Well it would be rude not to eat a pie on Pi Day, wouldn’t it! The date is 3.14 after all!

So, with the Pierateers delighted to get the support of Tesco to rate some more pies, it was time to give them another rating! They supplied a £15 pie voucher to spend over the coming few weeks - with plenty of Tesco pies already reviewed - so the pie eaten today for Pi Day was the family sized Tesco Steak Pie.

The Tesco Steak Pie cost £3.00 for a family sized pie and are marketed as being shortcrust pastry filled with tender pieces of steak in a rich gravy, topped with a light puff pastry lid. This pie is cooked from frozen, so it does take almost an hour to cook, but was it worth the wait?

Tesco Steak Pie

Well the lid of the pie was quite nice and crisp, with the puff pastry lid being very nice. The side and base pastry was a bit thicker and some parts were more crisp that others. The pie did unfortunately fall apart slightly as I lifted it out of the foil tray but this was primarily due to there being quite a lot of content in the pie. It may not have been quite filled to the rafters with meat as a lot of the handmade pies we’ve eaten lately are, but the meat was quite nice and tender. A few chewier pieces were there too, but this was one of the more impressive supermarket pies for meat quality (especially as it wasn’t a “finest” range pie).


At £3.00 for a family sized pie, this seemed quite good value. There was plenty of meat inside, although a fair bit of onion bulking out the gravy too. The gravy was nice, not too rich but flavoursome. All in all, a mass produced frozen pie is always going to struggle a bit against fresh, handmade pies, but this was a good pie to go for if looking for a nice, affordable frozen supermarket pie. It earns "Pierate Recommended" status.

Tesco Steak Pie
Score: 5.36/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 5, Consistency 5, Condition 5.25, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 6, Content 5.75, Total: 5.36/7]
RAS

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On board the Pierate Ship we hardly need an excuse to eat pie! After all, we’ve already rated well over 350 pies already and we’ve only just started! But as the 14th March – or 3.14 – comes round once a year, we’re hardly going to turn down eating pie on World Pi Day!

After all, you may have already read our celebration of World Pi Day 2013 – under the banner "Life of Pi(e)" where I ate 3.14 apple pies that day and had to crack out my protractor to do so – and this year we ate a Tesco Steak pie for dinner!

But for now, here’s a Pi present we were sent from Kaz who works at Tesco, who not only supplied us a £15 Tesco Pie Voucher to rate some more Tesco pies (you can see all the Tesco pies we have already rated on our Tesco Pie Reviews page), but also sent us Pi…




Yep, that’s right! That’s Pi to 10,000 digits. Wow! I'm sure you'll agree - that’s commitment to Pi!

But don’t worry, on the Pierate Ship we’re committed to Pie! And you will find plenty more Pie Reviews coming up over the coming few weeks as we get through the pie backlog of the 50+ pies we ate during British Pie Week!

And if you want to find out more about the Pierateers, why not listen in to our interview with Food Geographer Matthew Rippon via his blog foodandgeography.com - where we talk particularly about the Seven Cs pie rating criteria and how we use social media.

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Wild Boar Pork Pie

Wild boar? In a pork pie? I know what you’re thinking. That’s got to be the most exceptional pork pie ever, right?! It’s certainly the most intriguing pork pie I’ve ever eaten, that’s for sure.

This pie is the masterful creation of those wonderful people over at Nice Pie, who just don't seem content with making regular pies. Just take a look at their exotic pie range. Their kitchens must be like one crazy safari ride - "There's some buffalo. And that? That's crocodile. And here's some elk."

Wild Boar Pork Pie cross-sectional view

Overall score: 6.2/7

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Well there we have it. British Pie week has come and gone, a LOT of pies have been eaten and almost as many #PiePledges have been fulfilled. As you might remember from my last post, my #PiePledge was to attempt hot water crust pastry for the first time – something I was a bit nervous about. Luckily I managed to overcome my pastry fears and bake a truly ginormous hot water crust pie, and it wasn’t as tricky as I’d expected!

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British Pie Week is a celebration of British Pies, which we on the Pierate Ship absolutely love! In our quest to eat and rate as many pies as we can get our hands on, we’re making a Pieary (Pie Diary) of all the pies we eat this British Pie Week. Some of these are included as part of our #PiePledge commitments, promoting and encouraging pie consumption.

It’s been a great week of pie eating and we are delighted to reach another landmark during the week, as we reached 1,000 followers on twitter. Thanks pie fans! You can follow the Pierateers on twitter @pierateers

Pierateer RAS

The Pierateers were delighted to get the support of Tesco to rate some more pies this British Pie Week. They supplied a £15 pie voucher to spend over the coming few weeks. The pie eaten today to round off British Pie Week for me was the Tesco Steak and Ale Pie.

Tesco Steak and Ale Pie

The Tesco Steak and Ale Pie cost £2.50 for two and are marketed as being made by expert pie makers in Lancashire. This pie is cooked from frozen. The shortcrust pastry was quite nice and crisp, a little dry but generally quite good. It held the contents of the pie well and the rich ale gravy was nice. The pastry was a bit pale, but the cracked black pepper on the lid did add a bit of flavour but was not overpowering.

The capacity of the pie was okay but could have been a lot better. The actual pieces of steak were however very nice and tender. Unfortunately some of the steak was quite chewy and one piece was very fatty and gristly, which is not what you want in your pie. There was a little bit of mushroom but not much. All in all, this was quite a small pie but was only £1.25 each. I would have liked a bigger, meatier pie but the flavours were nice.

Tesco Steak and Ale
Score: 4.57/7
[Colour 5, Capacity 4, Consistency 4.5, Condition 5, Chewiness 4, Cheapness 5.5, Content 4, Total: 4.57/7]

Pierateers SJL & ALE

Pierateer ALE fulfilled her #PiePledge by making an Apple, Sausage and Black Pudding Gluten Free pie. This pie also helped Pierateer SJL fulfil his #pie4everymeal #PiePledge, see it being made in the video.

Pierateer TJP

- Coming soon!

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British Pie Week is a celebration of British Pies, which we on the Pierate Ship absolutely love! In our quest to eat and rate as many pies as we can get our hands on, we’re making a Pieary (Pie Diary) of all the pies we eat this British Pie Week. Some of these are included as part of our #PiePledge commitments, promoting and encouraging pie consumption.

The Pierateers celebrated their first article receiving 1,500 pageviews today! Their article "Best Pie in London" was the number one viewed article in 2013 and is still getting plenty of views.

Pierateer RAS

With Pierateer RAS once again helping at the Badminton at the NIA (see the Chicken and Leek pie reviewed earlier in the week), he was quieter on the pie front. However he had his pie of the day (and 21st of British Pie Week) in the form of a Morrisons Apple Pie, covered in custard!

Morrisons Apple Pies

Pierateer SJL

Pierateer TJP

- Coming soon!

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British Pie Week is a celebration of British Pies, which we on the Pierate Ship absolutely love! In our quest to eat and rate as many pies as we can get our hands on, we’re making a Pieary (Pie Diary) of all the pies we eat this British Pie Week. Some of these are included as part of our #PiePledge commitments, promoting and encouraging pie consumption.

Pierateer RAS

With Pierateer RAS back to work on Friday (yes, sadly eating and rating pies is not a full time profession just yet!) there was light at the end of the tunnel – a package awaited him upon turning up at his desk on Friday morning. If only every workday started with a pie package!!!

The pie package contents were a pie and a “pie”, both supplied by “The Ark” catering company in Burnley. The owner Jonny has taken over a sandwich shop and is looking to diversiPIE… well, who wouldn’t want to add pie to the menu?! The “pie” in question was chilli with a cornbread crust. Quite a spicy chilli, the meat certainly tasted good and the cornbread and cheese on top was a real treat. Categorically not a pie and you certainly need a plate if you don’t want to eat it out of the foil tray, but a very nice meal.

However what you really want to know is how did the pie rate? Well the Steak and Ale was – you’ll be pleased to know – fully encased in pastry. The pastry held together well (you could pick up this pie and eat in your fingers) and the meat was very good. You’ll have to read the full review to see how it rates but it was a very good effort for someone relatively new to pie catering! He’s certainly pushed the boat out… or should I say ark?!... and it’s paying dividends!

However the other highlight of the day was coming home to find another package awaiting me – though this time not a pie but a Pieminister pie voucher instead and a Pieminister bandana! No excuse not to look like a Pierateer now! You can buy the Bandanas/Neckerchiefs online on the Pieminister shop whilst you order their pies.

We’ve reviewed plenty of Pieminister pies and you can read their reviews on the Pieminister Pie Reviews page.

Pierateer SJL

 

Pierateer TJP

- Keen to prove that you really can put anything in a pie (see the earlier attempt with the python pie), Pierateer TJP got the pastry out again and knocked up this pie:



If you're more used to putting ice cream on the outside of your pie, why not switch things round and put it inside your pie. This totally delicious ice cream pie will be the talking point of any dinner party, I can assure you.

Pierateer ARL

Pierateer ARL fulfilled her #PiePledge on Day Five by finding a tuna pie in a Eurospar in Spain. See the full review on Pierate upon her return to the UK.

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If you don’t fancy a slither of python pie, then look away now. For the rest of you, get ready to wrap your jaws around some delicious, simple-to-make haute cuisine.

Here at Pierate, we’re always on the lookout for a new pie flavour, and are always willing to test the boundaries of what you can and can’t put in a pie. To that end, I had been wondering whether python might make for a delicious ingredient in a pie. You always see pythons on the news eating delicious things like crocodiles, antelope and rats, so surely python meat would offer the combined taste of all of these yummy delights? To my surprise, I couldn’t find a python pie on sale anywhere, so I employed my own culinary skills (zero) and whipped up my own ‘piethon’.

So if you really want to know how not to cook a python pie, here’s how to do it.

First of all, you obviously need your python meat. So simply go get your hands on some of that.

Once you’ve procured your python meat, defrost it and chop it up.

Note that some parts may be a bit sinewy, but persistence pays off. Relish the unique scent of the raw python meat.

Then maybe fry it. In retrospect, cooking it quickly was probably a bad idea. Maybe it needed some slow-cooking.


Congratulations, you’re nearly done! That python pie will be sliding down you before you can say “that’s pretty rank”.
Next, be really lazy and line your pie dish with pre-made pastry (from a manufacturer that may or may not have something to do with British Pie Week). Make sure that pie dish is fully lined with pastry. Python pie fans do not appreciate just a pastry lid - this isn’t a python casserole, remember!

You’re so close to totally knocking the socks off everyone with your new python pie. If your guests haven’t already started knocking on the door yet, now would be a good time to notify them of your soon-to-be-displayed cooking prowess.

Next, make a white sauce, and fold in some broccoli and peas. Then add your python to the white sauce, and pour in to the lined pie dish.

Add the lid. I have used puff pastry here.

Put in a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes. Then take out of the oven and admire (Pierate pastry logo optional).

Wow! If there’s one thing better than your kitchen being filled with the wonderful aroma of pie, it’s the wonderful aroma of python pie! You’ll no doubt be salivating like Pavlov’s dog at the moment, so get digging in to the pie right away.

Get a good lump of python on that fork, and enjoy!

Okay, so the python pie wasn’t my biggest success in the kitchen. I found the python to be chewy and revolting, so much so that I gagged at the first mouthful. But at least I completed my #PiePledge for British Pie Week, to cook (and partially eat) a python pie! Challenge accomplished!

TJP

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British Pie Week is a celebration of British Pies, which we on the Pierate Ship absolutely love! In our quest to eat and rate as many pies as we can get our hands on, we’re making a Pieary (Pie Diary) of all the pies we eat this British Pie Week. Some of these are included as part of our #PiePledge commitments, promoting and encouraging pie consumption.

We were delighted that at the start of the day we received the 1,000th view of our "Best Pies in London Restaurants" article, which is currently our third most viewed article of all time!

Pierateer RAS

With the thoughts of 2,580 kcal of nothing but sweet apple pie still on his mind following Tuesday's exploits, Pierateer RAS decided to stick to the meat pies on Thursday.

Having eaten the Fuud Chicken Pie Category winner on Monday night, Pierateer RAS consumed the two other Fuud pies that they had provided for lunch. Starting with the Steak, Kidney and Mushroom pie, this was a delicious filling, with the contents correctly leaning towards the steak but the kidney and mushroom in a thick gravy adding a nice balance to proceedings.

The other pie seemed a more experimental flavour, with a Pork, Plum and Celery pie. While I have no doubt that meat and sweet can work together in some settings for certain people (such as your pork and apple sauce), I’m afraid this combination of pork and plum just didn’t really do it for me. Perhaps if you are a big fan of pork and apple this mix would suit your pallet, but the pork flavour was completely swamped by the sweet plum sauce. The pork itself seemed nice and tender but you couldn’t avoid the sweet sauce, which didn’t really mix well with the pastry. Fair play for trying something new but this pie didn’t really work for me.

I mentioned yesterday that I am volunteering at the Yonex All England Badminton Championships and had eaten the Chicken and Leek Pie. Having written the review, I also managed to get a summary of the full review included on the front page of the Badminton Volunteers daily newsletter (which I had also managed to do last year with the Apple Pie I rated back then).

Pierateer SJL

 

Pierateer TJP

- Coming soon!

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Nice Pie wild boar pork pie

Nice Pie wild boar pork pie

The wild boar went down a treat, and it gave a nice twist on the traditional pork pie (which, when eaten in excess, can be quite overwhelming in its richness). I found myself cruising in the challenge at this stage; the wild boar was so delicious that I was wondering whether this whole pork pie thing was even a challenge at all.

However, even the wild boar, which in its first few slices provided a welcome relief to traditional pork pie, soon became quite overwhelming in its richness. These pies are quite large and rich, so there was certainly no way I was going to be able to eat the whole thing in one go. Instead, I ate a third of it, had a break and then snacked on some smaller slices.

Next on the pork pie menu was a Mrs Kings Melton Mowbray pork pie, which I ate for my mid-afternoon snack. Mrs Kings have won multiple awards for their pies, including Best Melton Mowbray Pork Pies at the British Pie Awards (2011-2012) and Best Hand Raised Melton Mowbray Pork Pie (2013-2014) so I knew I was eating a quality pie. The quality of the pie certainly made it easier to eat at this stage in the challenge.

Mrs Kings pork pie

Mrs Kings pork pie

By this point, I had learned that rather than trying to substitute a pork pie as a whole "meal", it was much better to eat small amounts of pork pie at a time. But while the quality of the pies I had eaten was high, there's no denying that you can have too much of a good thing. By the late afternoon I was feeling quite sick, and felt the need for a large meal. But I knew the large meal was only going to be more pork pie.

That evening I headed down to the Princess Victoria Pork Pie Off, which was really the main driver for me attempting this pork pie challenge. You can read more about the pork pie off here, but let's just say that after trying 10 different pork pies I was feeling really quite ill and gained the pork pie sweats! But a couple of glasses of water later and a chat with a few other pie fans, and I was feeling a bit back to normal and headed home for a herbal tea.

The pie reviews will come later, but I was very impressed with nearly all the pork pies that I ate on the day, particularly Mrs Kings and the wild boar pie. I thought just eating pork pie would be a relentlessly monotonous experience, but instead I found there was great variety within pork pies - as if they're almost a food group of their own.

The pork pie challenge is not something that I'll be attempting again. It perhaps wasn't the day of doom that I was expecting it to be, but the pork pie sweats are not pleasant and my stomach took a couple of days to settle fully. But I was certainly spurred on by the quality of the pork pies, and I feel indebted to the tastiness of the pies for helping me complete the challenge. Long live the pork pie! I have a new fondness for these delightfully British icons.

The pork pie challenge was my Pie Pledge to celebrate Day One of British Pie Week 2014.

TJP

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National Indoor Arena Chicken and Leek Pie

Some of you may remember that last British Pie Week Pierateer RAS was at the National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Birmingham to help with the Yonex All England Badminton Championships 2014, but also got a chance to rate the NIA Apple Pie. And at 4.2/7 the apple pie got a decent score but there were a few service faults and certainly room for improvement.

NIA Chicken and Leek Pie

Back again this year, the NIA have this year got some meat pie on the menu and we have rated the Chicken and Leek pie. As you can see from the photo, this is just a top crust pie. At www.pierate.co.uk we are quite pie purists, so we would prefer to see a pie fully encased in pastry, however it was good to see the top pastry was quite golden. This top pastry layer was quite tasty, though not very crisp and there were also definite murmurings of a lack of pastry by fellow pie eaters. Without a pie casing, the filling just spilled all over the plate and so the condition wasn’t great.

The filling spread all over the plate and it was great to have a decent amount of chicken, which was tender and quite flavoursome in the gravy provided. However it is very difficult to judge the capacity with such a lack of pastry structure to support the pie. There was a bit of leek and onion in it to bulk out the pie filling, but it was certainly mainly chicken. At £7.50 for the pie meal, this isn’t really a price I’d be making a racquet over.

While the NIA have once again done well to show their support to British pie for all the international guests at the NIA in British Pie Week (as they did in 2011 and 2013), I would like to have seen them encase the pie in pastry. However, all in all, it was quite a nice top-crust pie meal without challenging for the top seeding.

National Indoor Arena Chicken and Leek Pie
Score: 4.43/7
[Colour 5, Capacity 5, Consistency 5, Condition 3, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 2, Content 5, Total: 4.43/7]
RAS

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British Pie Week is a celebration of British Pies, which we on the Pierate Ship absolutely love! In our quest to eat and rate as many pies as we can get our hands on, we’re making a Pieary (Pie Diary) of all the pies we eat this British Pie Week. Some of these are included as part of our #PiePledge commitments, promoting and encouraging pie consumption.

Pierateer RAS

I cannot tell you how nice it was to wake up on Wednesday morning and not have to eat an apple pie! Don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with apple pie for breakfast (I’ve done it many a time!) but for Day Two of British Pie Week, I had made a #PiePledge to only eat sweet pies for a day. Therefore after 2,580 kcal (just over my daily recommended calorie intake of 2,500 kcal) of nothing but sweet apple pie, my taste buds needed a change!

Nice Pie's Bison and Beer Pie

Up stepped the meaty Bison Pie we’d been given from Nice Pie. And quite a whopper it was! Certainly a sharing pie, at £5.50 this is good value for a pie for two and I ate half for my lunch and then the other half for my supper. Good flavour, lovely tender Bison meat and a very good pastry somehow holding all this meaty content in! The full review will be coming soon.

While Pierateer RAS is currently volunteering at the NIA in Birmingham at the All England Badminton Championships, he is of course still on the lookout for pies. Those who followed our British Pie Week exploits from 2013 will know the NIA caterers sometimes have pie on the menu and Pierateer RAS was delighted to see a Chicken and Leek pie on the menu today. He was less enthused when he saw it was a top crust but it did still taste quite nice.

Pierateer SJL

 

Pierateer TJP

- Pierateer TJP cooked and attempted to eat a python pie (as per his Pie Pledge). I say attempted, because I didn't get very far through the pie before gagging and having to down several glasses of water. You can read the full experience and how to not make a python pie here!
- He also rounded the day off with a delicious camel pie from Nice Pie. The review will be coming soon, but he was very impressed with the tenderness of the meat.

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