Friday 25 August 2017

Good Food, Shame About the Pie



In my attempts to find the best pie in my local area around Gloucester I had to try The Queen's Head on the edge of the city. Very highly regarded, it is best to book in advance for dinner as it can get booked up. What is so good about the Queen's Head is that they don't try and be pretencious, they just do traditional British classics very well. They also do generous portions for the price, in particular, their signature Longford Lamb is difficult to polish off. However, they don't actually normally have pie on the menu which had always seemed a crying shame to me. So I was delighted when I went for a weekday lunch and found that Steak & Kidney pie was on the lunch menu. I had no choice but to sample their pastry creation.


But maybe there is a reason The Queen's Head don't serve pie on their brilliant dinner menu. It simply wasn't very good and it seems they have no idea what is needed to make a good pie. They won't be challenging the best pies in Gloucestershire that is for sure. The first basic error they made was smoothering the whole thing in a generic gravy. A common complaint from us on Pierate, gravy really needs to be on the side. It didn't really complement the pie and also made it all very soggy. The second basic error was to go for a slice of pie rather than an individual pie. Whilst this does meet our pie definition (and is much better than a casserole with a pastry lid) it just isn't what I am looking for in the Ultimate Pie, it just isn't as satisfying.

The pie was well filled with meat chunks but had quite a high proportion of kidney. I have never in my life come across anyone who prefers kidney to steak so this ratio could have been better if it was more bias towards the steak. The meat was quite tasty if a bit chewy in places. The pastry also tasted nice but was thick and had a bit of a weird texture, perhaps due to the gravy bath it was sat in. I found the pastry sticking to the roof of my mouth.

Overall, sadly more negatives than positives and this pie really didn't live up to expectations. There are much better pies in the local area.

Steak &Kidney (Queen's Head [Gloucester]) 
3.67/7

SJL

continue reading "Good Food, Shame About the Pie"

Saturday 12 August 2017

Landmark 30,000 views of the Pierate Pie Rankings

For those who don't know, it's coming up to 8 years since the Pierate Ship first set sail on a mission to rate all the pies we could find. And sure, we've had some pies and lows over the years, but each and every time we've rated a pie it's been added to our official pie rankings page. And now, with 626 pies rated and ranked, our Pierate Pie Rankings page has just reached a landmark 30,000 page views! Thank you pie fans!!!

Our top 10 most viewed pages (doesn't include pie review articles)


MyPie London Steak and ale pie review
#1 - MyPie London Steak and ale pie
Over that time we've had a number of pies be our number 1, the most notable being Paul's Pies Steak and Guinness pie, which was our number one for over three and a half years. But when Paul hung up the oven gloves and stopped trading, in October 2016 we crowned our new number 1 pie! Since that date, for the last 10 months, our new number 1 pie has been MyPie's Steak and Ale pie! Check out the amazing review we gave it!

And further congratulations are due to Chris Brumby who, since we started tasting his pies a few years ago following his 'Roll-off' 2014 win (best sausage roll), has produced further numerous efforts of ex-pie-tese that have been Pierate Highly Recommended, and has dominated our top 10 pie list! Just take a look at the current top 10 below:

RankPie ProducerPie FlavourScoreByInfo
1
MYPIE LondonSteak and Ale
6.61
R/S
2
MYPIE LondonVenison, Chilli and Cheese
6.57
SJL
3
King's Farm [HP22 6BH]All Steak
6.5
SJL
3
Piebury Corner [N7 8DL]Venison and Red Wine [Thierry Henry]
6.5
RAS
3
Piebury Corner [N7 8DL]Lamb and Veg with a hint of mint [Ian Wright]
6.5
RAS
3
JB Christie [ML6 6BU]Minced Beef Scotch
6.5
SJL
7
MYPIE LondonMince, Bacon and Cheese
6.46
SJL
7
The Real Pie CompanyPork, Bacon and Parsley
6.46
RAS
9
Jekyll and Hyde Pub [B4 6BJ]Steak
6.45
RAS
10
The Pie KitchenChicken, Chantenay Carrot and Bacon
6.43
SJL
10
The Brampton Pie CompanySteak & Ale
6.43
SJL
Pierate Pie Rankings as of 28th July 2017


But of course this top 10 is just the tip of the iceberg, with 616 other pies listed from best to worst on our Pierate Pie Rankings page! Check it out to find out where all the other pies we've rated rank in the list! And if you prefer to see the top pies in a variety of categories - such as best chicken or beef pie - see our Pies: Categorised page!

However if you see a top pie missing in the rankings list, why not leave us a comment below or use our Suggest-A-Pie page to let us know where we still need to rate? Alternatively you can drop us a suggestion on our @pierateers twitter page!

Thanks to all those who have viewed our pie rankings page thus far and here's to the next 30,000 views of our ever growing Pierate Pie Rankings Page!

The Pierateers with our number 1 pie maker - Chris!
(L to R - Chris, SJL, TJP. RAS)
RAS

Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised.

Make sure you
and let us know your thoughts!
continue reading "Landmark 30,000 views of the Pierate Pie Rankings"

Thursday 10 August 2017

We bet you'll want to know the top football pies!

Take the nation's favourite pastry product. (That's a pie - obvs.) Add the world's most played and watched sport. And sprinkle in some hungry spectators demanding half-time grub! Of course I'm talking about half time pies at the football! But not all match day pastry hits the back of the net. Some are Championship winning material, where as others are destined for relegation as soon as you bite into them. That's why bookmakers Coral have been investigating what you - the football pie eating public - have to say on the topic!

Pie at the football!

Having analysed the data from their Pie Survey launched a few months back - which we blogged on in our article "We bet you'll want to feedback on football pies!" - the results are out and we've got the pies and lows to discuss! So, where do football fans think they can find piefection when it comes to their golden pastry snack?! Find out below!


Check out the full Coral Pie Premier League article to find out all the details on their survey of Premiership Pies, which we dissect below!

Also see their short one minute video below for a summary of their results, including a shock response to the nation's favourite half time snack!





Regulars to our pie blog won't be surprised to hear Coral teamed up with the world's leading pie review blog - featuring over 600 pie reviews with multiple football pie media appearances! A few months ago we were asked to give our opinion on the state of Premier League pies at present, as while the annual BBC Price of Football Survey indicates the price of pies, that really is only part of the story when it comes to pie rating.

We of course contributed our opinion to the survey results they collated regarding the Premier League's top pies and you won't be surprised to hear we have a few opinions on the results too! So once you've read the Coral results article, take a look at our view on the results below!

We've rated over 600 pies, including a number of football pies

So, firstly the winner of the Coral football fan's survey was... West Brom! Now, with a piefect score of 5/5 we do question the result of this really, as in searching for pies up and down the country we've never quite found pie-fection, especially not in a football ground! Typical football pies are a bit overpriced and often rather mass-produced efforts, sitting in hot lockers for far too long! However we are pleased that this is seemingly starting to change with producers like Piglets Pantry (catering for Brighton and Tottenham, amongst others) and Man City's Football Fan Fayre raising the standards significantly.

What I do wonder is whether the football fans rating West Brom as 5/5 were eating the same Pukka Pies as I did when I went to the ground about a year and a half ago? Because while it was a decent Pukka Pie, it certainly wasn't anything to write home about and not worth a full 5/5! One wonders if the people who gave such a high score were actually people in the West Brom hospitality boxes, as what our pie sources tell us is that there they actually serve award winning Piglets Pantry pies, unlike on the main concourse, which certainly would be more worthy of a 5/5 score! Alas we will sadly never know, but that could explain things.

Fabulous Fan Fayre Chicken and Ham Pie
Man City's Chicken Pie with FA Cup Trophy!
Sadly we've not yet rated the pies at Watford, Stoke and Burnley - this can be our "goal" for the season! - but we can certainly highly recommend Man City pies! In fact our top Premier League pie - and number two pie in our Football Pie League - is from Man City and was a fabulous combo of Beef Bourguignon and Chicken and Ham pies at the Etihad Stadium. They highlight that it is often better to pay a bit extra for a top quality pie, rather than less for a very mediocre product.

Sadly it didn't surprise me that the capital's supporters tend to favour a beef burger over a half time pie, however I was pleased to see the Northerners sticking up for their local pastry treat! Certainly the backing for a Steak and Ale pie came as no surprise to us either, with our number one football pie of that flavour. However what was surprising was a lack of mention of the Chicken Balti, which has become quite a fan favourite at many football grounds we've been to!

And to wrap it all off, we're pleased that football fans are by and large a wise crowd when it comes to knowing a pasty is NOT a pie! I'm sure many of you have heard us ramble on about the topic enough - though for anyone wanting an education you can check out our analysis of the shock pasty win in the 2016 British Pie Awards here.

So all in all, I think this survey highlights there are still some top football pies out their for us to sink our teeth into! Sadly not all pies rate as highly as West Brom, but there's only one way for us to really know! We'll be tucking into more football pies up and down the land this coming season! Game on!!!



More about us and our football pie pedigree:

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

It was outside of the scope of the Coral survey, which focused on the Premier League, but Morecambe FC's Globe Arena is certainly the place to be for top football pies! Top of our football pie league and winners of the British Pie Awards twice, Head chef Graham Aimson at Morecambe FC makes his pies in the kitchen on site by hand, rather than just buying them in! Top work Graham and the team!

RAS

Want to find out what the Pierateers really make of the state of the (pie) game in English Football? Check out our analysis in our Pies of Football 2016 article to find out what makes a great football pie!


Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised.

Make sure you 
and let us know your thoughts!
continue reading "We bet you'll want to know the top football pies! "

Tuesday 8 August 2017

Dublin Pieman Review

Pieman - Dublin Pie Review

I admit it, I am obsessed about pies. If I visit a new place one of my first thoughts will be to find out if there are any highly regarded pies. It was no different when I went on a stag do in Dublin over Easter. A quick internet search revealed the Pieman to be worth trying. However, it was such a fun filled weekend I was worried I might not get an opportunity. Fortunately The Pieman is located in the Temple Bar area which happens to be where a large amount of the pubs are. My luck was in when we went to The Temple Bar pub just around the corner. So while everyone was getting merry in a rammed pub, I thought no one would notice if I slipped away briefly, the perfect crime. Or so I thought. After I came back from my brief pie visit I realised everyone had gone! It took me some time to find them but served me right really for being rude enough to duck out the festivities! I eventually found them half way across the city, made all the harder by lack of internet on my phone because Dublin is apparently 'abroad'.


But was the pie worth it? I went for the Chili Beef & Chorizo which was recommended by the staff. It was a decent effort but I regretted not having gone for a classic Steak & Guinness which would have given me a real taste of Ireland and also might have had a potential to score higher. Whilst it was nice to tick off another country where we have reviewed a pie (we must be over a dozen or so countries by now) I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to have this one again. See the score break down below.


Colour – 4.0 out of 7 – Straight away looking at this pie I realised I had made a bit of an error. It was swimming in gravy. It looked like the colour had been nice but the soggy appearance took the sheen off it somewhat.
Condition – 3.5 out of 7 – A solid condition, no flaws to speak of. However, the gravy it was sat in was watery and I thought made it look unappealing.
Cheapness – 3.0 out of 7 – I know that this is a pricey tourist area and that the post-referendum exchange rate is not good at the moment but I thought €6.50 was a lot of money for a pie on its own (roughly it was equivalent to £5.50). It was a sit in establishment but a cafe rather than a restaurant.
Capacity - 5.2 out of 7 - As you might expect for a premium pie, it was quite a good size and it was also well filled.
Chewiness - 4.5 out of 7 - Minced beef was used which didn't provide as much to get your teeth into. However, there were also chunks of chorizo which were a bit more satisfying. The pieces of carrot seemed a bit limp to me. Despite the gravy, there was quite a nice biscuity crunch to some of the less damp pastry, particularly the thick crimp at the top.
Content - 4.5 out of 7 - The mixture of beef, beans, carrot, onion and chorizo gave the filling a nice variety but it was still satisfyingly full of meat. The flavour was quite spicy and also quite salty. It was a shame the gravy didn't go with the taste of the pie filling but I have tried to ignore this in my score.
Consistency - 4.0 out of 7 - The pie held together well and I think the filling, although slightly more unusual, went well with the pastry.

Chili Beef & Chorizo (Pieman [Dublin])
4.10/7

SJL
continue reading "Dublin Pieman Review"