Pie reviews

Deacon's Steak & Ale Pie

Product: Deacon's Steak & Ale Pie

Shop: BW Deacon Butchers

I have concerns as there is a thick double layered top crust which often means the bottom by default ends up a little soggy but this is well contained with some fairly substantial...

Gunn's Bedfordshire Clanger

Product: Gunn's Bedfordshire Clanger

Shop: Gunn's Bakery

It is perfectly encased in gentle suety pastry. The only trouble is to my untrained eye I can see no discernible difference between either end and inevitably make the schoolboy err...

Blue Stilton Pork & Stilton Pie

Thick and decorative with a sleek leopard skin look to it, one pastry spot presumably denoting the pork and stilton flavour. It is hollow at the sides but still room for a large ex...

Clark's Beef and Veg Pie

The pie is hotter than the local traffic warden with lots of mince and gravy teamed up with small potato and onion chunks. A very peppery kick which enhances the meaty flavour and...

Clark's Beef and Potato Pie

It has an impeccably dense crust throughout, with a firm sturdy base, yet delicate in the mouth, the sort of crust you find in an apple pie. A real triumph, novel in origin, comple...

David Gawthorpe Steak & Ale Pie

X marks the spot on this highly prized treasure. It presents as a dark, dense and sticky crust, with a mysterious X scored into the roof, which gives way to nothing more than thick...

Mandy's Meat and Potato Pie

The crust is crispy, almost oval shaped and rigid and whereas this sturdiness makes it’s ideal to eat with the hands it isn’t recommended for anyone with false teeth. It has a swee...

Carr's Meat and Potato Pasty

This pasty has a perfectly crafted delicate form to it, with a splendidly crisp outer texture and fluffy interior. It comes in a trendy branded wrapper bag and the pasty contains a...

Meadowfresh Steak and Potato Pie

Product: Meadowfresh Steak and Potato Pie

Shop: Meadowfresh

It has a rounded oblong shape with a robust top and softer base, which all holds together well to keep the flavour and heat intact. Featuring cubes of potato, liberal quantities of...

W&M Wright Steak & Ale Pie

Product: W&M Wright Steak & Ale Pie

Shop: W&M Wright Caterers

The pastry is thick and crumbly, it's redeeming feature coming in the form of two sweet pastry hearts adorning the top crust. High meat quality, nice gravy but lacking in volume de...

Meadowfresh Derbyshire Pasty

Product: Meadowfresh Derbyshire Pasty

Shop: Meadowfresh

This is more of an unfeasibly large and appetising meal. It is a tiger skin pastry, not too flaky and doesn’t darken too much in the oven. Piled high with stewing steak, large slab...

Jasper's Steak and Kidney Pie

Product: Jasper's Steak and Kidney Pie

Shop: Jasper's Bakery

Average pie with dark gravy and slightly jellyish meat. Clearly a local treasure of a bakery but with the emphasis on bread, cakes and pasties rather than the humble pie.

Bolster Moor Pork Pie

Product: Bolster Moor Pork Pie

Shop: Bolster Moor Farm Shop

The pastry is solid and golden. The roof is delicate, a textbook colour and a little bit sticky in the mouth. The interior is full to the brim, succulent but not too seasoned, allo...

Mettrick's Steak and Potato Pie

Product: Mettrick's Steak and Potato Pie

Shop: JW Mettrick & Son

It's a lovely well defined pie that you want to give a hug but dabbling on dangerous ground by failing to insulate it's cavernous loft with meat, The pastry is thick, lofty and cri...

Waites Meat and Potato Pie

Product: Waites Meat and Potato Pie

Shop: Waites Confectioners

I've Waited a long time for this and upon inspection the pastry appears to be hot water based, like a pork pie, containing very distinct chunks of steak and potato and drowning in...

Glover's Butter Pie

The Glover’s Butter Pie is served in a branded wrapper by a young girl who really is as nice as pie. The top crust is scored several times on top making it look like a Chinese sym...

Handley's Potato and Meat Pie

A quintessential meat and potato with great potential consisting of large hearty slabs of potatoes, succulent mincemeat wrapped in lashings of sloppy gravy however the bottom is to...

AJ Boon's Pork Pie

I take this pie home and stick in the oven. The pastry looks a bit more shortcrust than water based and curiously the crust lid doesn't quite cover the pie giving you a tantalising...

Hopkin's Pork Pie

Product: Hopkin's Pork Pie

Shop: Hopkin's of Birkenshaw

Slicing it in half is a tester but when I get there I'm hit with a stunningly fresh aroma of sausage meat, and a little bit of jelly wriggles out and makes good it's escape. The me...

Hopkin's Meat and Potato Pie

Product: Hopkin's Meat and Potato Pie

Shop: Hopkin's of Birkenshaw

Another splendid pie from Hopkins, which although of small dimensions, has plenty shoehorned into it with consistent rings of mince and potato so fresh's almost green encased in a...

George Middlemiss Pork Pie

Product: George Middlemiss Pork Pie

Shop: Geo. Middlemiss & Son

A dark, crispy heavily glazed pastry which is a little tough on the gnashers in parts but worth biting through to get to the fine, cured sausage meat and bountiful supply of jelly...

Maughan's Pork Pie

Product: Maughan's Pork Pie

Shop: Maughan's Bakery

A bit dry with not too much jelly in evidence and when I pick it up the meat jumps out and deposits itself on the kitchen floor (of course I ate it) Well filled with a raised centr...

Melvyn Davies Meat and Potato Pie

Product: Melvyn Davies Meat and Potato Pie

Shop: Melvyn Davis Confectioners

High meat to potato ratio with a dark mince and gravy interior, raised in the middle hence not quite filled and possessing one of the thickest top crusts I've had, arguably a bit t...

Tootell's Meat and Potato Pie

I receive a warm greeting upon arrival and a fond farewell with warm pies in my hand. The pie is a bit wobbly but manageable without spillage, even when a bit of crust gets stuck t...