Friday 12 November 2021

International Pierate Day 2021

We Pierateers of pie review website www.pierate.co.uk are today celebrating our 12th Birthday, and we'd love you to join us by simply eating a pie and rating it!


That’s why we’ve designated
12th November as International Pierate Day!


The Pierate Pie made especially for us by Nice Pie!
It follows in the footsteps of the very first International Pierate Day in 2013, which has been celebrated on 12th November every year since! But we don’t want you – pie lovers worldwide – to just sit at home and watch as we eat all the pies! Oh no! Pie eating and pie rating is something we can all enjoy. Something that can bring friends, family and communities together. Pies are celebrated and eaten in so many countries worldwide and so today – marking our twelfth birthday – we would love you to join us in eating and rating pies this week to celebrate!

Sadly of course, as with so many events in 2020, covid restrictions meant we could not gather together to eat pie in celebration with 50 friends last year like we did when celebrating our tenth birthday. And this year's celebrations have been scaled back a bit. But Pierateer Rob and 9 friends enjoyed a pie meal out at Pieminster last night to celebrate the anniversary and looks forward to more pie adventures this weekend. And of course we can still use the illustrated guide below on how to rate a pie, based on our 7 Cs of pie rating, which we commissioned fellow food blogger and amazing illustrator Emily from www.recipesandreviews.co.uk to create for us for our 6th birthday!

An illustrated guide on how to rate a pie by @emily_etc


So here’s the deal... in six simple words: Eat a pie and rate it!

It doesn’t matter whether it’s savoury or sweet, or whether you prefer your pies without the wheat or meat! We really do rate anything and everything that is a true pie and sometimes a number of interesting things that try to be pies too! But the important thing is we love to eat pie and rate it – for we are, after all, the Pierateers!

So once you’ve found a pie to eat – whether in the local bakery, butchers, supermarket or your favourite pie shop or one you have made in the luxury of your own home – why not rate your pie using the Seven Cs of pie rating in our lovely illustrated guide above?

So what do you need to do now?


Well, first things first - you need a pie (or two!) For insPIEration you might find our Pie Rankings helpful, with over 650 pies we've rated and reviewed over the past 11 years! Or perhaps you want to make one of the pies our Ship's Cook has made, following her reci-pies here.

You can even watch us on the BBC website advising what to look for in a pie!

Most of all, we hope you enjoy eating and rating pies today, this weekend and for the year to come!



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.

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Friday 5 November 2021

Birmingham Pie Night Announced for 12th Anniversary

It wouldn't be right to not celebrate our Pierate anniversary with a pie party and, while last year's had to be limited to just Pierateer Rob and his support bubble (which was still a decent sized pie-rty due to all the Senior kids!), this year we are back in a pie shop and ready to celebrate the only way we know how: eating and rating pie!! 

Pierateer Rob visiting Pieminister Birmingham
Pierateer Rob visiting Pieminister Birmingham
So on 11th November, Pierate are going to rummage and pillage the pies at Pieminister Birmingham once again as we host a Pierateer Takeover for our 12th anniversary - just like we have done in the past during British Pie Weeks such as British Pie Week 2018!


Being held from 7pm on Thursday 11th November, the night will be a chance for friends of the Pierateers to catch up on what's been going down on the Pierate Ship, and most importantly to eat and rate some delicious pies! It's sure to be a great way to celebrate 12 years of pie rating!

Pieminister Birmingham at 16 Waterloo Street
For those who don't know, Bristol pie giant Pieminister opened up a shop in Birmingham city centre in mid-2017 and we've frequented it a number of times already. However we certainly hadn't waited until they opened a shop in Birmingham before rating one of their pies, for we have rated 19 Pieminister pies in total and one of our very first reviews over 10 years ago was from Pieminister!

Since then we've tried some of their "Pie Election" winners (when pie fans got to choose which old favourites to bring back to the menu for British Pie Week 2015) and we were even crazy enough to try their Cricket pie in 2017! Yes, that's right - it had actual whole insects in it!!

So here's the details of the pie night and how you can get involved:

Kick off 7pm
Delicious pies on offer at Pieminister - we've rated 19!
We'll be arriving at the Pieminister Birmingham shop for 7pm, where we'll have some dedicated Pierateer Takeover tables set aside for us! (We advise you book up to avoid disappointment!)

Pick your pie!
There are a whole host of pies to choose from on their menu.

Who rate all the Pies?!
During the two hours Pierateer Rob will be around to chat pies, give you a bit of info about 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 over the years! And if he can, he'll try to answer your pie-related questions (like when is a pie not a pie?!) Just look out for him in his black Pierate t-shirt and don't be afraid to come up and say hi if we haven't met yet!


This pie night is open to friends plus readers of our pie blog and entry is free - you just pay the pie shop for your food and drinks as normal - but to attend we advise you ring and book into the Pieminister Birmingham Store on 0121 285 3743 (as places in the restaurant are limited).

We hope to see some of you there!



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 "Birmingham Pie Night Announced for 12th Anniversary"

Saturday 6 March 2021

The Pie Room Review

The Pie Room Recipe Book by Calum Franklin - Cheesy Dauphinoise & Caramelised Onion Pie Review

British Pie Week is a special time of year and the Pierate virtual pie night seemed a perfect excuse to go for something a bit fancy. One of the best known producers of fancy pies is Calum Franklin who we previously talked to about the beautiful pastry creations he makes for the Holborn Dining Room where he has created a specific 'Pie Room'. Calum has now released a recipe and guide book called 'The Pie Room' and given the time we are spending at home in the lockdown it seemed the perfect thing to try out for British Pie Week. Unfortunately on the Pierate Ship we are more known for eating pies and some of our creations have been far from beautiful so I was a bit concerned about how this would go. I also had to alternate from the recipe in that I made Gluten Free pastry so that Pierateer ALE could also enjoy the pie. We are moving house and had a glut of onions to use so I chose the Cheesy Dauphinoise & Caramelised Onion Pie. It also contained a lot of milk and cream which sounded great to me, being from a dairy farm I do love my milk. This was the first time I had ever made a freestanding pie, I was worried that it might completely fall apart but despite using notoriously crumbly gluten free pastry it only cracked slightly. The pie took absolutely ages to make so I didn't feel motivated to do more than a simple pastry homage to British Pie Week but it was still one of the best looking pies I have ever made (the competition isn't strong though). I slightly got the advice on egg glaze wrong which was a bit disappointing because I was keen to get a pie as deep brown as the ones Calum makes, but it was still a pleasing colour. The pie sliced like a dream which was one of the joys of making this free standing pie, it really still looked like pie when served up on your plate. I made the recipe with half the listed ingredients and Pierateer ALE and I had a quarter each.

But how did it taste? I always find it strange to review a pie I have made but if I give the credit to Calum I think I can say that this was delicious. I can't actually remember having a meat-free pie as tasty as this. It would definitely be worthy of a Pierate Highly Recommended award. There wasn't anything too fancy or difficult to source in the recipe except quite a lot of fresh rosemary and thyme. This, along with the onion and some garlic added a delicious taste to the creamy and cheesy filling. The filling was built in layers which adds to the appearance. Unfortunately with my smaller version I think it was too shallow to fully reveal the layers but it still looked good. It was quite remarkable how moist this pie was despite being free standing. The potato was soft but retained some bite giving it a satisfying consistency. A pie really befitting of British Pie Week and I would certainly recommend it if the meat free content sounds appealing to you.

Cheesy Dauphinoise & Caramelised Onion (The Pie Room Recipe by Calum Franklin)
6.25/7

SJL






P.S. A few words on the making of this pie, I really tried to follow the recipe to the letter which took me ages. Although the ingredients were simple the potato and onion were separately cooked on the hob, then also in the oven before being wrapped in pastry. The final pie then took 45 minutes in the oven. There was also a lot of times where you had to put things in the fridge to chill, it felt complicated to someone not used to these things. I think the pie would fall apart without following all the steps so overall allow plenty of time. I made the filling the day before which worked well. The main thing that I found really amazing was that the filling all held together when I turned it out of a dish on top of the pastry. Then through some miracle my gluten free pastry stayed in one piece as I turned this onto the filling. If making this kind of pie appeals to you I would recommend the book which is well written and includes plenty of general guides, tips and tricks as well as the actual recipes.






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Monday 1 March 2021

British Pie Week 2021 - Everything you need to know!

With British Pie Week kicking off today, we thought you might want to find out everything you should know about the greatest week in pie! Of course, like so many things in the world, this British Pie Week will be a little different due to the impacts of covid-19. However that doesn't stop you celebrating it! So read on to find out more!


British Pie Week 2021 Logo
When is British Pie Week?

British Pie Week is held the first full week of March, which this year is 1st-7th March 2021. That means it is as early in the year as is possible this year!

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, 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, though this year it won't be happening in March due to Coronavirus!

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 Pierate
British Pie Week 2021 is from 1st-7th 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 but they aren't an option this year, so you could either purchase a pie from your local supermarket or make an online order from your favourite online pie supplier (or try out a new one!)

Or you could of course make your own pie at home. While this year the "stay at home" message means we won't be able to organise an in-person pie night like we normally do, you could always try an e-pie night with friends over Zoom or Skype? That's what the Pierateers will be doing on Friday night! Or you could still 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).

Online Pie Order Ideas:

You can order pies from our Number 1 rated pie maker MyPie on their website here: https://www.mypie.london/store

You can order pies from British Pie Awards winners Turner's Pies on their website here: https://piesbypost.com/

You can order pies from Pieminister (like we have for our social bubble pie party on Sunday) on their website here: https://pieminister.co.uk/shop/category/pies/

Python pie
The infamous Python meat pie!

PIE-LIGHTS OF PAST BRITISH PIE WEEKS

During British Pie Week 2014 we Pierateers consumed a quite incredible 55 pies and you can see the breakdown right here! There were so many highlights that we had to do a whole day-by-day account of it, including a Python pie, a day of just eating apple pie and Pierateer SJL eating 21 pies - one for every meal of British Pie Week.

In fact, Pierateer SJL didn't just eat a pie for every meal but he proved that you can eat pie and lose weight!!! Yes, we can hardly believe it either!

In 2015 we raised the bar even higher by consuming a whopping 71 pies between 2 Pierateers! This included a Pieathon (seeing how long we could just eat pies for) and Rob eating pie for 67% of his diet that week!


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 well over 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!

British Pie Week Pierate Pie
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, there's no denying we are the web's pie-remier pie resource with over 1 million pie fans visiting our pie blog! You can browse our Pie Rankings of over 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?



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 "British Pie Week 2021 - Everything you need to know!"