The Wednesday of British Pie Week is now the home of the British Pie Awards, and we sent Pierateer Rob over to Melton Mowbray to blog and tweet his way through nearly nine hundred pies being rated! You can find out what he got up to in his review of the British Pie Awards Live! We're also delighted over 8,000 of you have now read our article "Everything you need to know about British Pie Week" and to have picked up some more pies from Nice Pie in Melton Mowbray ready for the weekend pie extravaganza we're planning in Leeds!

Judges at the British Pie Awards 2017

Pierateer RAS

You may remember from yesterday that I've made four #PiePledge commitments this British Pie Week, and I'm delighted to say I've nailed another one on Day Three:

- Live blog the British Pie Awards

As for today, it was another long day of pie chat - this time covering the British Pie Awards - Live! Hundreds of you have taken a look at our article already and you can find out lots about what happened there, but we'll also be providing reaction to the results in our write up of the awards later in the week, after the awards lunch on Friday!

It was also great to meet our British Pie Awards Judge Com-pie-tition winners, and we hope to include an interview with the winners in our review article!

The art of pie rating - something we like to think we've mastered!

Pierateer TJP

While Pierateer RAS went to the British Pie Awards, I had a rather less eventful day sat at work. After yesterday's fire-breather of a pie, I opted for a cooler choice and had another slice of my Waitrose Apple and Blackberry pie. This is a pie which is sitting nicely with me and appears to be improving with age, like a fine wine.

I'm also gathering my thoughts before attempting the Triple Pie-thagorus this weekend in Leeds. This will involve eating a pie for starter, main and dessert for each meal of the day. That's only 9 pie, how hard can it be?

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British Pie Awards 2017

The day of the British Pie Awards has arrived! Held in the heart of pork pie country - Melton Mowbray - the scene is once again set for around 100 judges to rate well over 800 pies from across Britain and beyond! Of course you won't be surprised to know we've been invited again this year - having been a judge, media or helper at the British Pie Awards since 2013 - and this year we're there as media to give you the inside scoop of what takes place - Live!

This year is however a bit different, as not only are the awards not happening in the beautiful old Church of St Marys (due to renovation work being done) but with only Pierateer Rob attending from the Pierate Ship, a vacancy arose to judge the pies too! With the Awards committee's agreement, we ran a com-pie-tition to win a place to judge at the British Pie Awards and are delighted that Anya (alongside three friends Charlie, Jessica and Katie) won the prize. You can find out more about them and the sports pie blog they have just started writing in our Com-pie-tition Results article or on their pie blog www.sisterhoodofpies.co.uk 

As well as looking forward to seeing lots of our pie friends at the Awards, we hope to catch up with our com-pie-tition winners during and after the Awards to share our ex-pie-tese, as while the British Pie Awards use a significantly different set of criteria to us (rather than the 7 Cs of pie rating that we have used to rate almost 600 pies on Pierate) there are very few pie experts with more ex-pie-rience than us when it comes to the pie-fect pie!

So check back here during the day for live blog posts below and on Twitter and we hope you enjoy hearing about the British Pie Awards 2017!



8.00 - It's been another early start for Pierateer Rob but he is now on his way to Melton Mowbray for the British Pie Awards 2017! Having done this journey a number of times now, we know the signal on the train is a bit intermittent at best, so we'll keep you posted when we can but normal service will resume when we arrive in Melton Mowbray around 9:40!

8.45 In no particular order (so as not to offend anyone!) here's some of the many people I'm looking forward to meeting at the British Pie Awards today:

- Matthew and Stephen from the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association - who have the pie-rivelege of hosting the Pie Awards (Matthew does the welcome talk and Stephen MCs the event!)

- The Sisterhood of Pies - In case you didn't hear, we ran a com-pie-tition to find a pie judge (as Sam & Tim couldn't make it) & it was won by Anya, Charlie, Jessica and Katie. Check the blurb at the top for details of their pie blog too!

9.00 Nik Speller is a freelancer who we've met a number of times at the Pie Awards but first met in London for a pie meet up. He became our test student for our "Pierateer in Training" programme!

Kate (aka #AwayDayPieGirl) is a new follower of the @pierateers twitter feed (link at bottom of this page!) who tries the pies at away football games for Telford United. Was great to meet her at our Birmingham Pie Night on Monday!

9.15 Felicity Spector is Deputy Programme Editor for Channel 4 News and loves food & writing about it! If you cross out the deputy news editor bit, we pretty much do the same job! Love reading her food tweets.

Megan and the Wild West Comms team do a great job of promoting the Pie Awards every year. Thanks for sorting our media passes!

9.30 The Pie Pundit himself Jonny Smith - who has like us been in National Newspapers talking football pies!

Andy Clarke - TV star and self confessed food and drink loving TV producer!

Mr Martin Tarbuck - author of "The life of Pies" and a pie rater who's just as passionate as us!

Phil from Nice Pie - who sells many Pierate Highly Recommended pies (& not just cos he's bringing some more for us to pie rate!)

Jamie from butchr.net - who is judging and blogging today!

10.05 So we've arrived in Melton Mowbray, met Nik and some pie fans over in MM from Australia and I'm just having breakfast... an apple pie of course!

10.30 We've arrived at the venue, grabbed our media pass and are meeting some of the judges!

10.50 Great to meet Phil Vickery, who is the celeb pie judge today and filming with Good Morning TV show!

11.00 Time for Matthew, Stephen and head judge Ian to meet with the class leaders to discuss pie judging!


11.15 Now it's time for all the other judges to get their briefing. There's around 80 people here to judge today! Ian is sharing what a good pie should be - and stressing the importance of consistency! (Which just happens to be one of the 7 Cs!)

11.25 A control pie is being judged on each table to aid in improving the consistency of judging. "It's important how a pie eats." - Ian Nelson


11.30 Matthew from the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association has informed us that, now in its 9th year, the Pie Awards judges have rated over 7,000 pies! After doing his best air steward impression he thanked everyone for coming and told everyone to enjoy the pies!!!

11.35 The Reverend Kevin Ashby (whose church normally hosts the pie awards but is being renovated this year) gave us a pie prayer of blessing to thank God and all the bakers for these wonderful pies! Amen to that!

11.40 Let the pie judging begin!!!

12.00 Love the busy murmour of a hundred people eating pies and rating them! Here's pie judge & Channel 4 News Deputy Editor Felicity Spector (right).


12.15 Have been speaking to Louise, Tim and Tom on the "Beef and any flavour" class. Some combos have worked but the Italian Meatball pie didn't rate so highly! Couple of DQs for being too heavy too!

12.30 Class 12 is generally my favourite - "Speciality Meat" aka all the unusual flavours! This year they've already had goat, game... and cricket pie! (We'll be rating the same company's cricket pie at the weekend!)

12.45 Martin Tarbuck, pie rating author of "The life of pies", is in the Steak & Kidney class. He says "We've had some good pies but waiting for one to blow me away!"

Martin Tarbuck

12.50 We've had a chat with Rev Kevin Ashby - whose church St Marys in Melton Mowbray normally hosts the awards. It's under renovation this year but he assures me the pie awards will be back in their rightful place next year! And with new floor, power sockets and PA it should be even better at hosting the awards then!

The pie warmers today are from Brooksby Melton College

13:15 I've been speaking to the Chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association Matthew. He was the one who founded the awards and is delighted with the record number of small pie producers who have entered this year!

This Saturday there will be a festival of pies in Melton Mowbray town centre market too and we'll be back in July for "Piefest" - where we'll be talking about how to rate a pie!

13.30 Lots of interesting dessert pies, including this Rhubarb and Custard effort!


14.00 While some classes are starting to wind down a bit, there's still plenty of pies to rate!

Melton Mowbray Pork Pies

 14.05 Our com-pie-tition winners "Sisterhood of the travelling pies" have been posing with pies!

Jonny Smith

14.30 The Pie Pundit aka Jonny Smith was unsurprisingly on the sports pies! He had some surprisingly fillings including an apple pie and lamb pie, but lots of steak! Though he commented on the lack of hand held options.

15.00 Well there we have it! The ovens are off, the tables are being wiped down. Good times have been had. Now just to wait til Friday to find out the results!

Thanks for stopping by for photos of pie!!!

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The winners at the British Pie Awards will be announced on Friday 10th March on the @BritishPies twitter feed and updated on the British Pie Awards website.


If you want to find out more about the British Pie Awards 2017, check out our Countdown to the British Pie Awards article.

Did you know? This is the second time that the British Pie Awards are happening in British Pie Week, following a successful but controversial first time out last year! You can read about the controversial winner in our British Pie Awards 2016 article and find out Everything you need to know about British Pie Week here!

RAS

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One of the pie-lights of British Pie Week as soon as we confirmed it was always going to be our first March Pierate Pie Night! We've had a number of pie nights in November as part of our Birthday Pie-rty celebrations. But being British Pie Week, we thought it rude not to throw another pie-rty and decided to rummage and pillage the pies at the Jekyll n Hyde pub in Birmingham for our Pie Night takeover!

They have a few gins in their Gin Parlour!

And so on Monday 6th March, to kick off British Pie Week in style, we joined with a group of friends and fellow pie fans to enjoy a selection of pies from the Jekyll and Hyde menu. These included Beef and Ale, Rabbit and Seasonal Vegetables, Chicken, Sweet Potatoes and Cheese and Potato. With people - myself included - sampling a bit of a few pies, I didn't have enough of any one pie to review it. But I did very much enjoy the samples I had and look forward to rating some more pies there soon!

For those who don't know, the Jekyll and Hyde pub has provided the highest rated pie in Birmingham so far, when we enjoyed a Steak Pie there back in 2013 and a number of Pierate Recommended pies since! You can read all about it in our "Best Pies in Birmingham" article.

Rob was filmed in the Jekyll n Hyde by BBC TV!

And you may also recognise the upstairs Gin Parlour because that is actually the backdrop for when Pierateer Rob filmed with hit BBC show "Rip Off Britain" in February 2015!

On the night itself, Pierateer Rob went through a bit of info on how to rate a pie on the 7 Cs of pie rating, as well as a brief update on what we've been up to recently! It included mention of the interview on BBC Radio Leeds Rob had done literally that morning, as well as some of the "pie stunts" that the Pierateers had done in previous British Pie Weeks, such as Tim's Pie-thon (Python meat pie) and Sam eating 21 pie meals and losing weight!

All in all, it was a great night and we hope to do another Pierate Pie Night there again! Thanks to everyone who came along, as well as to Manager Matt, Chef Tom and the other staff at the Jekyll and Hyde for being such great hosts and for our special £10 a head pie and wine offer! We look forward to coming back to rate more pies there again soon!

Why not check out what else we got up to on Day One of British Pie Week or join the thousands of people reading our "Everything you need to know about British Pie Week" article!

RAS

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The first thing you'll note (and the clue is in the name) is that this is a lattice pie. While I appreciate that the lattice serves a purpose - to allow the juices in the fruit filling to evaporate and therefore help the filling to caramelise - I don't believe it can substitute for the joy of a fully lidded pie. I'll continue with the review, but let it be known that I am not happy with the state of the lid.

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Well British Pie Week 2017 has truly begun – so what more motivation do you need?! Grab a pie, make a pie, tweet your #PiePledge. Over 7,000 of you have already read our article "Everything you need to know about British Pie Week" and we're delighted to have launched the new British Pie Week logo too!

Tomorrow we'll be at the British Pie Awards 2017 which are once again taking place in British Pie Week! We'll be there as media to cover the event, alongside our Com-pie-tition winners as judges! But as for today, we're getting ready for the Pie Awards and going to be posting about our Pie Night last night later! Oh and we'll eat a pie or two, of course! Not that you'd be sur-pie-sed about that from the new home of British Pie Week!!!

So whatever you get up to today, go crazy for pie this British Pie Week! Enjoy!

You may have already spotted if you read the Independent online that our Birmingham Pie Night made the list for "The best five places to celebrate across the country" this British Pie Week! We really enjoyed the pies that the Jekyll n Hyde provided on Monday evening and will be posting about our Pierate Pie Night later tonight!

Pierateer RAS

You may remember from yesterday that I've made four #PiePledge commitments this British Pie Week, and I'm delighted to say I've nailed one already:

- Organise a pie night - which is what happened on Monday evening in Birmingham!

As for today, I once again woke up listening to Chris Evans talking pie on BBC Radio 2 (this seems to be becoming a running trend!) and I have to admit to being slightly jealous of all these pies Chris keeps talking about and eating on air, even if it is early in the morning!!!

The big event of day one was our Birmingham Pie Night, which kicked off after work at 5:30pm! We were wonderfully hosted by Jekyll and Hyde and loved sharing some stories of pie rating with our guests - alongside eating some top pies! More pics and a review to follow tonight, before we get ready for the British Pie Awards tomorrow, where we will be live blogging!

My pie pledge pies for Day Two were two Mr Kipling Apple and Blackcurrant pies with evaporated milk!

The Jekyll n Hyde hosted our fantastic Pierate Pie Night!

Pierateer TJP

One of my pie pledges was to eat a pie a day, and I'm not going to fail on Day Two!

Today I went for a previously-unreviewed Pieminister Chilli con Carnage pie. It did claim to be hot - made with real scotch bonnets - and my word it was hot! This is not one for the faint hearted. The review will be coming shortly, and it will be a scorcher.

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The countdown timer has struck zero and British Pie Week 2017 has begun – so what more motivation do you need?! Grab a pie, make a pie, tweet your #PiePledge. You may have already read our article "Everything you need to know about British Pie Week" but either way, here’s some things you can do this British Pie Week:

You can follow the Pierateers on Twitter and find out how our #PiePledges are going!
You can read about pies.
You can choose a pie (we have around 600 pies reviewed in our rankings table!)
You can think up some puns for the Pie Dictionary!
You can suggest a pie you’ve enjoyed.

As for the Pierateers, we are ready and waiting for probably the biggest British Pie Week yet! We've made Pie Pledges for this week, showing our commitment to pie, plus this year the British Pie Awards 2017 are once again taking place in British Pie Week! We'll be there as media to cover the event, alongside our Com-pie-tition winners as judges!

Nice Pie's Pierate Logo Pie from British Pie Week 2014!

It seems this year, more than any before, people are bigging up British Pie Week. Plenty of pubs and shops are doing something special for British Pie Week... but weirdly the pastry company who invented British Pie Week (to sell more pastry) have decided to ditch it! The end result of which is this... Pierate Pie Reviews are the new home of British Pie Week!!!

And while we may not have the amazing Pierate Logo pie to enjoy this year (made especially for us by Nice Pie in 2014), we do have an exciting new logo to share with you all! As unveiled in the early hours of this morning, here is the new British Pie Week logo:

So whatever you do, go crazy for pie this British Pie Week! Enjoy!

You may have already spotted if you read the Independent online that our Birmingham Pie Night has made the list for "The best five places to celebrate across the country" this British Pie Week! We can't wait to get stuck in and enjoy the pies that the Jekyll n Hyde provide on Monday evening!

Pierateer RAS

I've made four #PiePledge commitments this British Pie Week, which are the following:

1) One or more pies eaten every day
2) 2 days of annual leave taken to eat, rate and tweet about pies
3) Organise a pie night - which is what is happening on Monday evening in Birmingham!
4) Live blog the British Pie Awards

I look forward to keeping you updated with how I get on with all these pie pledges this week!

As for this morning, I woke up listening to Chris Evans talking pie on BBC Radio 2 and was then delighted to be contacted by BBC Radio Leeds to do an interview! I explained our seven Cs pie rating system, that a pie should be fully encased in pastry and that our number 1 pie is from MyPie London. We're actually going to be heading to Leeds to rate pie this weekend too!

But the big event of day one was our Birmingham Pie Night, which kicked off after work at 5:30pm! We were wonderfully hosted by Jekyll and Hyde and loved sharing some stories of pie rating with our guests - alongside eating some top pies! More pics and a review to follow in the coming days.

The Jekyll n Hyde hosted our fantastic Pierate Pie Night!

Pierateer TJP

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With British Pie Week just beginning and Pierate - Pie Reviews becoming the leading promoter of the pie this British Pie Week, we thought that the week long celebration of pie needed a new logo!

With the pastry company behind British Pie Week not promoting the week long event this year, there was no designated British Pie Week logo for 2017, so we at Pierate Pie Reviews have stepped in and can officially announce the new logo to the world!

Featuring a pie design, knife, fork and the date, we've kept the logo simple but effective and we are happy for any websites, companies or other sources to use the logo for free. Unlike the previous logo, we're not looking to promote our brand or product, but simply want a logo that focuses on the pie and puts the pie back into the centre of British Pie Week!

This is just the start of how we at Pierate Pie Reviews plan to be at the heart of British Pie Week 2017 and you can follow our adventures on twitter and this blog throughout the week, as we once again do our daily Pie Week Diary. Enjoy!

For more information about British Pie Week, join the thousands of readers of our "British Pie Week - Everything you should know!" article!

British Pie Week 2017 is from 6th to 12th March!

If you’re a pie maker or pie seller we hope you'll find the new logo helpful - you're free to use it! Also if you have any special promotions for British Pie Week, get in touch with us and we can celebrate your British Pie Week offers! Either send us an email to pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or tweet us @pierateers to let us promote your pie week plans!

Whatever you’re up to this British Pie Week, we hope you have pie and enjoy it! For more ideas, why not check out our #PiePledge video below?



RAS

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With British Pie Week 2017 just around the corner and Pierate - Pie Reviews becoming the leading promoter of the pie this British Pie Week, we thought you might want a reminder of what we got up to last year in the greatest week in pie!

British Pie Week 2017 is from 6th to 12th March!

Day One – Monday 7th March 2016

Rob heads to Cardiff, Tim starts his #PiePledge and Sam DRINKS a pie!

Day Two – Tuesday 8th March 2016

A pie legal suit, a pie kebab and a Pierateer in Training - as we met up with fellow food blogger Laura from www.fulltothebrum.com

Day Three – Wednesday 9th March 2016

The British Pie Awards and a 4lb Desperate Dan Cow Pie Challenge!

The Ship's Cook Pierate Pie

Day Four - Thursday 10th March 2016

A trip up to Scotland to visit the World Scotch Pie Champion The Kandy Bar Bakery, a "pie in the sky" and a pie in bed!

Day Five - Friday 11th March 2016

One of the darkest days in pie history - the fallout of the British Pie Awards!

Day Six - Saturday 12th March 2016

More Kandy Bar Pies and a mention in the Daily Telegraph newspaper!

Day Seven - Sunday 13th March 2016

Homemade pie day, as Anna did a Seven Cs pie and The Ship's Cook did a pierate ship pie!

Meanwhile for this year's British Pie Week info, why not read our "Everything you need to know about British Pie Week" article?!

RAS

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Unless you've been living on another planet for the last few weeks, you'll notice we've kinda been promoting British Pie Week! In fact with just a few days left til it begins (and you can see to the second how long we have left in our Countdown to British Pie Week article!) you could say it's been on the forefront of our minds! So with so much to fill you in on and some exiting updates to our British Pie Week plans, do enjoy our preview of the greatest week in pie!

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Make your British Pie Week #PiePledge

For the last few years prior to British Pie Week we've encouraged individuals, pie companies and anyone else who will listen to make a #PiePledge for British Pie Week!

The idea is pretty simple - make a pledge to commit to doing something pie-related during British Pie Week! This might be trying a new pie flavour, making your own pie, hosting a pie party or doing some crazy pie stunt (like only eating pies for a day!) We'll be unveiling our Pierateer Pie Pledges this weekend, but whatever you do, we hope you'll enjoy British Pie Week and for some ins-pie-ration, why not watch our short #PiePledge video:

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Birmingham Pie Night Plans confirmed

Part of our #PiePledge is to host a pie night in British Pie Week, so our friends can enjoy some Pierate Highly Recommended pie with us! This year we're hosting in a pub in Birmingham called the Jekyll and Hyde - where we've eaten some top pies in the past few years. In fact, this pub served us the highest rated pie in Birmingham to date!

While full details can be found in our Birmingham Pie Night article, the latest on our pie night is that we're going to be served a selection of "family sized" pies, which means we can mix and match what pies we eat from a list including beef and ale, chicken, potato and cheese and rabbit pie! We can't wait!

The pub was also in fact the venue back in February 2015 when Pierateer Rob was filmed by the BBC talking football pies, for an episode of "Rip Off Britain" that aired in April 2015 and has been repeated several times since.


While sadly that episode of Rip Off Britain is no longer available on BBC pie-player, you can still see us on the BBC Sport website talking football pies!

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Everyone wants to know Everything there is to know about British Pie Week!

British Pie Week 2017 is from 6th to 12th March!

It turns out loads of people want to know all there is to know about British Pie Week! With almost 4,000 views of our "British Pie Week - Everything you should know" article, it's quickly become one of our most viewed articles ever! But I guess with Pierate Pie Reviews becoming the home of British Pie Week 2017, it's not that sur-pie-sing!

We've also heard of some great promotions going on in British Pie Week, such as our number 1 pie seller MyPie London doing a "Pie meal for a fiver" promotion during British Pie Week and top pie pub The Windmill in Mayfair, London - who were Pierate Highly Recommended during our last visit - doing a #WindmillWin promotion, where half of the people buying a pie there during British Pie Week will win a prize! Some people are even running special pie making classes - like Mrs Bun the Baker! However the prize for most random British Pie Week promotion has to go to Pieminister...

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That's just not cricket...it's cricket pie!!!

The Pieminister "Hopper" pie featuring Crickets!

Those crazy chefs at Pieminister have decided that, alongside bringing back some old favourites in the form of The Big Cheese (a mature English Cheddar, onion and buttered potato pie with a cream cheese & chive middle) and The Guru (a British Lamb Dhansak curry pie made with Chana Dahl, spinach & chickpeas), they're going to sell a brand new pie - featuring crickets!

Yep - you read that right! But with 70% of the world's population seeing eating insects as a normal part of their diet, perhaps it's not such a crazy idea after all! The "Hopper" is a Mexican-inspired cricket and black bean pie cooked in a rich tomato, chipotle chilli and sour cream sauce with fresh lime and coriander. While it's hard to say if we're looking forward to trying it or not, we feel it is our duty as the world's leading pie review blog to give it a go and will do so next weekend!

In the meantime, why not check out all 12 of our Pieminister pie reviews so far?

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Outrage at the British Pie Awards Judges!

And finally, a group of pie fans from Lancashire who are all part of the Lancashire Pork Pie Appreciation Society have written an open letter to the British Pie Awards 2017 organisers due to being outraged at their Midlands and Southern pie judge bias! It seems they've cottoned on to what we've known all along, which is that the majority of judges at the British Pie Awards come from either Melton Mowbray itself (the location of the awards), the surrounding area or from London. There is only a small contingent of judges from the North of England and from Scotland. One wonders why they didn't just ask to be on the judging panel themselves, but then again this society does recognise cottage and shepherds potato bakes as being pies, something even the British Pie Awards do not accept!

All this outrage seems to miss the mark slightly though, considering last year the winner of the British Pie Awards was not a pie at all - but a pasty!!!

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If you have a story you think would be good to feature on the web's leading pie review site, send us an email at pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or contact us on Twitter @pierateers Follow @pierateers

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Accrington Stanley/Holland's - Peppered Steak Pie Review

After a seminar in Manchester yesterday I couldn't resist the chance to go to the Accrington Stanley vs Wycombe match. I felt that by being in Manchester I was most of the way to Accrington already. This was a great chance to add another pie to our Pie-remiership Football Pie League. Going for a Tuesday night game did mean that I had to shell out for an additional night's accommodation in Manchester as it was too late to make it home by train. Having already paid for my accommodation I was quite concerned that it would be postponed given the amount of snow and rain.

I got quite soggy during the 20 minutes walk up the hill to the tiny 5000 capacity Crown Ground (which has the hilarious name of Wham Stadium for sponsorship reasons). Despite the rain still coming down, I was relieved once I was inside the ground, even if it was called off, at least I would manage to get my pie to review! However, wandering around the fairly mishmash away end I started to panic. There was a bloke selling dodgy looking drinks out of a dirty fridge (not sure what that was about) and there was also a independent burger van parked up. However, there was no proper food kiosk and nowhere to buy a pie! Having come all this way, to not get a pie would be so annoying, especially given that I could have just bought a ticket for the home end which I was sure would sell pies. The guy in the burger van wasn't willing to help beyond offering me a double cheese burger. Sorry mate but no matter how many beef patties you put in there it isn't going to make up for the lack of pastry. In desperation I explained my situation to a steward and asked if I could change my ticket for a ticket in the home end (I had hidden my Wycombe scarf in my bag). He consulted his colleague, who called another colleague, who then called the manager. There was a bit of discussion before they decided that this skinny, middle class Southerner was probably not going to cause any trouble in the home end. However, they decided that I needed an escort given that I had to pass through two home stands to get to the sole Pie kiosk. Perhaps I look more dodgy than I thought! They were friendly though and I was grateful for their help.



Anyway, the relief was palpable when I was finally able to buy a Holland's Peppered Steak Pie for £2.50 from what was quite a healthy selection of pies. It was one of those baffling pies which come wrapped in plastic. I still don't quite understand how they cook it without the plastic melting. To eat my pie I had to shelter huddled in the tiny covered area with the 96 other Wycombe fans, the main away stand being open to the elements. It wouldn't do the pie justice to have soggy pastry.



From the outside the pie looked pretty good, decked out in shortcrust pastry rather than the flakey pastry often favoured for football pies. I am not sure if it was the same as the Big Peppered Steak Pierateer RAS previously reviewed. The name suggests that this was a smaller version of the same pie and indeed it wasn't especially big. Slightly smaller than a Pukka or Peter's pie. However it was well filled with meat content so it felt quite satisfying. Whilst not the optimal level of crispness, the pastry was not soggy like some of the Peter's pies we have had at the football recently. In fact, some of the top actually was lovely and crunchy. The pastry had a nice buttery taste. Moving on to the filling, there were plenty of steak chunks which had good flavour but some of them were slightly chewy. The sauce tasted quite different to your average steak pie which tends to taste like Bisto gravy. It was nice to have something a bit different. At first it didn't seem peppery at all but by the end I was getting a bit of a peppery kick. It seemed like the pepper wasn't as much as described by Pierateer RAS but we have different taste buds when it comes go pepper. In any case, the pepper wasn't the main flavour, Holland's hadn't held back with other seasoning and flavouring but I found it difficult to tell what these were. Another real plus point was that the Consitency of this pie meant it didn't fall apart and could be easily eaten by hand, ideal for a football pie. Overall, another strong performance from a Holland's as a football pie option.

On their twitter page Accrington claim to be 'the biggest little club in the world' which is a nice oxymoron which I think does make sense. Certainly they are a small club with the lowest attendance in the league with around 1,700. I am not sure how they make end meet. They also say 'we're aware we were once mentioned in a milk advert'. The milk advert has ironically made them famous and helps the be a 'big' small club. It adds a bit of romance, Accrington feel like the sterotypical small club that away fans love to visit. We don't mind that the facilities are a bit delapidated (but try not to go to the toilet if you can avoid it), it all adds to the charm. However, away fans need pies and should really be getting the same catering and prices as the home fans. This is not the first time we have had some problem accessing the same food in the away end as the home end. I also noticed that the independent burger van in the away end was charging twice the price for a cup of tea as in the home end. Again we have previously come across the problem of away fans being charged more which doesn't seem fair. However, I was pleased to note the pie in the home end -was relatively reasonable at £2.50 which is the cheapest price in League Two, as long as you can get hold of one!

Peppered Steak Pie (Accrington Stanley)
4.60/7

SJL

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With British Pie Week just around the corner and Pierate - Pie Reviews becoming the leading promoter of the pie this British Pie Week, we thought you might want to find out everything you should know about the greatest week in pie!

When is British Pie Week?

British Pie Week is held the first full week of March, which this year is 6th-12th March 2017.

What is British Pie Week?

Originally set up by a pastry maker as a way to sell more of their pastry, it is now Britain’s main celebration of pie! Pubs, restaurants, pie shops and more have used British Pie Week to run com-pie-titions, pie specials and the like (so why not ask what your local pie-selling pub is doing to celebrate pie week?), while supermarkets sometimes use the week to discount their pie ranges. The British Pie Awards have even moved their awards to this week, to coincide with British Pie Week.

However it’s also an excuse for pie lovers like the Pierateers to do various pie stunts and for the average pie fan to excuse their pie eating for a week! (“Well it’s Pie Week, so I have to have a pie!!!”)

British Pie Week 2017 is from 6th to 12th March!

How can I get involved?

Well, the pies the limit! Of course the more traditional ways include eating a pie from a pie shop or pub, or making your own pie at home. The more adventurous might host friends for a “pie night” – much like we are for our Pierate Birmingham Pie Night – or do some crazy pie stunt like only eating pies for a day (which we’ve done numerous times) or create an unusual filling for a pie – like we did with our Pie-thon (python meat pie).

The infamous Python meat pie!

When did it all start?

British Pie Week was created by a pastry company in 2007 to sell more pastry, but it seems that company have now ditched the idea, with the lucrative www.britishpieweek.co.uk webpage now just re-directing to their main pastry website and their @BritPieWeek twitter account not having been updated since March 2016!

This means the new home of British Pie Week is really www.pierate.co.uk, who don’t care about making money or selling more pastry, but want to celebrate the pie – with almost 600 pies already rated and numerous pie-related stunts highlighting their love of pie! For more information on what Pierate have got up to over the years since first celebrating British Pie Week in 2011, check out our dedicated British Pie Week page!

The Pierate Logo Pie made for us in British Pie Week 2014! Find out more about this Nice Pie here.

How can Pierate help me this British Pie Week?

Well, if you haven’t already, we’d suggest you take a look at our Countdown to British Pie Week article! There you can find a countdown timer to tell you to the second exactly how long you have left to wait until British Pie Week 2017, alongside other useful Pie Week info!

In addition, you can browse our Pie Rankings of almost 600 pies rated and ranked so that you can avoid the bad ones and grab the best ones, plus we have a pie pun dictionary (so you can pun-ctuate your conversation in pie week) and more pie trivia than you can shake a stick at! We truly are the home of the pie review at www.pierate.co.uk and you can find out more about the piefessionals (pie experts) in our About Us section!

Finally, if you’re a pie maker or pie seller and have any special promotions for British Pie Week, get in touch with us and we can celebrate your British Pie Week offers right here! Either send us an email to pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or tweet us @pierateers to let us promote your pie week plans!


So whatever you’re up to this British Pie Week, we hope you have pie and enjoy it! For more ideas, why not check out our #PiePledge video below? We'll be posting our Pierate #PiePledge article soon!



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