Pieminister Pies

We've recently started listing pies from Pieminister for sale on the site. As a big fan of pies in general (who isn't), I thought I'd test them myself (I was also keen to see how they'd stand up to delivery) and so put in an order.

I hadn't heard of the pies myself prior to us listing them but was assured on Twitter and Facebook of their quality and reputation, after checking out the different pies on offer my mouth was literally watering as I typed the ingredients when adding them to our site.

Pieminister was started in 2002 by Jon Simon and Tristan Hogg with the intention of offering the British public a true gourmet pie experience. Make no mistake these are no ordinary pies, ingredients including, goats cheese, chorizo, olives and vermouth (not in the same pie) make these very much 'gastro' pies. These are pies to be made a proper meal of rather than shoved down at the footie with a Bovril chaser.

I decided to order the 'Mixed Pieminister Box' of 12 pies and arranged for them to be delivered to our holiday address. The pies arrived within a couple of days of ordering and were packed extremely well. Pieminister has developed a bespoke box for transit in order to make sure the pies arrive in top condition. They were individually boxed then placed within a plastic bag which sat inside the outer which was also polystyrene lined to maintain freshness. There was also sheet of Pieminister plastic ice cubes within the box which although no longer ice had clearly kept the box nice and cool on its journey.

The pie that appealed to me most was the 'Matador Pie' made with 'Free range beef steak, chorizo, olives, tomato, sherry and butter beans'. I was a little confused initially as to whether I could just start chomping on it as I would do with a butcher bought pie, but the instructions on the side seemed to suggest it needed cooking (25mins) so I whacked the oven on and got cooking.

On to the pie... mmmmm I wasnt dissapointed , the first thing I noticed was the quality of the ingredients, the beef was succulent and tasty, the chorizo juicy and the olives soft and tender. The pastry was also spot on, dense but not greasy and a perfect contrast to the juicy contents of the pie. The Matador as you might expect with the herbs and sherry had a grown up Mediterranean flavour so not perhaps what the kids are going to like but perfect for a posh pie. The only criticism I could level at this pie was that it the Chorizo could have perhaps had more of a spicy chilli kick. This is possibly just my Chilli damaged taste buds though and is easily rectified with a splash of whichever is your chilli sauce of choice.

So there you have it, one pie in and I'm impressed. Obviously at £45/12 (+£5.99 p&p) these are not a flippant purchase. However they do apparently freeze very well and basically you then have 12 restaurant quality pies in the freezer at less than £4 each, which is pretty good all things considered. Ideally you'd probably want to add some chips or some special peas or beans (thanks Beer Reviews Andy) but I enjoyed the pie straight up, and it sustained me for a 20 mile bike ride an hour or so later...

You can see the full range of mixed Pieminister boxes we're offering here.