It is great to see that these days people are buying more local food. We have become conscious of the ridiculous journeys our food sometimes makes to the supermarkets. For example the story of Scottish chicken being taken on a 1,000 mile round trip to be processed. This is a case of the environmental costs being ignored and is not sustainable in a world where we have limited resources and a growing population. There is also the important fact that local food tends to be fresher and taste better! Local Roots in High Wycombe specialises in satisfying this taste for food and drink where a trip to the country of origin wouldn't require a passport.

I got hold of a Fruity Pork pie for £3 from their store which can be sold hot or cold. I was skeptical about such a flavour at first because I don't tend to like mixing sweet and savory food. However I was caught off guard by a completely unexpected flavour sensation! I would describe it more as a Spicy Pork pie. It had flavours that reminded me of a mince pie. There was a definite aniseed type flavour which might have been fennel. It was hard to identify what the other spices might have been. In addition there was onion to keep the pork company. This might all sound a bit strange but it just about worked as there was as much spice as there could be without it being too overpowering. The pork was tender and the pastry was melt in the mouth. There was not much gravy but the pie was moist enough without it. It is great to see such originality in this twist to a winning formula. Having said that, I wouldn't put it on my 'desert island pies' list as it goes so close to being overwhelming in its intensity. But as a Pierateer, although eating lots of pies is always a pleasure, it is too often a case of 'pie by numbers' so this pie was a breath of fresh air and the experience is recommended.



Fruity Pork (Local Roots - HP13 6LJ)
4.65/7

SJL

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Ginsters - Chicken Pie Review

Welcome to another edition of the pierate blog. My name is Simon Pyeman and I have been asked to conduct a series of investigations into the group of pie bloggers who call themselves 'The Pierateers'. A mysterious bunch they can be difficult to track down. I have today discovered the South London residence of the Pierateer known as SJL. It is a slightly dodgy area to be honest. There were riots here last summer. Rumours abound the riot was caused by a local pie shortage.
Knocking on the door it appears no one is here. Fortunately the glass in the window is quite easy to break and I can put my hand through and open the catch from the inside....
Okay, so now we are inside SJL's flat, there is a smell of last night's pie in the air. There are many posters and pieces of art work on the walls, all of them pictures of pies. He has a pirate costume with the hat shaped like a pie, it is all exactly as I expected.
Now to the kitchen which is surely where you want to visit! The cupboards are as anticipated, plenty of different types of stock and some flour; important for making pies. There is an abundance of gravy, the vital sidekick, like Robin to the Pie's Batman. However, I am surprised to find ready rolled pastry in the fridge. I would have thought SJL would have perfected the art of pastry making. Next I check the recycling for any discarded pie boxes. To my shock, I find not gourmet pies but a Ginsters Chicken pie box. Just as I am mulling over this disappointing find in walks SJL.
“What the flip is going on here??? Have you broken into my flat? Why are you going through my bins? I'm calling the police.”
“Please sir, don't do that, I was merely passing by and noticed this flat had been broken into. As it was open I thought I had best guard it and make sure that no one comes in. It has actually taken quite a bit of time and I was supposed to go and look after a sickly puppy.”
“Oh gosh, I am sorry for being accusational, thank you so much. Damn, I hope my computer hasn't been stolen.”
“No, nothing has been stolen. I suppose you would be worried about the computer given that you have to review so many pies on pierate.co.uk.”
“How.... how do you know that?”
“Oh well I couldn't help notice when looking through your post that your initials are SJL, the same as one of the pierateers. Also I recognise your chin from some of the photos on the blog.”
“Oh... okay, wow, I didn't realise that my chin is so distinctive!”
“Yes.... yes, it is, but now I see it is eclipsed by your nose. Can I ask why you don't make your own pastry? I was going through your fridge because I was feeling faint from hunger after looking after your flat for so long. I then see Tesco's own ready ready rolled puff pastry. Is it too hard to even roll the pastry yourself?”
“I'm so so sorry to have been a disappointment.... I just find it hard to even roll the puff pastry, I always get the temperature wrong and it goes sticky. I am sometimes lazy. I have let myself down I know...”
“That is not the worst, I was going through your bin and found a Ginsters Chicken Pie box. I was expecting something a bit more upmarket from a Pierateer.”
“Hey, that comment is not fair, we need to review all sorts of pies otherwise we might miss out a real bargain. Plus, I was quite impressed by the Ginsters Chicken pie, I would give it about 4.43. It was also on offer at just £2.79 for a family sized pie.”
“Intriguing, tell me more what you liked about this pie.”
“Admittedly the meat seemed quite processed but it wasn't at all chewy. There were ample amounts of a thick, peppery, creamy sauce which was great. The pastry was good and had a bit of crunch. Trust me, I didn't want to like it but I did. The condition wasn't great though, looked nothing like on the box."
“I saw the box said it can also be eaten cold which is unusual for a pie such as this. What are your feelings regarding this?”
“Well you would have to be pretty desperate to eat it cold but could be useful.... wait, why were you going through my bins and post anyway?”
“I am a private detective so naturally I was looking for clues.”
“In the bin? Who are you anyway? Can I get your details in case you need to be a witness or something to the break-in?”
“I'm afraid as a private detective I don't get on well with the police. Also, I must be going, I have medicine that the sickly puppy must receive as soon as possible. However I will leave you this piece of paper with my address on in case you need to contact me. Have a good day.”
“Okay... well thanks for staying... goodbye....”  ............. “HEY, wait, come back this piece of paper just has my address written on it, hey.....” (Simon is nowhere to be seen) “Why did he have my address written down anyway?”



Chicken (Ginsters)
4.43/7

SJL

See where this pie ended up in the Pierate Pie Rankings or find other pies of a similar flavour. Make sure you Follow @pierateers and let us know your thoughts!

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Peppa Pig and Evie

Before I start, let me just clarify that no Peppa Pigs were harmed in the making of this pie. And also that Peppa Pig didn’t eat all the pies, as I fortunately got my hands on one before we met her.


Score: 5.4/7

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Tesco Bramley Apple Pie Review

When a type of apple has its own website, you know you’re branching out in the right direction. So while I’ve been rooting around, leaving nothing to chance, I’ve found a lot of information about the contents of our latest pie review. Don’t worry - I’ve not gone barking mad, but I've got to the core of the issue, and yes, you’ve probably twigged by now: I’m talking about the humble Bramley Apple.


Score: 4.8/7

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Young's Old Ship pub - Steak Pie Review

I recently paid a visit to the lovely Old Ship pub on the banks of the Thames just down from Hammersmith bridge on my search for London Pie. Owned by Young's brewers, they had a small menu which I was pleased to see still saved a place for a Young's Steak Pie. Apparently this was to come served on a bed of mash and kale. Intriguing, but I had to remember to focus on the pie and not the sideshow that was to come with it.
Unfortunately when my pie came to be served it had fallen off it's glorious vegetable perch. This slightly detracted from the presentation. However, it didn't hide the more noticeable fact that the top of the pie looked to have taken the crispy golden brown colour to the extreme. So much so that it looked dangerously close to being called 'burnt', the dreaded antithesis to the seven C's that we use to score our pies. A burnt pie can lose points on Colour, Condition, Consistency and possibly even Chewiness if it is really bad. But, perhaps this pie was supposed to come 'well done' I had after all not specified for it to be medium-rare.


The first stab with a knife and the pie oozed glorious gravy. The pastry, especially around the sides where it wasn't burnt, was fantastically gooey. The pie had a great Capacity which was packed with Content. However, the first bite confirmed my worst fears. Credit where it is due, the initial taste was certainly what you would expect from a gourmet pie. However, behind that was an all too familiar bitter carbon tang. Like burnt toast, it was so disappointing because this pie could have been in the upper echelons of the pie rankings. My pie eating companion for the evening said that he quite liked the burnt flavour. However he claims that 'pasties are a type of pie'. Clearly he is not fit to judge pie flavours so this view can be safely disregarded. Overall however, I did really enjoy this pie, it certainly did not ruin the experience. The mash and kale in particular were done to perfection. On another occasion I'm sure this could score better but we can only rate what is put in front of us. For the price of a bit over a tenner it is certainly above average for a London pub.

Young's Steak Pie (The Old Ship - Hammersmith, W6 9TD)
5.29/7

SJL

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To mark Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne and as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the Senei produced a royally good pie! Provided at the Jubilee Lunch, hosted by City Church Birmingham, the red, white and blue bunting, flags and decorations by the children only added to the carnival atmosphere, as I dived in to grab the first slice of homemade Chicken & Stuffing Picnic Pie. The first thing to note were the nice chunks of chicken that were spread throughout the centre of the pie, giving every slice of pie that meatilicious content every savoury pie reviewer craves. The chicken and stuffing worked perfectly together, combining well with the nice thick pastry coating. I must have picked the perfect slice, as it did not crumble until the last mouthful, and while I did spot a few slightly crumbling slices on other people’s plates (notably the chef and chefess themselves), it was indeed a very fine and well crafted pie. And even better – it did not cost me a penny! It was packed full of content, my only slight criticism being a slightly higher content of chicken would have rounded it off perfectly, but all in all my first taste of Chicken & Stuffing Picnic Pie has left me craving for more! Bring on the 70 year celebrations!

The Queen would have certainly given this pie her royal seal of approval! A great pie to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee weekend with!

Score: 6.1/7
Chicken and Stuffing Picnic Pie

Bryony's patriotic Jubilee Cake, eaten at another Jubilee celebration!

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Would you pay £8 for a pie? Of course it would depend on the context, but the big cheeses at the Olympic Games have announced that pies will cost £8 at the "Greatest Show on Earth" - London 2012.

Check out this article on it: http://www.metro.co.uk/olympics/900735-punters-set-to-pay-4-for-olympic-beer-and-8-a-pie

Let's just hope they're the greatest pies on earth when we come to get our hands on them in July! A gold winning review is hoped for, though the expectation of the British public will be high!

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Tesco Steak and Red Onion Pie Review

Apologies for the unimaginative title but I have a headache. My remedy for the headache was of course pie. As a Pierateer, more unusual fillings catch my eye and this was no different for the steak and red onion pie I had for lunch today. I looked over the traditional 'steak and ale' and 'chicken and mushroom' and settled on this £2 (or 2 for £3 offer which I greedily took up) pie.


Though cooked for the recommended time, the pie was a little bit burnt on the outside but cold in the middle. However, I think this flaw is very much the fault of my oven rather than the pie. After a quick blast in the microwave to get it hot, the pie turned out to be very tasty. The steak pieces were soft and easy to eat rather than chewy. The gravy was thick and flavourful. The red onion in the pie made a lovely change from the regular white onion, which is often used a a cheap filler in regular pies. The subtle change made the pie a bit sweeter than you might expect but this is really nice. Overall, the pie was not really exciting, but made a fabulous cheap lunch treat.

Tescos Steak and Red Onion Pie
Score: 4.0/7
ARL

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Word on the street is that Miss Crabtree likes to crack out her chicken and rice speciality dish to all her guests, providing them with a delicious chicken in white wine sauce. Great...but why is this being mentioned on the world’s number one pie blog? Well let me tell you! For it was an absolute delight when recently frequenting said friend’s house for said chicken and rice speciality dish that the chicken dish had been covered in pastry and turned into a pie!* Excellent!

Yes, that is rice...

Chicken Pie
RAS

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Fuller's Ale and Pie House Review

With some pubs you are happy to see one or two pies on the menu so when there is a choice of nine, it is like walking into a pie wonderland. This is what happened when the Pierateers visited The Mad Hatter pub in Southwark, London. This is another Fuller's Ale & Pie House like The Jack Horner visited recently.

It is also a bit of a nightmare because you want to try them all. Fortunately the pub had thought of this already by providing a mini pie platter containing five pies. In order to try more pies the Pierateers decided to split all five pies and one full sized pie between them. There were practical problems with this. With such small pies each Pierateer got a tiny amount and so there was not much time to decide a score before the flavour was gone. However the tastebuds of the Pierateers are honed to perfection and hopefully on average the scores are fair. Notes were made by the Pierateers at the time but they are fairly unintelligible now. I will try my best to decipher them. Here goes....


The Mad Hatter House Pie - Chunks of game with an orange zest in a brandy gravy.
The Pierateers were pleased that while the orange zest was very much part of the flavour of this pie it was not overpowering. The balance was good however we felt the game was slightly on the Chewy side.
TJP - 5.59   SJL - 5.56   RAS - 4.60
Overall - 5.25

Broccoli, Spinach & Cheddar
TJP described this pie as 'insipid' however it was noted that it was 'healthy considering the genre'. It must have done something right though as RAS described it as 'not too bad' and he is known for his carnivorous nature.
TJP - 4.72   SJL - 5.07   RAS - 4.30
Overall - 4.70

Steak & Fuller's Ale
'Where's the ale?' were amongst the comments from the Pierateers. The meat was noted as a bit Chewy and the Content lacking, although to be fair this was a very small pie. However special mention was reserved for the mushrooms. The decision overall was that this pie was decidedly 'nothing special'.
TJP - 4.29   SJL - 4.89   RAS - 4.40
Overall - 4.53

Chicken, Thyme & Apricot Stuffing
The comments for this pie focused on the lack of meat. The pie just tasted of onion and stuffing to some of the Pierateers, however the scores show this wasn't necessarily considered to be too bad. The Pierateers were undecided whether they would choose to eat the whole large pie in this flavour.
TJP - 4.50   SJL - 4.99   RAS - 4.90
Overall - 4.80

Gammon, Apple & Potato
Strangely this was the only mini pie not also available as a full size pie. SJL complained that he had no apple. TJP said that he had all the apple. TJP and RAS liked the gammon but controversially there is quite a divergence on scores for this pie. SJL said 'I was very disappointed, it just tasted of potato'.
TJP - 6.03   SJL - 3.56   RAS - 4.80
Overall - 4.80 

Venison, Port & Prune
As this flavour sounded very different and intriguing the Pierateers decided to choose this as the full sized pie. However, it has been said by some that this was the biggest disappointment of their pie eating career. Two out of three Pierateers failed to finish their small share of the pie as they felt 'it was only just edible'. There was however one good comment from SJL that the venison was 'melt in the mouth' but the 'bizarre flavours' let it down. The use of juniper berries was particularly questioned.
TJP - 2.09   SJL - 2.37   RAS - 1.5
Overall - 1.99

So there you go, while it was a disastrous end with, in our view, one of the worst pies ever eaten by the Pierateers, the pie platter scores quite high on average.

SJL

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Getting people to read your blog posts is all about getting a good title. I think this one is pretty good, I actually came up with it before eating the pie. I then refused to change it despite the fact that the pie didn't really get close to the 'sparks flying' level of a great pie. So I am sorry, I have misled you. Don't get me wrong, this was a good pie, it was clearly premium quality, but if I were to give it a fantastic score I would be forgetting one of the most important 'Cs' that we use to rate our pies here at pierate; cheapness. At pierate we want to let you know about pies that you would want to buy, not just which pies taste better than others. If a pie is expensive it needs to do something a bit special to make me buy it again and sadly this didn't.

Now, I am slightly doing this review backwards, I should tell you what the pie was! A gastropub branded West Country Steak and Cornish IPA Ale from Marks and Spencer. This was an individual pie which cost me £3.15, fairly pricey for a small pie from a supermarket.

The pastry was fantastic, it used the classic, puff pastry lid and short crust sides combo. Despite being oven cooked it was nice and gooey. There was loads of gravy which was certainly above average. However, the steak let it down for me, I didn't feel it was premium standard. It was chewy in places when I was expecting melt in the mouth.


So the pie did score highly in a number of areas but some faults stop it from gaining top Marks.

West Country Steak and Cornish IPA Ale (Marks and Spencer)
5.05/7

SJL
 
P.S. I have just noticed the name of the pie on the box says 'IPA Ale'. As IPA stands for Indian Pale Ale, they have said Indian Pale Ale Ale on the packet. Surely that isn't right???

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