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.