Should you pocket a Pocklington's Steak Pie?

Pocklington’s Bakery Steak Pie Review

[Note, we have tried this pie more recently in 2016 but didn't change the score.]

You could be forgiven for thinking that when you've rated well over 400 pies on the web’s leading pie review website, there can’t be many new ways to review a pie?! Well, prepare to be amazed as we rate the Pocklington's Bakery Steak Pie and find out if you should pocket a Pocklington's!

For this is not one pie review, or two, but a triple review of the same pie! InsPIEred somewhat by the packaging saying this pie was delicious eaten hot or cold, we thought we’d put that to the pie rating test! How would it rate on the Seven Cs? Interestingly though, this happens to be the first time we've ever rated the same pie cold, microwaved and oven cooked, to give this pie a proper grilling!*

(*Okay, so admittedly grilling was one thing we didn't do to this pie… but you get the idea!)

So… in reverse order:

Pocklington's Steak Pie - Cold Edition

Cold - It did say that it was delicious eaten hot or cold but we would strongly dispute that it was “delicious” cold. The pastry was just too hard and thick; there wasn't enough sauce to help it go down. This wasn't helped by the fact that the pie we ate cold had a large air gap. However, the pie did well in some of the other criteria. It was quite big for £1.55 and there were some sizeable meaty chunks. It was nice in a way that there was this option for eating cold but I would not recommend it unless you were really desperate. If I was scoring it at this temperature alone I would score it 4.25 out of 7. Not bad, but not something I would recommend.

Pocklington's Steak Pie - Microwaved Edition

Microwaved - This pie seemed to undergo a radical transformation after a short time being bombarded by electromagnetic radiation. The pastry became soft and tasty, it seemed to lose the greasy taste it had before. Despite this, the pie retained its tall structure very well; often pies will collapse upon being microwave cooked. The pie we used for microwave cooking also benefited from being very well filled. The packed content of meaty chunks was great value at £1.55. Overall, the pie did remind me slightly of a Pukka steak pie from a fish and chip shop, perhaps as they are often reheated in a microwave. It had the same delightfully thick sauce. However, it did better than a standard Pukka, it wasn't so stodgy and had more flavours going for it. There was a nice oniony taste which wasn't overpowered by salt. For this price it was great value and we would score it 5.70 out of 7 if we were scoring at this temperature alone.

Pocklington's Steak Pie - Oven Cooked Edition

Oven Cooked – As mentioned previously, the pie underwent significant transformation upon the addition of heat – and the oven cooking piped the microwaved version slightly, as the pastry maintained a bit more crispiness than the microwaved version. Again the pie was well filled with nice big steak chunks, particularly impressive for a pie costing just one English pound and 55 English pennies. The gravy tasted so much better warmed up and oozing out of the pie, compared to the unheated version. A definite winner if you can hold out longer than it takes to microwave a pie! We would score it 5.90 out of 7 if we were scoring this pie oven cooked.

The reviewing of this pie over three different cooking/non-cooking levels does leave us with a slight quandary – which score should make it into the Pierate Pie Rankings?! We’ve decided that the oven cooked version should be the nominated score, as this reflects the best way to eat this pie – which is something we are always looking for on board the Pierate Ship. Sure, if a pie box says it’s a microwavable pie, we should score it microwaved, but for this pie we prefer it oven cooked. Still, it is a Pierate Recommended pie eaten microwaved or oven cooked.

Well done to Pocklington’s Bakery! We enjoyed our little search around the North Lincolnshire area to find a store selling your pies (just remember to look for the Lincolnshire Co-ops – not just all the Co-ops in Lincolnshire!) and – while we only found the steak pie on sale in the shops we visited – we sure hope to pocket another Pocklington’s pie in the near future!

Pocklington’s Bakery Steak Pie
Score: 5.90/7
SJL and RAS