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!)