A Load of McIntosh

McIntosh of Strathmore - Scotch Pie Review

I don’t quite understand supermarket deli counters. Don’t they sell pretty much the same kind of stuff that you can get in the rest of the supermarket except you can get someone to hand it to you? Does cutting the cheese off a bigger block make it fresher than the stuff you get already cut? But the main problem I have is that I don’t feel I can just look at the counter to see if there is anything I might fancy because then the person at the counter will ask me if I want something. I will then panic and feel I have to ask for something. This normally means I end up with something weird that I don’t want like a piece of dandelion meringue. But, this is probably just my inability to interact like a normal human being!

 
The reason this does happen to me quite often is that I like to have a glance at the deli counter to see if there are any interesting pies on offer. Whilst in Tesco I spotted a McIntyre Scotch Pie for 49p and thought I should give it a whirl. Given that the brand seems so popular I felt I had to review it as part of my quest to find out what makes the best Scotch pie.

What slightly baffled me was that Tesco sell the packaged version of this pie on the shelves at 2 for £1. I was surprised that this 2p saving didn’t cause people to flock to the deli counter. For the very cheap price it wasn’t too bad, it beats other similar priced Scotch Pies in our rankings but don't expect anything amazing.

Condition - 4.00 out of 7 – Pretty standard Scotch Pie shape, it was more mass-produced in appearance than most. It did look pleasingly tall and didn't have an excessively large pastry rim at the top to hide lack of filling.

Colour – 3.80 out of 7 – A little bit too pale but still appealing.

Cheapness – 6.00 out of 7 – Yes, Scotch pies tend to be cheap because they just contain mince and they are normally small. But 49p is a bit of a steal for any pie (as long as it’s edible).

Capacity – 3.10 out of 7 – Like a reverse TARDIS, this pie seemed to look quite big on the outside but small on the inside. It wasn't all that well filled, this isn’t unexpected for a cheap pie but does bring the score down.

Chewiness – 3.90 out of 7 – The mince was ground up pretty fine so it wasn’t at all chewy. However, there wasn’t really any crunch to the pastry and there could have been a bit more to get your teeth into in general.

Content – 4.00 out of 7 – Peppery and moist, the filling was nice but for me it did taste a bit too much like a sausage roll. Perhaps this could be why Tesco Dumfries cannot tell the difference between a pie and a sausage roll. The fat kept it moist but they could have probably got away with less of it. It looked a bit rank.

Consistency – 3.90 out of 7 – For the price this was not bad, it slipped down well. I think it is better than the Bell’s version who I guess are McIntosh’s main supermarket competitor.

Beef Scotch Pie (McIntyre) 
4.10/7 

SJL