The Real Pie Company Luxury Boozy Mince Pie Review

Real Pie Company Mince Pie Review

There are mince pies. And then there are small meals in the form of a mince pie! For these are certainly no miniature mouthfuls but a real giant on your plate - the Real Pie Company’s luxury boozy mince pies!

Delivered by post in a lovely festive box and all arriving in near perfect condition, I was impressed by the size and the favour of these luxury mince pies. As can be seen in the comparison photo below, these pies dwarf your typical supermarket mince pie and are clearly homemade products. While this does mean the condition is not quite as polished as a factory made standard mince pie, it is a lot more lovingly made and the pastry tasted delicious and buttery.

Real Pie Company v Tesco Mince Pies

One of my concerns with these larger mince pies was whether the filling:pastry ratio would work in such a big mince pie, but they certainly got this pretty much spot on. The pastry was quite thick and covered in sugar (a little too much sugar personally, but at least you can brush that off the top before eating!) but held in the content well. My main critique of these pies is that the pastry is incredibly crumbly, which meant you certainly lost a significant amount of pastry crumbs when eating. It also made cutting them in half (as some friends weren’t quite ready to tackle a whole one due to their size) quite a challenge!

There was sNOw stopping the delivery!

However the filling was moist and a nice balance of fruits, with a clear boozy edge to them. I also happily enjoyed eating the pastry on its own when hovering up the bits that had broken off. While a couple of the pies weren’t quite crammed to the crust as I expected from the Real Pie Company (as that is their motto), most of them were full to the brim and I certainly didn’t finish any of the ones I’d tried feeling I was short changed in any way! Certainly not something to eat straight after your Christmas Day roast, but a lovely mince pie and one that will get your visitors talking!

Real Pie Company Mince Pie Review

At £19.95 for 10 of these mince pies, they are certainly not the cheapest option out there, and that does hold back the score a bit, but factoring in the size I can’t say I’m feeling too out of pocket paying that for such large, unique mince pies. Yet again, the Real Pie Company have set a high bar for pie making and take number 4 spot in our top mince pies (though number 1 for giant mince pies!!)

The Real Pie Company Luxury Boozy Mince Pie
Score: 5.82/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6, Consistency 6.25, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 6.75, Cheapness 4, Content 6.25]

RAS

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Pieminister Mince Pie Ice Cream Pie Review

Mince Pie Ice Cream Pie Review

Yes, you read that right! An ice cream pie! And not just that, it has the word “pie” in the title twice, so that’s got to be a good thing, right?!

Welcome to part two of my Christmas venture to try the new Christmas 2017 additions to the Pieminister menu. Having visited the relatively new Birmingham store on Waterloo Street last week to try their new “The Cracker” Turkey and Ham pie, I could hardly resist a pudding pie that had “pie” in the title twice, could I?! Turns out not, as before I knew it the Mince Pie Ice Cream Pie with Gingerbread biscuit and rum sauce landed on my table, beautifully decorated with a crisp golden star as a lid.

What particularly persuaded me to go for one was the fact I’d never had an ice cream pie before! Plenty of pies WITH ice cream, but not one with ice cream in it (although Pierateer TJP had tried to make a Neapolitan ice cream pie a few years back, to mixed success). With a more biscuit like pastry to this dessert pie, which was very different to the traditional flaky Pieminister pastry I have come to know and love on their savoury pies, it did take some getting used to! And the thought of having ice cream in the pie and some of the mince outside the pie was a slight quirk! However before I go on I must say I did very much enjoy the pie and my first ice cream pie adventure.


However for the pie-hard Pierate fans in the room, I am now going to have to get technical for a minute and comment about the make-up of the dessert laid in front of me. For if I am being true to our 8 year old definition of a true pie, the filling should be fully encased in pastry, which this dessert wasn’t. For one there was a star lid on a circular side/base pastry, so that immediately would mean there were gaps in full encasement. But also there was a second even more noticeable issue of the mince content of the pie spilling out of the pastry encasement onto the plate, as well as raising the height of the star lid.

Pieminister Mince Pie Ice Cream Pie Review

Therefore, as lovely as this mince pie ice cream pie tasted, it won’t get top marks on our website for lack of a full encasement, not that this would stop me or anyone else enjoying them while they are still on the menu! The capacity was decent, the ice cream very nice and the mince fruity and flavoursome. I certainly struggled to finish it following a pie for dinner too, but as a pie soldier I managed to eat it all in the end! Very filling and very nice.

The only other thing to comment on is the price, which at £5 is quite pricy for a mince pie with ice cream (even if, as mentioned, the mince and ice cream are not in the locations you’d normally expect!) While I’d happily eat another one, I’d be slightly put off by the price, considering a mince pie can be bought for about 25p each in most supermarkets!

Still, this was a beautiful and quirky creation, looks brilliant and certainly added to my festive enjoyment of Christmas at Pieminister!

Pieminister Mince Pie Ice Cream Pie
Score: 5.29/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 5, Consistency 6, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 3.5, Content 5.5]
RAS

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Pieminister's Mince Pie Ice Cream Pie

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas on www.pierate.co.uk as we've been cracking out the tinsel and tucking into some Christmas Pies (not that the later of those will be of any sur-pies to you!) However it has been noted that a lot of our Christmas pie reviews - primarily Turkey Pies and Mince Pies - are from yonder year and particularly from December 2013, which was when we filmed our now infamous Christmas Pie Video! So while we go about eating and rating some more Christmas pies in the coming few weeks to make up for lost time, why not enjoy our '12 pies of Christmas' video based loosely on the old classic, 'The 12 Days of Christmas', as well as our Top 5 Turkey and Mince Pies thus far!

Prior to our December 2017 pie eating, here our top 5 turkey and top 5 mince pie reviews of years gone by:

Rank	Pie Producer	Pie Flavour	Score	By
1	Sweeney and Todd [RG1 7RD]	Turkey [Christmas]	6.21	RAS
2	Canteen [W1U 8EW]	Turkey, Leek and Cranberry	6.14	RAS
3	Pound Farm Shop	Turkey, Bacon and Leek	5.86	SJL
4	Sacks of Potatoes Pub [B4 7ER]	Turkey and Sausage	5.75	RAS
5	Higgidy	Lincolnshire Turkey, Bacon and Stuffing [Special Guest]	5.36	RAS

Click for all Turkey Pie Reviews.

Rank	Pie Producer	Pie Flavour	Score	By
1	Robinsons Bakery [M35 9PW]	Mince	6.18	RAS
2	Mr Kipling	Mince	6.07	RAS
3	Marks and Spencer	Gluten Free Mince (GF)	6.00	ALE
4	Lidl / Snowy Lodge	Mince	5.79	RAS
5	Duchy Originals	Organic Mince	5.65	TJP

Click for all Mince Pie Reviews.

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Konditor & Cook - Mince Pie Review
[Colour 6, Condition 5.5, Cheapness 2.5, Capacity 4.5, Chewiness 5.75, Content 6, Consistency 5.5]

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The Ship's Cook (aka @the_cookworm) is currently on a pie mission - to find the top rated pie recipes from our nations supermarket suggestions. It started with a tweet we were sent by @jimbolimbo9 suggesting we try two pork pastry recipes from the supermarket Morrisons and from this The Ship's Cook decided to select one reci-pie from each supermarket's website or magazine to make and rate. Today is the turn of Tesco's beef and stilton mini pies!

Tesco Pie Recipe Review

The recipe:

The following pie recipe can be found on the Tesco website. This is a great recipe for novice bakers or people who want (almost) instant pie, because it uses shop-bought pastry and doesn't involve too much preparation or cooking. You also get lots of little pies, which I quite like because it's an excuse to eat several at once.


You can find the full recipe here: http://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/beef-and-stilton-mini-pies.html

Tesco Pie Recipe Review

The 7 Cs of pie rating:

Colour:
These pies are topped with an egg-wash, meaning they come out a lovely golden brown colour.

Consistency:
The red wine, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and tomato purée give these pies a nice thick sauce that isn't quite gravy but adds a nice consistency to the filling, ensuring that the beef isn't too dry. The melted cheese also adds a nice creaminess to the pies.

Capacity:
The recipe tells you to press the filling down firmly in the pie crusts, which means that even though these are mini pies (and could therefore be a bit heavy on the pastry) you get a nice Crust:Filling ratio and lots of delicious beefy, cheesy filling.

Chewiness:
The mince in this pie is cooked in red wine and tomato purée until the liquid is absorbed, meaning it's nice and tender and melts in the mouth. The meltiness of the cheese adds to the smooth texture, and is a nice contrast to the crisp pastry.   

Cheapness:
These score pretty well for cheapness, especially if you're like me and usually have a half-used jar of mustard in the fridge that needs using up. You also get lots of pies - the recipe says fifteen if you use a mini muffin tin, but I used a full sized muffin tin and still got nine. We had two each for dinner with vegetables and gravy, so depending on how many people you're feeding you might even get a second dinner from this recipe.

Content:
In my opinion you can't really go wrong with beef and cheese, and these pies tasted like a cross between cheeseburgers and bolognese sauce (yum). This is a bit different to your usual mince and onion pie and the melting cheese is probably the best bit - the mustard was a bit overpowering so I'd suggest you use less mustard and more cheese.

Condition:
My pies didn't look quite as neat as those in the original photo, but they were a proper, appealing pie shape and they held their shape even when I cut into them. The filling leaked out a little bit, but the little individual pies still looked very tempting once they were out of the tin.

Tesco Pie Recipe Review

The Ship's Cook

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Marks and Spencer All Butter Classic and Luxury Mince Pie Reviews

Marks and Spencer All Butter Luxury Mince Pies

It seems every supermarket likes getting into the festive pie spirit and Marks and Spencer are no exception. With a fantastic range of mince pies in store, it was hard to decide which pies to pick up, particularly as a lot of the boxes of pies looked very similar to one another. We’d already had our gluten free Pierateer ALE rate the gluten free Marks and Spencer mince pies, so – finding the descriptions on the box of the Marks and Spencer Classic and Luxury mince pies almost identical – Pierateer RAS decided to try and work out what the difference was between the two in a pie-off.

So what were the Marks and Spencer Mince Pies like? And what was the difference? Well, the most noticeable difference was the price. The classic pies cost £1.80 for a box of 6 mince pies or 30ppp, compared to £2.50 for a box of 6 luxury mince pies at 41.6ppp, which makes them some of the more expensive boxes of supermarket mince pies this Christmas time. However at Pierate HQ it’s not all about the price – it’s about whether the pie is worth the price!

Marks and Spencer All Butter Classic Mince Pies

The pies came in good condition, though the classic pie had a rather plain lid compared to the more elaborate design of the luxury pies, which incorporated a snowflake. However the lid of the luxury pies were quite inconsistent, with some lids slightly uneven and sticking to the foil casing, thus breaking the lid off the pie when trying to eat them.

The colour was quite good for mince pies – though there was a significant contrast from the darker, crisper edge pastry that created a reasonable overhang to the lighter, central pastry. The pastry was nice and crisp without being dry, crumbling easily in the mouth.

Marks and Spencer All Butter Luxury Mince Pies

Inside both pies there was a reasonably strong capacity of mincemeat, with clear fruity pieces and a nice moist filling. The content wasn’t too chewy, which was good, and was consistently well filled throughout the pie. The filling tasted very similar between the two – very fruity sultanas, currants and raisins.

All in all, both were nice Christmas mince pies which I’d certainly want to eat again, even if they were a little more expensive per pie than most other supermarket pies. With a full 11.6p per pie difference between the two, I’d say there isn’t a noticeable enough difference to warrant paying the extra for the luxury pies, even if they do look a bit nicer. But two more Pierate Recommended mince pies none the less!

Marks and Spencer All Butter Mince Pies – Classic Recipe
Score: 5.56/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.75, Condition 5.8, Chewiness 5.6, Cheapness 4, Content 6, Total: 5.56/7]

Marks and Spencer All Butter Mince Pies – Luxury Recipe
Score: 5.23/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.75, Condition 4.5, Chewiness 5.6, Cheapness 3, Content 6, Total: 5.23/7]

RAS

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Harrods Luxury Almond and Brandy Mince Pie Review

When it comes to the big names in shopping, few can beat Harrods. One of London’s premier stores – if not the world’s – means that any food which comes from the store’s huge food hall will get savoured across the globe and put on a pedestal of divine deliciousness. Or at least that’s the theory. And hundreds of you have read our review of the Harrods mince pies we rated last year to find out how good they were. But how would these full-sized Harrods mince pies withstand the Pierateer’s 7 Cs as I ate one on Christmas Day? Let’s find out...

The beautiful Harrods Mince Pie box

You may remember that last Christmas we rated the Harrods Luxurious Mini Mince Pie Selection, which contained nine mini pies of three different flavours and featured in the “12 Pies of Christmas” music video we made. This year we were back in Harrods and picked up their Luxury Almond and Brandy Mince Pies. These were full-sized mince pies this year – in fact, probably slightly larger than the average supermarket mince pie, but at a whopping £9.50 for a box of six – that’s 150ppp and easily the most expensive mince pie we’ve rated! – can the Harrods pie really live up to expectation?

Harrods Mince Pie Review

Well the mix of the fruity filling and almond made this pie taste significantly different in filling to many mince pies out there. You also definitely get a bit of a taste sensation with the brandy, providing a bit of a late kick. One of the issues with this flavoured pie last year was that the ratio of pastry to mince meat was too much on the pastry side, and while the larger pie this time did improve the balance, it was still too pastry heavy. The pastry was rather thick and too dry, not quite balanced well enough by the fruity filling. The filling needed to be a bit moister to balance the pastry better. The capacity was not perfect but pretty good, and with a nice fruity filling it was really just lacking a bit of moisture in the content to be even better.

Altogether the pie tastes nice, the crunch from the almond was good, and the flavour lingered nicely after eating. That said, it was again rather expensive for the privilege at £1.50 for a standard sized mince pie. A posh alternative, but I wouldn’t rush back to get these on my Christmas dinner table again next year.

Harrods Luxury Almond and Brandy Mince Pie
Score: 4.07/7
[Colour 4.5, Capacity 5, Consistency 4, Condition 5, Chewiness 4, Cheapness 1.5, Content 4.5, Total: 4.07/7]
RAS

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Waitrose Duchy Originals Organic Mince Pies review

Out of the packet, these mince pies are in excellent condition and have a lovely golden colour. The all butter pastry is obviously of high quality, as the pie feels solid in the hand and unlikely to disintegrate like cheaper mince pies. The pastry is crispy, crunchy and yummy.


Slicing open the pie, there is a noticeable air gap. I therefore felt these pies needed a bit more mincemeat filling, especially for the price paid. The mincemeat is fruity and tangy, and complements the pastry well. This pie is really delicious, and goes well with some vanilla custard (which is needed as I felt the pie was a little dry otherwise). I would buy them again, even if they are a bit of an extravagant expense.

Waitrose Duchy Originals Organic Mince Pies
Score: 5.65/7 - Pierate recommended
TJP

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Booths Luxury All Butter Mince Pies Review

You may remember that back on International Pierate Day 2014, alongside banging on about the 425+ pies we've rated so far, we thought we'd try and solve a mystery:



In order to answer this question, and quite frankly a great excuse to do Piethagoras' Theorem on International Pierate Day 2014, Pierateer RAS decided to try "Mince Pie with every meal", by eating a Booths Traditional Mince Pie with each meal that day.

However at the same time, Pierateer RAS had picked up some Booths Luxury All Butter Mince Pies to see if these would rate even better than their traditional counterparts. As a luxury product they did come at a bit of a premium, costing £2.49 for 6 pies. This worked out at 41.5p per pie, making them considerably more than the 30p a pie for the traditional versions, and quite a bit more than most other mince pies rated as part of the "12 Pies of Christmas" music video last year.

But would this increase in price reflect a far superior product? Having a few friends over for a Christmas lunch recently provided the perfect excuse for Pierateer RAS to try out these luxury pies, alongside James, Will and Christopher, to see which Booths mince pies would rate the best!

The first thing to note was that they had been cleverly wrapped in plastic inside the cardboard box, to give extra freshness. This was also the case for the traditional mince pies that Booths make, but is not always the case. With pies available for quite a few months prior to Christmas this seems a very wise investment if you won't eat them straight away. But how would they rate?


Firstly, the shapes of the mince pies did vary slightly - no standard production line here - which gave the pies a more homely feel. They were taller but slightly smaller in diameter than the traditional Booths pies and this helped improve their pastry to filling ratio. There was a pretty strong capacity, with just a small air gap, and lots of fruity pieces bursting out. It certainly wasn't filled with mince gloop, as a number of mince pies we've rated have been!

Our birthday print by @michlan

The shape made the pie more structurally integral too, but I did find these pies were once again rather pale and not very crisp. You could certainly taste the buttery flavours coming through the pastry, almost a bit too strongly at times, which made it a bit more of a niche taste. I'd certainly prefer a bit more bite to my mince pie, though the content again was very good and fruity for a mince pie.

These pies were very strongly laced with sugar on top of the pies, which again I felt wasn't really needed (a good pie should not need to be covered in sugar to taste good) but it would certainly please some with a sweet tooth! I think I did prefer the eating experience of the All Butter mince pies slightly more, but might get put off by the price from buying them over the traditional mince pies.

Overall, I found it hard to split the two Booths mince pies really, as they excelled and lacked in different areas. I'd suggest you go for whichever floats your boat (or Pierate Ship) based on our comments, or like me just buy both!

Either way, enjoy your mince pies this festive season!


Booths Luxury All Butter Mince Pies
Score: 4/7
[Colour 3.5, Capacity 5, Consistency 3.5, Condition 4, Chewiness 4.5, Cheapness 3, Content 4.5, Total: 4/7]
RAS

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Marks and Spencer - Gluten Free Mince Pie Review

Whilst out the other day a family member presented me with a lovely looking box of four gluten free mince pies from Marks and Spencer. At first one wouldn't think that this was a Gluten Free product as it wasn't packaged in the normal 'Free From' style that most supermarkets use. This was quite nice in a way although I suppose there is the danger that fellow coeliacs might miss them!

Upon opening the box, there were quite a few rather large crumbs which had been dislodged, however, I think this just reflects the transportation after leaving the supermarket. To confirm this I felt it was my duty to eat more than one box and the other box (transported by bicycle) was fine. Although one could argue it may not be a pie as it is not completely enclosed in pastry, I do rather like the pretty star on top instead of a complete lid. But the real question is how would it taste? Would it beat the Pierate Recommended Gluten Free mince pies from Foodamentalists and We Love Cake? See below for scores!



Condition – 5.75 out of 7 – This reflects the fact that the pasty is a little bit crumbly, but this is expected with Gluten Free pastry. its definitely not a pie that you think to yourself "I must not eat this in public to avoid a crumbly mess"!!

Colour – 6.25 out of 7 – Pretty much the optimum colour I would expect for a mince pie.

Cheapness – 5.0 out of 7 – At a bit over £3 this is pretty expensive even for GF products, but i must say it was worth it, especially the first box which was free to me!!

Capacity – 6.0 out of 7 – Couldn't be much better, but it would be quite hard to hide it in this instance because you can see the filling.

Chewiness – 6.5 out of 7 – Normally the mincemeat in mince pies is rather chewy. However, in these it is almost soft. It hasn't got full marks because there is some residual chewiness. The pastry was divine and melt in the mouth!

Content – 6.25 out of 7 – I really liked the taste of the mincemeat which was the perfect sweetness and complimented the pastry very nicely.

Consistency – 6.25 out of 7 – This worked well as a package, really great pie!



To summarise, this is a fantastic pie! It doesn't just beat the other mince pies I have scored, it is infact the best shop brought mince pie i have ever tasted, including gluten ones (before i was diagnosed as a coeliac)!! So if you're Gluten Free, or you know someone who is, don't hesitate to go out to M&S and buy a box of these shining stars!

Gluten Free Mince Pie (Marks and Spencer)
6.00/7

ALE

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Of course you won't need us to tell you we were going to be eating and rating pies on International Pierate Day 2014! That's a given. But it's not like us to do some sort of silly pie-blicity stunt just to get your attention... wait, okay... so maybe we occasionally do! But Python Pie, Crocodile Pie and eating 21 pie meals in 7 days (and losing weight while doing so!) aside, we hardly make a fuss about the 425+ pies we've rated so far. So for our birthday, we thought we'd try and solve a mystery:

Our birthday print by @michlan

In order to answer this question, and quite frankly a great excuse to do Piethagoras' Theorem on International Pierate Day 2014, Pierateer RAS has decided to try "Mince Pie with every meal" - an attempt to solve why mince pies are sold before December!

Breakfast

I'm not going to lie - a mince pie for breakfast is at times almost a common feature of my diet, rather than an abnormality or chore of any kind. Especially last November/December time, when I ended up eating tens of mince pies in order to create our "12 Pies of Christmas" music video! The mince pie of choice for the day is Booths Mince Pies - sold in the Northern supermarket chain and purchased on a recent trip up to Morecambe to film with the BBC.

Supplementing my usual breakfast banana, the pie slipped down well, providing a bit of a sugary, pastry boost to the morning. Well needed when I woke up tired after staying up late to write our Birthday post last night!

The pastry wasn't overly crisp and the wonky lids didn't create the nicest condition possible, but the pie filling was quite nice and fruity. I'd certainly prefer a less shallow pie than this, as the pastry rather dominated the flavour of the pie. But the pie was good and I'm just limbering up for my lunchtime mince pie...

Lunch

Lunch involved a trip to the work canteen and the main meal for the day was Lamb Tagine. I have to admit, seeing the stew like option there on display the first thing that went through my head was “Why don’t they wrap that in pastry – with clearly defined base, sides and lid naturally – and sell it as a pie?!”

Anyway, the meal was nice, but the main thing was the mince pie I had with it, which again I couldn’t help think was a little too shallow and the fruit mix in it wasn’t quite as nice. There were a few crunchy bits in the mince mix within this pie which I didn’t particularly enjoy. However all in all, the pie was again a reasonable standard.

Dinner

Having got home from work and with packing to do for my holiday the next day, I needed something quick and easy to cook. Admittedly I could have easily used this as an excuse to go to the local takeaway and get a Pukka Pie and chips (believe me, I don’t normally need an excuse for a pie!) but having a mince pie ready and waiting for dessert, I decided to stick with my original plan of chicken kiev.

As I’d already had two of these mince pies “au naturel” I decided to have this third one of the day with a bit of ice cream, which did mix it up a bit. However by this point I had definitely decided that this wasn’t my favourite mince pie to eat. The pastry wasn’t overly crisp and there could have been more filling to balance the pastry:filing ratio better but overall it was a nice, if not spectacular mince pie. At £1.19 for 4 pies, so 30p each, this was a fair bit more expensive than the Lidl/Tesco/Mr Kipling comparisons of last year but not too badly priced.

Pies, our birthday card and birthday print by @michlan

Booths Mince Pies
Score: 4/7
[Colour 3.5, Capacity 4, Consistency 3.5, Condition 4, Chewiness 4.5, Cheapness 4.5, Content 4, Total: 4/7]

And as for why mince pies get sold before December? Well, I think there are a few reasons. Firstly, why would you ever only want to eat pies in December?! Surely more places should follow the lead of Robinsons Bakery and sell mince pies all year round! Secondly, with so many to choose from, you need to start early in order to sample a good range of mince pies in order to choose your favourite for Christmas Day!

But finally - and arguably most importantly – you wouldn’t be able to eat and rate mince pies on International Pierate Day if they weren’t sold until December. And we certainly wouldn’t want that to happen!!!

RAS

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Foodamentalists Gluten Free Pie Reviews

From the moment I set my eyes on these Foodamentalist pies I couldn't wait to eat them!! I repeatedly asked Pierateer SJL "are you sure they are gluten free?" "have you made a mistake?" The reason for my confusion, is that I have never seen a gluten free pie so beautifully presented that arrived in a small cellophane wrapper with absolutely NO supportive packaging!!! I know what your thinking..INCREDIBLE!! Well I am not lying to you and I have the pictures for evidence (well okay, you just have to take my word about the gluten free part!!). On the menu was: fidget pie; pork, venison and cranberry; pork, black pudding and caramelised red onion pie and traditional pork pie. But don't worry, I didn't eat them all on my own!! Priced at £1.90 - £2.50 on their website this is a reasonable price for a quality product.


For starters was the traditional pork pie which like any pork pie, we ate cold. Having never found a GF pork pie, I was rather looking forward to this. However, my first mouthful filled me with disappointment as I had high hopes for these little fellas. I couldnt quite work out what this pie was trying to be - it looked like a traditional pork pie and was called this, but yet it largely tasted of sage. If anything, this pie reminded me of a sausage roll. It wasn't as crusty and didn't contain jelly like a gluten equivalent, which did affect the consistency as the filling didn't hold together as well as I would expect a picnic finger pie to do so. The texture was actually quite pleasant though, and not at all chewy like normal meat pies are.

Colour = 6
Consistency = 4.5
Capacity = 6
Chewiness = 6
Cheapness = 5
Content = 4.5
Condition = 6

Pork Pie (Foodamentalists)
5.42/7


Trying not to let this dampen my enthusiasm I moved onto the main course. First out of the oven was fidget pie.The pastry was so light, like nothing I have tried before and it had a slight crunch to it. The colour was again great and there was no air gap - a jam packed pie!! Although, I must admit that I couldn't really distinguish between the pastry and the filling as they both tasted fairly similar. The flavour was okay and felt nice and traditional.

Colour = 7
Consistency = 5
Capacity = 6
Chewiness = 6
Cheapness = 5
Content = 4.5
Condition = 6

Fidget Pie (Foodamentalists)
5.64/7

Next up....Pork, venison and cranberry. I liked the sound of this pie but in reality the cranberry's made the pie a little too sour. The meat was nice though.

Colour = 7
Consistency = 6
Capacity = 6
Chewiness = 6
Cheapness = 5
Content = 3.5
Condition = 6

Pork, Venison & Cranberry (Foodamentalists)
5.64/7

Pork, black pudding and caramelised red onion. I was fairly excited about the black pudding as I quite like it but its not something us coeliacs find much. Although, this did disappoint me as I didn't really like the taste and the pie lacked flavour.

Colour = 7
Consistency = 6
Capacity = 6
Chewiness = 6
Cheapness = 5
Content = 3.5
Condition = 6

Pork, Black Pudding & Caramelised Red Onion (Foodamentalists)
5.64/7

Lastly I tried what I thought was the best of all, the pork, chicken and stuffing....um...non-pie. It had a crumble topping so us Pierateers cant really call it a pie (as it's not fully encased). But I thought that I would mention that it had the best flavour of all the pies.

In conclusion, the pastry on these pies is probably gluten free world class! Like nothing I have ever tried before and will probably try again. It was so light, beautifully golden and deliciously tasty. Thank you Foodamentalists. However, the fillings despite being a lovely texture and not at all chewy, really did lack flavour. It must be noted that these pies had been frozen before I received them, which may have affected the flavour. As the pies are on their own, I don't plan to eat these again but if the flavour is improved I would jump at the opportunity as these really could be delicious pies!!

But before I go I must mention the desert! Foodamentalists were also good enough to send a box of Gluten Free Frangipane Mince Pies. The thing I liked about these is that they looked homemade and not like they came out of a machine. The frangipane topping was a really nice change and added to the taste. The mincemeat was similar to any other but not as sugary, this was something I liked. All in all a pretty good pie!


Colour = 5
Consistency = 6
Capacity = 5
Chewiness = 6
Cheapness = 5
Content = 5
Condition = 5

Mince Pie (Foodamentalists)
5.29/7

ALE

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Sainsbury's - Mince Pie Reviews

The problem with being a Pierateer is that there are just so many delicious pies out there to review. Often a Pierateer will be found grumbling about their 'pie backlog' which is the list of all the pies we have eaten but have yet to review. Mine currently stands at about 8 'must do' reviews, some of which I have been planning to write for about a year. You know how it is, there is just too much to do in life and if there isn't too much to do then you're just too tired! If only Pierate was a paid job then we might just about have time to write all the reviews! I am currently trying my best to not eat any new pies so that I can get through my backlog, which is extremely difficult!

The reason that I am saying all this is because I am trying to build up my excuses for why this review is so late. Normally I can get away with taking a month or two to write a review, no one will know when it comes to reading it! However, in this case I am trying to review some mince pies of the spiced fruit variety. The trouble with mince pies is that they are far too seasonal. A month on from Christmas and no one is going to believe I just picked these up from Sainsbury's. Indeed I didn't actually pick them up at all. @SainsburysPR on Twitter were kind enough to send a box of pie boxes for us to review. But it is never too late to say thank you to them and add another mince pie to our pie rankings.

This is a sight for sore eyes!

And I certainly do owe Sainsbury's a thank you. These were not just any mince pies, Sainsbury's had spared no expense by sending two boxes of Taste the Difference mince pies, one box of Gluten Free iced mince pies and one box of Taste the Difference Ecclefechan mince tarts. I will say straight away that despite not being pies the Ecclefechan mince tarts were actually delicious! They had a lovely mix of flavours which included nuts making them a bit different to mince pies.

However, of course, the tarts were not really something I can officially review what with this being PIE-rate. The Gluten Free iced mince pies were also tarts really. They were intriguing creatures being somewhere between a mince pie and Christmas cake. The icing made them very sweet and was nice for a change. For Gluten Free pastry our Gluten Free reviewer Pierateer ALE said this was a decent attempt, but we would have liked to see more pastry by giving these a lid!

Sainsburys Taste the Difference All Butter Mince Pie

You will see that the other two boxes are genuine pies so get official scores. Firstly the regular TTD mince pies. The butter pastry was lovely and crumbly but at the same time not at all dry. The mince meat was amongst the best I had tasted all season with some nice variation to both texture and taste throughout. This kept the pie interesting from beginning to end of the consumption process. They looked every bit the festive treat they are supposed to with great packaging, Colour and Condition. These were tall pies so had good Capacity.

Sainsburys Taste the Difference All Butter Mini Mince Pie

For the mini versions they looked a bit different due to the star-shaped lid which made them quite appealing. The pastry to filling ratio was very decent despite these pies being small and not quite fully encased in pastry. The pastry tasted a bit different in these, it was more crumbly and tasted a bit more like shortbread than pastry. In this sense I think I preferred the pastry on the full sized version because the mini version was just too Crunchy. The mincemeat was again very good, I couldn't Taste the Difference between the two TTD fillings.

What made me realise that these were very good pies was the fact that everyone wanted to eat them. I shared them at work and they were gone within a matter of moments. The mini versions went down particularly well, given their small size people are more likely to be tempted. I would certainly consider buying them next year, despite the higher price for these premium pies. They would be ideal for any Christmas gathering. We have given the larger version 'Pierate Recommended' status. Good work Sainsbury's!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

TTD All Butter Mince Pie (Sainsbury's)
5.12/7

TTD All Butter Mini Mince Pie (Sainsbury's)
4.63/7

SJL

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