Pukka "all steak" Pie.

Description: The packaging says "no hydrogenerated fat, our best baked all steak pie" along with "Pukka pies are made from wholesome ingredients carefully selected from quality suppliers. Healthy eating and regular exercise are actively endorsed and promoted by the company" Chunks of steak in a rich gravy in a light puff pastry case. www.pukkapies.co.uk.

Cost: £1.55 a pie.

Cooking: 50 minutes number 4

Verdict: I think everyone knows Pukka Pies, but I had never tried one. Plenty of people had recommended them to me knowing that I'm an expert on pies (including Mrs Pie Review), so I was keen to try one out for myself. So, with Christmas approaching I thought id give myself a special "treat" and test this pie in the season of good will.

As always I'm very sceptical of pies and the false advertising associated with them so with such a highly publicised brand like Pukka pies i was keen to put them to the test.

The box has plenty of spiel on it, including a recommendation that you should exercise regularly! Which made me chuckle as I loaded the pie into the oven and settled down with a Christmas pint.

The pie looked nice and stodgy and in the oven it went. I was a bit wary of gas mark 4 as before pies hadn't really cooked properly at that number. But my fears were unfounded. 50 minutes later and the pie was ready. On the plate with mash & peas and it looked nice. Cut it open and to cut a long story short, wow. Pie was as described. Nice thick gravy, very tasty and plenty of it. Nice lumps of steak. Tasted like a slow cooked bit of stewing steak which had been cooked for 3 hours on a low heat.. lovely, tasty and very nice.

The crust and pastry was nice, stodgy and filling. All in all, I couldn't believe it. A pie which finally lived up to the hype. It was certainly a Christmas treat for me.

I thought long and hard about what rating to give this pie, and its a tough one. This has to be one of the best pies Ive ever had. If god himself made a pie, it could well be this one. So, is it a 10 out of 10 pie?... hmmm.... the Waitrose Roast Chicken pie was equally good, and 10 out 10 surely has to be the best pie in the world and maybe something which is un-achievable, but this came pretty close.  It was a tough decision, but in the end, its a 9 out of 10 for me. If I had to fault it, maybe the pie would have tasted better with shortcrust pastry rather then puff. But either way, this is the best steak pie I've had to date and im so pleased a pie finally hit the mark.

Top marks for Pukka!!!!! And Merry Christmas!!!

Calorie wise its 534 calories per pie which is pretty reasonable.

Rating? 9 out of 10.

Iceland 12 Party Mini Pies Chicken & Steak

Description: Chicken in a creamy sauce encased in shortcrust pastry. And, Steak in rich gravy encased in a shortcrust pastry.

Cost: Party pack of 12 (6 Chicken and 6 Steak) come in at £2 or they are on a "3 for £5 " deal also.

Cooking: Number 7 for 20minutes

Verdict: Saw these in Iceland whilst buying some Weight Watcher meals for the missus and couldn't resist them. £2 seems cheap enough. You get 12 pies in the box, 6 Chicken and 6 Steak. Ive had mixed results with the Iceland pies, but for £2 figured it was worth a gamble.

As always the picture on the front shows pies which look like they have been crafted by Gods fair hands himself. Full to the brim of tasty chicken or steak.

In the oven they go, and 20mins later the tasty looking golden treats are ready to be eaten.

Steak one first... and wow.. seriously tasty. The chicken one was very tasty too. Hmmm... they  are only bite sized, so i`ll have another... and another.. and another... hold on.. id better check the insides to see what they are like before I hoover them all up.

Sure enough, the steak one really had no steak in it at all.. maybe a couple of bits of mince and that was it. The chicken one wasn't far behind... just chicken gravy with a spec of chicken in it.

But wow... they are very tasty and quite filling too! God knows what they put in them, but id definitely be buying these again. Ideal party food even if there isnt much meat in them.

Calorie wise, a single chicken pie comes in at 66 calories and a single steak pie is a bit more at 78 calories.

Rating? 6.5 out of 10.

Morrisons Shortcrust Steak & Kidney Pie

Description: Diced British beef and kidney in a rich gravy encased in shortcrust pastry.

Cost: Single 200g pie normally costs £1.39, but this was reduced to 69p which made it very appealing to a tight git like me.

Cooking: Number 4 for 25 minutes

Verdict: The picture on the box showed an awesome looking steak and kidney pie, packed full of lumps of steak with a lovely shortcrust pastry. It really did make my mouth water just looking at it.

In the oven it goes on number 4. I was a bit apprehensive about number 4 because its quite low, but that's what the instructions say...

25mins later, out it comes and the middle is still a little cold. I knew it... should have used number 5 or 6 I think.

So whats the pie like? Well, being the expert I am, i am used to being disappointed with the actual pie compared to the one on the box. Its a bit like going into McDonalds and you know the burger they will give you looks nothing like the one on the poster!

Cutting the pie open and the crust was perfect. Nice, tasty, stodgy, very impressive. Inside the pie I struggled to find any meat at all. So much for lumps of steak. I found 3 small pieces of steak hiding in this pie and they were not great - bit grizzly. The kidney and gravy wasn't great either. In all fairness I felt robbed, even though this pie only cost me 69p. I really feel sorry for anyone who forked out the full £1.39 for this lager shandy of a pie.

Definitely wont be buying this one again.

Calorie wise, a single 200g pie is 592 calories.

Rating? 2.5 out of 10.

Tesco Deep Fill Steak & Mushroom Pie

Description: Flaky puff pastry pie filled with tender British steak and mushrooms in a delicious rich gravy.

Cost: 2 family pies for £5 special offer.

Cooking: Number 6 for 60 mins

Verdict: I cooked this pie with some trepidation, as having tried and been very disapointed with the Steak version of this pie previously I was not holding high expectations for this Steak and Mushroom variation. But, looking in the freezer I really fancied some steak & mushroom.

As before, the pie looks very deep fill, which is what they claim on the packaging, waiting for it to cook I refreshed myself with my other tesco deep fill reviews, and other steak & mushroom pies ive tried to see what this pie is up against.

Well after 60mins pie is ready and im upset to see ive run out of my normal peas which I always have alongside the potatoes with the pie to keep all the other factors the same for all my reviews. So, in this case I will have to opt for brocoli instead.

The pie is flaky, and cut it open. Hey presto, its the same as the last Tesco Deep Fill pie inside. The "steak" is more like ox tail soup. There are plenty of mushrooms sliced up, id estimate 1 muchroom per half of pie. I ate half a pie, being a fat so-and-so!. To my surprise, having not found any lumps of steak in the previous Tesco Deep Fill steak pie, i stumbled across a lump of "steak" in this pie. Okay, so it was a bit fatty and not good steak, but it really puzzled me. Should this pie be full of lumps of steak and their pie machine has broken? Or was this lump a mistake?!

 

In fact I was so puzzled by this single lump of steak that I checked the other half of the pie. In there I found 4 pieces of steak, about 2cm square. Baring in mind this pie would probably feed 4 people, that roughly works out that each person will only get 1 small piece of steak in their pie!!! Bit tight to say the least!!! Or, if you were unlucky you`d get none and the person next to you would all 5 pieces!

The actual gravy was extremely tasty. The mushrooms add a lovely flavour to it and its nice and thick. But the experience of eating this pie was more like having some nice thick  ox tail soup between bits of puff pastry.

Im going to say its better than the Steak version, but wont be on my shopping list.

Calorie wise, 3rd of the pie is 437 calories which isnt too bad.

Rating? 4 out of 10.

Birds Eye Chicken Pies

Description: "Succulent chicken breast pieces, vegetables and gravy in delicious shortcrust pasty" and "made with 100% Chicken breast"

Cost: £2.69 for pack of 4 small pies.

Cooking: 35 minutes on number 6.

Verdict: This was another pie someone has asked me to review and put through my experienced taste test. The price wasn't too bad. I got these on offer, so it was £2 for 4 pies. Each pie looked slightly too small for an individual portion (although maybe I'm just greedy), so I had 2 pies.

Out the oven they smelt awesome and I was thrown back to memories of the incredible Waitrose chicken pie I reviewed a few months back which I rated as 9/10. Cutting the pie open and nice looking gravy came out. The chicken was tasty and you could believe it was definitely 100% breast as the packaging stated. What I didn't like was the chicken had been chopped up into small cubes, rather than big chunks like the Waitrose pie. The gravy was tasty, but didn't seem to be as tasty as I was expecting. There was a couple of very small slivers of carrot in the pie, which must have been the vegetables that Birds Eye mention on the package.

The shortcrust pastry was really good. Very nice indeed and certainly filled me up. I hadn't had a shortcrust pie for a while, so it was a very nice treat.

Whats the verdict then? Well, certainly a good pie, I've had several people recommend it, so its clearly popular, and according to the packaging this is Birds Eye`s best selling pie. Personally I didn't think it was as tasty as the Waitrose chicken pie. I think a few tweaks and this pie could have probably matched it, but it fell just slightly short. Its still a good pie then and I definitely recommend you try it. Its one of the better chicken pies I've tried.

As always I give you the calorie content which is 460 per pie, which is very reasonable.


Rating? 8 out of 10.

Freshpack Mighty Beef & Onion Pie

Description: A deep filling of Minced Beef and Onion in a rich gravy topped with flaky pastry.

Cost: £1.50 for a family sized 680g Deep Filled pie.

Cooking: 55 minutes on number 6.

Verdict: First impressions were not that high. The last Freshpack pie I tried  and was very disappointing and got one of the lowest scores I've ever given. Whilst this pie was also a minced beef & onion pie, this one is labeled as "mighty" and deep filled, so it sounded promising. Also, at £1.50 for a family sized pie, that's pretty cheap.

55minutes on number 6 and its ready to eat. I have the normal peas and potatoes with it. Out of the oven and the pie is looking good, cooked perfectly. Cut it open and I was very surprised. The last Freshpack pie had virtually zero filling, but this one was seriously full to the brim with filling.

The filling had a nice amount of mince in it, the gravy was thick and there was plenty of it. The mince was not grisly, no chewy horrible bits at all. Of course, I don't expect this was top quality mince for this price but it was certainly no disappointment. The pastry was also tasty and filling. All in all, it wasn't an amazing pie which you immediately rush and put on your shopping list, but it was certainly very palatable and ideal for a cheap back up pie if you want to keep one in your freezer.

Calorie count for this pie is 866 calories per half of pie.

Rating?  5 out of 10.

Iceland 4 Individual Steak Pies

Description: Shortcrust pastry base filled with tender pieces of steak in a rich gravy topped with a puff pastry lid.

Cost: £1.50 for 4 pies. Your looking at 2 pies per person with these sizes.

Cooking: 30minutes on number 6.

Verdict: First impressions? Well, when you see this in a freezer at iceland, you think wow! £1.50 for 4 pies thats good value. And the pie on the packet looks huge. So, I threw this in the shopping trolley straight away.

Of course, I should have known better. Feeling a bit hungry i open up the packet and these pies.. well.. they should have said "4 bite size pies" on the packet. Ive never seen pies so small in my life. I had to get a magnifying glass out just to see them. Still being hungry, in the oven they go, but already they are falling way down on the points compared to the tesco value pies which giant physically above these! Looking at the picture on the packet, god knows how they found carrots small enough to make this pie look like a mountain of a pie on a plate. Hats off to the photographer!

On the plate and next to the peas and potatoes these pies are dwarfed. Cut them open and the insides show some sparse bits of meat akin to what i see in the whiskas food i give my cat. Nothing like what is on the packet. Whats the taste test like? Well, the pastry base and the crust is filling and nice, the pie physically is very small, the filling, the meat is very small and hardly any of it. You could blink and miss it. But, it tastes okay. Not great, nothing fancy but okay. I certainly wouldnt buy again. Its a lager shandy compared to the tesco value pie.

Calorie count for this pie is 307 calories per pie, but with the small size of them you`ll be cooking 2 to try and fill you up.

Rating?  4.5 out of 10.

Tesco Chicken & Bacon Lattice Pie

Description: Puff Pastry. Succulent British chicken and bacon inside a rich sauce made using West country cream and tarragon, with a crispy golden puff pastry top.

Cost: £2 for a big pie (550g) which is enough for about 3 people I guess or 2 if you are very hungry.

Cooking: 45mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? The description sounds great. West country cream eh? Chicken & Bacon.. wow.. sounds yummy! Picked this because the missus isn't big on steak pies, and this chicken/bacon one with its lattice top it would be more her kind of pie.

I cook it for the recommended amount of time and serve it up with my compulsory potatoes and peas.

Cutting it open the filling smells great. Small lumps of chicken and chopped up bits of bacon. Pastry was crispy and quite filling.

The missus seemed to enjoy hers, but I was not impressed. The filling just wasn't full of flavour and was a quite bland. I think it would be better with some leek or something in it to give it a bit more taste. In the end I had to add some Daddies sauce to try and help me finish it off.

Bit of a disappointment really, and just didn't cut it compared to some of the other chicken pies I've had. Certainly wont be buying this one again.


Calorie count for this pie is 730 calories for half a pie.

Rating?  3.5 out of 10.

Tesco Cheesy Bolognese Pie

Description: Shortcrust Pastry, Delicious minced beef in a rich bolognese sauce, topped with crispy breadcrumbs and hand sprinkled with Cheddar cheese.

Cost: £2 for a big pie (520g) which is enough for 2 or maybe 3 people at a push.

Cooking: 40mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Not my normal sort of pie, but the missus loves bolognese and cheese. So, whilst I was stocking my trolley up with my manly steak and ale pies she slipped this one in. Opening up the packet it looks interesting. Pie base, filled with bolognese mince and topped with breadcrumbs and cheese. This will be an interesting pie to try.

Cutting through the pie the minced stuff in the middle looks more of a kind of mush. Think of what a tin of re-fried beans look like when you open it... that's this filling. No visible lumps of mince in there. But, then that's normal for minced beef pies. The base was lovely and crispy, perfect shortcrust. The topping was weird for me, as I'm used to a pastry crust top. This was very crispy breadcrumbs. But, was still nice. Couldn't really taste much cheese at all. It said it was hand topped.... suspect the guy who did this by hand was slacking. In fact the missus added loads of extra cheese to hers!

So whats it taste like? Well different, but in a good way. Imagine liquidised bolognese mince stuffed in a pie. It was actually quite tasty and a really nice change. The missus enjoyed it and has added it to the shopping list!! It didn't seem very filling compared to "normal" pies, but for the money, I think its worth a try.

Calorie count for this pie is 710 calorie for half a pie.

Rating?  6 out of 10.

Pieminister Morning Glory Breakfast Pie

Description: Get ready to tackle the Morning Glory breakfast pie. Beans, mushrooms and smoked cheese.

Cost: Not sure, but each pie is pretty small. It weighs 170g apparently. I got this free as part of an 02 Rugby promotion to sample.

Cooking: 20 minutes on number 4 from chilled.

Verdict: First impressions? Well, id had the "Full English" breakfast pie earlier in the week and was not overly impressed, so my expectations from this pie were not great. Pie looks the same as the other one out of the box and same sort of cooking instructions.

Whats the verdict? Well, cut it open and dived in. The insides were just a spoonfull of beans, about 3 slices of mushroom and some dark flavouring which I guess was the cheese. These pies must be well cheap to make as 1 mushroom would probably do 3 pies!

Being a vegetarian pie, sure enough there was no meat in it. But by the lack of meet in the "Full English" pie, I think veggies could very safely just have one of those instead.

Taste wise, it tasted identical to the Full English pie - a sort of cheesy garlic taste to it - not at all how you`d expect a breakfast pie to taste. I would have liked to have tasted something more akin to a full english breakfast but with a crust - maybe eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, onions etc.. The crust itself is quite tasty, and nicely crunchy.  You can pick this pie up and eat it with your hands without it worrying about falling all over the shop - ideal if your driving or at a Rugby / Footie game.

So all in all im not too impressed. Sure, the marketing is good and trying to make pies more fashionable is a good thing, but as someone who loves their pies.... the Morning Glory is not making me full of glory.

Calorie count for this pie is 397 calories per pie.

Rating? 4 out of 10.

Pieminister Full English Breakfast Pie

Description: Get ready to tackle the Full English breakfast pie. Bacon, beans, smoked cheese and succulent sausages.

Cost: Not sure, but each pie is pretty small. It weighs 170g apparently. I got this free as part of an 02 Rugby promotion to sample.

Cooking: 20 minutes on number 4 from chilled.

Verdict: First impressions? Opened the box and omg this is a small looking pie. Id normally eat 2 this size. Not many pies are heavily publicised, but pieminister seem to have an unlimited budget and their pies are probably the most hyped out there, so i was very excited to try their pies out.

Cooking instructions are pretty normal. I cooked this from fresh rather than frozen so it was quicker and eagerly tucked into it.

Whats the verdict? Well, cut it open and I counted 3 small slices of sausage, 2 thin slices of mushroom and a couple of beans. The base was serious stoggy and the crust was nice. The flavour was tasty and the stoggyness did fill me up, but i was wondering where the rest of the filling was. I seem to remember these pies arnt cheap and if you compare them to the tesco value pies at 24p which are proper tasty this is a no brainer. I was left feeling very disapointed and hungry. I felt like id wasted 20mins of gas cooking this pie. Not what I wanted. I still have another pieminster pie to test and hopefully that will be better.

If pieminister want to send me other pies to test they are more than welcome and I will give an honest opinion. Maybe they want to redeem themselves, or just accept my review as it is. The choice is up to them. Im genuinely unbiased, but have to say atm i am disapointed in pieminister.

Calorie count for this pie is 440 calories per pie.

Rating?  4 out of 10.

Morrisons Deep Filled Steak & Ale Pie

Description: Shortcrust pastry filled with tender pieces of steak in an ale enriched sauce, topped with a puff pastry lid.

Cost: 2 pies for £3. Each pie is 460g and is apparently enough for 2 people so thats good value!

Cooking: 40mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Pie on the packaging looks nice, huge lumps of steak in it, nice rich looking sauce. This will be my first Morrisons pie review so im really looking forward to it. Out of the packaging this is an ovalish pie rather than the normal round "family" pies you get. It certainly looks like a nice deep fill, so in the oven it goes.

40 mins later pie is ready. Perfect timing for the boiled potatoes and peas.

So, how does my first Morrisons pie fair up? Well, crust and base were nice, but the filling... i had to double check the packet to see what it was supposed to be. It reminded me so much of the Whiskas stuff I feed the cat each day. The steak was all disintegrated and fell apart, no chunks at all. It was like a big mushy gravy. The gravy was nice, thick and tasty. All in all it wasnt too bad. It was a little above average but not much. The competition out there is tough for this sort of pie. The overall the pie is surprisingly filling. Even though the middle is a bit mushy, its tasty, but its nothing special.
Not sure i`ll be buying this one again, but its definately not the worse ive tried. For the money, if theres a Morrisons near you, its worth a try,

Calorie count for this pie is 602 calorie for half a pie.

Rating?  6.5 out of 10.

Asda Steak and Kidney Pie

Description: Tender British Steak, Beef Kidney and Rich Gravy, baked in a shortcrust pastry with a Golden Flaky Puff Pastry Lid.

Cost: £1.37 for a 200g individual pie.

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

Verdict: First impressions? Pie on the packaging looks pretty average, not much gravy, nice lumps of beef in it, but the colour doesnt look as dark as the other steak pies ive had recently. Cooking instructions are worrying me, number 4 seems low, but then this is being cooked from chilled it may need less heat? Or it may be the puff pastry? We shall see! I hope it cooks through okay.

25 minutes later and sure enough, pie is ready. Puff pastry is great, not too flaky, base is lovely and stodgy. Filling is very tasty pieces of meat - no gristle and not too chewy. Has a lovely kidney flavoured gravy with small pieces of kidney, but not over powering. I half expected this pie to be full of kidney and no meat, but no skimping here. I am struggling to think of anything wrong with this pie.

All in all, im impressed. Its miles better than I expected. Very tasty and for the money a cracking nice Steak and Kidney pie. Definately one for the "buy again" list I think.

Calorie count for this pie is 497 which isnt too bad for an individual pie.

Rating?  7 out of 10.

Tesco Finest Chicken, Leak & Bacon pie

Description: A Shortcrust pastry base filled with tender pieces of British chicken, leek and bacon in a creamy cheese sauce topped with a light and flaky butter enriched puff pastry, egg glazed. No artificial flavours, colours or hydrogenated fat.

Cost: £2.49 for 2 individual pies.

Cooking: 40 minutes on number 6.

Verdict: First impressions? Well what a description! Tescos Finest really believe in giving you very tasty descriptions on their finest range of products to make you think these are awesome pies, best in the world! Maybe they are? But my test will tell!!!

Pie out of the packet looks good. Nice chunky looking pie, nice depth to it, looks filling. Normal 40mins on 6 cooking instructions. Bung it in the oven and sit back and wait.

Verdict: As you know already, I'm not a big chicken pie fan, I do prefer the meaty steak, but I have been swung over with that awesome Waitrose Roast Chicken Pie I had a few weeks back, so currently that holds the number one spot in the chicken pie market. So, does Tescos rise up to that and can they knock the Waitrose pie off the first spot?

Cut the pie open and loads of creamy sauce comes out. Inside there are nice chunky pieces of roast chicken. Not as big pieces as the Waitrose pie but still tasty. The sauce is very rich and full of creamy flavour. Small slices of leek are very strong and unfortunately over power the rest of the flavours. The bacon consists of very very small cut thin pieces which get lost in the other flavours, which mainly seem to be cheesy cream and leek. The puff pastry is spot on, very nice, just the right amount of flakiness, couldn't fault it.

But, all in all, I felt the leak was too strong and overpowering and the bacon was non existent, if they had been a bit different in proportions that could have made all the difference. Its not a bad pie, nice quality to it, but sadly this doesn't match up with the Waitrose Roast Chicken Pie.

Calorie count for this pie is 605 calories which is staggering. That's SERIOUS calories for a pie. I'm guessing its because of the creamy cheese sauce which it comes with. Id expect a pie twice the size for this amount of calories.

Would I buy it again? It has its place, and i think I probably would, but think id be reaching for the Waitrose chicken one first!

Rating?  7 out of 10.