Artisan vs Supermarket – Pork Pie Challenge #Artisan vs Supermarket

Briony Wilson
23rd September 2016

On Monday we once again challenged one of Cheshire’s Finest artisan producers, putting their Pork Pies against the supermarket competitors. Whilst recently there has been a trend to flavour pork pies with pickle, cheese, apples and various other flavourings we stuck to the classic pie. In the challenge were Tesco’s Everyday Value Pork Pie, M&S’s Original Pork Pie, Tesco’s Melton Mowbray Pork Pie, M&S’s Melton Mowbray Pork Pie, and Powell’s Pies Pork Pie.

The challenge was once again conducted as a blind tasting which meant judges were not made aware which pork pie they were tasting. The judges were set the judging criteria of Appearance, Texture, and Taste. As my knife skills are less than to be desired the judges marked the pies on their pre-cut appearance, whilst the pies varied in size and crimping technique all pies scored very well on appearance all had a good colour and were appealing to the eye.

We experienced some interesting responses to the pies texture whilst most pies had a good crunch to the outside of the pastry the inside was quite doughy on the supermarket brands and the cheaper the pie the crunchier the pie was meaning the pie was rather dry. Comments were also made that the cheaper pies had a very fatty texture to both the meat and pastry leaving a greasy after taste. Jelly was the final element discussed in regards to texture with many cheaper alternates having very tough artificial feeling jelly, whereas the other supermarket pies were found to have no jelly at all. This meant that in the texture category the artisan product of Powells Pies came put on top with the balanced pastry, smooth texture to the meat and melt in your mouth jelly.

As usual taste was the most competitive category and was the hardest to judge since it comes down to personal preference in last place was Tesco’s Melton Mowbray Pork Pie, which happened to be the 2nd least expensive pie, this lacked any flavour at all and with a combination of the pink coloured meat and tough jelly our judges ranked it in last place. This was closely followed by Tesco’s Everyday Value Pork Pie, overall the pie was very salty and with no jelly it lacked the texture and taste of the other competitors, but as the cheapest pie it did well to hold its own.

In third place was M&S’s Melton Mowbray Pork Pie, the smallest of all the pies tested and the second dearest, this had a good pastry but lacking seasoning and no jelly; meaning it was overall quite bland. In second place was M&S’s Original Pork Pie this was the fattiest of all the pies and had rather dry pastry, but the flavour of the meat and the jelly worked well.

In first place was the artisan producer Powells Pies, this was the most balanced taste and texture of all the pies and won by a substantial lead showing that sometimes it can be worth paying a little more for a better quality product. We did not compare the pies meat contents as the size did vary slightly but the winner was complimented on the texture and taste of the meat. Judges also enjoyed that the jelly melted in the mouth and that whilst the outside of the pastry had a good crunch the inside was softer because of the jelly.

Powells pies can be found at various local produce shops and farmers Markets including the Taste Cheshire market every 3rd Saturday of the Month in Chester town Hall square, but get there quick as they don’t last long.