A very brief blast in the microwave will do very little to affect the pastry (negatively or positively), but will warm the filing. Oven is preferable, but I don't want a mince pie in 20 minutes...
That's a strange comparison........Do you eat a lot of ass..?! The only mince pies i dislike are from Morrisons...
Custom PC's is available online - tl;dr version is that it's a tie between Mr Kipling & Waitrose. Morrison's gets the wooden spoon, scoring only 1/10.
Update folks, 8 sets of pies sampled and rated, 5 or 6 to go depending on how I get on at M&S and Co-op this evening. Safe to say I feel distinctly unwell
So to begin a few words on the testing, the pies selected and what the metrics are, and then we'll dive right in. As far as contender selection goes, they were the 6-pack full size ones where available, or at a pinch the miniature versions, on the shelves of the supermarkets when visited - no second chances, no online orders. If they're not on the shelf they're not tested. No modified pies either - iced, crumble-topped, odd flavours, just the absolute traditional pie. All the pies eaten were taken from the centre row of a box of 6, middleish rows from the minis. Sliced for examination then at least a quarter of a pie scoffed in one to get an overall flavour impression. Followed by individual inspection of the components. Between pies a good swig of a cup of tea to clear the palate. The contenders, unless noted the "standard" items: Tesco standard and "Finest" Morrisons standard and "The Best" Asda standard and "Extra Special" Sainsburys standard and "Taste the Difference" Mini - no unodified full-size "premium" pies available Aldi standard and "Specially Selected" Co-Op Irresistible deep-filled Marks & Spencer Waitrose Lidl "Deluxe" Mini - no unmodified full-size pies available And the metrics: Pastry geometry - thickness of the top, side and bottom, structural capability etc. Pastry shortness - hopefully self-explanatory, but a rating for crumbly. My preference is for the shortest possible pastry. Pastry flavour Filling flavour Filling fruit content - marks for the density of good whole fruit and other ingredients, also for consistency Finally, an overall score based entirely subjectively on my opinion, the overall score isn't an aggregate or weighting of the individual ratings.I've made no consideration for aesthetics here because a) my brain is terrible at anything like that and b) you're going to eat it, who cares?
Thorough and right to the point - Looking forward to your results (hope your pancreas can take it)....
First up, Tesco's offerings. PXL_20211220_111354042 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_111405336 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_112244047 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_112249455 by HarvB, on Flickr Morrisons: PXL_20211220_123109753 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_123116930 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_124631306 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_124636030 by HarvB, on Flickr Asda: PXL_20211220_132543132 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_132546052 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_134156075 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_134200511 by HarvB, on Flickr Sainsburys: PXL_20211220_140338198 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_140344757 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_142135033 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211220_142143748 by HarvB, on Flickr Co-op: PXL_20211221_111107087 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211221_111112740 by HarvB, on Flickr M&S: PXL_20211221_111635154 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211221_111638396 by HarvB, on Flickr Aldi: PXL_20211221_112217701 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211221_112222669 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211221_112833631 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211221_112838796 by HarvB, on Flickr Waitrose: PXL_20211221_113354327 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211221_113358363 by HarvB, on Flickr Lidl: PXL_20211221_114114025 by HarvB, on Flickr PXL_20211221_114119375 by HarvB, on Flickr
I've compiled everything into a spreadsheet, so the thoughts and scores with some supplementary notes: And some graphs too, split into the "standard", i.e. budget pies vs premium offerings.
And finally, the overall scores. As you can see, the M&S pies take it by a nose. Truly exceptional for a store-bought item. Honourable mention for the Aldi Specially Selected for being the boozer's choice, and if you have a cream carpet and lots of guests, you'd do well to invest in the Co-Op Irresistible Deep-Filled pie for their immense structural strength. As it's probably clear from the scores the "standard" cheaper pies aren't great, but most aren't that bad either. As a sweet treat to stuff down you could do much worse. It wouldn't surprise me to learn they're all made in the same factory to fractionally different specs. In my case the Asda pies looked like they were probably the last few from a batch once all the fruit has been dished out, as they were mostly just a fruit paste. The pastry itself was also very similar between them.
PXL_20211221_130121551 by HarvB, on Flickr So there we have it! Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to have a ham sandwich and a lie down p.s. Apologies that some of these photos are a little blurry, for some reason my Pixel 6 seems a bit flaky.
