Hollands Potato & Meat Pie

Description: A mixed of diced potato, beef & seasoning, encased in our unique, golden, shortcrust pastry.

Cost: £1.20 each pie.

Cooking: Number 5 for 20mins from fresh.

Verdict:  I happened to mention to some friends about my piereview site one evening and before I know it, a few days later the doorbell goes and they have bought around some pies for me to try! Must be the season of good will as this is the 2nd lot of pie pressies I've been given! So thanks to Nicola and Jim for introducing me to these pies!

This time the pies were by a company called Hollands - they have their own website here:  http://www.hollandspies.co.uk/  

I was quite excited as the pies were potato & meat and I hadn't had one of them for a very long time.

In the oven it goes and without thinking I put on my normal potato & peas side dishes. Afterwards I wished I hadn't as there was enough potato in the pie without any more on the side.

The pie looked a nice size, quite chunky, certainly a good sized individual pie with some body to it. Out of the oven once cooked and it smelt really nice. Cutting it open revealed a full filling - no skimping here. Nice soft chunks of potato and some minced beef. It all came in a nice creamy sauce which tasted a bit like nice creamy mash. The mince had a hint of onions to it, but only mild and there were no hard grisly bits. The pastry was very good. Not crumbly like your`d expect most shortcrusts, but more stodgy. Reminded me a bit of the suet pastry my mum used to make. I soon found the pie started filling me up, so it was good job I only put one in the oven and wasn't greedy!

My only fault was that I felt there was a fraction too much potato in the pie and not quite enough mince. Apart from that, this really is a cracking pie and actually whole meal in itself. Its the sort of pie you could buy cooked from a shop whilst out on a winters shopping trip and sit in a city centre enjoying on its own. It would certainly warm your cockles and fill your tummy.

After the makers tweeted me at @piereviews I had a look at their website and they certainly do have a really good site and a great range of pies. They even have mail order deliveries from their website if you cant find them in the local supermarket. I cant wait to try their other pies now! 

Calorie wise, each pie is 402 calories.

Rating? 8 out of 10. Definitely one to buy and easily the best potato & meat pie I've had so far.

Sainsbury's Deep Filled Chicken & White Wine Pie

Description: Succulent British chicken with a creamy white wine sauce in shortcrust pastry topped with a golden flaky puff pastry

Cost: 2 family pies for £5 special offer.

Cooking: Number 4 for 35mins from fresh or 55 mins from frozen.

Verdict: The lovely wife surprised me by bringing home a couple of new pies I hadn't tried before from her trip down the shops. I tried the first of these pies last week, which was the Sainsbury's Steak & Ale pie and those of you who have read my blog will know I was very impressed by this pie. It certainly was better than the other deep filled pies I had tried previously.  Based on this, I was keen to try the second pie she had purchased which was the Sainsbury's Deep Filled Chicken & White Wine sauce pie, to see if Sainsbury's could continue their success.

Out of the box it looks pretty much like the other deep filled pies they make - i actually have decided to show a picture of it at the top here. Its nice and deep looking.

In the oven it goes and its soon ready. Like with the Streak & Ale version, the pastry was lovely and flaky, and the filling looked good. The pie is quite a good size, so for me, 1/3rd was plenty. The filling had nice sized lumps of very tasty tender chicken and the sauce was very very nice. Nice, creamy and full of flavour, it was more like someone had used a tin of soup when they made the pie. Very good. Its worth mentioning that the chicken appeared to be breast meat, and had been slow cooked rather than roasted - so it has a difference taste to some of the Roast Chicken pies I've previously tried.

With the Steak & Ale version I felt it could have used a bit more filling, but with this chicken pie I felt it was a bit better. Looking on the ingredients, the filling is roughly 53% of the pie, so roughly half of it is filling and half of it is pastry.

Verdict: ?  Sainsbury's have done it again. A cracking nice Chicken pie. Certainly definitely one to buy again and whilst its on the "2 for £5" offer, is good value too. I cant wait to taste some of their other deep filled range to see if they can do it again?

Calorie wise, 3rd of the pie is 489 calorie.

Rating? 9 out of 10.

Sainsbury's Deep Filled Steak & Ale Pie

Description: Tender British beef with a rich Irish stout ale gravy in shortcrust pastry topped with golden flaky puff pastry.

Cost: 2 family pies for £5 special offer.

Cooking: Number 4 for 35mins from fresh or 55 mins from frozen.

Verdict: The lovely wife surprised me by bringing home a couple of new pies I hadn't tried before from her trip down the shops. The first of the pies was this Sainsbury's Steak & Ale pie. Now.. those of you who read my blog regularly will know I've already tried the Tesco version of this pie and was disappointed with lack of contents, and id also tried the Morrisons version of this pie which reminded me of cat food. So, I was intrigued as to what the Sainsbury's version would be like.

Out of the packet and it certainly is a deep looking pie, promising a lot of contents. In the oven it goes from fresh for the recommended time.

Pie was soon ready and cutting it open the pastry was lovely and flaky, and the filling looked good. The pie is quite a good size, so for me, 1/3rd was plenty. The filling had nice sized lumps of very tasty tender steak and the gravy... well... it was just incredible. Very tasty gravy indeed. You could really taste the ale and a hint of onions... really nice.

My only complaint was that whilst it was billed as a deep fill, i felt they could have put a bit more filling in. I didn't notice any more filling that you`d get in a normal sized pie.

Definitely one to buy again and certainly miles better, in my opinion, than the Tesco`s & Morrisons versions.
 

Calorie wise, 3rd of the pie is 464 calorie.

Rating? 9 out of 10.

M. Newitt & Sons Venison Pie in Game Sauce

Description: Venison pie in a game sauce

Cost: £5.95 for family sized pie. But free to me as it was a gift!

Cooking: 30minutes on number 6 from fresh.

Verdict: First impressions? Well, I had some guests over mine for the weekend and to my surprise and joy they bought me a pie as a gift from their local butchers. They know me too well!

The pie came in a lovely paper bag depicting the butchers shop it was from. In this case it was "M. Newitt & Sons" who are based in Thame, Oxford. It showed a pic of a traditional looking butchers shop, along with their details... their website is: www.newitt.co.uk

The pie itself looked like a nice home made family sized pie as you can see in the picture. Shortcrust pastry and a reasonably deep size.

In the oven it goes and 30mins later its lovely & ready. I couldn't wait.


Cutting the pie open and I was not disappointed at all. There was loads of chunky meat inside, i could see small slices of onions and the gravy smelt incredible. It smelt very much like a rabbit stew, but richer.

The meat was lovely & soft, no hard bits or anything - which was good as sometime in game type pies you can get bits of shot or bone etc.. but this was perfect. The gravy tasted like it had red wine in it and reminded me of a thick rabbit stew - my only fault was that the gravy was quite rich. I ate half a pie in one sitting, but id recommend having just 1/4 or 1/3rd as that would have been more than enough.

The pastry was also great, no leakages from the filling and just the right thickness. 

All in all, this was one incredibly tasty pie, really hit all the taste buds and was perfect for Sunday lunch on a wet cold December day.


Id definitely buy this one again and if I'm ever in Thame I will pop into the butchers and congratulate them as I'm going to award this pie a 10/10 !

Calorie count - as this was a home made butchers pie I'm not sure, but id guess about 600 calories per half a pie.

Rating?   10 out of 10. (Perfect Venison pie!)

Millers Minced Beef & Onion Pie

Description: Puff pastry pie filled with minced beef and onion in gravy in a shortcrust pastry base.

Cost: 99p for 1 pie (150g serving)

Cooking: 20minutes on number 6 from fresh or 45minutes on 6 if frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Compared to a Ginsters or Walls pie this pie does look a bit cheap in its plastic wrapping. But then again, its 99p compared to £1.99 for the equivalent "brand" name pie. So, for 99p this has to be worth a try!

I was away from home but had access to a microwave, so in it went for a minute or so, rather than in the oven, so unfortunately I cant compare the pastry against similar pies as the microwave tends to leave it a bit soggy.

However, the pie smelt lovely and cutting it open, it contained a good amount of minced beef/onion filling. It looked like it was all minced up into very fine pieces so you couldn't really tell what was onion and what was meat. But, no gristle or hard bits. Just yummy tasting mince.

All in all, not a bad buy and you cant go wrong for 99p. I noticed they also do a Chicken & Mushroom one, so i`ll have to give that a try too!

Calorie count is 495 calories per pie.

Rating?   7 out of 10. (Definitely a budget pie to buy again.)

ASDA Chicken & Gravy Puff Pasty Pie

Description: Tender British Chicken with onions in our rich gravy, with a golden, flaky puff pastry lid. 

Cost: £1.48 for 1 pie (200g serving), however I had a result here as I happened to be in Asda before closing time and they had reduced this pie down to 62p! Bargain!

Cooking: 40minutes on number 4 from frozen. Less if you cook from fresh.

Verdict: First impressions? I bought this pie because it was reduced to 62p which is a cracking price for what looked like a nice pie. Unfortunately after my bad experience a few weeks back with the Beef & Mushy Pea Pie from ASDA I didn't have very high hopes for this Chicken & Gravy Pie.

In the oven it went, 40minutes on number 4 as per the instructions, whilst I pealed the potatoes and got some veg ready.

Out the oven and all is looking nice. Very nice crispy puff pastry lid and the contents made my eyes light up. Nice big chunks of chicken, nice amount of gravy and tender bits of onion.

Unfortunately the middle was not quite hot enough - a problem i find occasionally happens with pies when they are on number 4. I suspect my oven may be at fault rather than the pie itself. So, I bunged it in the microwave for 30 seconds to finish it off.

How did it taste? The chicken actually tasted lovely - nice pieces of breast and the gravy was full of flavour. The puff pastry was nice and flaky, just how I like it, and with the potatoes & veg, the size of pie was perfect. Just the right size for 1 person.


Calorie count is 492 calories per pie.

Rating?   8 out of 10. (Definitely one to buy again. Maybe not as good as the birdseye versions, but not far off)

Wrights Meat & Potato Pie

Description: A blend of prime minced beef, diced potatoes an a hint of seasoning encased in a tasty shortcrust pasty.

Cost: £1.29 for 1 pie (1 serving)

Cooking: 40minutes on number 4 from frozen. Only 25mins if you cook from chilled.

Verdict: First impressions? This was another emergency pie fix. Id been dreaming of a pie all morning, so had to nip out to the shop at lunchtime and buy one to satisfy those cravings!

Since I was away from home, I just had this pie on its own. I figured it had potatoes in it so it shouldn't be too far from my normal benchmark tests.

Getting the pie out of the packet and I was impressed. It was a nice round pie, and very deep, which promised a good amount of filling inside.

Cutting it open and there was indeed a very nice amount of filling. More than you`d normally expect in a lower priced budget pie. It was nice to see also that they hadn't scrimped on the meat. Sometimes you find in such a pie there would be more potato than mince, presumably to save on manufactoring costs.

The filling looked very similar to what you`d find in a Cornish pastie. Mince, gravy and nice chunks of potato. But, this filling didn't have the peppery taste you normally get in a pastie. The mince itself was also quite nice, no crissle or hard bits - again, a nice surprise compared to other such corner shop bought pies / pasties.

The pastry was thick, and I think that was the only criticism I have here, in that it was very filling. There may have been just a tad too much pastry, but sometimes its better to have too much than not enough!

All in all, it was a good pie. Better than some, but not as good as the other Wrights pies Ive tried, such as their chicken / mushroom or their steak / kidney - both of which seem to have more runny gravy and thinner pastry. 

Calorie count is 223 calories per 100g and as before, i cant find on the packet how much the pie actually weighs, so calories per pie could be anything!.

Rating?   5 out of 10.

ASDA Minced Steak & Mushy Peas

Description: Tender British minced beef and onions in a rich beef gravy with a layer of mushy peas wrapped in egg glazed Golden shortcrust pasty.

Cost: £1.48 for 1 pie (1 serving)

Cooking: 40minutes on number 4 from frozen. Less if you cook from fresh.

Verdict: First impressions? Saw this when I was in Asda the other week and thought it sounded like an interesting combing. Certainly one I wouldn't have thought of. Minced Steak & Mushy Peas? Ive got to try that.

Cooking time was a bit longer than some pies, but common for those with a short crust top.

I cooked it up with the usual potatoes & peas.

On the plate, the pie looked good. Cutting it open and as frequently seems to happen I was instantly disappointed. The picture on the box shows nice small lumps of meat - akin to the size you`d get in a packet of cat food - along with some gravy. The reality is you get virtually no gravy and a few small pieces of mince. Well I assume it was some sort of mince, it actually tasted like someone had minced up a bit of grisle or fat. No taste at all.

The mushy peas were a layer on top of the pie and I think there was more peas than meat. Some of the peas were mushy, others were whole peas. Still, i mushed them up a bit and they were quite nice.

The best bit on this pie by far was the pastry. The shortcrust was cracking. Really crunchy, tasty, Couldn't fault it. It was just a shame the filling was such a let down.

I certainly wouldn't ever buy this pie again.

Calorie count is 604 calories per pie.

Rating?   2.5 out of 10. (Only scores this high because of the lovely pastry) 

Wrights Chicken & Mushroom Pie

Description: A blend of succulent chicken and delicious mushrooms in a creamy sauce with a puff pastry lid
Cost: £1.29 from local corner shop.
Cooking: 25minutes on number 4 from chilled. or 25minutes on 4 from frozen. Not sure how it can be only 5 minutes extra from frozen solid, but that's what the instructions said!!
Verdict: First impressions? Well, this was a bit of a different test for me this time around. Do you ever have those days when you suddenly get an uncontrollable urge for a pie? Well if your out & about and suffering withdrawal symptoms where do you get a pie from quickly? Well, nearly every town has people on street corners selling pies for addicts like myself. Yep, the trusty corner shop. Luckily I found I had a corner shop literally 5 minutes from where I was. Not too far for me to go to get a pie fix.

As with most corner shops they stocked the usual selection of Walls or Ginsters pies and pasties, but what really caught my eye with this pie is that it was cheap. Well, not cheap compared to 25p Tesco Value pies, but compared to the £1.99 the other pies were they were selling in their fridge, £1.29 seemed a bargain.

After running eagerly back to my car like a kid who has just been given an Easter egg I was keen to sample the merchandise. Normally I heat my pie up, but this time I just couldn't wait...

I opened up the packaging and the pie was a reasonable size. Certainly good enough for one person.

The pastry was tasty, just the right amount. The filling was something else. I really was not expecting much from a £1.29 corner shop pie, but I was amazed to see nice big chunky pieces of what looked to be chicken breast inside the pie. A few nice lumps of mushroom and a very very nice thick creamy sauce. I certainly did not expect this!!! The chicken was tender and the sauce was tasty. I couldn't really fault the filling, it certainly would put some more expensive pies I've had to shame. My only thought was that maybe if they added bits of chopped up bacon to it and did a chicken, bacon & mushroom pie it would taste even better!

All in all, I was very impressed. I noticed they also do a steak pie in the same range, so I will be trying that out in the future. Certainly a pie id recommend if you are out & about and need that pie fix!

Calorie count is 276 calories per 100g according to the label, although I couldn't see anywhere which actually said how many grams the pie weighed....

Rating?   I'm aware that because I had this pie cold, I can not really compare it against other similar pies in my blog which I've eaten hot. But, from the quality of the filling, the taste and experience of having this pie cold, I'm awarding it a 6 out of 10.

Asda "Bistro" Chicken & Ham Hock Pie

Description: Generously filled with succulent British chicken and ham hock in a creamy sauce, wrapped in crisp, golden, buttery shortcrust pastry hand finished with a herb crumb.

Cost: £2.88 or 2 for £5.50 for a 250g pie (1 serving). I got this in their reduced section for just 50p! Bargain!!!

Cooking: 25minutes on number 4 from chilled. or 40minutes on 4 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Well, saw this in their bargain reduced section for 50p and couldn't resist it. I tried another Asda "Bistro" pie a couple of weeks back and for £2.88 i felt it was over priced, but for 50p.... must be a sign from god!

Cooking time wasn't too bad. This was frozen so we were looking at 40minutes until it was ready.

I cooked it up with the usual potatoes & peas. With a lashing of HP sauce on side!

On the plate, the pie looked good. Cutting it open and the pie smelt gorgeous. Nice creamy sauce. In fact it was very creamy. I couldn't see any lumps of meat in it at all. I found a couple of small pieces of ham hock and one small piece of chicken. So I was not impressed. Not another meatless pie surely? However, I tucked into it and wow, it was really tasty. It tasted of roast chicken, boiled ham and a lovely creamy chicken soup sort of thick sauce. The crust was nice, crispy and very filling. It didn't fall apart when cut open and was very stodgy. Whilst it looked like a small pie, it was very filling.

Overall, I was reasonably impressed. It shouldn't taste so good when you cant see any meat in it. But it does. Maybe its full of flavourings or maybe they just liquidise it all before they shove the filling in the pie? For the money though, its a lot of loot for a pie, but if you can find it reduced like I did for 50p, or even if it was £1 then its a no brainer. Its certainly a pie id consider buying again. Ive marked it down for lack of visible meat, but the sheer tastiness of this pie justifies the score.

Calorie count is 748 calories per pie.


Rating?   7 out of 10.

ASDA "Bistro" Ultimate Steak Pie

Description: Generously filled with tender British steak in a rich gravy, wrapped in crisp, golden and buttery shortcrust pastry sprinkled with cracked black pepper.

Cost: £2.88 or 2 for £5.50 for a 250g pie (1 serving).

Cooking: 25minutes on number 4 from chilled.

Verdict: First impressions? Well, saw this when I was picking up some milk & bread yesterday morning and couldn't resist it. Following the recent revival in pies (strangely enough which seems to have happened since I started doing my blog), a lot of supermarkets have released more "upmarket" looking pies, over & above their usual value ranges. I hadn't seen this particular Asda pie before, and not only was it marked up as being part of their "bistro" range, it also made a very very bold statement by calling this the "Ultimate Steak Pie"!!!!  At £2.88 for a single pie, this was priced up quite a bit more than their cheaper ranges.

Cooking time was reasonable. 25minutes isn't long to wait for what promised to be a slice of heaven. And having just got back from a 2 week vacation I was suffering pie withdrawal.

I cooked it up with the usual potatoes & peas.

On the plate, the pie looked good. Cutting it open and I started to have doubts. There wasn't much gravy in the pie. There was an acceptable amount of steak - nicely cooked meaty chunks - not the minced up mush you`d get in value pies. But the gravy was lacking. I was expecting something a bit thicker and more of it. The crust wasn't quite as crispy or tasty as I've experienced before. It was okay, but was missing something. It didn't quite live up to the description.

Overall, I was left a bit disappointed by the experience, and for nearly the price of 3 boxes (12 pies) of the tesco value pies, I was left wishing id bought another pie. I had to think quite hard about what score to give this one, and because the steak was good quality and nice, but its the rest of the pie which lets it down slightly, I've given it the score I have below.

I wouldn't rush out and buy this one again, but I will be trying others in this "bistro" range to see if they are any better.

Calorie count is 828 calories per pie, which seems quite high for quite a small pie.

Rating?   6 out of 10.

Waitrose Braised Steak & Burgundy Pie

Description: Tender pieces of braised British steak in a rich gravy made with Burgundy red wine encased in shortcrust pastry with a puff pastry lid.

Cost: £3.59 from Waitrose for a 540g pie - enough for 2 people.

Cooking: 45mins on number 5 from fresh or 65mins from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Havng not had a Waitrose pie for some time I was really looking forward to this one. My previous experiences with Waitrose told me that they make some awesome pies.

45mins in the oven and its cooked to perfection. Nice crispy lid and cooked throughout. The first thing which hits you when you cut it open was the lovely smell of the red wine gravy. Very nice, rich and tasty. There are a good amount of beef in this pie, no scrimping here. Nice big chunks. They were lovely and tender, very tasty indeed.

All in all, couldnt fault it. Makes me want to try the other flavours they sell this pie in. Definitely one for the buy again list. Highly recommended.

Calorie count is 588 calories per half a pie which isnt bad.

Rating?   8.5 out of 10.

freshpies Chicken and Vegetable Pies

Description: Shortcrust pastry base filled with tender pieces of chicken, peas and carrots topped with a puff pastry lid. It also says "No hydro generated fats, artificial colours or flavourings" which is promising!

 

Cost: £1.25 in Iceland for the pack of 4 small individual pies.

Cooking: 30mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? After trying the minced beef & onion version of these pies I knew what to expect. Sure enough, these are literally bite sized pies, so don't expect one, or even 2 to fill you up. Still, I'm here to do a job, so 2 pies in the oven go!

After 30mins they were ready, and like their minced beef & onion pies, some of the gravy had started to leak out of the pie - its as if the crust isn't sealed as well as it could be against the base. Luckily I caught it in time and saved wasting any filling.

I cut open both pies and inspected the filling. The text on the packet which said "No fats, no artificial colours or flavourings" should also have said "No filling". I actually counted the bits inside each pie to give you an example.  The first pie had 5 peas, 5 pea sized pieces of carrot and 3 pea sized pieces of chicken. I'm not joking. They should put some text on the packaging saying that these "chicken" pies are suitable for vegetarians!!!

The second pie in all fairness was a little better. This had 6 pieces of pea sized bits of chicken as well as 4 peas and 5 pea sized bits of carrot.

The filling has a nice chicken flavoured gravy which is tasty and the pastry is quite filling. The puff pasty is nice and flaky and the base nice and stodgy.

The small pieces of chicken (if you can find them) do taste like roast chicken breast - even though the package doesn't state its breast - just says chicken, and overall the pie is fairly tasty, although lacking in meaty filling. Comparing this to say a Birdseye Chicken Pie and its like night and day with regards to the quality, although the Birdseye pie is obviously more expensive.

These are not bad if you wanted a quick cheap snack, but id rather have the tesco value ones which are bigger and cheaper.
Calorie count for this pie is 283 calories per pie, which is healthier than their beef and onion version.

Rating?  4.5 out of 10.

Morrisons Deep Filled Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie

Description: The packaging says Shortcrust pastry filled with tender pieces of chicken, ham and leek in a rich sauce, topped with a puff pastry lid.

Cost: £3 for 2 large pies (i.e. enough to feed 4 people apparently)

Cooking: 40 minutes at number 6.

Verdict: The pie is a double sized pie, so really enough for 2 here. it looks quite nice out of the box and as always the cover picture shows a cracking pie full of chicken and bacon. Bung it in the oven, 40mins number 6 and count down the seconds. After 40mins it wasnt quite ready, the middle was cold, so it took a few extra minutes before it was ready to dive into to.
Cut it open and crust is lovely and crispy. Inside is what we are all waiting for. Well, lovely nice chunky bits of tender chicken, slivers of tasty leak. Gravy was nice and creamy, like a soup nearly. Bacon? What bacon? couldnt see or or taste any in here which was supprising. Bacon isnt expensive, but im at a loss as to where it was in this pie! The base was filling, all in all, not bad at all! Certainly one id buy again!

Calorie wise its 524 calories per half a pie. Although if your hungry you will be tempted to eat the whole pie!!!

Rating? 7 out of 10.

Freshpies 4 Minced Beef & Onion Pies

Description: Shortcrust pastry base filled with minced beef and onion topped with a puff pastry lid.

Cost:  £1.25 in Iceland for the pack of 4 small individual pies.

Cooking: 30mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Open the packet and omg I had to do a double take. These have to be the smallest pies in the world. These are nearly bite size!!!! Normally id have 1 individual pie if im not too hungry or 2 if im starving. This time it was a no brainer, 2 pies in the oven, whilst I sort the mash out and get the peas ready.

Pies were soon ready and supprisingly the filling had burst out of the pie and was all over the oven tray id put them on. Thats the first time this has happened so not sure why this happened? Maybe lid wasnt sealed properly to the base? Will have to keep an eye on them next time.

Pies look the part. Cut them open and pastry is very crispy and flaky. Quite tasty. Filling was more like soup, with little bits of mash in it. It wasnt too bad, but wasnt a patch on the Tesco value ones ive previously tried. Also, they kinda didnt really fill me up. I had to have extra mash to try and help. 2 pies were 626 calories and felt a bit like a waste of calories compared to other pies of similar calories.

I dont think i`ll be buying these again.

Calorie count for this pie is 313 calories for half a pie.

Rating?  2.8 out of 10.