Pierate in attendance at the BBC Radio 5 Live Price of Football Debate

With a selection of Football Club directors, an ex-player in Kevin Kilbane and current one in Frank Lampard, some passionate fans and Pierateer Rob in attendance, BBC Radio 5 Live hosted a debate on the Price of Football Survey in Etihad Stadium, Manchester. While the main debate focused on the price of the actual match day ticket, there were a few brief mentions of pies and a chance for Pierateer Rob to give his view (as a Wycombe Wanderers fan) on the cost of a ticket, rather than the price of pies.

Pierateer RAS and fellow football pie fan Dan Walker

It was also an opportunity for Rob to meet Kieran Maguire who is an expert in Football Finances and a keen supporter and pie eater at Brighton and Hove Albion FC. He rates Brighton’s pies – supplied by British Pie Awards winners Piglets Pantry – as the best in football, so we will definitely have to take up their kind offer of going to rate their pies sometime soon! We hope to get Kieran’s opinions on the price of football pies in the near future too!

However, alongside meeting Frank Lampard and Danny Wilson (Sales Director at Manchester City), the pielight of the trip was talking football pies with presenter Dan Walker after the show.

Pierateer RAS joined guests at the Etihad Stadium

Dan, for the few who don’t know, is presenter on BBC’s Football Focus and is a big fan of the half time pie. Like us, he sees eating a half time pie as part of the football match day package. He specifically recommended the pie at Kidderminster, which does come with quite a hefty price tag in the latest BBC Price of Football Survey as the most expensive pie in football (though Harriers fans defend this tag by arguing it is more of a meal than just a pie). Unfortunately the half time snack at Kidderminster doesn’t meet our strict Pierate requirements for a pie, as it is really a potato bake and has no pastry.

He also highlighted the vegetarian pies at Forest Green Rovers as ones to try – which I know for a fact is already on the pie hit list of Pierateer SJL. However only in exceptional circumstances would Dan be willing to pay £4 or more for a match day pie, agreeing with us that it is more the quality of the pie that is important, rather than the price per se.

Dan joins celebrities such as David Beckham and Barack Obama as celebrities who love pie!

You can find out what we believe makes the piefect football pie in our article “The Pies of Football”, which looks at the results of the BBC Price of Football survey and also includes our review of the new Pork, Irn Bru and Chilli pie at Morecambe FC!

RAS

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As the BBC Price of Football Survey launches, we give our opinion and go to the home of the homemade football pie to rate Morecambe FC’s Pork, Irn Bru and Chilli Pie.

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

When you think football, you think half time pie. What better during those cold, winter evenings to warm the heart, as well as the hands, during the half time interval as you watch your local team? But is that actually what people do? Or has the price of football pies put off the regular football fan? Do the caterers even have enough pies to go round? And if fans do buy a pie, is it piefection or are football fans being held to ransom?

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.

We at www.pierate.co.uk will readily admit we are first and foremost a pie rating website, rather than specifically a football pie rating website, but we’re looking to delve further into the provision of football pies as we develop our Pieremiership of football’s best half time pies.

We've rated over 425 pies, including a number of football pies

But while we realise we haven’t eaten anywhere near enough pies in different football grounds yet – despite having over 425 pies rated in our Pie Rankings from many of the regular football pie manufacturers like Pukka Pies, Holland’s Pies and Peter’s Pies – we have always been a fan of eating a golden pastry product in the football stadiums we’ve visited. And in our minds what’s more important than simply the price of the pie is how the pie rates. Is it a soggy disappointment, overly dry or lacking in content or does it meet the 7 criteria we Pierateers look for in a pie?

In our view, it’s all about a great tasting pie – filling and pastry - which is value for money. You can find out more about what makes a great rated pie by reading about the 7 Cs of pie rating. However what makes a great football pie?

Here are a few specific pointers for making the perfect football pie:

Firstly, it’s got to be cooked properly. Sadly, in the rush to serve so many customers in such a short space of time, food at football grounds can be undercooked or left sat in a hot locker for far too long, making the pie taste bad or even be pretty much inedible. We have unfortunately fallen foul to a few pies being served to us either undercooked or over baked. Naturally, the rating of such pies is badly affected.

Secondly, the football pie has got to be something you can pick up in your hands and bite into, without it crumbling all over the place. Quite a few football pies can be too soft to pick up or crumble all over the place when bitten into, so a firm but crisp pastry casing is key.

Finally, the consistency of the pie filling has got to be just right. Naturally we want a meat pie to be filled to capacity with nice, tender meaty chunks, but we also expect the viscosity of the gravy or sauce to be well thought through so that it is flavoursome but not too runny, as the last thing you want is gravy down your football shirt!


The latest addition to his football emPIEre is his Pork, Irn Bru and Chilli pie, which as such a unique flavour has split opinion a bit amongst supporters but has got many an intriguing review. During our filming with BBC Sport last week we got to rate the new pie and you can read the Pork, Irn Bru and Chilli pie review here.



In summary, we think there’s nothing better than a warm, hearty pie to get you through half time. But the key thing is that they have got to be top rated pies! Too often the pies are not only overly expensive but are just not up to scratch, either too dry or undercooked. So as well as checking out the price of pies this season, we’ll be making sure we rate as many as possible on our 7 Cs of pie rating so that you know what pies to purchase!

RAS

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Morecambe Football Club - Pork, Irn Bru & Chili Pie Review

A second visit to Morecambe FC's Globe Arena gave us the chance to review their new pie flavour! The Irn-Bru pie was very much the same in size, shape and cost to the other table-topping pies at Morecambe so it received similar scores for some criteria as in our last review. Overall it is the fantastic value that stands out with Morecambe pies. Other football clubs take advantage of the 'captive audience' and charge a higher price for pies which could be bought more cheaply elsewhere. The pies at Morecambe FC would be great value anywhere, were they sold in a football ground or on the high street.


Condition – 6.63 out of 7 – As it was previously, the appearance was simple but effective. I can verify that it is hand-made having seen the magic happening in the kitchen.

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As you may know, here at Pierate HQ we hold a yearly AGM (less organised than it sounds) where we discuss all of our dreams about the future of pie reviewing. Alongside piesuing worldwide pie domination and eating pies in every country, one idea that has come up repeatedly is an interactive pie rankings table.

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Dicksons Steak, Minced Beef and Onion and Pork Pies

Dicksons Chunky Steak Pie Review

It is great to hear when pie sellers such as butchers and bakeries celebrate important milestones, like the recent 60th anniversary of Dicksons family butchers last year. It is a sign of great quality that a local company – in this case from a family of pie makers – is still going strong so many years after founding, and now even has an online pie shop! With the recent upsurge in artisan pie makers, it is good to see that there are also the old hands still banging out good quality pie produce week in, week out.

So having celebrated their 60th birthday last year in 2013, we wanted to give Dicksons pies a rating. We were sent 6 pies – a double pack of Steak pies, Minced Beef and Onion pies and Pork pies. They were very nicely packaged, immediately catching your eye as being a traditional product with a great wealth of history to the company. Surprisingly though, there was no indication of any cooking instructions, which I think most general members of the pie eating public would find a little strange. Fortunately, being the piefessionals that we are, we heated the Steak and Minced Beef and Onion pies for about 20 minutes in the oven at Gas Mark 6, by which point the pastry started getting all crisp and golden. We ate the Pork Pies cold.

So how did the pies rate?

Chunky Steak Pie

Dicksons Chunky Steak Pie Review

Steak pies with a luscious meaty gravy are traditionally my personal favourite when it comes to pies, so I was expecting good things from the Dicksons steak pie. Arriving in decent condition, when it came to cutting through the pastry shell there was a reasonable moisture to the pie innards, though unfortunately the content of the pie lacked a reasonable gravy to really complement the meaty taste and was a bit too seasoned for me. There was a bit of gristly meat, which was disappointing, but in general the meat was of a reasonable standard. Unfortunately when looking for piefection, top quality tender meat is a given. With a bit more gravy to moisten the filling, this would have been a nicer filling and stronger scoring pie.

The pastry was crisp and flaky, getting quite golden through the cooking process. It did taste a little dry in patches and I don’t think I would have wanted to eat all the pastry of two pies in a row. Also the filling to pastry ratio for this size of pie wasn’t quite right, being a bit too pastry heavy, but I did enjoy eating these steak pies (gristle aside).

Dicksons Steak Pie
Score: 5.18/7
[Colour 5, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5, Chewiness 4.5, Cheapness 5, Content 5.75, Total: 5.18/7]


Minced Beef and Onion



Dicksons Minced Beef and Onion Pie Review

Often a minced beef pie can suffer from having a minced meat filling that doesn’t quite hit the spot as much as tender chunks of steak (or other meat). It can have the negative stereotype of being a lesser pie as a result, possibly even the poor man’s pie. Which is why I was so delighted that Dicksons have clearly used a quality mincemeat in their pie and developed a very nice sauce to make this Minced Beef and Onion pie really stand out.


It really reminded me of a delicious minced meat pie that a friend of mine (with many years of plate pie making experience) had made me just a few months earlier. The meat was lovely and tender, flavoursome and leaving me wanting more. The pastry was again crisp and flaky, occasionally a little dry but on the whole balance well with the moist filling. The filling to pastry ratio could again have been slightly improved ideally, as it was a rather shallow pie, but on the whole this really did stand out as a top mincemeat based pie. And at just £1.89 for 2 pies, this is a bargain! It’s not often I would rate a mincemeat pie higher than a steak pie, but in this instance I have to give it to the Minced Beef and Onion Dicksons pie!


Dicksons Minced Beef and Onion Pie
Score: 5.64/7
[Colour 5, Capacity 6, Consistency 5.5, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6, Total: 5.64/7]


Pork Pie



Dicksons Pork Pie Review

The pork pies were quite reasonable as pork pies go, with nice meat but a bit lacking in filling. There was a clear air gap between the filling and pastry, with no jelly. The pastry was fine, though it wasn’t very crisp and didn’t really blow me away. They weren’t that big either, but it was a reasonable pork pie, even though with such a great gourmet pork pie market out there I wouldn’t rush out to buy another.

Dicksons Pork Pie
Score: 5/7
[Colour 4.5, Capacity 5, Consistency 5, Condition 4.5, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5, Content 5.5, Total: 5/7]




Dicksons Pork Pie Review

With pies being produced for over 60 years and a real heart of the business being family run, it’s great to see that the north-east are being well looked after. Here’s hoping they are still producing Pierate Recommended pies in another 60 years!

RAS

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Pierate Filming Special!

Without wanting to blow our own trumpets too loudly, having rated and reviewed over 440 pies on the web’s premier pie review blog it’s almost surprising that no-one thought to seek the opinions of the piefessionals behind www.pierate.co.uk sooner! But we were delighted to be contacted by BBC Sport recently to film our pie insights on what makes a good football pie.

BBC Sport presenter Azi Farni chatting to Morecambe FC chef Graham

Of course we’re not going to spoil the surPIEs just yet – you’ll have to wait and see what makes the edit when the “BBC Price of Football” survey comes out on Wednesday 15th October – but what we can say is that we were delighted to be involved and grabbed the opPIEtunity of eating a few more pies from Morecambe FC’s award winning pie kitchen while we were there, including their new Pork, Irn Bru and Chilli pie (review to come soon)!

For those not familiar, you can read our review of their meat pies from our VIP trip back in January 2014, alongside our review of their Apple pie which we ate at half-time. We rated it very highly, especially for a dessert pie, but little did we know the apple pie would go on to win best pie at the British Pie Awards 2014, where we judged.

We’ll share more with you after Wednesday’s findings are released but are delighted to have finally made it as pie experts, just under 5 years since we began sailing the 7 Cs in search of the perfect pie!

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature in next week's Pieday Friday, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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The Ark Steak and Black Cat Ale and Meat and Potato Pie Reviews

Having already rated a pie from “The Ark” catering company in Burnley during British Pie Week, owner Jonny sent a couple more pies for us to rate recently. Having already reviewed the Steak and Ale pie (using Guinness) sent over previously, they had now started producing a steak and ale pie in conjunction with the local Moorhouse’s brewery, using their Black Cat Ale.

The Ark Steak and Ale (left) and Meat and Potato (right) Pies

It was great to see that, despite still being relatively new to pie catering, Jonny had been seeking ways to improve his Steak and Ale pie recipe with this alteration and the latest pie was delicious. The pie was made with baked Suet pastry, which was a lovely golden colour and crisp to eat, while the steak is locally reared from a farm butcher and was lovely and tender.



The Ark Steak and Ale Pie Review

With this Steak and Ale pie being sold on the market at £2.30 this is a good value pie for a quite filling, strong capacity pie. The flavours were very good and I certainly enjoyed this pie and the pastry very much.

Once again, the pastry held together well (you could pick up this pie and eat in your fingers) and the meat was very good. I would have liked a bit more gravy, as while the content was not dry it did lack a little in level and consistency of gravy, but in general this was an improvement on the previous Steak and Ale pie but also cheaper!

The Ark Steak and Black Cat Ale Pie
Score: 5.96/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6, Consistency 6, Condition 6, Chewiness 5.75, Cheapness 6, Content 6.5, Total: 5.96/7]

The Ark Meat and Potato Pie Review

Being sold at just £2.00, the Meat & Potato pie is even cheaper to buy and consists of mincemeat, sourced from the same butcher, and potato in a short crust pastry. It is mixed with a homemade gravy which has a little bit of English Mustard in it. Simple, but effective!

It is hard for a mincemeat pie to compete with a steak pie, just because the chunky pieces of steak will generally always be more appealing, but this pie does still hold its own. Again the pie did lack a bit on the gravy front, which did limit the flavour rather too much, though the filling was quite moist. The short crust pastry used did seem to suffer as well, being rather too dry and therefore quite crumbly. This is evidenced in the photo of the two pies side by side after cooking.

The combination of dry, crumbly pastry and a lack of gravy meant this pie did not appeal to me as strongly, which made me wonder whether this pie would be better suited to also being served in the same suet pastry as the Steak and Ale pie. However the capacity was still good and once the pastry is worked on a bit more, I would certainly eat this pie again.

The Ark Meat and Potato Pie
Score: 4.5/7
[Colour 4, Capacity 4.5, Consistency 5.5, Condition 3.5, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 4.5, Content 4, Total: 4.5/7]


It is encouraging to see that Jonny at The Ark Caterers has taken feedback from us and others on his pies and is now producing an even better Steak and Ale pie, which pushes him ever closer to Pierate Recommended status! He can be assured that he is safely sailing the Seven Cs of pie rating with a top quality pie and with a bit more work I am sure his short crust pastry will match it!

RAS

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You can already buy Paul's Pies in a number of shops but to date these have mainly been independent stores such as farm shops. In the latest exciting development you can now find Paul's Pies in select Asda stores, they have hit the big time! Naturally I was hugely excited by this (they have scored very well previously) and so rushed down to my local Asda in Gloucester to see if they were stocking them. I was not convinced that they would be, but to my delight, this is the sight that greeted me....

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After the Pierateers had to confirm that they are not responsible for "The Pies" motorway graffiti  it seems that graffiti artists may be now trying to send a message to the Pierateers themselves. The graffiti "PIE PIGS" has emerged near to SJL's workplace in Gloucester. For us, it seems too much of a coincidence to dismiss, after all, we are well known for eating a lot of pies. If you have any information please let us know.



Whatever the cause, many have stated that they like the graffiti and it reassures them that they are in the Northern pie heartlands.

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At £2, this is fairly cheap for a regular sized 1-person pie. Of course, it's by no means the cheapest (the £1 pie is not uncommon), but then again it doesn't cost £3+ like the likes of Pieminister or Higgidy.


After some time in the oven, the puff pastry lid is a nice golden brown colour.

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At £1.79 for two, these mycoprotein pies are rather expensive. You can see that the pie is rather small - similar in size to a mini pork pie that one could usually buy cheaper. The pie does at least look similar to a pork pie, with water crust pastry and the crimping round the top.


On slicing open the pie, however, I note some terrible crimes against pork pies around the world. Having been a judge in the pork pie category at this year's British Pie Awards, I feel somewhat qualified to make some observations about the contents of this 'pork pie'. First of all, there's a complete lack of jelly. There wasn't even an attempt at vegetarian jelly. The pie was just completely devoid of this essential pork pie ingredient. This made the filling and pastry dry. Secondly, there was a lot of air in this pie. The filling didn't even reach all the way to the sides of pie, let alone to the lid.


Just look at this close up cross-sectional view of the filling, and note how deplorably underfilled this pie is.

In my opinion, the filling also tasted nothing like a pork pie. It wasn't unpleasant, but then it wasn't very tasty either. The pastry was okay, but a bit bland and overly crisp, almost like stale bread (it seemed to lack the fatty-ness of a traditional pork pie pastry).

All in all, I felt this pie lacked the richness and deliciousness that a pork pie embodies. This was an underfilled, bland, stale-bready affair rather than a rich, succulent, herby pork pie. It lacked pretty much everything I like in a pork pie, and personally I can't recommend these pies.

Quorn Pork Pie Review
Score: 2.1/7
TJP

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Here's where we keep track of everything that's happened over the past week in the world of pies. And wow, what a week. Never a dull moment!

Mystery of the missing pies

There's a mystery brewing at Whitley Bay Football Club, near Newcastle, as half-time pies have inexplicably disappeared from the menu. As the News Guardian reports, the disappearance of the pies is a "major and seismic catastrophe" since meat pie doused with tomato sauce and a hot Bovril are "essential half-time supports." The author calls for a return of the pies, warning that a failure to restore supply might mean Whitley Bay FC "never make Wembley again."

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Something super special next week

There might be something super special happening next week to do with Pierate. We're keeping it a bit under wraps because, frankly, we can't quite believe it's happening ourselves and we don't want to jinx it. I can say though that we've been working extremely hard on Pierate over the past 5 years (believe it or not, eating and reviewing over 440 pies is actually quite a lot of work, especially when it's just a hobby!), so if next week does materialise then we can truly say the effort has all been worth it. Stay tuned!

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Pie Tweet of the Week!

Thanks for the triathlon pie @Walkerspies does this mean we have to eat it, in 3 sittings? We'd prefer just 1. pic.twitter.com/sULfAATq2M
— Jonathan Brownlee (@jonny_brownlee) October 2, 2014

There's not a lot more to add to that, really! But it does mean the Brownlee Brothers have made it into our "Celebrity Pie Quest" article, alongside Barack Obama and many others!

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Mince pies hit the shops


It's apparently that time of year again. The Daily Mail reports that mince pies have hit the shelves of Co-op with 12 weeks still to go before Christmas and we've spotted them in a number of other stores! Is it too early for mince pies, do you think? Is it ever too early? Make sure you click to see all of our mince pie rankings. We'll be doing more mince pie reviews this year, but to whet your appetite why not watch our "12 Pies of Christmas" music video from last year?!

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Pie rating is difficult work

Just in case you thought pie reviewing was an easy task, here's an article in the Burlington Free Press explaining why it's so difficult! And the Bristol Harvest Festival only rated their apple pies on 3 categories - now imagine rating multiple different types of pie across 7 categories! ;)

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Buy British Day and World Smile Day

Today, Friday 3rd October, is both Buy British Day AND World Smile Day! Of course, what could make you smile more than eating a delicious pie?! And pies are so brilliant that we need a whole British Pie WEEK!

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature in next week's Pieday Friday, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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