Monday, February 15, 2010

Hollands Pies reviewed

So I’m slowly working my way through the pies I purchased the other day and he’s what I think of them so far.

Meat pie – this is a little pie, about the size of a standard pork pie but heated up. It contains pork and beef and tastes pretty yummy. My only complaint is the scalding hot liquid contained within which burnt my mouth first time, although this was easily rectified second time around by slicing the pie in half.

Cheese and onion – many years ago when I was a vegetarian, this was one of the few pies I was able to partake of. That and the butter pie, which seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, probably due to its unfortunate name. It did contain more than just butter, which is why I didn’t collapse from heart failure. But back to the cheese and onion pie. Unfortunately this was disappointing, there was very little evidence of onion, just some bright yellow gloop that may well have originated at the Sellafield reprocessing plant (I joke of course, before anyone tries to sue me).

Potato and meat – before some government organisation got involved, this was known as a meat and potato pie. Now it’s just a perfectly decent pie with a silly name.

Steak and kidney pudding – this is where things get interesting. This is not like any other pie you’ll ever experience. With most pies the pastry is essentially just some hard packaging to keep the contents together, with little merit of its own. But with the steak and kidney pudding, the suet case is an essential part of the whole experience. Not only are the contents tasty, but so is the pastry. Even the cooking instructions are unique. No oven for this pie, but a pan of boiling water. There is one downside to this. Whereas pies are generally a pretty portable food stuff, the steak and kidney pudding needs a plate and fork.

So in conclusion, I would recommend all of these pies from Hollands, except the cheese and onion. But for ultimate pleasure, order ten steak and kidney puddings…

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you are interested in pies in general and not just Hollands pies then here are a few you need to sample:-

Homity Pie - Potato, cheese, onion and garlic. Lovely.

For the next two you really need to venture up north to Scotland:-

Scotch Pie. Basically it's beef and onion but the difference is the pastry which is unlike any other pastry known to man. It's very thin but strong so the pie doesn't fall apart. But at the same time it's easy to eat.

Macaroni Pie. The same type of pastry case as the scotch pie but with a filling of macaroni cheese. This is an 'open pie' - ie no top - and is delicious.

Finally - the downside - Most pies have at least 500 calories in them, probably more!

Doogal said...

They all sound like marvellous pies. I think I've had a Scotch pie in the past but the other two are new to me.

According to the Hollands Pies website, their steak and kidney pudding is only 349 calories, which means I can eat 5 a day! Admittedly it might not meet all my dietary requirements...

Anonymous said...

You don't know how lucky you are, you can't get Hollands Pies in Canada since Marks & Sparks pulled out around 15 yrs ago. I had withdrawal ever since. How come you didn't review their delicious Steak Pie??

Doogal said...

I feel for you! But now you've given me a good excuse to order some more to review their steak pie!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but I really have gone off Hollands pies they used to be really good, meat pies have gone to spicy and I used to love those and the cheese n onion are just to gooey, steak n kidney have to much gristle in and hardly any kidney, and I think the steak puds have lost that lovely flavour it used to have so they get the thumbs down from me unfortunately

Doogal said...

Looks like I need to order another batch for a re-review!

Anonymous said...

Well no one has pointed out that to me Holland pies have slowly but surely been decreasing the amount of ingediance they are putting in their pies. I personally don't like stake and kidney, but really enjoy they pudding pastry. So I take the insides of the pudding out and put it on my partners plate, the whole content of the pudding fit on a level tabel spoon. Where has all the insides gone?

Unknown said...

Will somebody please tell whoever is confusing Hollands pies with Hollands puddings they are two different things the fillings may be similar but the pastry used on puddings is totally different to the pastry used in any of Holland pies. Mr Bumble.