As Nationwide Pie Week unfolds, the hunt for the final word steak pie begins. Dive right into a world the place crumbly pastry and wealthy fillings promise culinary delight.
I attempted the massive 4 supermarkets’ steak and ale pies (Picture: Emilia Randall)
It’s Nationwide Pie Week, and for a rustic of pie fans, this isn’t a celebration to be taken flippantly.
Pies, of their many codecs from candy to savoury, have been a part of the English culinary scene since a minimum of the thirteenth century. Nevertheless, the final word pie for a lot of Brits is the steak and ale.
To make sure you benefit from this week-long pastry enterprise, I selflessly agreed to check all of the grocery store steak pies that can assist you determine the place to place your cash.
I sampled steak pies from M&S, Waitrose, Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Tescos to search out out which delivers greatest on value and style.
I used to be searching for crumbly pastry, an excellent quantity of steak content material, a wealthy flavour and worth in portion dimension.
M&S – £5.75
This steak pie was good – however not superb (Picture: Emilia Randall)
Marks and Spencer is considerably of a UK nationwide treasure and for good purpose. As the costliest pie of the lot I had excessive expectations for this – and I used to be let down.
Firstly, be careful to your coronary heart with this one – if the steak and pastry isn’t sufficient it additionally has a whopping 6 grams of salt.
For some inexplicable purpose – this pie additionally burned which means little bit of a beauty operation needed to be carried out earlier than I ate it – scraping the burnt high off into the bin. It stated it required half-hour at 180C fan. My oven might have been having an off day but it surely was burnt by the point this half-hour got here to an finish.
When it comes to style – the filling was one of many strongest – there was sufficient precise steak inside it for it to really feel like an actual pie and it was removed from bland with the ale falvour coming via.
The pastry was the place it let me down – with it being barely tasteless and never crumbly sufficient for my liking.
The M&S pie burnt within the oven (Picture: Emilia Randall)
Waitrose – £5.00
As anticipated, Waitrose delivered. This steak pie was a winner. The pastry was crumbly and brief and flavourful. The steak filling was wealthy and had a superb depth of flavour.
This additionally had the very best precise steak content material per pie – with each mouthful offering a wholesome supply of meat.
This didn’t burn – it cooked properly within the oven and got here out with an ideal golden crust. It simply fed two folks with a facet of veg and would make for a straightforward, low-cost weeknight dinner in the event you can’t be bothered to slave over an oven for hours.
Aldi – £1.15
Sainsbury’s steak pie got here a detailed second (Picture: Emilia Randall)
Aldi’s steak bake was unhealthy. The pastry was flakey and good however that was the place it ended. The steak filling tasted of exactly nothing.
My fellow taste-tester Pierre stated it was like “receiving a heat hug from a relative you don’t actually like.” This was correct. For £1.15 it’s setting you again by just about nothing – but additionally delivering little or no.
Waitrose’s steak pie was scrumptious (Picture: Emilia Randall)
Tesco – £5.10
This positively had essentially the most ale-strong flavour of all of the pies however and it pastry was much less “puff” and extra crumbly than marketed – which suited me.
It had a very good filling with no pastry compromising the quantity of steak and gravy you get in every mouthful. In any other case, there was not lots about this pie that made it stand out and it really feel squarely within the common class.
Sainsburys – £4.50
This puff pastry went a beautiful golden crispy color and the filling was scrumptious and flavoursome. Apart from affected by an ever so barely soggy backside – this pie is a very strong choice and is price its value level.
This had one of many extra delicately flavoured fillings with different flavourings apart from lavatory normal graving coming in – with even a touch of herb and spice complimenting the ale and steak.
This cooked to perfection in the time-frame and definitely regarded the half. I might purchase it once more.
It’s clear for me who’s a winner and a looser on this sport. Aldi is in final place, attributable to its flavour failure.
Tesco adopted subsequent. I used to be stunned as I anticipated this to carry out higher attributable to it being the costliest – it was a strong pie but it surely didn’t warrant being essentially the most dear dish.
Then it was M&S after which Sainsburys – the latter being a detailed contender for first place – however its soggy backside let it down.
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Extra surprisingly nonetheless, Waitrose was cheaper than M&S and Tesco and delivered the most effective pie. I might say it provided flavour, dimension and style acceptable to its price ticket not like a number of the different pies that have been overpriced for what they have been.
When you’re aiming for an inexpensive nationwide pie week dinner in – I might advocate Waitrose’s pie wholeheartedly.
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