with a few tasters of bacon to vary the flavour. The balance between crisp pastry and a moist, meaty filling was delightful and I’ll definitely look to have another one soon!

Looking at the pie alone, Pieminister have once again produced a Pierate Highly Recommended pie. And I for one am delighted they’ve decided to sell it as part of a delicious roast trimming dinner in my local Pieminister pie shop! It’s a great idea to offer the additional trimmings while keeping the pie choice flexible, and I will certainly bear it in mind when I next want the best pie meal possible on a Sunday afternoon!

Pieminister “Moodog” British Beef Steak, Dry Cured Bacon and Brewdog Ale Pie
Score: 6.07/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6, Condition 6, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.5]
RAS

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Dubs Pie Review - Steak and Ale in Brooklyn, New York

Pierateer Rob in the Dubs Pies shop in Brooklyn

For a city that never sleeps, there is one main draw back to life in the Big Apple. Sure, they have plenty of fruit pies on the market, but where are the meat pies??? As a Briton looking for an ex-pie-rience in what American pie can offer, I took a subway into Brooklyn to try out the pie shop at Windsor Terrace, next to Prospect Park, called Dub Pies.

You may well have a vague memory of the name Dub Pies if you read our live blog of the British Pie Awards 2018, as we actually met the owner Gareth at the Awards! He had come over to the UK and timed his trip to include a visit to the awards and to sample some pies. His background is the meat pies of New Zealand, but you can never sample too many pies now, can you!!

Dubs Pies Shop in Brooklyn, New York

The store itself is a bit out of Downtown Brooklyn but still very accessible, just a minutes walk from the subway line on the west side of Prospect Park. While it was a shame they didn't do sides to go with the pie in store, I was there for the pie and this allowed me to focus on it! (To note: They do sometimes do sides when selling from their pie truck or at catered events, just no longer in the shop.)

You could choose to have your pie hot or take it away cold, but I was in the market for a hot pie for lunch! As you can see from the menu board in the photo they have quite an extensive range of pies, from the traditional beef mince and cheese pies common in New Zealand and Australia, to Chicken and Veggie options.

Dubs Pies - Steak and Ale Pie

However my eyes were set when I saw they had a steak and ale pie on the menu, which I felt would be a good benchmark to compare to the regular UK pies I regularly have. The content was pieces of steak in Fifth Hammer/Rockaways Blockaway Barleywine. At $6 this seemed very reasonable for a hot pie in such a location as central New York. The pie was reasonably flat, reminding me a bit of the Piebury Corner pies that aren't the deepest but are full to the brim of filling. These were the same.

The pie wasn't the most golden I have ever seen, but the colour and condition was pretty good. The lid of the pie undulated slightly, teasing the large chunks of steak below. However when bitten into it held together very well. As you can see from the cross-section you could hold the half-eaten pie without it crumbling everywhere. It seems it would be the ideal pie for a sports event!

Dubs Pies - Steak and Ale Pie

The capacity was very strong, filled to the brim with meaty chunks. The meat itself was nicely cooked and tender, with the main criticism of this pie being that it was rather dry inside. I do come from a land of gravy filled pies - legend has it I would bleed gravy, not blood - but even so, the dry pastry and dry filling did take the edge off this pie.

However the filling was very nice and I would certainly suggest that with a little more moisture inside this would really be challenging for a top pie rating! All in all I would certainly recommend giving Dub pies a look in and trying their traditional flavours - the Steak Mince and Cheese pie and the Thai Chicken Curry pie.

Score: 5.57/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5, Condition 6, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 4.5, Content 5.5]
RAS

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It's as if they could read my thoughts or something! Just days after I had visited their Brooklyn shop, the owner Gareth messaged me on twitter to say that the low gravy content in their steak and ale pie had been noted before, and that they had now in fact created a new version which addressed the lack of moisture! You can check out the photo of their new steak and ale pie below and I for one would love to give this new version a pie rating! I wouldn't be surprised if it got Pierate Highly Recommended! Next time!!!

The new Dubs Pies Steak and Ale Pie! Photo provided by Dubs Pies

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Plymouth Football Club - Ginsters Peppered Steak Pie

On the Pierate Ship we can be a bit cautious about the South West. It is the pasty heartlands and whilst there are many decent pasty products, we maintain that a pasty is not a pie. But of course, everyone agrees with us on this point, it is not like a pasty would ever win the British Pie Awards.....

Often, because of the dominance of pasties, our beloved pie can be squeezed out. Hence I had a bit of trepidation about heading South to Plymouth Argyle for the match against Wycombe Wanderers. Would they even sell any pies to add to the Pierate Football Pie League?

Entering the ground I started to worry, there were a lot of Ginster's adverts (they are even Argyle's main shirt sponsor). We have reviewed some Ginster's pies but they tend to be rare, with their fame mostly associated with the Cornish pasty. I needn't have worried, as well as a range of pasties they also had Ginster's Peppered Steak and Chicken Balti pies; a very wide range of pastry products. I opted for the Peppered Steak for £3.50, slightly more pricey than average for the size of pie (which was a bit smaller than a Pukka). It was presented well in an eco-friendly paper bag. This not only prevents adding to the mountain of plastic in our environment but also seemed to have allowed the pie to breath whereas football pies in plastic/polystyrene can often be soggy. It had been sat on a warm counter which had kept it hot. The good Condition that this pie was served in was the biggest success for the Plymouth pie. It seems like they have a well organised catering team, making sure the food is cooked at just the right time rather than sitting around for ages and becoming dried out which is often the case for other football pies. Taking the pie out of the bag it looked pretty good, although it had sagged in the middle. It also looked a bit 'top heavy' with the pastry lid extending wider than the rest of the pie to make it look bigger than it actually was. It looked quite different to the supermarket Ginster's steak pie that TJP previously reviewed and I was certainly hoping for a better score than the dismal 2.32 out of 7 which that version picked up!

Delving into the pie it was immediately obvious to me that it was better than TJP's version. The pastry was perfectly cooked, quite rare for a football pie and quite difficult when you are cooking hundreds at once. Hats off to the Plymouth catering team for that. The lid had a nice crunch to it with a slight biscuit taste. The sides were softer, but not too soft, having also been properly cooked. There were identifiable pieces of steak, although they were perhaps a bit small compared to other 'steak' pies. There were also unexpected pieces of potato, which were fine and added some variety although I did initially think they were massive pieces of fat. There was a nice thick sauce, enough to keep it moist but not an excessive amount like you get in a Pukka pie. This was good because it meant the pie could be eaten by hand without making a mess, ideal for a football pie. The pastry also held together well. However, there was a lack of filling given the small capacity and the fact that the lid had sagged.

My main note of caution was that when they say 'peppered steak' they mean PEPPERED Steak. There really was a big hit of pepper. I love pepper but I think it might be a bit much for some people. You could actually see the big pieces of pepper within the pie. The peppery taste in combination with the potato reminded me of that classic Cornish pasty taste! Perhaps no surprise when it is Ginster's making the pie. It was a really nice change and I did enjoy this pie, but it is not something I would be looking to eat regularly outside of the football. Given how well it was cooked, this pie claims a reasonable mid-table position in the Pierate Football Pie League.


Plymouth/Ginsters (Peppered Steak)
4.45/7
SJL

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Pieminister “Kate and Sidney” British Beef Steak, Kidney and Craft Ale Pie Review

Pieminister Steak and Kidney Pie Review

It hasn’t escaped my attention as a pie connoisseur in England’s second city Birmingham that there has been a bit of a lack of pie shops in the city, especially following the closure of “Urban Pie” a few years back. It was therefore encouraging to see that top pie maker Pieminister – from whom we have rated sixteen pies previously, the majority of whom have been Pierate Recommended or Pierate Highly Recommended – have changed all that with a new shop opening a few months ago in the heart of the city centre.

While some of you may have noticed on Twitter that we visited early on in their first week of trading in the city a few months back, we decided to visit again more recently once they had properly settled in to their new location to get a proper reflection of the new store. Of course we weren’t disappointed, with another top rated and highly recommended pie! The store itself is decorated in standard Pieminister fashion – quite simple brick façade with neon lights. It’s great to have another pie option right in the heart of the city, just off Victoria Square at 16 Waterloo Street.



So onto the pie I had, which when I looked at the menu was becoming a struggle to find a new option we hadn’t already rated!! I went for the “Kate and Sidney” pie, which was British Beef Steak, Kidney and Craft Ale. I went for the classic meal with a super side upgrade of skin on fries, which meant my meal cost £8.50. This is a little pricey for a meal of pie, mash and gravy, but being in a new city centre store and comparing this to pie meals in pubs and shops in the city centre, I don’t think this is too unreasonable a price.

Pieminister Steak and Kidney Pie Review

As you can see from the pictures, the pie was lovely and golden on top, though certainly a lot more pale on the sides. However the sides and base were quite crisp too, alongside the golden top. The lovely Pieminister pastry one again surrounded a well filled content, with a definite focus on meaty steak chunks rather than the kidney. I was appreciative of this decent blend, as many steak and kidney pies can use the kidney as a cheap filler for a pie, but this was certainly not the case here! The balance between crisp pastry and a moist, meaty filling was delightful and I’ll definitely look to have another one soon!

Once again Pieminister have produced a Pierate Highly Recommended pie and I for one am delighted they’ve decided to sell it – alongside their other top range of pies - in the heart of England’s second city, Birmingham!

Pieminister “Kate and Sidney” British Beef Steak, Kidney and Craft Ale Pie
Score: 6.04/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6, Condition 6.25, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6]
RAS

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Piebury Corner Steak and Stilton Pie Review from their new King’s Cross Shop!

If anyone ever asks which pie shop they should visit in London, there is only one answer I give them – Piebury Corner. For many a year, since we first reviewed them in February 2013, they have been at the top of our pie rankings which span well over 600 pies from across the world. But there has always been one slight issue – their pie shop is slightly out of the way for the typical London visitor, being up in Islington (N7).

You can therefore imagine our delight when we heard a number of months back from owners Paul and Nikki that they were in negotiations for a property just a few minutes from Kings Cross Station – which really is prime retail location for thousands of London commuters and tourists each and every day! Now that the new store has been open a few months, it was about time that we set the Pierate Ship down to London for a visit, and a Friday Pieday visit was the ideal op-pie-tunity!


Arriving mid-afternoon, I avoided the rush hour craziness on my 4-minute walk from Kings Cross Tube station and settled into my own seating booth, which comes with free wifi and USB charging points for your phone. It’s significantly more spacious than the Holloway Road store in Islington, providing adequate seating for around 40 customers. I perused the menu and – while not eating straight away, as it was a bit early – picked from the increasingly small list of Piebury Corner pies we have yet to rate! With 14 already rated, I went for one of the only meat pies left on my list – the Steak and Stilton.

Inside Piebury's new store - Image supplied by Piebury Corner

One of the most obvious differences between the two pie shops is that the new Kings Cross store has dropped the Arsenal footballer pie names – but this is hardly a surprise given its location much further away from the Emirates Stadium and its target audience no longer primarily being Arsenal fans! The main pies all still feature though, even if they are a bit pricier than when we first started tucking into Piebury Corner pies those five years ago! A standard range pie at the Kings Cross shop sets you back £6 hot and eating in, with the luxury range 50p more and gluten free 50p more again. While you can get deals at certain times to make this a meal with pie, potato and gravy, it is quite an expensive cost for just a pie but then this is no ordinary quality pie, as the shop's kitchen manager Anthony testified to me during a chat with him after my pie. He has many years’ experience as a chef in London but was surprised at the high quality of these pies, which he hasn’t been able to match in quality from a supplier anywhere else in London!

Piebury Corner Steak and Stilton Pie Review

Onto the pie itself and the great thing is the Steak and Stilton pie had all the great hallmarks of the Piebury Corner pies I had rated in the past. The pie was packed to capacity, again bulging slightly with the large pieces of meat inside the pie. The pastry:filling ratio was pretty much spot on, with a good flavoursome filling complementing the crisp but thin outer pastry. As you would expect from a proper football pie you could easily have eaten the pie by hand, picking it up from the plate, as the pie held together really well.

The filling itself was a fine balance of tender steak and a Stilton gravy. The meat was lovely and had a good noticeable flavour to it without being overpowered by the Stilton cheese, which has been the downside of a fair few Stilton Cheese pies I’ve had lately (either too much Stilton or lacking any noticeable cheese flavour to it!) The only real downsides to these pies, mentioned a number of times in Piebury Corner reviews, are that the pie is rather shallow for a pie of its price range and therefore while they taste great, they do often leave you wanting more! But I guess that’s a good sign what you are eating is a top pie! The Steak and Stilton is yet another “Pierate Highly Recommended” pie from Piebury Corner.

Piebury Corner Steak and Stilton Pie
Score: 6.18/7
[Colour 6.75/7; Consistency 5.75/7; Cheapness 5.5/7; Chewiness 6.5/7; Condition 6.75/7; Content 6/7; Capacity 6/7]

RAS

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Mansfield Town All Steak Pukka Pie Review

A rainy and windy Tuesday night in Mansfield is what being a football supporter is all about. Under those conditions anything can happen which adds to the excitement. While anything can happen, actually nothing extraordinary did occur when we visited for the 0-0 draw with Wycombe Wanderers, although the match was fairly entertaining. When the weather is terrible it makes the match day pie even more obligatory. Rob and I both opted for the classic Pukka All Steak pie option for £3, a pie we have reviewed many times before for our football pie league.

The All Steak Pukka Pie at the One Call Stadium

However, as is often the case at the football the quality was variable. It really was a game of two halves. My pre-match pie was extremely dry which provided a contrast to the extremely wet weather. Rob's was cooked fairly well, although also dry on the bottom. I found mine was so dry the pastry had actually gone quite chewy and was difficult to eat by hand. This was very different to other football pies I have had recently which had soggy and crumbly pastry due to microwave cooking. It seemed that my Pukka had been sat above a heater element in the hot locker which had caused the bottom to burn.



Given that I got my pie before the match it was impressive that they had managed to dry it out so badly. I wondered quite how long it had been sat around for. Mansfield claim to have the oldest football league ground, dating back to 1861. Perhaps this pie had been sat in the locker since 1919 when Mansfield first started playing there? I also wondered how likely food poisoning might be after Mansfield were previously bottom of the football league in terms of their food hygiene rating.


This at least did mean that my pie had been kept warm. The molten gravy proved frustrating as it slowed me down in my pie consumption. I find my desire to devour pies often causes me to bypass my common sense. I keep taking bites somehow expecting the pie to have cooled to a reasonable temperature in the seconds that have elapsed since my previous bite. Whilst the pastry was pretty terrible the filling was just as I have come to expect from Pukka. Ample amount of thick, beefy gravy made the pastry a little more palatable but as usual it was not ideal to eat by hand because the gravy oozed out. The steak pieces weren't huge or overly abundant but none were chewy. Rob however found the opposite with a few gristly pieces.

Overall, sadly the pies weren't leaving us rushing back for more. Despite my claim that I was going to get a second pie at half time, I waited until after the match to get another Pukka pie from Kev's Fish Bar whilst we sheltered from the rain. It was both cheaper and cooked much better!

This review really highlight that whilst a lot of grounds serve similar pies, the choice of how the pies are stored, cooked and kept warm makes a massive difference!

All Steak (Mansfield Town/Pukka)
3.75/7

SJL and RAS

We've rated over 600 pies, including a number of football pies

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More about us and our football pie pedigree:

Sam and Rob being interviewed by BBC Sport's Azi Farni Watch the video on the BBC Sport website

Regulars to our pie blog will know we're the world's leading pie review blog - featuring over 600 pie reviews with multiple football pie media appearances! Two years ago we joined BBC Sport's Azi Farni at Morecambe FC, who make some of the best pies rated on Pierate (let alone football grounds) to discuss what makes the perfect football pie! Watch us featuring in the BBC Price of Football video here.

Check out our PIEremiership article and you'll find that Morecambe FC's Globe Arena is certainly the place to be for top football pies! Top of our football pie league and winners of the British Pie Awards twice, Head chef Graham Aimson at Morecambe FC makes his pies in the kitchen on site by hand, rather than just buying them in! Top work Graham and the team!

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Brockleby’s Wild Deer and Longhorn Steak with Stilton and Ale Pie Reviews

Brockleby's Pie Reviews

Three years is a long time in politics – and is equally a long time in pie reviewing! The range of pies sold can vary hugely in that time and some pie businesses even come and go in that time frame. But when a pie company you have tried and rated highly turn up selling their pies pretty much in your back yard - at your local community festival - it’s a bit of a no-brainer to give some more of their pies a go (as well as enjoy an old favourite!)

So with a large Wild Beaver pie already in the bag to share with friends – and before I go any further, no beavers were harmed in the making of that pie! See our previous review for why it gets its provocative title! – it seemed foolish to pass up the op-pie-tunity to rate a few more of their pies. At £4.50 each or 3 for £12, I was sold! The two pies I’m therefore reviewing today are the Wild Deer and Longhorn Steak with Stilton and Ale pies in their decent repertoire.

Graham on the Brockleby's Pie Stall at the Selly Oak Festival

Brockleby's Wild Deer Pie

Of note for both pies were that the pastry was a very nice consistency, particularly the lids of both pies – firm enough to hold in the content but not too thick to detract from the taste. They were also both packed to capacity with large meaty chunks and had a decent amount of gravy without it flowing out all over the place! I’d personally suggest slightly smaller chunks of meat which can be more covered in gravy and be a little tenderer in places, as there were a few large chewier pieces of meat that weren’t quite as succulent. However in all the meat was very nice and well filled, so I couldn’t find much to fault them.

In regards to the wild deer pie, it was certainly my preference out of the two. The meat on the whole was very nice, the gravy very rich and flavoursome and it really complimented the shortcrust pastry. It was therefore a deer pie very well done, and at £4.50 the price wasn’t too dear either! (Even better at £4 when buying 3 pies for £12!)

The steak, stilton and ale was a little more disappointing, simply due to the lack of a significant stilton flavour to the pie. I and a few friends who tried a mouthful too did not sense much of a stilton hit at all, so while by all means the steak was quite nice, as a steak and stilton pie it didn’t reach the same high levels as the wild deer pie and steak and beaver ale pie I’d had before. The steak was however nice in the main and the gravy was nice despite the lack of cheese.

Brockleby's Steak with Stilton and Ale Pie

With strong recommendations towards their Salmon pie and Moroccan Lamb pies, we’ve certainly got other chances to rate a few more of their pies – and hopefully I might pick up a sample or two at UK Piefest at the end of July! I’d certainly recommend you check out their stall if you go, as these pies are Pierate Recommended!

Brockleby’s Wild Deer Pie
Score: 5.86/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.5]

Brockleby’s Longhorn Steak with Stilton and Ale Pie
Score: 5.32/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5, Content 4.5]

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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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!



As part of the Leeds Pie Tour we went to a pub in the rejuvenated Granary Wharf in the centre of Leeds. The Hop is one of those trendy types of places built into the archway of the old railway. When doing our research into Leeds pies we were fairly staggered by what we read. Apparently they offered a Pie, Mash, Peas/Beans, Gravy AND a Pint for ONLY A FIVER! Yes, things are cheaper than we are used to down South but surely this kind of offer was impossible. We went in, expecting some kind of catch, we even had to clarify with the guy on the bar, but yes, it was true. He claimed they could offer it cheaper because it is their house beer. But still, surely the pies must be ASDA Smart Price in order for them to make any money at all? We started to understand the business model once we had placed our orders. The pies are already cooked and they operate more of a take-away type of systems. There is a hatch (the eponymous Pi Hole) where you pick up your order once it is ready. The meal comes in a biodegradable box with wooden cutlery. It is a bit of an odd situation to then eat your take away pie in the pub but it seemed to work. The pub primarily focuses on providing real ale, with the food more of a convenient accompaniment rather than their primary focus.

We learnt that the pies are supplied by Andrew Jones Pies of Huddersfield, a company we had not come across before. There were a wealth of options,  we tried to trick Pierateer RAS into getting a Lamb pasty but sadly he decided he wasn't hungry after what had already been a pie filled weekend. Pierateer SJL opted for the Chicken Balti while Pierateer TJP went for the classic Steak & Ale.

At first glance they did actually look pretty appealing. Stout and solid shortcrust pastry had been used. The glaze was something I could have gazed at for days. It was brown and lustrous, indicating tasty pastry. Surely these would be empty promises as I expected this to be a typical half filled mass produced pies? But no, yet, again, these pies surprised us because they were well filled. The Chicken Balti in particular had been packed with meat rather than sauce or air. The Steak & Ale was a bit more heavy on the meat flavoured sauce but still found space for a satisfying amount of meat. My pie meal for a fiver kept me satisfied all the way back to Gloucester.

For both pies, the shortcrust pastry was tasty and crunchy on top although some parts on the bottom were slightly soggy. The meat chunks in the Chicken Balti were quite big and satisfying, they didn't have the watery texture that some mass produced chicken chunks have but yet they avoided being dry. The texture of the steak was tender, perhaps a bit too soft if anything, a bit like steak from a tin.

Onto the flavour and whilst we kept looking for ways in which these pies were going to let us down, yet again they surprised us being enjoyable and full of flavour. The Chicken Balti was quite spicy, perhaps a bit too hot for some but was anything but bland. The spicy marinade was not quite like any other Balti I pie I had tried before. I really enjoyed the flavour, so much so that I bought another to take home. The Steak & Ale was a bit more traditional, it captured the classic Steak & Ale pie flavour well although didn't do anything spectacular. The main downside was that the flavour was dominated by salt a bit too much. Whilst Pierateer TJP tried this pie in the restaurant, I also purchased one to take away so I could verify it was a very good pie. However, in this case, it was the Chicken Balti that really stood out.

Chicken Balti (The Hop/A Jones Pies [Leeds])
Score: 6.25/7


SJL

Steak & Ale (The Hop/A Jones Pies [Leeds])
Score: 6.05/7


SJL & TJP

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