Weighbridge Inn, Near Nailsworth, Gloucestershire

I am currently working on an article charting where the best pies in Gloucestershire can be found. Given that this has been my adopted home since 2014 it is perhaps surprising that I only recently found out about quite a famous local pub called The Weighbridge Inn. It is surprising because this country pub situationed near Nailsworth specialises in pies. And not just any pies, what the Weighbridge Inn is famous for is their 2 in 1 pies. So much so that their twitter handle is @2in1pie. I can only assume that people travel from miles around to try these pies as it is actually quite tricky to get a table on a Friday or Saturday, booking in advanced in advised.

Steak & Kidney with Cauliflower Cheese 2 in 1 pie

But what is a 2 in 1 pie I hear you cry?! The basic premise is that instead of having your meat pie with vegetables on the side, the veg actually arrives inside the pie with the content being divided in half rather than mixed together. What a great idea, I have long since advocated that anything can be encased in pastry and that actually non-pie food is unnecessary.

The Weighbridge Inn is lovely inside, a classic country pub with some interesting retro decor. They have opted against plastering the walls in kitsch pie related paraphernalia like many other pie pubs. Upon opening the menu there is a choice of quite a few protein pie fillings and and a few different vegetable fillings. I go decided to go for their most popular combination; Steak & Kidney with Cauliflower Cheese. Given that you could mix and match your veg choice with your protein choice, there were a huge number of theoretical possibilities which made me feel I would have to come back even before I had tried the pie! There was also the option to have a 1 in 1 pie if you wished. They did a Gluten Free pastry which was great as it allowed Pierateer ALE to have a pie as well and is quite unusual. She chose the Chicken and Root Vegetable options. In addition you could choose a 'standard' or 'giant' size at £12.20 and £14.80 respectively. Given that I would only be eating pie I thought it would take a large one to fill me up whereas ALE went for the standard. I also felt that given the quite big size difference the large was better value!

View inside the Steak & Kidney side of the 2 in 1 pie

When the pie arrived there was an elephant in the room to address and I am not talking about the colossal size of the pie (which really was giant). Not only was this pie in a dish rather than fully encased in pastry, the half with cauliflower cheese didn't even have a pastry lid! That right, this was only half a top crust pie! This meant that the actually pastry content was oddly low considering this was a pie. Of course, being advocates of a pie being fully encased in pastry I wouldn't really call this a pie. In fact I am at a loss what to call it. But putting that aside for a moment I will let you know my thoughts on this gigantic meal.

The dish was served on a slab of wood and was already overflowing before I attempted to negotiate my way into it with cutlery. It really did look volcanic and an eruption was inevitable. The juices oozed out and made quite a mess although I barely worried about this as all my attention was turned to stuffing my face with food. The large chunks of meat were just what I enjoy in a pie. They were not too chewy but not too soft. There was plenty to get your teeth into which appealed to my carnivorous side. There was a good mix of steak and kidney chunks with neither dominating too much. The meat gravy was tasty although not overly thick, it might have struggle to work had the pie not been in a dish. It was odd because the meat gravy began to mingle with the cauliflower cheese, there was nothing separating the two types of content, unlike when our Ship's Cook went for a multi-stage pie where she went for pastry dividers. The mixing of the fillings wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as we have often found, steak and cheese can work well together in a pie. The cauliflower itself passed me by. It was done well with a good balance of cheese flavour but I always find cauliflower cheese a bit mushy and that was the case here. Next time I would go for one of the other vegetable options but I am sure if you are a fan of cauliflower cheese this would be a good one.

Gluten Free

The pastry itself was quite thick which helped offset the lack of it to some extent. The taste was fine, although a bit floury. There was a slightly spongy texture, perhaps on account of the thickness, but the pastry went well when mixed with the filling

Overall I did enjoy this meal, it was extremely satisfying in more ways than one. I would come back as I enjoyed the ambiance of the pub and I would be interested to try some of the other combinations. The 2 in 1 pie novelty didn't really quite work for me personally. It did look quite spectacular but given that there was so little pastry I don't see how it would be much different if it were to be served on a plate. It would be good to see a fully encased 2 in 1 pie option for those of us who are purists regarding their pie definition and it really needed more pastry. In terms of local competition, we gave a good review to the Farmers Boy Inn who offer both the 'top-crust' dish pie option and fully encased option. The Farmers Boy Inn also have a 2 in 1 dish pie but we haven't tried that. For me the Farmers Boy Inn currently have the edge over The Weighbridge Inn. We also enjoyed similar 2 in 1 dish pies at Mad O' Rouckes in the West Midlands so perhaps this novelty is not as rare as you might think. I haven't given the Weighbridge Inn an official Pierate score as I don't think it is a pie (and doesn't meet our pie definition). But it is worth a visit, I certainly plan to go again so they must be doing something right.

SJL

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Paul's Pies - Steak & Kidney and Picnic Pie Reviews

You might have noticed we love Paul’s Pies. We have been banging on about them for some time now. See below our list of Pauls Pies reviewed so far, two of which are currently occupying spots in the top 3 of our pie rankings.

Pie Flavour	Score
Steak & Guinness	6.73
Chicken & Mushroom	6.55
Wild Venison & Mushroom	6.15
Turkey (Christmas)	5.90
Steak & Kidney	5.59
Chicken & Pork (Picnic)	5.01

Wow, would you look at that? Six pies all achieving Pierate Highly Recommended (6 or above) or Pierate Recommended (5 or above). If you are very keen on our blog you might have noticed two pies in the list which haven’t yet been reviewed! How can that be? Well, I am about to review them both, right here, right now! I am feeling pretty privileged to get in there first with two of these beautifully boxed pies.

Picnic Pie

And now for something different from the other Paul's Pies I have tried before. This is a pie that is designed to be eaten cold, perhaps a bit like the Christmas offering, however, I was delighted that this one has a pastry lid. For some reason this pie came in a different box with no window. It also cost a whopping £4.75 for the 270g pie which meant it would have to do something a little special.



Condition – 4.9 out of 7 – It had a similar shape to other Paul’s pies with lovely crimping at the edges. I did miss the pastry letter on the top and the colourful boxes that Paul’s pies normally have but these are only minor points. Generally top condition.

Colour – 4.5 out of 7 - The pastry looked nice, but could have been a bit more golden. The filling was very pretty, being layers of Pork and Chicken.

Capacity – 4.7 out of 7 – Tall and proud, exactly what we expect from Paul’s pies; there was a large capacity. This one was a bit let down by the surprising addition of an air gap at the top although not very large.

Cheapness – 3.5 out of 7 – I understand that this is top quality meat and this was full of meat but £4.75 just seemed like a lot for quite a pie which is the same size as the normal Paul’s pies.

Chewiness – 6.0 out of 7 – The meat in this pie was unlike any other I have had, it was so moist and light and flaky. Great care had been taken to avoid something as heavy and stodgy as you normally find with a pork pie. In fact, this is nothing like other cold meat pies. There were some small chewy pieces to the pork. The pastry was heavy on the fat content (in a good way) which made it also really soft to eat, despite being shortcrust.

Content – 6.0 out of 7 – I thought that this pie tasted great, it tasted a bit like a really awesome version of a sausage roll. There was plenty of seasoning with hints of flavours you might expected with roast dinner stuffing. The flavours were similar to Mr C’s chicken pie. There was a wonderful richness to the pastry. Having both Chicken and Pork kept the meat interesting. I would note that my Dad didn’t like it, he thought it was ‘too spicy’ but he is Mr Bland and Boring so I tend to discount his views.

Consistency – 5.5 out of 7 – A nice consistency and a tasty morsel which did something a bit different from the norm and pulled it off. Just wish it was a bit bigger because I don't think it would go very far sharing it at a picnic. You could buy more than one but that would leave the rest of the hamper a bit bare on most picnic budgets.

Chicken & Pork Picnic (Paul’s Pies) 
5.01/7 


Steak & Kidney

To commemorate World War 1 and as a way to raise money for the British Legion, Paul has brought out a limited edition Steak & Kidney pie, similar in style to his other meat offerings like the Steak & Guinness.


Condition – 6.0 out of 7 – We are back to the lovely coloured box and as usual the striking crimping. This one didn’t seem to have a ‘K’ made out of pastry, but a K marked on the pie, did it fall off? I missed the pastry letter! (But that is a minor point.)

Colour – 6.5 out of 7 – Wonderful hues of glossy brown as we have found from the best of Paul’s Pies.

Capacity – 4.1 out of 7 – Again, a tall pie so a good capacity. However, this was the first time I have found a significant air gap at the top of a Paul’s Pie. I think I was just a bit unlucky with this one as we haven't had this before.

Cheapness – 4.5 out of 7 – This pie was priced at the same level as most Paul’s Pies, at £3.50, which is pretty much the going rate for an individual gourmet pie.

Chewiness – 5.5 out of 7 – The meat was soft but slightly more chewy in places than other Paul’s pies I have had. This wasn’t necessarily a really bad thing, it gave me something to get my teeth into. The kidney was soft as would be expected. It was a pleasure to again have Paul’s lovely suet pastry with it’s crunchy outside and soft middle.

Content – 6.0 out of 7 – The flavour of this pie wasn’t adventurous but captured that classic, British, homemade Steak & Kidney flavour perfectly. Paul’s Pies have a wonderful knack of creating comforting and homely food. The kidney flavour wasn’t overpowering as it sometimes can be (we aren't huge fans of kidney on the Pierate Ship).

Consistency – 6.5 out of 7 – The lovely thick sauce gave this a great consistency. It worked very well as a pastry package.

Steak & Kidney (Paul’s Pies)
5.59/7


Overall two very good pies from Paul, fully deserving of ‘Pierate Recommended’ awards. The Steak & Kidney would probably have scored higher if it wasn’t for the airgap, not something we have ever seen before from Paul’s Pies. Unfortunately these things happen sometimes when making large numbers of pies, from manufacturers small and big. This will require further investigation, someone will have to eat more Paul's Pies. Naturally I volunteer myself, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

SJL

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Welsh Pantry - Steak & Kidney Pie Review

During British Pie Week I ate pie for every meal, sorry to keep banging on about it but it was a lot of pies and consequently it seems like I might be writing up pie reviews from that week for some time to come, so please bear with me. For Breakfast on Day Two and Day Three I had meat pies from The Welsh Pantry. I chose these because they could be eaten cold and they only had 533 kcal per pie. Have a look at the videos to see my thoughts.



Condition - 3.5 out of 7 - These pies were unfortunately a bit squashed.
Colour - 3.1 out of 7 - A bit pale for my liking.
Cheapness - 6 out of 7 - £2.19 from a little newsagents in Exeter, at just 73p each this is great value.
Capacity - 3.5 out of 7 - Quite shallow and a bit of a pastry overhang meant that these pies missed out on the optimum pastry to filling ratio.
Chewiness - 4.2 out of 7 - Generally the puff pastry slid down well although it was a little greasy. The meat wasn't really chunky enough to be chewy, just one chewy bit in the 3rd pie in the pack.
Content - 4.1 out of 7 - Pleasant enough, as stated before it tasted just like a Ginsters slice, nothing ground breaking. Not much of a kidney taste.
Consistency - 3 out of 7 - The separate parts of this pie seemed to fit together well as a product. However, the pies were not consistently well filled, as shown in the video the second one had hardly any filling at all. The other two were better.

In summary I think pies like this do have a place because they can be eaten cold. This does make them very convenient and I could see myself buying it again despite not having a very high score. Why are pies not available in the same way that slices are as a cold snack on the move?

Steak & Kidney (Welsh Pantry)
3.91/7

SJL

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Morrisons Pie Counter - Pie Reviews

If you were following our exploits during British Pie Week you might have noticed that I ate Pie for every meal during the week. This was quite a challenge but fortunately I had some help. Morrisons were kind enough to provide a crate of 14 pies on Day Three of the challenge which certainly went some way to helping me decide what pies I should eat for the 21 meals!


I was pretty excited to get this stash of pies. It is well documented on Pierate that Morrisons is the only supermarket with a pie counter and hence we have a special affection for this supermarket chain, have a look at all the Morrisons pie reviews we have done. I will now attempt to review all of these pies in one post, assisted by the video diary I took throughout the challenge.

Have a look at the photo above and I think you will agree that seeing all these pie together is a beautiful sight. They all arrived in good Condition and the Colour of the pastry was varied, but all of them looked appealing. All of the savoury pies had a great Capacity being quite tall, whereas pies at this price tend to be quite shallow.

First up, for dinner on Day Three was a Steak & Ale, see the video below. This was in the standard oval shape that a number of pie counter pies come in. Sadly I would say this was a false start for Morrisons, I didn't find a whole lot of meat Content in the pie but what was there tasted nice and wasn't Chewy. The sauce was flavoursome. The pastry, was crumbly and flour-y as it was for a number of these pies. The pastry lid had some 'overhang' so it missed the optimum pastry to filling ratio. The second pie was better filled than the first so they are lacking in some Consistency. It was £1.70 for two individual pies which is a standard price for these pie counter pies. Considering that a premium pie costs £2 to £3 per pie in a supermarket this puts into perspective that these are not premium pies but 'everyday' pies and I consider this excellent Cheapness for two pies.





Steak & Ale (Morrisons Pie Counter)
4.30/7

Morrisons will be pleased to know that on Day Four I ate Morrisons pies for every meal. See the video below. I started with an Individual Apple pie for breakfast. These were slightly smaller and less tall than the savoury pies, but with a bulging lid they still had an excellent Capacity. The Content was packed with apple which was firm to the bite but not Chewy. The pie was not too sweet and overall fantastic value for just £1.10 for two. I can also confirm they are conistently good as I ate one again for breakfast on Day Five. A very impressive offering here from Morrisons. The only downside again was that there was a surplus pastry overhang, however, in this case the sweet pastry was lovely to eat by itself so this wasn't a problem.

For lunch I had a Cheese & Onion vegetarian pie.  It had a great Capacity although there was a huge air gap which lost it a lot of score. The Content wasn't overpoweringly onion-y or cheesy as I feared it might be, if anything it was too bland. The pastry was the same as with most of the savoury pies. I ate both these pies cold, perhaps heating them up might have helped.


For dinner I really enjoyed the Chunky Steak pie which was much better than the Steak & Ale. There was a lot of meat which was fairly tender. There was a good amount of thick meaty sauce. This was the highest calorie pie, perhaps why it tasted better. Well filled despite an air gap, there was a good pastry to filling ratio.


Individual Apple Pie (Morrisons Pie Counter)
5.65/7

Cheese & Onion (Morrisons Pie Counter)
3.70/7

Chunky Steak (Morrisons Pie Counter)
5.45/7

Day Five saw me desperately trying to review more of these pies before I stretched my relaxed attitude to 'best before' dates a bit too far. As mentioned already I had another apple pie for breakfast before a Steak & Kidney pie for lunch. I ate this cold but really enjoyed it. It was the same oval shape as the Steak & Ale, filled better but still with a sizable air gap. The cold pastry was not dry at all but lovely and crumbly. I could taste the kidney and found some small pieces but I was pleased that the Content did not taste too strongly of kidney. I think the balance of flavours here was just right for me. I ate the other pie hot at a later date and can confirm that they are Consistently good.


Steak & Kidney (Morrisons Pie Counter)
5.10/7

I was unable to eat the Family Apple Pie in British Pie Week because I was only trying to eat whole pies, not slices and it was just too big for me to eat in one go! However, I shared it with my family at a later date and it was again another superb apple pie from Morrisons Pie Counter. The box stated deep filled and it really was with a huge amount of apple content. Firm to the bite, it wasn't too Chewy or too sugary. The pastry had a wonderful sugary glaze meaning it had a superior Crunch and Colour when compared to the individual version. The gooey/crunchy pastry was consistently delicious across both pies. It was also very large for only £2.99, I had some left over when serving four people. It seemed quite similar to the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference premium apple pie but it cost a whole £1 less.

Slice of the Family Sized Apple Pie

Family Apple Pie (Morrisons Pie Counter)
6.05/7

Lastly was the hand-crimped pork pie which I have reviewed before. I can confirm it is still worth the 5.55 out of 7 I gave it last year.

In all I ate Morrisons pies for six meals in a row. What did I learn? That Morrisons Pie Counter pies are great value and I am still in love with the pie counter. I love how the flavours of the pies are printed on the edge of the pie and I love the crumbly pastry most of them have. It seems that many of the savoury pies have quite large air gaps but at this price they still provide a great value pie experience. At Pierate we are looking for pies that we think people should buy and at Morrisons pie counter the pies are cheap enough that the average person can afford to buy them regularly, these really are pies for the people.

Importantly I have also found that it is best to microwave these pies, given that they are already in a cooked state they simply need heating up and this stops them drying out. Or perhaps even forget heating them up at all. Now I realise that these pies work so well cold I think I will be eating them before I get home in the future!

SJL

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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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Winstone (Steak and Kidney) Pie Review at Battersea Pie Station, Covent Garden, London




Winstone Steak and Kidney Pie Review

Score: 6/7
 


 

Chicken and Ham Pork Pie

As for the content, the chunk of ham was very flavoursome and quite stringy, not chewy at all and a good addition. The chicken wrapped round the ham and was the major filling. It was a bit tangy, perhaps slightly over seasoned but then you do expect more seasoning with your pork pie style pies! The chicken tasted pretty good, though harder to tell how tender it was in a pork pie style.
 

Score: 5.2/7

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