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.

Freshpack Minced beef and onion pie.

Description: Individual pies with minced beef and onion in a rich gravy and flaky pastry

Cost: Normally 4 pies for £1

Cooking: Number 7 for 30mins

Verdict: Happened to find myself in Iceland last week and had to browse their pie selection whilst I was there. Noticed this 4 pack of pies for a quid. Yes a quid! For that money I figured what the hell, a quid is not even half a pint of beer! So, in the trolley it went. Along with some of their other pies for me to try out next time.

First impressions... well the packaging looks nice, there's a deep fill looking type pie on the front with some mince & gravy coming out of it. So tasty looking.

In reality? Eagerly rip open the packaging and what do we have? a pie which looks like its been run over by a steam roller. Its easily half as deep as the one shown on the packet. Okay, so maybe i`ll have 2 pies instead of one here just to be on the safe side.

Next difference is that they recommend you brush the top of the pie with milk or a beaten egg. I opted for milk as I couldn't be bothered messing about with an egg. That done, bung it in the oven for 30mins.

30mins up and pie is looking ready, on the plate with some mash & pies. I try and keep the side items the same for all pies to give me a good benchmark and a like for like comparison.

Moment of truth.... cut open the pies and WTF? Where the hell is the filling?! Without a word of a lie, there was probably 1 desert spoon of filling to go between both pies!  There wasn't even masses of gravy to try and hide the fact there was no filling. Nope, just pastry and that's about it. Maybe that's why its only 338calories per pie? Cos there's nothing in them!

Still I didn't really expect much for 25p a pie, but was this worth that??

Rating? This sad let down lager shandy of a pie is only worth a 1.5 / 10. Definitely wont be buying this again.